09.08.2009

At 20:30 I left home. I got on the 1 train and headed towards 34 street, because I wanted to go up to the Empire State Building observation deck before leaving.

And on this day, the Dominicans were having something like their Republic Day; there were so many of them in the city, they had a parade, and they were hanging out all day. So, in the subway car, there was a large group of Dominican youth who, as always, were screaming incredibly loudly. And off to the side sat three Black guys, quietly freaking out about all of this. Everything was fine until one of the guys said something to this group, and one of the Dominicans pulled out a knife in response. A scuffle started, the Dominicans were trying to hold back their friend with the knife, the guys also wanted to make peace, but he wasn't in a hurry to cool down. I don't know how it ended, because I got off at the next stop.

I went up to the Empire State Building, to both decks: on the 86th floor and the 102nd. Cool! Nighttime New York... I spent at least an hour and a half there. I walked out, and it started to drizzle. I decided to go into McDonald's to grab a bite and wait out the rain. It's 23:50 now, and I'm sitting in this McDonald's. In an hour, I'll start heading towards Port Authority.

At 0:40 I left. I went to the restroom, strapped on the secret money belt I bought earlier—let's see how comfortable it is—and went to the ticket counters. The system is: you just show your Discovery Pass and ID, state your destination, and the guy gives you a ticket.

It's 1:40, I'm sitting at the Greyhound station writing in my diary, waiting for my first bus.

Ooooooh... it's started!!!!!

10.08.2009

At 5:20 AM I got off the bus. I immediately bought a ticket to Detroit for 15:55 and went out into the city. It only started to get light about 20 minutes later. Everything is still closed, so I'll wander aimlessly for another two hours, and then I'll go sightseeing :) The mood is excellent!

Philadelphia is a quiet city with the spirit of American antiquity. Old houses, cafes. No Mexicans, no Dominicans—only white and Black people. In the cafe where I went to eat breakfast ($4), two white girls were working. And the customers were white too. It's a bit unusual after New York. A good city, I already like it, even though it's only 7:50!

In Philadelphia, there is no rush or nervousness like in New York, but there is solidity and business-like efficiency. It is the Birthplace of a nation after all :)

In the Visitor’s Center restroom, I saw special disposable paper circles with a hole in the middle to put on the toilet seat. Civilized!

In general, I didn't notice how 9 AM arrived, I got a ticket (I've encountered this American oddity more than once: the ticket is free, but you have to get it and present it—why???).

The tour was led by a real pot-bellied Yankee—a patriot, just like from the TV. He spoke vividly and interestingly, but in the middle of his lecture, I suddenly started to get wildly sleepy—after all, I hadn't slept at all last night.

He walked us through different rooms of Independence Hall, I visited the room where two huge events took place—the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the US Constitution. Well, truly great deeds were done within these walls, it's no wonder the tour guide puffs out his cheeks so much.

I saw a copy of the Constitution on which George Washington had crossed out and corrected a typed word by hand. I bet D. Washington himself didn't suspect how global the history he was making was, or what this country would become.

After Independence Hall, I went to the US Mint, the place where coins are minted. The only interesting thing is that you can look down through the glass at the workshops and machines where they make the coins. Most of them, however, were for some reason not working.

On the way back, I stopped by the American Jewish Museum, where there is a synagogue that has been operating since 1740—that's very old by their standards.

From 5th Street to 11th, I decided to take the subway to see it. The Philadelphia subway is miniature, much smaller than the Minsk one, and even the train cars are very short.

Well, I headed to the center, to the local old market, Reading Terminal, where I saw real Amish behind the counter.

Meanwhile, it started to get quite hot on the street (although yesterday the forecast promised rain and coolness). I went and took pictures of the Masonic Lodge—that's what it's called, the Masonic Lodge of Philadelphia. I took some photos of skyscrapers and decided to go to the fountain in the park, just finding it on the map. The fountain turned out to be quite beautiful. In general, Philadelphia is a cool city, I liked it a lot.

