coming back

The process of going back was a very long and exhausting one. I spent 2 days on airports and planes, waiting and dealing with ridiculus security checks.

But when I arrived, my family picked me up. I was really tired, and sad but also a little happy to see them. And my mom made lasagna, so we had a good meal together. 

Still it felt weird that it was over - 3 months just went by so fast, 3 months in which I have learned and discovered new things, met lots of people and just lived out of a backpack in another country far away from home. And of course I have changed too.

And then I was back - and everything looked the same, like nothing ever happened. Andn the only thing that's left is a lot of memories, that I can share with others, but still, no one can ever really understand. Because this is what I experienced - just me and no one else.

border crossing, seattle, olympia

When I left Vancouver my plan was to cross the border to see if they would let me stay and then stop in Seattle to see if I could book a flight and spend some more days in Olympia instead of spending 3 days on a bus to go back to Cleveland.

After a long discussion and confused officers they decided that it was my decision (and risk) if I wanted to stay longer or not - they wouldn't renew my visa waiver program.

I was really sad, because eventhough I had to think about it a lot, by then it was clear to me that I want to travel longer. 

Anyways, in Seattle I bought a busticket to Olympia, but I couldn't get myself to book my flight back to Cleveland yet. 

In Olympia I spent some time by myself, and then finally hit burial grounds to wait for Koi - I just figured that he would be there sooner or later. It took me forever to book that flight but after some talking, I finally did it and we went to buy some food and then back to the house in the woods.

We spent my last days as we did earlier in Olympia. Hanging around, going for walks, talking and even a little shopping spree once. I was just enjoying Koi's company.

In the end we had a little stress with his roommate (Brian), but I was leaving anyways so it didn't really matter, it just made everbody a little pissed.

Leaving was hard, but I guess it had to be. 

And I have no doubt that I will see some of the people again, maybe in Austria some day or maybe on my next trip to the states :)

vancouver, bc

When I arrived at the Vancouver port I was pretty confused in the beginning. I didn't really know where to go, and I didn't have a phone and internet to contact my host and it wasn't really clear where we were supposed to meet. After a while of thinking I decided to go to the adress that I had. Unfortunately that wasn't too easy because the Vancouver transit system is pretty confusing in the beginning and I also didn't have Canadian change for the ticket. And there was tons of Asian people whoch really confused me in the beginning -  after a while I got used to it though lol.

But I made it to the house - at first it looked weird and neighbourhood didn't seem like college students would be living here. And when I rang the doorbell an old Asian woman opened me and told me that she didn't know me and wants me to leave because she doesn't like strangers. I was very confused but shortly afterwards my host Jess came out of the back of the house. So I found the right place after all :)
My hosts in Vancouver, Jess and Alison, were really cool. I got along with both of them really well and  I had a good time in Vancouver.

I spent some time exploring by myself, but also a lot of time hanging out with the girls - talking, making late night pumpkin meals, and watching lots and lots of Jersey Shore haha. They also took me to their college, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. There I went to see a movie, to a class and I watched Alison printing photos since she was in a photography major. 

Alison also took me with her to shoot some pictures for her project she had to work on and to an Art gallery where she had to go with her class.

One day we also went roller skating along the beach and a beautiful park and Jess showed me the Vancouver suspension bridge, which was fun because we got lost and when we finally made it it was already getting pretty dark.

On my last night in Vancouver both of them took me out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant. We had magheritas, a lot of food and free cake because they told the waiter that it was my birthday - that was lots of fun and I was sad I had to leave them in the end :)

In Vancouver I also tried to decide if I wanted to saty or go back to Austria. It took me forever and finally I said that if I could I would stay. So at that moment everything depended on the Custom and Immigration Officers at the border.

on the way to vancouver

Seattle

Leaving Olympia was very hard for me, so I was happy I knew where I could go while I had to wait for my next bus in Seattle.

I had about 3 hours so I went to that sweet anarchist coffee shop, which was not far from the busstaion. There I just hung around, talked to some people and waited. After a while Ace, my friend from Seattle came and it was so funny how surprised he was to see me again. Then he asked if I wanted to come to the park with them and paint. I didn't really know what he meant by "paint" and I only had like 30 min left before I had to go to the bus, but I went with him and his friend anyways.

