West Coast Roadtrip

And again, three weeks have simply flown by and the road trip is coming to an end. It has been an incredible and intense time that feels like an eternity on one hand, and yet time flies by here as always. We have gotten so used to living in the car that we don't even want anything else at the moment. I have seen so many amazing things recently that I didn't even dream of just 8 weeks ago. I had never thought about traveling to America before, but the idea grabbed me and with the opportunity it suddenly turned into a road trip. And I can't say that I regret it! I just had an incredibly amazing time.

From Portland, the highway 101 accompanied us along the American West Coast towards the south all the way to San Francisco, giving us some beautiful views of cliffs, forests, and the open sea. The whole trip took about two days, two full days of road tripping. These two days ended with the Golden Gate Bridge. The first impression of San Francisco? Suddenly, this huge red behemoth appears out of nowhere and before you know it, you're driving right through it. The rest of the day we spent admiring and taking photos of the bridge from the park. I better not go into detail about how we climbed on the cliffs for that. The next day started with a car repair (brake issues) and a hike through Golden Gate Park. The trees there remind me of a jungle and you really just wait for the monkeys to start hopping around (although we didn't actually see any :D). The next few days were filled with sightseeing. We went on a bike tour along the waterfront, visited Pier 39, a street full of shops and a theme park above the water, explored various buildings (photo: Ferry building), streets, bridges, and parks, and admired beautiful sunsets on the beach. To bid farewell to the city, we climbed up Coit Tower in the morning and once again admired all the highlights of San Francisco from above. It was really hard to leave this beautiful city and I will definitely come back.

Afterwards, we headed towards LA and spent another day in the car, by the way, the car is named Ute :D. We arrived in LA in the evening and drove through downtown for the first time in the dark, it was just an amazing feeling. In retrospect, downtown wasn't really that beautiful. It was just an incredible feeling to know that you're standing right in the middle of Los Angeles. The next day was honestly quite disappointing. The Walk of Fame is just a normal sidewalk with a few stupid stars on it. The Hollywood Sign is just a few white letters that are damn far away. And I'm really ashamed to admit it, but we even took one of those silly toury tours through Hollywood. The houses in Beverly Hills are pretty big and impressive, but mostly surrounded by huge walls, hedges, or fences. The evening at Santa Monica Pier made up for the disappointing day a bit. The glowing Ferris wheel above the water, live music, and a beautiful sunset over the ocean, combined with a great view of the city, create an incredible atmosphere.

The next day, we spent the whole morning at Long Beach and even went swimming in the Pacific (in early November!). LA is located on the edge of the Mojave Desert and is surrounded by hills and small mountains on three sides, so there are endless spots with breathtaking views over the city. Especially at night, the size of the city is simply unimaginable. We spent hours sitting at different viewpoints, just enjoying the view. Sometimes you can see more than a dozen planes in the sky at once.

We thought about it for a long time, but then decided to go to Universal Studios Park despite the ridiculously expensive admission fee. There's a Harry Potter theme park with a replica of Hogwarts Castle and a tour through the real sets of all kinds of movies. Every ride in this park also includes a 3D simulator, which is impressive but not so good for my stomach. After a long day, we started towards Las Vegas and almost completed the 4-hour drive.

There's so much to say about Vegas, I don't even know where to start. Let's start where we started: at the top of the Stratosphere. We thought to ourselves that we're not in Vegas every day, so we should do something crazy. Don't worry, I didn't get a tattoo and I'm not married either :D (actually, there are small wedding chapels on every corner here, some even have a drive-through window). Instead, we went up the 350 m high observation tower of the city. Sounds boring? Not at all! On top of the tower, there is a freefall tower, a carousel that turns around while hanging over the abyss, and a roller coaster that plunges forward into the depths (photo). We dared to try all three and it was the ultimate adrenaline rush. Afterward, we enjoyed the breathtaking view of the city at night before taking another walk through the streets. Vegas is just an incredible city. First, you stroll past the Eiffel Tower, then suddenly you're facing the Statue of Liberty, behind which a whole New York skyline is simulated, which is then crossed by a roller coaster (photo). Not to mention the huge, breathtaking hotels that draw attention with oversized golden lions, pirate ships, or artificial lakes and small jungles. On our second evening in Vegas, we walked through Fremont Street or old downtown. If we thought we had seen incredible things the night before, we were wrong. Suddenly, you find yourself in a kind of pedestrian zone covered by a single huge LED screen, with one glamorous casino following the next and street performers everywhere. Between the huge screen and the heads of the people, there are also cable cars, on which people rush past from time to time. We must have walked up and down the street at least five times, unable to believe our eyes, it was just incredible, as Felix likes to say. After finally having seen enough, well, you can never really see enough here. Anyway, we went into one of the casinos, because you have to gamble in Vegas at least once. Well, I wasn't even allowed to watch. Pretty annoying. Anyway, we had two incredible evenings in Las Vegas and I will definitely come back again when I'm 'grown up' then. Vegas, Baby!