On the way to the fountain, some guy walking by asked:

• Oh, do you have a Canon?
• Yes.
• Me too!!! Cool camera, right?
  Simple people, these Americans, I swear :)

On the way back, I wandered a little through the streets... Philadelphia is still cool!

I arrived at the Greyhound station, changed in the restroom, washed up a bit, and brushed my teeth. I immediately started feeling much fresher after the unreal heat.

In 25 minutes is boarding, I'm going to Detroit. The journey ahead is long—14 hours, I hope I can get some sleep.

Flight is normal, or rather—the flight is excellent!!!

On the way, some loud white woman of semi-vagrant appearance, about 30 years old, started shouting about pressing problems. I didn't hear what she was talking about, but I heard a Black woman sitting a couple of seats away from her shout back:

• Hey, young lady, could you be so kind, and could you give some respect? Never use the word “nigger”. DO NOT USE THE WORD “NIGGER”. Never use the “N” word.
  There you go. Equality, equality... and then you hear “The N word” about yourself once on a bus—you'll suffer for the rest of your life.

All the way to Pittsburgh, this white bitch rode with us. She continued to behave in the same spirit, and in the end, a real conflict flared up, to the point that the driver stopped the bus.

I liked how the Black woman contemptuously called her “low-class gang”, and another one, if I'm not mistaken, even said “white trash”.

White woman: “You’re not my mama!”

Black woman: “You have to believe that I’m your mama, cause I’m gonna beat you up” (general laughter)

In general, all sorts of people ride Greyhound buses :)

We arrived in Pittsburgh around 23:20. The bus to Detroit leaves at 0:30, so I decided to get out and walk around the center a bit—fortunately, the bus station is located in the city center.

Beautiful, also a “non-New York” business center. Nothing particularly notable, although I only walked for half an hour. Took some photos.

At the bus station, I met three men: all in straw hats, blue shirts, vests, bearded. Amish? Yes, Amish, because this is Pennsylvania! But Amish, as far as I know, don't use technology on principle, so how are they riding a bus? Maybe they aren't Amish. Or are there different kinds of Amish?

Oh hell, it looks like that woman is riding with us again... :)

11.08.2009

With one more transfer in Cleveland, I finally made it to Detroit. I think I slept pretty well at night.

I heard that there are a lot of Black people in Detroit, but judging by the bus station, there are no white people here in principle :)

I immediately bought tickets to Lansing and back, because there, according to my guidebook, there is a cool museum of old cars. I hope it didn't lie, because it's a 2-hour ride there and 2 hours back.

In the evening I'm leaving for Chicago—the architectural capital of the USA :).

I arrived in Lansing around 10 AM. I asked a couple of people about the museum—but they shrugged in amazement. In the end, I found the museum, it turned out to be very close. Cool theme, took photos of various old cars. Laughed: there is too much in common between the old “Volga” and the “Oldsmobile” for it to be a coincidence :). Entrance to the museum costs only 3 bucks.

There are no other attractions in this city, except maybe the capitol in the city center, because Lansing is the capital of the state of Michigan.

That's what a small town means: a guy was driving at a roundabout, suddenly saw his friends on the sidewalk, stopped, shouted his “How you doin’?”, they started talking, and he just stood right in the middle of the intersection. Province :)

In general, Lansing is a quiet, clean, neat small (about 100 thousand, I think) provincial town. There is nothing special to do here. At 15:10 I'm leaving for Detroit, at 17 I'm there, and at 0:45 I'm leaving Detroit for Chicago. I'll need to stick to big cities in the future.

At 17 I arrived in Detroit. Of the cultural attractions available here, I was only interested in the Motown label museum, but it's closed—it's evening. So I just went to wander around the center.

Yeeeah... a completely dead city! No one on the streets, everything is empty, half the establishments are closed, even though it's a weekday, Tuesday, 6 PM.

Detroit is the capital of the American auto industry. They say that the auto industry is currently going through not the best years in its history. Well, maybe that's why the city is in ruins. But I didn't expect this, I swear.