It was kinda raining (quelle surprise!) and after we found a nice spot, they started painting - spraypainting. It was really cool to watch and then Ace's friend asked me if I wanted to try. I did but I only had 10 minutes left - he still showed me and so I did my first spraypainting picture within 10 minutes before I had to say goodbye to Seattle, run to the busstation and make my way to Port Angeles.

Port Angeles

The bus to Port Angeles what not a Greyhound, but some other company and it was a funny-looking minibus with 4 old men and me. With the bus we also had to go on a ferry, which was very nice and I really enjoyed it.

Since I didn't have a place to stay in Port Angeles I sent out a couple CS last minute requests, but since no one responded in time I decided to find a park to sleep and so I aksed the busdriver, who was from there. She was really nice, but she told me that there wasn't really any good places to sleep. She was also kinda worried and so she started making calls to see if there was a shelter where I could spend the night.

After a while she found one and she even gave me a ride to it, which was really nice. So I slept in a big room on a plastic matress, but it was a bed, and I even had a shower in the morning.

Victoria

I took the boat from Port Angeles to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Arriving there I had to cross the Canadian border which was very unpleasant - unfortunately. Then I took the bus to the port where the ferry to Vancouver was leaving. There were lots and lots of people but the scenery was very beautiful and I enjoyed being on a boat (as always:)).

olympia, wa

After I left Seattle I went to Olympia, to stay there for a while. I had a place to stay at a friend of a friend's house. When I got there it was already dark and raining, but the streets were still busy, and it seemed like a really cool place.
On my first day there I met up with a friend from Denver, who was there too and we went and got coffee and then walked around in the woods for a while.
At night, after I had to wait forever because I coulnd't get in anywhere. But then I met up with 2 friends and we went to a Halloween house show - that was fun, and something pretty American.
On Sunday I had coffee with my friend in the morning and then I just walked around town.
Monday way the day where a bunch of things happened - I went to the food bank to get some free food so I could cook at the house. When I got there, there was a long line and lots of people waiting. Some guy in front of me just started talking to me and after a while the people behind me (a travelling kid and a girl) joined the conversation and I just talked to them the whole time we were waiting and then we shared a shopping kart. Close to the ed of the free shopping spree I got a text from my hosts about my travel plans - they didn't really kick me out but it was clear that it was time for me to move on. It was kinda weird because I had planed to spend Halloween in Olympia and I'd only been there a couple days. I told Corey (Koi), the guy I was talking to, about that and he said he would ask his roommate if I could stay at their house for a little bit. And I could - right after the food bank we drove to the house to get my stuff and so I moved to a house somewhere in the woods.
Later that afternoon Koi took me to show me around the Evergreen woods - we went to a very nice spot, drank good beer and just talked until it got dark. Back at the house we made dinner for everybody.

The next day we just hung out at the house, watched the leaves and the rain falling and later we went for a walk with Koi's dog, Sammy.

Wednesday was Halloween and since I'm too young to go to bars, Koi was gonna play guitar on the street so we could buy some tequila later and drink it at the house. So that's what we did - sitting on the street, playing music and watching people. For me, that was a very unique experience and I'm so happy that I've made it - things like that definitely make you think about our wasting society.

After Halloween it was time for me to leave Olympia and go up to Vancouver - with some stops in Seattle, Port Angeles and Vistoria in between.

some more portland, and seattle, wa

Portland

It's been a while since I left Portland, so this is gonna be just a short summary.

I explored mostly by myself, sometimes by bike and sometimes by bus and MAX.

On Wednesday I got my new awesome piercing! And I went to a CouchSurfing Meeting to meet some people and get some information about the city, since my hosts didn't have much time. It was pretty cool, there was a whole lot of people there, and we had a huge bucket of donuts and beer. After that I met up with some of my friends at a bar, and I ended up staying up really late with some guy named Josh. And so it happened that I was really hungover the next day, so I didn't do much. Just went to a park with a great view and watched the sunset :)

On Friday night I just went to a friend's house and a a couple beer, nothing too exciting.

