Surfing USA.

San Antonio ... mmm...
You don't even have to go to Mexico to get the mexican feeling; go to San Antoniooooo!

I'm couch surfing here. A really kick ass family; musicians, teachers, theater people. And as is befitting Texas: Huge house, huge cars and a huge circle of friends that I'm being introduced to ^^ Even the heat is of a serious size. It's HOT here. Seriously. Damn! I'm starting to understand the whole deal with driving everywhere: You have your aircon with you ;)

Downtown is not that big, I guess it makes sense since it's a really old town and all the historical stuff is within short walking distance - but it is slightly misleading since San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the states. Soooo many people here o_O

One last note in case you're not familiar with San Antonio's history: REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!

Well, I'm going to New Orleans. Later!

These boots are made for walking!

I'll never be a cowgirl, let's face it. I'm never going to honky tonk it down at a local bar after herding cattle all day on my trusty horse. I do not eat enough meat or drive enough truck either. BUT I used to ride horses though and that's more than can be said for most of the people I've met in Austin; some of them have worn cowboy hats and boots but they've never been to a farm or seen the landscape from a horse. HA!
Fair enough, Austin isn't your typical Texas town; it's quite off-beat really. Maybe it comes from being the capital, a university city and having kind of an odd history. And BATS, lots of bats!
Did I mention that I love it here?! Hehe.

About the bats: It's a tradition here that people watch the bats fly out at dusk and it really is awesome. Couldn't get any good pictures though :(

Austin is a music mecca apparently. A lot of the most interesting country and rock seems to come from here at the moment. They have music festivals scattered through out the year and I've managed to land here in the one month they don't have anything going on (lucky me). I guess it's alright since it has been raining on and off since I got of the bus here (once again, lucky me)

But seriously, I really do like Austin. This is the first place where I've been able to say: Yeah ... I could live here. New York is brilliant and I could probably spend some serious time there but it doesn't feel like a place I could live for an extended periode and Austin is. Funny ... I didn't think Texas was a place for me, heh.

Anywoo! People love my Elvis shades. Graceland's finest ^^

Pork... Pork! PORK!

Memphis is a hard place for vegetarians, vegans and people with heart problems (maybe that's why they call it the heartland (poor joke I know)) On my first day here I found one place that was willing to make a vegan meal; an irish pub called Silky O'Sullivan's where the food was so hot I couldn't taste my ale after I'd finished eating, hehe. It also introduced me to the strange concept of serving food in all plastic containers and with plastic cutlery for an extra challenge (I felt sorry for the people with a steak o_O).

Well, I went to the mother of all tourist traps: Graceland ^^
The house was a well preserved piece of the 70's. And I saw a woman break down crying when she came to Elvis' grave. It was cool to look at the trophy room where there were scandinavian gold records hanging on the wall. I decided that paying an ekstra $30 to see all that Graceland had to offer wasn't worth it so I quickly made my way to the Sun Studios afterwards.

Sun Studios ... damn! A three room slice of rock history. Such a tiny little place that had such a big impact on the world and it had an impact on me unlike Graceland. Sun Studios was sealed off after Sam Philips moved shop in the 60's so when it opened up as a museum much later it was exactly as it looked in the 50's when Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins recorded there. Soooo cool!

I also spent way too much time in the Rock and Soul Museum. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know. Plus I spent half an hour listening to Robert Johnson - king of the delta blues. Mmmm ...

I went to my second Gibson factory as well. Rock on \m/

There's more to tell but I'm out of time on the computer.

I'm going to Austin now. Texas here I come!

Leaving Nashville *Yeehaw!*

I did some very touristy things today: Went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and also bought a cap with their logo on it for my dad (hope he likes it). Although it was a rather touristy thing thing to do it was pretty cool; it cleared up a few cultural references from movies for me.

For some reason three random people unrelated to each other took pictures of me today; very odd.

My Boston people left. So sad. They gave me one of their beds when I first got here; I arrived really late and the hostel managers had all gone to bed. So the nice Boston people gave me beer and a bed. Awww ... ^^ That first night I also realized that Nashville mosquitoes have a weird appetite for my knees (seriously!)

Anyway, Moving on to Memphis. Going to Graceland *shakes hips*

Another picture: I see anime everywhere O_o

Lazy days ...

Relaxing big time ^^

I haven't found an adaptor for my phone charger yet so I'm phoneless, musicless and timeless. I'm fairly okay with that (except the music part).

Nashville is great for live music though ... most of it is Country ... but it is not baaaaad Country ... so far anyway. I'm kinda enjoying it - and I don't know how I feel about that o_O

Anyway, I just uploaded some of my first pictures and realized that I only take pictures of stuff I think are funny. So I don't have any pictures of people - I should since I've met quite a few brilliant people.

Something I thought was funny:

Howdy y'all

I'm in Nashville. And I like it. Yes, you heard me.

I went to Washington friday and lived to regret it. When I got off the bus someone pointed out that I was the only white person; I hadn't noticed up until that point and it sorta set the tone for my time there >_< There was no vacant beds anywhere unless you wanted to pay 200$ for a room so I was walking around at night looking at monuments with my backpack on (since there was nowhere to store my stuff either) I tried to get a bit of sleep on a monument actually but guys kept thinking I was homeless and wanted to give me money to get a room so (and this is a direct quote) "the black guys wouldn't rape me"! Gah! Plus in the middle of the night I was talking to a couple of girls that had been attacked and one of them was pretty upset (large dane to the rescue) And one final thing: A lot of rats. Damn!

So anyway, to get some sleep I went back on the bus and am now in Nashville. I like it here ^^
I realize that I'm mainly here so my parents will envy me for the rest of their days but I'm not sorry I came. The weather is nice and people are nice. The town only have one hostel but it is awesome.

I'm going to stay here for a few days before moving on to Memphis. Going to rest my poor feet and chill out in a hammock with a book. We're going to BBQ tonight and I'm looking forward to it :)

Moccachoccalattewhitewhipstuff to-go plz ^^

Yes, the first thing I did when I arrived in New York was to order a coffee at Starbucks; I was just honouring Tina and Anja's wishes.

Getting here wasn't a big thing; Finnair now has personal entertainment systems for all passengers so i watched movies and cartoons all the way. This personal system also shows you the take-off and landing from outside the plane, wicked cool! And off course I had to buy a few things at the Moomin shop in Helsinki.

I've been living in Chelsea since I got here; and just in case you don't know what that is: Lots of gaybars, rainbow flags everywhere and it's on your way to the west villiage.

My legs are busted and I have a hard time walking today. I had the inspired idea to walk the length of Manhattan; zig-zagged Broadway from upper Manhattan to Battery Park down south where I had some nice moments with the statue of liberty. I have to say that the south of the island is more me than the lights of the north.

Well, apparently it's Labour Day on monday and that means everything is booked up for the long weekend. This kind of long term stuff does not go well with my care-free style of travelling. So after 4 days in the big apple I'm moving on to Washington DC.