I walked around the center, took photos, reached the famous General Motors tower, went inside, walked around—it's just as empty and dead there as on the streets. Bought a magnet with the state of Michigan, went out the other side of the building, with an exit to the river. Here I met at least some people.

I sat there for half an hour and decided to go to the bus station. A Black blues musician walked me a couple of blocks to it. He said that people don't have work, they sit at home, that it's because of the crisis in the auto industry, and said that there are many dangerous people here and that I should try to ask policemen, not just anyone.

Looks like the city is in a deep crisis. In the center, I saw a cafe that is open... from 9:00 to 15:00! Until 15:00! Harsh...

Now I'm sitting at the station, waiting—more than 2 hours until the bus.

12.08.2009

At 5:30 AM I arrived in Chicago. Don't forget about the time zone change, because on my watch it was 6:30! Everything is cool, yesterday's fatigue vanished as if by hand, I slept great on the bus. You need to choose neighbors who are smaller in height so that they don't have the moral right to encroach on your territory during the trip :)

Now I'll wash up and go explore Chicago!

9:00: Damn, Chicago is a super city! Big, modern, interesting. Like New York, only cleaner and more cultured.

Walked around, took photos, approached Lake Michigan. The mood is 1000 times better than yesterday, after the dreary Detroit and the backwater Lansing. Everything is cool! Now I'll try to find the internet to plan my further route, but for now, I plan to get on the bus to Kansas City around 1 AM.

Awesome!

There are a lot of interesting street sculptures here.

A separate thrill is the big mirror pea on the shore of the lake in the park on Michigan Avenue. Generally a cool thing! It reflects everything around it, and in a cool distorted way.

I saw a blind guy working as a consultant at the Apple center in Chicago...

In New York, I once saw a Black guy in a shirt saying “Obama is my homie”. And here I just saw a girl with the inscription “Jesus is my homie”. 1:0 in favor of the girl! :)

It's 15:00. I walked almost the entire Downtown along Michigan Avenue, went on the internet, backed up all the photos (if only I could get them home!), approached the beach and decided: “Eh, what the hell!”. I asked a few women with children to watch my things, and went swimming. This is a thrill! I'm swimming in Lake Michigan!

I swam, stood for a long time waiting for my underwear to dry. By the way, the whole beach was looking at me like I was a nutcase, because I was the only one in our usual short briefs, and not in shorts, as is customary here :). Moreover, I wasn't even wearing swim trunks, but ordinary underwear :) Well, screw it, they're the fools: for them, these aren't even swim trunks, but real pants :).

I'm sitting at the bus stop, eating cookies. A Black guy approaches:

• Hey, young man, eatin’ your lunch?
• Yeah.
• You go to school?
• No.
• Smoke weed?
• No.
• Come on, man, you don’t smoke weed?
• No.
  He left. So that was our conversation :).

And I finished the cookies, went back to the Loop, got on the “subway”—in quotes, because it goes above ground, not underground—and rode this very Loop for a meter. The subway here is very old, like in New York.

I got off the subway and headed to the Sears Tower to go up to the observation deck. It costs 15 bucks, but it's cool! I liked it even more than the Empire State Building in New York.

Before going up, they show a small film about how this tower was built. They said that there are so many electrical wires there that you could lay the entire America from one end to the other 15 times—44,000 miles.

The observation deck is generally cool! They made such protruding balconies entirely of glass (or some transparent material), even the floor, and it turns out that you are standing, and under your feet, it's like there is emptiness :). The first time it was even scary to stand there :).

I hung out there, upstairs, for quite a long time. I left at 19:30 and went for another walk back and forth along Michigan Avenue. I liked you, Chicago! It's a pity to part with you. But California is calling me, the main goal of the trip :).

I arrived at the bus station, approached the window, and they told me that all tickets were sold out and the next bus is only at 12 PM!