On Saturday we went Halloween Costume Shopping - they some pretty awesome stores in Portland! Too bad my backpack's already more than full :(

At night we wanted to go to a show, but they checked ID at the door so we had to go to another bar. That was fun too though, and it was also kind of a girl's night (until Antonio and his co-worker came :)).

On Sunday me and 2 of Antonio's roommates went to his work to get breakfast. Since there were tons of people, we had to wait and so we walked around and went to a cool store which was selling all kinds of stuffed animals, bones and butterflies. The breakfast was delicious, and Antonio was really sweet, helping me out and paying for it!

Ater it took me forever to decide if I wanted to go to Seattle Sunday night or Monday morning, I ended up staying and we had a horror movie night with lots of popcorn and candy.

Seattle

So first of all, Seattle is awesome!

It's not too big, not too small and has a lot of artsy stuff and cool and openminded people :)

I got there Monday afternoon, so I didn't do much that day.

On Tuesday I went to Capitol Hill, a very nice district and also to a park. There I met some pretty interesting people and I ended up hanging out with them for a while. We also went to the community college and one of them played piano and we just hung out there. After that I met up with a friend's friend and we just walked around a little bit and played with his dog in the park. He also gave me a ride back to the house, which was very nice :)

Back at the house were two new couchsurfers and we had a pumpkin carving party. I haven't done that in forever and they turned out really nice.

On Wednesday I did a lot of sightseeing (that was the first time I really did that on my whole trip) with one of the other couchsurfers. We walked around a lot and we saw a lot from the city and it's a really cool city :) It was exhausting too, so I decided to take the opportunity to go to a small mediation circle and it was just the perfect thing to do :) I had a lot of energy after that and I felt really good. At night we went to play poker at a friend's of my host's house.

On Thursday I spend a lot of time at the waterfront, just drawing. After that I met up with my new friends and had a very interesting experience at a small art shop at the market. At midnight we went to a movie (Cloud Atlas) which was long, but surprisingly pretty good.

And because of the movie I had only 6 hours of sleep, because I had to get up early the next day. I met my friend at a cafe and then I wanted to take the bus to Olympia. But since i found a really cool place to hang out on the way to the bus staion, I decided to take the later bus and stay there for a couple hours, which was totally worth it :)

So all in all I really liked Seattle, and I would love to live there for a couple months!

portland, or

I arrived in Portland on Monday night. Fortunately it was easy to find to the house, since Portland has a nice public transit system and it didn't take very long.

I'm staying with friends of Lauren's and Andrea's again and they seem pretty cool - I just haven't seen them much yet, because all of them are working most of the time. So that means I'm a lot by myself which is kinda hard right now, especially because it's a huge contrast to Eugene. I think that's the first time on my trip where a travel partner or just someone close to talk to would be very nice - right now everytime I get comfortable around someone it's time to move on, which is definitely a reason why I wish I had more time.
But I have a bike that I can use, so I can explore on my own :) Portland is a quite big city and it's crazy about biking, almost too crazy, especially when you have no idea where to go. Yesterday i biked 14 miles, and wanted to go to a park and then it was just steep trails, and so exhausting! But I'm slowly getting used to it and today I found some really cool spots along the river and a nice bikepath, far away from cars.

I also feel like Portland is a city of contrasts - it has the ugliest industrial districts and then some very nice and calm ones. And it changes all the time. But overall I think it's a cool place, and I'm gonna give it another chance, eventhough the first day here wasn't the best one. And today was already better! :)

eugene, or

After quite a while at the ranch, I'm finally moving again! Well, I moved to Eugene and now I'm here for a couple days. I'm staying with a friend of my host in Denver (Lauren) and her awesome roommates. It's like a big family, and they are all really cool and welcoming. It's also beautiful fall here, with red and yellow trees and quite some rain :) We do a lot of bikeriding and also a lot of hanging around at the house, on the porch, watching little kids play soccer in the park.

We also went to the Saturday Market, a clay fest and to Picadilly, a huge flea market. At the house we play games (the settlers of catan!) and eat a lot of food and chill on the porch.

Tonight is hair dying night :) I now have blonde, teal and a racoon tail dreads.

On my last day in Eugene I went to an awesome bookstore and I found the exact same book as I saw at the Picadilly market, which is awesome.

