Donnerstag, 27. September 2012

Hard times in a sunny town

The temperature is about perfect. A little bit chilly in the night, but that just means I have to wear more stuff and miss my german blankets.
In the daytime the sun shines. Portland really gives us a nice welcoming weather these september days and I heard october is the best month to be in town.
Still there are a lot of things that give us a hard time to enjoy all the beauties of the city.
Like finding a job. Finding a place to stay. Our car. And bikes.

Starting with the last:
We found bikes. Yes. But Sisto again got screwed by some stupid guy who sold a bike that's not really worth the money. Don't trust anybody. People are crooked. Really don't trust anybody even in the nicest city. What an asshole.
My bike is ok, just needs a little tune up.

The car had a broken brake fluid line. For us it was three days where we couldn't look for a place to stay. And since we didn't yet have bikes were kind of stuck to our friend's home. Just when we wanted to go and get a bike we figured it out. And on top of that it costed us a lot of money and we had to renew the brake shoes that had been replaced like one week ago. I really don't understand this. Really. I don't!

When looking for a home most of the people didn't even answer our emails. Probably they don't want couples in their homes or whatever but if you get a request upon something you advertised you really should be fair and give a feedback. Yes. This is annoying!
So now we found a place for one and a half month. It was the only person who did answer at all. Oh no, I forgot, there was another one that said: "Oh, yes, you can have a look, but if there's a second person it's 550 $ (instead of 400 $) a month. Is that ok?" WHAT? NO! Absolutely not.

Now our goal is to find a job. I have been walking around a few days ago for 6 hours. It gave me blisters and a lot of "you can hand us a resume, for the next time we are hiring"s... I don't know. I just write a lot of resumes and hope for a job at a kitchen show that is hiring right now. Applications and applications and applications.

Starting a life in a new town is not fun at all.
Now you know why I'm kind of absent in hyperspace. Now you know. Oh and since my camera is dead no pictures of tomato mountains and nice streets. Sorry again.

Sonntag, 23. September 2012

Into the chimney

In september Portland's people celebrate a huge swarm of swifts that rest in an old chimney. They gather around sunset to witness the birds entering their special rest area. 
Another smaller chimney is right here in Kenton. And though it's unknown to most of the people it gives shelter to another swarm. Today I went there and was able to watch that strange and beautiful scenario.
A bit like backwards smoke, a bit like falling leaves, in a delayed flight just before they disappear inside the narrow opening of the funnel of this ordinary looking building.

People pilgrimage there every evening. You cannot deny that this city is special!

Donnerstag, 20. September 2012

To be in Portland.

We arrived in Portland.
It seems to be a magic wonderland.
People live in small and colorful houses.
They ride bike.
They grow vegetables in their front yard and enjoy wilderness instead of a mowed lawn.
They have lots of cats and try to eat local.
There's music and arts and vegetarianism on every corner.
And right now we try to find out what is crooked about this place, because this can't be true.
Maybe a little bit too much hipsters?

We don't know yet. But we'll find out. Or stay here happily ever after.

(By the way: I'd love to show you some things but my camera just broke and right now there's things more important than buying a new camera.. Sorry.)

Montag, 17. September 2012

OREGON

We're in Oregon. So close to our final destination, we take it slowly right now.
We have traveled so many miles. Have climbed lots and lots of mountains. Serpentines up and down again. We have crossed deserts and forests. We saw beautiful rivers and huge rocks. We arrived at the pacific and saw northern California's giant redwoods. We drove small and winding roads next to the cliff that made us afraid of running off the edge. But we made it. We just made it and now we're here!

somewhere between Reno, NV and Sacramento, CA 
CA now
Pacific coast

Samstag, 15. September 2012

Structures and Patterns

A little more Florida while I'm already somewhere in the middle of that big country heading towards Portland..


Mittwoch, 12. September 2012

Three road trip facts


still in Texas..
small town, nice buildings, Texas
"two butte", Colorado
1) Colorado is super awesome and incredibly beautiful.

2) You better not go through the mountains with a heavily loaded old van that has a small motor and apart from that is just running on 5 cylinders. You should rather put on new break shoes if they are down than be stingy 'cause you will need them!

3) Wet toilet paper is your friend. A GPS is a helpful device.

state park near Pueblo, CO
wild sunflowers in Colorado
Colorado mountains!

autumn colors

Sonntag, 9. September 2012

Cross Country

1st day morning
1st day evening
Gulf Coast sunset (still drivin')
2nd day morning

Wow. It's been just three days now and we've already had such an awesome time!
Right now we're in Houston, TX, were we could crash at the nicest people in the world. No really, yesterday evening Sisto played at that show and they just invited us to stay at their place over night. After driving a beautiful coastal highway most of the time we had some shitty time in Louisiana where the roads were crappy and we couldn't find a place to sleep. Slept for two hours at a rest area and hit the road again around one in the morning. Crossed the corder to Texas and drove for some hours until we finally found a nice spot at the beach on Bolivar Peninsula. The sun was already preparing to rise again. Ok. Just that for today. I don't want to waste my time on the internet while we could hang out with nice people instead. 

Mittwoch, 5. September 2012

Tomorrow!

Yes. Tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow we leave. Bye bye Florida, hello road!
I'm excited and curious and sooo looking forward to it. I've been waiting for too long now.