Miami, Florida
Another delay in Orlando, we left and came back two hours later =/ Comedians... Anyway, we were four hours late to Miami. And in the end, I was late to the visitor center, it closed at 6 PM, and I spent half the day looking for how and where to dump photos from my flash drive because it was full and there was nowhere else to shoot =(. And it's getting dark... And I feel so down, because I'm sweaty and have no fresh clothes, and everyone around is so beautiful and clean =(. I don't want to go into these lively places with music and restaurants, it feels like all the security is deciding how to tactfully kick me out =/. And it's also unclear where I'll sleep... Anyway, as usual, after a surge of good mood, I have an ebb...
The good: 1. The weather turns out to be good, it's very hot here, but since it's windy and the sky is overcast, it's not so stressful. 2. I like Miami =) there are coconut and date (are these date?) palms growing here and it smells like the sea even at the Greyhound station, and the white "art-deco" buildings, silly boxes - are also the norm. And I haven't seen the beaches yet, they chased me off the pier - it's too late. 3. The library is a win! Same convenient system as in Houston, checked out hurricanes, Apple - they released a new iPod touch =) Cool, topped up my phone balance! 4. Checked the card balance - $250, not bad for the remaining seven days =) 6. I ate at the food plaza in a Chinese fast food place, a whole plate like in Los Angeles for $5 - delicious...
In short, the worst thing is that I spent the whole evening running around looking for where to copy the flash drive to DVD, in the end, I didn't have time to do anything and didn't find anything (electronics sellers here almost don't know English) and left by bus (they gave me a 50% student discount here) to Miami Beach, it turns out it's an island... And here, in the 24-hour grocery store "Walgreens", there is a photo department where I am sitting in front of a stupid machine. The machine is burning the fourth disc for me from my 2GB flash card + it doesn't know how to copy video, the whole pleasure costs $8.50 0_o which is a total horror =/. But a nice black lady helped me =).
10 PM, I headed to Miami Beach. There aren't many lights around, deep in the island there is cheap food, laundry, a barber shop (to hell with the barber shop, I won't get a haircut, my brother walks around with long hair somehow=)
I ate a cheese pizza for $3 a slice, well life is good =).
Ocean Drive didn't impress me - few people/lights/cars, well, it's late, I understand... But the beach!!! Such water! Such soft sand =)) I'm tired, worn out - I probably sat in the water for an hour =) although the waves are tall - they knock you down. Checked the area to the end, time to choose a place to sleep. The tactic is this - you look for homeless people and ask how things are here, if the police bother them - Robert (white, dreadlocked, nice guy - I like such homeless people in the States much more than "civilized" ones, they live the right life - they sleep under the sky, in nature, which is stunningly beautiful in these places! they don't litter, they don't eat much... here is who the future belongs to, people=) Robert says, if you are a tourist, the cops won't touch you "you'll be fine on the beach!" He also advised me to put my backpack under my head - they might snatch it. He has also been to many places in America, but for example, the decent citizens, the guys I worked with, haven't been anywhere except Philadelphia... Generally speaking, almost all the homeless people I talked to have been many places. Naturally, I didn't talk to those who are passed out face-down in the asphalt =) there are many of them too, more than we have.
The night was super, you wake up in the morning - a few people on the whole beach, watching the sunrise. Guys in hotel uniforms are setting up sun loungers. The wind from the sea, warm, no words how pleasant... Beauty...
Today I will go to Key West - the southernmost point of America, 200 miles into the Caribbean Sea, along the dam! They say it's the tropics there.