Eventhough I didn't see a whole lot of Eugene, I had a great time there. I felt really comfortable at the house and it was hard to leave and I definetely hope to see all of my hosts again!

still at the ranch

learned how to make vegan cheesecake and cheese

helped out and worked on the farm - fed cows, harvested the garden, stored the produce, loaded horses

lots of good fresh food

a lot of time to think...maybe too much

now watching breaking bad and making dried apples - very good :)

still don't have a place to stay in eugene, but it's gonna work out somehow, probably going there tomorrow

mon. oct. 8

after having a terrible time deciding if i wanted to stay here for 2 more days or leave today, i decided to stay. i'm gonna work a little bit (and get paid for it yay) and try to not be stressed out about not having enough time. which is hard, because i feel like i don't have enough time -.- but i guess 2 days are not that much of a difference.

wilderness gateway ranch, etna, ca

Getting there

I spent another night in Arcata, at the guys house that offered me a ride to Weaverville (about halfway to Etna). Sometime in the afternoon we finally took off - we stopped in Willow Creek, where I met the Czech guys again, but just for a little.

When we finally made it to Weaverville it was already getting dark and I knew i had to spend the night there. Fortunately Rod was very nice and showed me some good spots to camp - I found a nice place in a park behind a museum. It was actually pretty comfortable, and not too cold, I just had to get up early because I didn't wanna get in trouble with the police or any park rangers or whatever. When I got up, I noticed that 5 deers accompained me in the park :)

In the morning I found a nice little local restaurant where I had some hot tea and asked around about the possibilities of hitchhiking up hwy3. People told me very different things. an old couple gave me some money, I guess they felt bad for me.

I found a pretty good spot right at the "hwy entrance" (it's not even really a hwy), but all the people that stopped were only following the road for like 10 to 20 miles - what i needed was at least 35 (to Trinity Center) or 75 (to Etna) and I didn't really wanna get stuck in the middle of nowhere.
After a while someone stopped (an experienced hitchhiker) and told me that there's a gas station a little further up the road and that my chances there are better, since I can directly talk to people. He gave me a joint and said i should smile, because people here don't like backpackers.

When I finally found someone that was going up to Trinity Center, it seemed like they didn't have any room in their truck. So I just kept talking to them (a nice cuple, going camping) until they made some room and gave me a ride. They even offered me to go camping with them, but by that time I already told Becky, my host, that I was on the way to Trinity Center, where she would pick me up and I didn't have phone service (I still don't).

So everything worked out, and it was actually a lot of fun and a little adventure :)

At the ranch

So the ranch is awesome! The landlady is Becky, Raquel's mom (my host in Truckee) and she manages it all pretty much by herself. It's a big house, a smaller one with a renter, and a lot of property with lamas, horses, and different kinds of organic beef cows. There's also two big Great Pyrenees dogs and a little puppy and some cats.

The ranch is located in a valley, and around it are mountains :) It's very beautiful and I'm really enjoying it here. I'm helping with a little bit of farm work, and also with creating a flyer and a website for the ranch. Becky's trying to sell some of her beef, but she also wants to do some projects or workshops here and maybe host people more often - I'm trying to support her here, because I feel that this place has a lot of potential.

Other than that I eat a lot of good, fresh food, and try to organize all the things that are on my mind (which are a lot!). We went for a walk, cleaned out the barn for a new load of hay, fed the cows....and today we're gonna make vegan cheese :D

It really makes me feel good being out here. I might even extend my stay for a couple more days, i feel like I need more time to think :) Also I don't have a host for my next stop yet.

ashland, or

On Thursday, Becky and some friends had a Yoga class in Ashland, OR and they invited me to come with them. I didn't do yoga, but I walked around the town, which is a very cute and progressive college town. I met some other travellers, and I guess that's pretty much it.

After the Yoga class we went shopping - people from Etna always come up here to do their grocery shopping. The Ashland Coop is a really cool organic food store, and I aslo tried to find a new adapter for my eletronics, but unfortunately I can't really afford it right now. But it was nice seeing another town,  and I had a good time.