Damnnn! This sucks! What now, wait 14 hours at the station? And there's nowhere else to go. But the cashier told me that since I have a Discovery Pass, next time I can approach the Information window instead of the Tickets window. Like, so I don't have to wait in line. Well, since that's the case, I decided to try my luck again and ask for a ticket to Kansas City. The guy told me to come at 23:30. I went and washed up, waited a bit, and approached Information again—and—oh miracle!—they gave me a ticket without any talk. Now I'm sitting, waiting. 1.5 hours until the bus. I hope I leave!

13.08.2009

At 12:30 I arrived in Kansas City. Unfortunately, I couldn't get on the bus at 13:00, so I took a ticket for 0:30. I don't know yet if I'll go straight to Las Vegas or get off for half a day in Denver, because if I go straight, I'll arrive in Las Vegas at 1:50 AM, and that is not good.

At a family council via SMS, we decided that I would fly back on August 28th, so I will shorten my program as much as possible, focusing only on really important points.

Slavik isn't answering. Strange. I hope he answers.

Okay, I'll go wash up and go ahead to master Kansas City!

I went out to the city center. In the guidebook, I read that there is an interesting American Jazz Museum here, and it is located at 1616 East 18 Street. I went out to East 18 Street, but to the place where the houses were numbered around 300. “Well,” I think, “I won't go, it's too far.” But I decided to walk a few blocks in that direction, and it turned out that the museum was very close, only about 15 minutes of walking! Yes, it seems that I am not destined to solve the mystery of the American house numbering system :).

The museum turned out to be cool, interactive, with all sorts of gadgets where you can try to pick up different rhythms for a jazz composition yourself, etc.

I wandered around the museum, left there, and went to the center.

Here it is very noticeable that I have moved to the south. The sun is burning much harder. For the first time, I regretted that I didn't have a hat.

So, I went to the center. Yeaah... If you believe the guidebook, Kansas City is about the size of Minsk, 1,900,000 inhabitants. That is, by European standards, a fairly large city. But it seems absolutely, completely dead! No one on the streets, such silence all around that you might think you are in a library, and not in the center of an American metropolis.

Borrrrring...

Here it is, the American province.

Maybe that's why they go crazy? Such melancholy! Just like I read in the book “In Search of a Sad Baby” by V. Aksyonov: “To many, at the sound of the words ‘Idaho’, ‘Colorado’, ‘Missouri’, passion and adventure come to mind. But in reality, it is boundless boredom...”.

Yes, I am increasingly freaking out about how ordinary a country America is... Exactly ordinary. We all perceive America not just as part of the Western world, for example like Canada or France. It seems to us that America is a cult country, a country of endless charisma and boundless fun. But in reality...

Through Seryoga from Minsk, I got Slavik's number, called him, we talked, everything is good. I told him that I would arrive on the 15th in the morning, and he said that everything is OK. Time is already running out, so I will travel at a pace: mandatory points—Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Los Angeles, maybe Yosemite NP, and the rest—if time remains. After LA, at a fast pace home, with small stops. Need to be home on the 23rd-24th, so I have about 10 days for everything. But I think that if you do everything collected, thoughtfully and planned, then during this time it is quite possible to manage to do everything.

I'm sitting at the station, waiting for the bus. I didn't like Kansas City. Although the guidebook said that this city is associated by Americans with the Wild West, I didn't find anything authentic in it. A boring city.

Well, nothing! Ahead is Las Vegas, and behind it—California!

14.08.2009

I arrived in Denver around 11 o'clock. We agreed by phone that I would go to Aunt Bella, grandmother's friend, and I went to look for the bus stop I needed. I found it not without difficulty, got on the bus.

This is what an American city means: you drive, drive, drive... huge distances, low-rise buildings everywhere. Everything is buried in greenery.

I arrived at their place around one, got acquainted, talked a bit, I took a shower and left.

I liked Denver more than Kansas City, it is more lively, but from an architectural point of view, there is absolutely nothing remarkable here: well, skyscrapers... tall, but nothing cute.

I walked around downtown a bit, had a snack, and around 17 arrived at the station. At 18:15 the bus to Las Vegas.

