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 :)