Oh, and someone asked me if I was an actress, cause apperently I have the right charisma and personality haha. I didn't know that, but things like that are always good to hear :)

arcata, ca

A day later than planned, i finally left San Francisco on Thursday. It's not that I didn't have fun, but 7 days of non-stop party and big city is more than enough. So I headed to Arcata, a small town in Northern California. I found a last-minute place to stay for the first two nights. It was a really cool big house, that used to be a hospital.
During the days I hung out at the plaza, a little park where a lot of traveling folk and hobos are, or in the Redwood Park. The park/forest is beautiful, and eventhough the redwoods here aren't that big, it was definitely worth seeing it and spend some time out in nature. I also got to go to the beach, where a little private drum circle and some fire shows were going on :) very good feeling. After that the Mexican guy who was also staying at the house showed me some of his handcrafting, which was pretty amazing.
I also met up with two guys from the Czech Republic here, which was fun and one night we camped out in the redwoods, trying to hide from parkrangers. We met some other people there, and had a fun night with a campfire, some food and fun conversations. I really enjoyed that, there's so much traveling spirit - people that have been traveling for 4, 5 years. You can definitely learn a lot from them and it's fun to listen to their stories.
And eventhough the night was cold, waking up in the forest was amazing :)
I was kinda planning on hitchhiking out of Arcata on Sunday, but it didn't really work out so I'm here for another day. I found a new place to stay from someone who picked me up on the street and this is also gonna be my ride to Weaverville, a little town a little closer to Etna, where I have to go. I'm hoping to make it up there soon, but we'll see.Right now I don't know. And I forgot my adapter in San Fran, so no way to charge my phone, camera or computer. Thank God lots of people have the same charger as I do.

san francisco, ca

CASALOBOS longnights dolorespark castro folsomstreetfair goldengatebridge muni bartspecial tempest beer music haightashbury larkin goldengatepark castro freefarmersmarket berkeley das familymarket hya zac disneyblankets billhicks steven pbr mickeys generousjoe beach jeff poker applestoapples couch party bus14 jen nate james scumfucks freefood porch jamsession pulpfiction pipetobacco alwayssunnyinphiladelphia goodpeople charlie roby mission pool horrormovieplayground peoplespark 7/11 oatmealcreampie vancouver 20.000 cosmicbrownie betweentheburiedandme jeffagain wild fog nosleep drama goodwill fridge blur mountain adventure fareinstructor irishtouristpub morebeer turkeyshirt comedian qualitypeople foodnotbombs dog tides crazyneighbor bad jesusguy uggboots nachos tea loud spanish homelessoncrack hobofolks lackandleather presidiopark ww2bunkers  ...

Kinda like this, just way more and more confusing, is the blur in my mind that represents my week in San Francisco.

truckee and lake tahoe, ca

I did not really know anything about it, and if I would have a place to stay. And I was starving, so I just got some breakfast and enjoyed the feeling of the adventure :)
Then I talked to Matts friend and she said I'm more then welcome to stay at her house for the night if I needed a place to stay and when she was gonna be back in town, so we could meet. 
After "settling" down, and leaving my backpack at the diner I took the bus to the lake and just did nothing.
That's also where I met Elijaah, a typical Californian skater guy, who offered to show me around the next day.
 After chillin out at the lake, I took the last bus back to Truckee to meet Raquel.
We got Mexican food, and went to another lake to sit on the dock and eat it. It was night already and the lake and the sky were beautiful :) And the food was good of course.
At the house we had some magheritas and talked for a long time - I had a good time.

On the next day Raquel had to go to school in the morning, so she dropped me off in Downtown Truckee, where I met Elijaah.
He took me on a nice bike ride around Donner Lake and I really enjoyed the nature and the workout. I just still wasn't really used to the high elevation :) 

