City life

October (December) 2016

(Deutsch am Ende)

Tommy was working in New York and of course I got to visit this city of cities. It were the October holidays and I enjoyed slowing down from work, lively Brooklyn and of course Manhatten.
I enjoyed the Brooklyn vibes – diverse crowd, cool little shops and a tranquil, yet busy giant park (prospect park). A beautiful and hot left-over of summer, just when I got there made it all the more charming but the slowly creeping in fall colours were pretty stunning as well.
Manhatten is all you think it is. I was surprised that not just the glass covered sky scrapers where super tall but every single building – even the “old” ones. The place is constantly buzzing with people of all sorts. It was a bit overwhelming but certainly an interesting and mesmerizing experience.

In December I took a short trip to New York on a long weekend. One of my most memorable travel experiences took place then and went as follows:

I had a 45 minute layover in – I believe it was Munich. Those of you who have flown and have enjoyed layovers, know that 45 minutes is a very sporty thing but I knew what I was expecting and was up for the challenge. So I was speedwalking through the terminals, following sings, all in good (but little) time and I get to the consortment of gates where my flight to New York should take of from. On the desk were three black ladies (seemingly US American). When you go to the USA you often have to answer questions before entering the flight. So this went down as follows:

Ladies: “Who packed your luggage?”
Me: “I did.”
Ladies: “was it ever unsupervised.”
Me: “no”
Ladies: “How long will you be staying in the USA?”
Me: “Just for the Weekend.”
Ladies: “WHAT??? Do you have a boyfriend there?”
Me: “Yes.”
Ladies: “Who payed for the flight?”
Me “he did.”
Ladies errupting in happy cheers and laughter: “You go girl!”, giving me a high five.

Also on this weekend I saw the legendary Coca Cola truck and took a shitty cellphone picture of it that I will spare you. The rest of the time was spent in Brooklyn, enjoying being together, enjoying quite time and Prospect Park.
If you consider a short trip like this, I would recommend having at least 4 days, as a considerable amount will be travelling. Still if airports and flights (and jetlag) aren’t so stressful for you, it is definitely doable.

I can see why she gets more photographed from the other side

I found a steaming pile of organic waste

Oktober (December) 2016

Tommy arbeitete in New York und so kam ich natürlich auch dazu dieser Stadt der Städte einen (zwei) Besuche abzustatten. Es waren die Oktoberferien und ich genoss es von der Arbeit runterzukommen, das lebhafte Brooklyn zu erkunden und natürlich Manhattan!
Ich genoss die Vibes in Brooklyn, diverse und vielfältige Menschen, niedliche, kleine Shops und einen friedvollen, trotzdem geschäftigen, riesigen Park (Prospect Park). Ein wunderschönes, heißes Überbleibsel des Sommers, gleich zu meiner Ankunft, machte das Ganze noch charmanter, aber auch die sich langsam anschleichenden Herbstfarben waren nicht weniger schön.

Manhattan ist alles, was man sich so vorstellt. Ich war überrascht, dass nicht nur die in Glas gehüllten Wolkenkratzer riesengroß sind, sondern tatsächlich jedes Haus – sogar die vermeintlich “alten”. Manhattan ist fortwärend am vibrieren mit Menschen aller Art. Es war schon manchmal etwas überfordernd aber auf jeden Fall eine faszinierende und spannende Erfahrnung.

Im Dezember machte ich mich ein zweites Mal auf in die große Stadt, diesmal für ein langes Wochenende.
Dabei ereignete sich eine meiner einprägsamsten Reisebegebenheiten:

Auf dem Weg nach New York, hatte ich einen 45 Minuten Zwischenstopp in – ich glaube es war – München. Für diejenigen, die schon das ein oder andere Mal mit dem Flugzeug gereist sind und in den Genuss einer Zwischenlandung kamen, wissen dass 45 Minuten eine sportliche Unternehmung ist. Aber ich wusste was mich erwartet und war bereit für die Herausforderung. So powerwalkte ich durch die Terminals – Schildern folgend – alles in guter (wenn auch knapper) Zeit und komme an der Ansammlung von Gates, von wo auch mein Flug gehen sollte, an. Am Schalter stehen drei schwarze Frauen, (scheinbar US Amerikanerinnen). Wenn man in die USA reist, wird man bevor man in den Flieger steigt oft befragt. So ereignete sich Folgendes:

Ladies: “Wer hat dein Gepäck gepackt?”
Me: “Ich.”
Ladies: “War es jemals unbeaufsichtigt?”
Me: “Nein”
Ladies: “Wie lange bleibst du in den USA?”
Me: “Nur über das Wochenende.”
Ladies: “WAS??? Hast du da einen Freund?”
Me: “Ja.”
Ladies: “Wer hat den Flug bezahlt?”
Me “Er.”
Die Ladies brechen in fröhliches Jubeln und Lachen aus: “You go girl!”, und geben mir eine High Five.

An diesem Wochenende sah ich auch den legendären Coca Cola truck und machte ein wenig reizendes Handybild von ihm, was ich euch erspare. Der Rest der Zeit wurde in Brooklyn verbracht, im Genuss des Zusammensein, der Ruhe und von Prospect Park.

Solltest du je einen kurzen Trip wie diesen in Erwägung ziehen, würde ich empfehlen, midestens vier Tage einzuplanen, da die Reise selbst einiges an Zeit in Anspruch nimmt. Nichtsdestotrotz, wem Flughäfen, fliegen (und Jetlag) nicht zu sehr zu schaffen macht, für den ist das auf jeden Fall machbar.

It was time to check out the city of San Jose. From where Tommy lived, it was about a 20 minute walk to the city center. From the outskirts I was walking through the different circles of city and found this part that was so charming with its wooden houses in different colours and shapes.

Suburbia spit me out at the city centre where I found a bit of everything – big modern buildings, cute pedestrian zones, a spacious university campus, too many homeless people. And when I say too many, I mean that I was quite shocked – one of the wealthiest states of the USA and there is a homeless person every three metres in the little park at the inner city.

I had always been very easy to strike up a conversation with a stranger and really loved to do it while travelling. Only I had found that I never took pictures of these encounters because I didn’t feel comfortable to. This I wanted to change and San Jose was the first place to take this into practice.
And what beautiful people I found.
There was this young woman. She was outside of the museum of art with a group of kids. She was mentoring the kids during a holiday thing where they experienced, practiced and tried out art.
There were Antso and Nick in the elements store. We had a good chat and a good laugh.

And then there was Bob. I meet many during my travels and every encounter is special, still some a bit more than others. Bob owns Circle-A – a skateboard store in downtown San Jose. I have no clue (or very little) about skateboarding but I love seeing and hearing people that are passionate about what they do. We talked about life and work and skateboarding. He told me about his plans to put a little cafe into his store. I hope he made it.
When Tommy and me left San Jose for good some time later I called Bob and we gave him left over foods and household stuff. I love giving things to others instead of throwing them away.
When Bob first appeared on my blog (as I am rewriting this from the future) we exhanged emails and pictures. I learned that the cafe was still waiting for city permits. Some months later I found out that – through a misunderstanding – I had given Tommy’s favourite mug to Bob and this awesome guy send it to Florida. I hope the cafe is in place by now and that many enjoy a great mug of coffee in Bob’s awesome store with him.