Cleveland, Ohio.

The day passed, and we had to get on the bus again for another 12-hour ride to Cleveland, Ohio. The 12 hours flew by quite quickly; it was actually very convenient that we took all our trips at night, so when we woke up, we were already in a new city. (By the way, a small tip for those who will be traveling by bus: even if it is scorching hot outside, take out warm sweaters and wool socks, because the buses have air conditioning, and I, for example, was very cold. Also, my travel pillow helped me a lot because when you sit for so many hours, your neck gets stiff.) Actually, I was the one who insisted on this part of our trip. You might ask why? This was, one could say, one of the goals of my trip in general... the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a place I dreamed of visiting. During our entire trip, every city greeted and saw us off with rain. Except for Cleveland. We arrived and immediately went to the hotel we had spotted online in advance. After getting ready quickly, we went to the very place we had come for. This sacred place of Rock & Roll greeted us with a boulevard of the same name, then beautiful huge guitars, and all this set the right mood; we felt that we were already very close. And then a beautiful and exciting view unfolded—it was IT, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where only great musicians end up. After paying, I think, about $20 for admission, we enjoyed this splendor until closing. There were costumes of Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, ABBA..., guitars of Jimi Hendrix, Joan Jett..., halls of Les Paul and Bruce Springsteen, manuscripts of songs by numerous famous groups, Johnny Ramone's sneakers and Sid Vicious's t-shirt, Nirvana posters and Pearl Jam vinyl, and many, many other treasures of legendary figures of the Rock & Roll era. Of course, I didn't manage to see everything, so I planned an excursion for the next day as well. Afterward, of course, we decided to see a little bit of the city. And again, we encountered a half-empty city. It felt like an epidemic had swept through it, and all the people had just moved out. Walking along the deserted streets, we finally stumbled upon an alley where there were many different restaurants and thought that all the residents of this city were apparently gathered in this very place.

The next morning, with new enthusiasm, I set off again to the sacred place of rock and roll. And my Miss Universe went to enrich herself with art culture—to the city museum. After walking through all the floors and every corner again, watching videos of awards in a special cinema hall, and buying a couple of t-shirts in the museum shop, I, having frozen to the bone all day because of the air conditioners working at full power, was completely saturated and soaked in the atmosphere of those years. Going outside to warm up a little, I was caught off guard by the rain that had been following us. Meeting up with Miss Universe, we started thinking about what to actually do now, where to go. Our bus was leaving after midnight, there was still time, so we had to occupy ourselves with something. This "occupying ourselves" found us on its own, and instantly... "If only it weren't for the rain and cold cafes," we thought when we finally noticed a large column of people walking in identical uniforms and shouting something. They walked in an endless stream for about 10 minutes, after which we decided to move towards our hotel. On the way to the stop, we noticed with genuine surprise that this column of people was not ending, but on the contrary, was starting to grow. Despite the rain and the chill, people were with children and of all ages. Almost everyone was in raincoats and uniforms that bore the inscription "Browns". And we, of course, logically guessed that it was football. American football! Who doesn't want to see with their own eyes this spectacle, watched a hundred times in movies?! We were no exception. Slapping our wet sneakers and overcoming our terrible desire to be in warmth and dry clothes, we still followed the crowd. We decided to at least just find out the ticket price. Approaching the huge stadium, we headed to the ticket offices. While Miss Universe was asking about the cost of this event, a man ran up to me and shouted in an excited voice (apparently because of the upcoming game), through the noise of the rain and the loud discussions of people: "Don't buy tickets! Tell her not to buy tickets! I have free tickets! How many do you need?". (And after this, let someone just try to prove to me that there are no happy accidents, only a well-thought-out plan.) We, of course, happily grabbed the tickets that flew into our hands and headed inside the stadium with a confident step. The stadium was open-air, so rain was unavoidable anyway. While walking up the spiral path to our seats, we thought about how we would sit on wet seats, and even in the rain, which was not going to end. While joking: "Imagine, there is a small dome above, and our seats with the free ticket are under it, and we will sit in a dry place isolated from the wind, while those who bought tickets for 70 bucks will sit in the rain!". You won't believe it... but that's exactly what happened.

We were simply amazed by the grandeur of this stadium. You know, it felt like we were just sitting and watching some American movie, and we were in it. The game started. Everything was standard American movie style. Nachos, actively shouting fans in uniforms, doing the wave and tapping in sync, the whole stadium, "we will rock you", that huge screen where people in movies usually propose, and of course, the cheerleaders' dance. In short, an impressive spectacle!

Arriving at the hotel, full of impressions for the day, we ordered pizza and got to talking with a woman. We learned interesting facts that we had no idea about. Such as, for example, it turns out Kentucky is pronounced as Kentacky (where she actually came from), Buffalo, as we called it, is Baffalo, Niagara Falls—in the correct pronunciation—Nayagara Falls. We laughed, remembered the correct pronunciations, and at the end, she said several times that we should be careful...

Not having dried off completely, we headed to the bus terminal. After drying our sneakers in the hand dryer, we sat down in the cold bus again...