reno, nv

When I left Salt Lake City, I wasn't sure yet if I wanted to go straight to San Francisco or make a stop between at Lake Tahoe.
My friend Matt (met him through CS) is from there and he offered me to ask some friends if they could give me a ride there from Reno, since it was hard and shitty to get there without a car. When I arrived in Reno in the morning, I haven't had heard anything from him, and I didn't want to hitchhike around Reno nor spend 6 hours there at the busstation.
So I got on the bus to San Fran and thought about going back to Lake Tahoe on the weekend, when Matt was gonna be there too.
Like a minute after the bus left, I got a text that he had found a ride for me. It was really mean, and now I felt that I really wanted to go there eventhough I wasn't sure in the beginning. So I walked up to the busdriver and asked him if there was any possibility to drop me off right now. Since I had a bag underneath the bus, of course, he couldn't stop in the middle of the street. But he asked me what happened and where I had to go and I told him I wanted to go to Lake Tahoe. So he was like, 'I can't drop you off right here, but maybe in Truckee, that's even closer to the lake.' Truckee was where I wanted to go anyways.
So he just stopped, right next to the highway, gave me my bag and told me which direction I had to go.
So I was there, just crossed the Californian border and walked along the highway til I reached that cute little town named Truckee.

salt lake city, utah

So after 3 days in slc I'm leaving tonight.

There's not a whole lot to say about my time here - I had a very nice host eventhough I didn't feel as comfortable as in Denver. I had some time for myself, where I figured out some details for my next stop.

We also went camping in the Unitas, which is about 1 hour away from salt lake. It felt good being outdoors again before heading to another city. It was also a little bit of an adventure, because we had to hike back to the car at like 5 in the morning and it was all dark - and the stars where beautiful.

I also went hiking, once when we went camping and once tonight before I left with another guy from couchsurfing. He gave me some tips about the west coast which sound pretty awesome and we watched a very smokey sunset from aome mountain in salt lake. You could hardly see anything though.

And that's about it. I was a little homesick these days, but I'm feeling better now and I'm (again) excited to be on the road again. This bus is also supercomfy :) I kinda feel like the bus is my new home, because it's the only constant thing - i always go back there and have time to chill and think and just enjoy being on the road.

salt lake city, ut

I arrived here on friday night - everything went fine and I'm gonna write more about Salt Lake tomorrow, since I don't really have time now.

back in denver

When i left glenwood springs last night, i knew i was gonna have a layover of 6 hours in denver. So when i got there, lauren picked me up at the busstation so we could hang out for a little bit. We went to the pizzeria where she works and had a couple beer, while we were waiting for andrea to get off work. Then we went back to the house. 

Somewhere around then my next host texted me that he has to work when i get there - so because of that and because i didn't feel like going anywhere anymore i decided to spend the night in denver and leave today. So now i have a long travelling/chill out on the bus day.

glenwood springs

Today I learned how to ride a dirtbike. Hell yeah!

glennwood springs and aspen, co

So this is already the end of my second day in Glenwood Springs. Many things happened and I'm very tired - this might be the altitude, or just because travelling is exhausting ;)

So on my first day here, I got stuffed with food again and then I walked around town for a little bit. After that, I felt like going hiking, so I went back to the house to get my stuff. When I walked outside it was raining like hell, but it got better after a short while so I just started walking. The weather was kinda weird, something between raining and hot sun, and that's why I got to see a beautiful rainbow and a lot of steamy clouds :) But in the end it got really cold, and I was happy when I made it back.
I was really tired, had a good dinner with Angela (she's the reason I'm here, because she is a friend of Chelsea and Greg and another friend of mine) and then I ended up meeting Adriaan (a friend of the owner of the house) who took me to his place, bacause he has daughters in my age. After that we went to the Glenwood Hot Springs, which felt really good, and then I was happy I finally got to go to bed. 

Today Adriaan (he's a funny guy from Holland, who lives here) took me to Aspen. It's like a 45 minute drive from Glenwood. When we got there, we first went to get lunch, where Adriaan met a friend, and I had way too much food (again). Today was actually the first day since I'm in the US where I had 3 meals - I'm feeling stuffed, I'm not used to so much food.
Anyways, after lunch we drove up all the way to the top of Independence Pass (3686m), through a lot of beautiful scenery and being up there was amazing! You could see the first snow (on another mountain), it was cold (yes finally cold weather! :D) and the all-around view was great. 
After that we went to Maroon Bells, which is also very beautiful and we saw 3 moose! :D
But it was a long day again, and going to bed sounds very tempting, especially because tomorrow is a travelling day again and I don't have anything packed yet.

arriving in glenwood springs

Today was a long day. Getting to Glenwood Springs took forever and was exhausting, eventhough it was only a 4 hours bus ride. But the scenery was gorgeous (the bus drove right through the Rocky Mountains) and Glenwood Springs is just a very small town in the middle of mountains :)
Also I got lucky to get a ride from the busstation to the place I'm staying at. I have my own little cabin, which is pretty awesome, and I got stuffed with delicious food, right after I arrived. Still, I'm very tired now and the bed is very comfy, so it's time to sleep.