15.08.2009

At 9:30 AM I arrived in Las Vegas. Right at the bus station, Slava was meeting me. Thanks to him! We got into his car and went to his house. He rents an excellent apartment in an excellent building, plays poker, earns a living from it, and doesn't worry about anything.

The apartment is in the very center of Las Vegas, an expensive cool building, a window across the whole wall overlooks the lights of Las Vegas... A cool apartment in general!

We went to find out about the tour to the Grand Canyon. Today I didn't have time, so I booked a tour for tomorrow. 90$, but I think it's worth it, because they say that the Grand Canyon is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. It will take a whole day, departure at 6:30 AM, return around 21.

We stopped by Slava's house, then he left for his business, and dropped me off on the Strip.

Yeeeah... Las Vegas is a city in which the illusion of a fairy tale, a dream, an endless holiday is successfully built. Waterfalls, Venetian canals, the Eiffel Tower, and all this with extraordinary luxury right in the center, along one street. Guys handing out thousands of flyers at every step with pictures “Girls direct to you in 20 minutes”; speakers built almost into the sidewalk so that music plays directly on the street, so that an atmosphere of fun hangs in the air itself. And everywhere casinos, casinos, casinos...

I somehow imagined that only young people, fickle people, were cutting it in the casino, they say. But no way! At every step, grandmothers are squandering their pension.

I lost 1 dollar in a slot machine for fun :)

In the evening we called each other, met, had a snack, and went home.

I got on the internet, looked at the bus schedules, and made myself a final (knock on wood, if nothing happens) plan until the end of the trip.

The plan is that after Vegas, spend one more day in LA and SF, then get on a bus, drive non-stop to Dallas, spend half a day there, in the evening get on a bus to Memphis, get off there in the morning, spend a whole day, in the evening get on a bus to NY and be there the evening of the next day.

When it got dark, I walked on foot from Slava's house to the Strip, had a snack there, walked around, then Slava called and offered to take me to the tower.

This tower is a famous structure, probably even a symbol of Las Vegas. Upstairs there is an observation deck and... attractions! Right on the roof!

I bought a ticket for access to the roof + 1 attraction. There are 3 there, I chose the one the cashier advised, it's called The Big Shot. There is such a vertical stand, you sit down, buckle up, and you are sharply thrown up. You wait for this scary moment, and it is indeed scary, but you don't know that the real scare comes when, after this ejection, free fall down begins!!! An unreal scary feeling when you fall, and there is no support under you.

And so back and forth several times. After that, Slava picked me up and took me to his place. By the time I took a shower and did a little laundry, it was already 2:30 AM. I went to sleep, tomorrow wake up at 5:50 and forward, to the Grand Canyon!!!

As for Vegas, I liked it, it turned out to be more glamorous and fabulous in its center than I imagined. Although the Strip street itself is not that long.

By the way, when I went to the McDonald's restroom during the day, I felt the established smell of marijuana. Sin City!

Tomorrow Grand Canyon!!!!!!!!!!

16.08.2009

At 6:30 the tour bus picked me up, and we went.

But then suddenly the guide said that a policeman would come in now and search the backpacks, that now, apparently, there is some kind of alert, and they are searching, and this is possibly the case all over the country.

Indeed, a guy came in, looked at the backpacks, checked if anyone was hiding in the restroom, wished us a good trip, and left. But the alarm didn't disappear. At the next stop, we found out what the matter was: it turns out that Obama is traveling with us to the Grand Canyon. He has some delegation visiting, and they are going to take a look at the Grand Canyon.

The guide said that this might shorten our time in the Canyon and might spoil the trip in general.

We went further. We saw the legendary Route 66, I bought myself an awesome magnet with the state of Arizona (I liked it wildly). Outside the window—mountains, desert, fields. Beautiful landscapes.

Only at the very approach to the park, traffic was blocked and everyone was held for about half an hour, and then everyone was let through. It's good that the guide's fears were not justified.

Describing the Grand Canyon in words is stupid, and it won't work. It's just like another dimension. An unearthly, alien landscape.