In between the two evenings in the metropolis, we briefly escaped into nature. Just 20 minutes outside the city is Red Rock Canyon. Here, we finally got a real look at the desert that we had been in the whole time. The unusual rock formations and the dry expanse of the steppe was something I had never seen before and it was just impressive. However, all of this cannot compare to the Grand Canyon and its surroundings. And so we come to our next destination. Even the approximately 4-hour drive from Vegas to the east was just amazing! It's hard for me to describe the atmosphere, you just keep driving further into nothingness. The small towns along the highway become fewer and farther between, everything is just dry and somehow dead. Huge boulders are replaced by open space all the way to the horizon. It somehow feels like being in an old silent Western movie. We arrived at the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon, so we could only take a quick look at the breathtaking natural wonder as the sun was setting. In the evening, we planned our next day and spontaneously decided to do a two-day hike to the bottom of the canyon. Without thinking much about it, we packed our big backpacks with sleeping bags, a tent, water, and some food, got the camping permit the next morning, and started walking. In switchbacks, we descended 11 km along the steep cliff wall into the depths. At first, full of motivation and excitement, we quickly covered the first kilometers. Unfortunately, the path itself was so challenging that the view of the canyon walls actually fell short. The last few kilometers were quite tough, our feet hurt, and we just wanted to arrive. But our efforts were rewarded! At the bottom of the huge gorge, the ice-cold Colorado River awaited us, and we enthusiastically jumped right in. Damn, that was cold! The following night became the (almost) worst part of our adventure. It was damn cold, the ground was damn hard, and dinner was damn insufficient. Only the starry sky in the distance made it a little better again. I have experienced wonderful starry nights on the ranch, and I thought I would never find anything like it anywhere else, but this sky could definitely compete. This starry sky makes you quite pensive and somewhat sentimental. The bottom of the Grand Canyon holds many secrets that no human will ever fully uncover, and this fact is physically palpable down here. You are at a magical place that is not dominated by humans like many other parts of the world. Here, humans are just visitors, here pure natural force still reigns, here you simply feel your own powerlessness. It was an indescribable experience. The next day was also indescribable, but not necessarily in a positive sense this time. We had to somehow scramble up the remaining 15 kilometers. With bones still aching from the night before and another rather meager breakfast, the start was quite difficult, but we got into the rhythm and actually covered the first 8 km in just over 2 hours, in good spirits. When we realized that we had already completed half of the way, our motivation returned fully. If only we had known what was still ahead .. After the lunch break, every kilometer suddenly felt like four. The trail became steeper, the backpack heavier, the sun on our faces hotter, our feet sorer, and our muscles burning. I still remember the anger, the exhaustion, and the struggle within me. I truly thought that I simply couldn't make it through the last kilometers, but what choice did I have?! So, with many breaks and iron will, we fought our way up step by step. As soon as we could suddenly see the edge of the canyon above us again, all the pain and exhaustion were forgotten, and a feeling of euphoria that I simply cannot describe took hold of us. The last meters suddenly felt light and were covered incredibly quickly. The relief of having made it was simply boundless. 27 km and 3,000 meters of altitude in two days and a total of about 11 hours on our feet, challenge completed!

After the Grand Canyon, we didn't really have a plan anymore. We spent the next day in the car and drove through Zion National Park. However, we just couldn't muster the energy to get out and walk around. You can't imagine the muscle soreness. I think my calves hurt for more than a week. Zion NP was quite small and really beautiful, but no comparison to the Grand Canyon. After the short drive, we continued towards Salt Lake City. It got noticeably colder and the weather significantly worse. We covered a lot of miles, only saw SLC from the car, and took a short shopping break there. Then we continued towards the Canadian border. We actually wanted to visit a ghost town in Utah and of course, go to Yellowstone National Park, but unfortunately, none of that happened. We couldn't find a ghost town near our route and decided not to take the detour. Unfortunately, we simply chose the wrong time for Yellowstone NP. In early November, all roads are closed due to the weather and snowmobile tours and other cool stuff don't start until December. So, we may not have done those two things, but at least we have a reason to come back. Once we crossed those two things off our to-do list and checked off everything else we had planned, a kind of feeling of departure quickly arose and we started preparing for the end of the road trip. On one hand, saying goodbye to living in the car was quite difficult, but on the other hand, we were also looking forward to Banff, our friends there, skiing, and somehow even working. After one last night in Calgary, where I was mainly happy to finally be of legal age again, we arrived in Banff on Sunday morning. After a short tour of the really small and cozy town, we celebrated a bit with friends on the first evening. Then, on Monday, the application phase started for me. I distributed about 50 resumes in the city within two days and already had 2 job interviews (a week later). I went skiing for the first time yesterday, and anyone who knows me can imagine how happy that makes me. I'm just looking forward to spending the whole winter in the middle of the Rocky Mountains and skiing as much as possible (the ridiculously expensive season pass will be worth it). I'm even excited about working, mainly for earning money. Well, let's see what I'll write about it in the next entry :D.

So my dears, that's it for now from me. I had an incredibly amazing time in the States and now I'm enjoying the Canadian winter in Banff. I will get back to you as soon as I have something to report about the job and working, hopefully soon. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the pre-Christmas time in Germany.