Pictures and more updates soon.  

good times in denver

Thursday

Lauren gave me a list with places I could go to - and that's what I did, cruising around in Denver with "my" bike. First I went to a park/riverside to calm down and chill a little. Then I went to a district, with lots of awesome shops (I had a really hard time not to buy anything) and lots of people that are fun watching. After walking around there I biked to Lauren's and her roommate's job to meet them when they get off work. We ended up hanging out there and drinking beer for a little while, before we went to grab something to eat. At night we went to watch a movie (for free lol), which was fun but I had a hard time not falling asleep.

Friday

 On friday everybody had to work again, so I explored a little more of Denver by myself. Went to another park, and another cool street and got finally rid of my huge book (yay one thing less I have to carry!). On the way back to the house I walked my bike through the art district, which was pretty cool, because there's a lot of studios and street art.
At night we first went to 1st Friday - every 1st friday of the month all the art studios are open and you can just walk through and look at the stuff ans talk to the artists. Also you can see very many cool people walking around; Denver has a lot of punks and openminded people - it's a whole new America for me ;) At the art walk, we ran into a friend of Lauren, with who we ended up hanging out for the night. Some other friends of them joined and after having a beer at there house we walked downtown to go to a bar. Since I'm not supposed to go to bars or drink in the US (and I was the only one of the group), I never knew if I could get in. The first bar didn't check ID and the others always bought me beer. But at one point the bartender asked me for my ID, and since I didn't have one we got kicked out because he didn't want to get in trouble.
So we walked around, Lauren and Sabor singing, and I also had a dance in the streets of Denver. Then we found another bar where I could just sneak in, and everybody was so nice and I always got some beer :)
All in all it was a pretty fun night and I'm happy I got to meet all of them and especially that nobody cared how old I am and that Lauren always took me with her to do some stuff :D

SaturdayOn saturday we went hiking in a small town close to Denver. Finally I got a closer view of the mountains, and hiking was amazing! The mountains are at lot different than at home (everything is very dry around here) but I had a great time. I felt so good being outside and also working out was great :) Very good feeling :)
When we got home, we hung out a little and later we went to see another movie (by the same director, some pretty sweet japanese cartoon). At night we had some good food and played a game ( I forgot the name but it was fun) and then I was more than happy to get some sleep.

So all in all Denver is a really cool place to be, sometimes it kinda reminds me of Graz. And got so lucky with my host and her roommates, I'm really having a good time here :)

Only thing is, I think I need to find a new name, because nobody here knows Bettina and I'm starting to get sick of explaining it all the time ;)

And another awesome thing about Denver - I haven't seen a single McDonalds yet!

Still living out of a more than full backpack is hard sometimes, and I feel like a homeless wanderer - but that's not only a bad feeling, it's exciting and I have the freedom to do pretty much whatever I want. Also not knowing what comes next is a good feeling - it's all just a big adventure :)

Soon it's time to move on again, and today I'm doing some planning and trying to find a place to stay in the next city I'm going to. 

denver, co

I arrived in denver early this morning after 19 hours on a bus. I got to sleep a little bit but I'm still tired. Nevertheless I'm excited because this is my first time out of the boring cornfield landscape of the midwest, there's mointains all around me now :)

My host Lauren met me at the busstation - she is really nice and when we got to her house she made awesome vegan breakfast. The house is really cool and there are 2 dogs, one of them a beautiful border collie / husky mix with one blue and one brown eye.

I am now by myself, because everybody else is at work, but I have a bike I can use and a list with cool places in Denver I could go to. Oh, and the house is right next to the denver art district, which is pretty awesome.

So everything's fine til now, I'll post some pictures soon :)

somewhere in iowa

I'm now on the bus - 11 more hours until i arrive at my destination. It feels good just being on the road and it's so easy to get to talk to people. And tomorrow morning my host's gonna pick me up at the busstation :)

So everything's just good and tomorrow i'll let y'all know where i'm at. 