I took photos to my heart's content (if only I could get the photos home!), at 16:30 we met and went back, this time without delays and adventures, although on the way back the policeman looked at the backpacks again.

At 22 Slavik met me and took me to the Greyhound station. Thanks to him again! He met me like a relative. Good luck to him!

And I went to Los Angeles :)

17.08.2009

I arrived in LA very early—at five in the morning. Sat at the station, charged my mobile phone a little, waited for it to start getting light. When it got more or less light, I went out, but realized that it was too early to hang out—there are many different homeless people and generally unpleasant personalities on the street. Decided to go into the nearest McD, take a cup of coffee (I wanted to sleep wildly, because I didn't sleep well at night due to the terrible cold on the bus, and I only slept for 5 hours), sit inside the Mac, study the guidebook, plan the day.

It seems that without a car in LA there is almost nothing to do (it seems that LA is the most motorized city in the world, and everything here is calculated for moving around the city by car). Well, okay, first of all, I'll get to Downtown, then to Hollywood, and then we'll see what time it is.

At 22:00 departure to San Francisco. I got on the bus, and 10 minutes later it brought me to Downtown. I ate a bagel with a muffin (just like an American :)) for breakfast, drank coffee, and went for a little walk. Took some photos, well, what's there to photograph—skyscrapers like skyscrapers, especially after New York they don't impress anymore. Found a subway station, went towards Hollywood. But there were three stations with the name Hollywood, and I, not knowing which one to get off at, got off at the first one. As it turned out, in vain—I should have at the last one.

Hollywood blvd is a long street, not glamorous at all, although not poor people live on the sides on the adjacent streets. I walked along it for quite a long time, but never reached the famous Walk of Fame (especially since I didn't know for sure if I was going in the right direction).

I asked a passerby (a typical Armenian—the Little Armenia district is located here—a cool name, considering the size of “Great” Armenia), he said that it is about 3 miles from here. Then I got on the bus, rode a couple of stops.

I thought it was some cool place, but in reality, it's just the most ordinary street, in which a bunch of stars with the names of different dudes, for the most part unknown to me, are embedded in the asphalt. I poked around there a bit, bought a magnet, went to a special arch from where you can see the famous white inscription “Hollywood”—took a photo, although the weather was very cloudy and it was almost invisible due to the fog.

After that, I decided to go back to the center. I wanted to sleep wildly. I drank coffee again, already for the 3rd time since the morning, hung out in the center, and decided to go to Santa Monica—this is the only one of the “famous” places in Los Angeles that I had a chance to manage to get to.

After a short search, I got on the bus. Damn, how huge it is, this Los Angeles! Drove for about an hour and a half. Got off right by the beach, took off my sneakers, approached the water.

Damn, I did it! I did it! I crossed America from ocean to ocean, from west to east! I crossed the continent!

Stayed there for only 20 minutes and went back, because a cold wind was blowing and I decided not to swim—maybe tomorrow there will be a chance to swim in the Pacific Ocean—in San Francisco, the extreme point of my journey, after which I will turn back.

By the way, during the day in Hollywood, I looked at the physical map of the USA—it turns out that on the way from Vegas we crossed solid mountains—and I was wondering why my ears were popping all night?

Returning to the center, I ate a burrito, sat in the park, and approached the stop. I'm freaking out that in LA, the second-largest city in the USA, after 7 PM everything closes and life freezes! Yes, America is a boring, provincial country in its essence.

If we talk about the city, I didn't like LA. Dirty, homeless in the very center... Hollywood—nothing special, Santa Monica—well, a richer district, well, a beach... And there are a lot of marginals, homeless, beggars on the streets in LA...

By the way, there are even fewer white people in LA than in New York. Mexicans everywhere, Spanish speech everywhere. If in New York English inscriptions are often duplicated in Spanish, then here Spanish inscriptions are not always bothered to be duplicated in English.

During the day, the thought flashed through my mind that the probability of meeting an English-speaking person in the city here is about the same as ours in Minsk :)

Tomorrow—San Francisco!