But for now i'm just watching the sun going down and enjoy the feeling of freedom and excitement :)

time to leave mpls

Tomorrow is the day where the second, the biggest part of this adventure begins. After spending a little more than a week with the Miller Family, it's time for me to hit the road and move on. I'm travelling by Greyhound and Couchsurfing and that's all I know and all I'm gonna publish on here for now.
 So, tomorrow is the big day and I'm excited what the next 70 days will bring to me :) 

Next stop will be...

still in minneapolis

I'm still in Minneapolis, but planning on leaving some day this week. 
What happened here is not a whole lot;
I went to a goodwill outlet, which was awesome. It's just a huge hall with piles of clothes and you pay per pound :D
I also went to a baseball game (Minnesota Twins) - very American, it was fun but I don't understand how people can get so overexcited about it ;)
And I got my first tattoo - thanks to Jason from th Sea Wolf Tattoo Company, he was very nice and did a great job :)
Other than that, I spend my time with my family here, walking around (Minneapolis has many beautiful parks and lakes), and figuring out stuff for my trip.

Nevertheless there are some moments of homesickness and also some where I don't know where to go next. There are just so many things to do, so many possibilities, and I wanna do everything at once . But since that's not possible I have to decide, and it's a hard decision. 

Greetings from Minnesota :) 

minneapolis

We arrived in Minneapolis Friday night aroung 1 a.m after driving 12 hours straight.

Golden Valley Farmers Market
On Sunday, 8/26/2012 the whole family went to the Golden Valley Farmers Market, because Greg and Chelsea worked there. Was a fun day, walking around and looking at the stands, and playing with the kids. It finally started to feel like everything would calm down a little, eventhough I'm still very tired.

Lazy Day
And so, that's the reason why today, Monday, is a lazy day. Hanging around at the house, finally having time to rest.
At some point this week I will start figuring where I will go next - I still have no idea where I'll end up going. I didn't have time to plan anything because of my preciptious departure and all the stuff that was going on.
But that's not gonna happen today. Sleeping sounds like a good idea to me for today :)

xenia and yellow springs

After 4 hours of driving we arrived in Xenia, OH. There we set up everything for the funeral.
The first night, each of us stayed at a friends place - we met again next day and then we stayed at a Bed&Breakfast in Yellow Springs. It's in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cornfields (guess what, we're in Ohio^^) and farms. The best place for a family to be together after such a loss and time to start realizing that she's really gone (that process is still going, it just feels so surreal).

On Tuesday, 8/21/2012 Chelsea's parents and the kids arrived from Minnesota.
Nevertheless, it was a long week. The funeral took place on Thursday. As funerals always are, it was sad, but also a relief. Many things would change, especially for my sister, but after several months in the hospital my mom was finally in a better place and for us it was time to go back to Minnesota. Well, for me it wasn't going back since I've never been there before.
So, on Friday 8/25/2012 we left for Greg's and Chelsea's house in Minneapolis, MN. Jolyne will move here and go to school, and I will stay with them for a little while before leaving for the big adventure.

cleveland

I arrived at the airport Friday night and got to see my sister Jolyne, my brother Mike and met Sacha, Greg (my sister's cousin/brother) and  Chelsea (his wife) for the first time.
Surprisingly my mom was alive and talking when I got to the hospital, like she had been waiting for my brother and me to fly in.

We stayed at the Cleveland Clinic for a couple days non-stop, without leaving the hospital area.
After my hostmom passed on Sunday, we (Jolyne, Mike, Greg, Chelsea and me) stayed in Cleveland for one more night at a hotel before leaving for Xenia on Monday.

up in the air

I didn't have time to tell a lot of people what's going on, so this is the easiest way of letting everybody know.

On Thursday night i got a message from my American sister that my hostmom is about to pass away.
In absoulte craziness I booked a flight in the middle of the night, which was going to leave on Friday afternoon. I packed all night, had like 2 hours of sleep and all i knew was that i was going to Cleveland and that there will be someone to pick me up.
I didn't know where I was gonna stay, who was gonna be there and if my hostmom would even be alive when i get there.

I arrived in Cleveland 15 hours later.