Florida

In February 2013 I made a fascinating trip with my boyfriend Sebastian to Florida. We spent almost two and a half weeks in the country and after these two weeks I can highly recommend it to everybody and I can say for sure that it is just a really amazing country with a beautiful landscape and very kind people. :)

The reason for our visit to Florida was a simple one - a good friend of us spent a year abroad in Florida and it was totally clear to us that we have to take the opportunity to visit him. What is more, my boyfriend and I are great fans of Dexter, a TV series in which most of the filming spots are located in and around Miami, and we have always adored the places shown in the series and have dreamed about visiting these beautiful areas for a long time. For this reason, we were pretty lucky when we found a really cheap flight to Miami on the Internet - it was a real bargain! When we looked a little bit closer, we recognized that there is in fact a little disadvantage about the flight - it started in Genf via Rome and New York towards Miami and the flight back started in Miami via New York towards Venice :) For sure, we had to admit that this was actually a strange combination of flights and we had to go across Europe, but because it was an unbeatable price for the flight we booked the route anyway!

Finally, out trip began in the first week of February 2013 in Graz where we started in a train towards Genf. It took us nearly 13 hours to finally reach Genf in the middle of the night which didn’t stop us to do a little sightseeing trip through the most important places of the city, even with our suitcases which we had to carry with us. However, in less than 5 hours we saw a huge amount of impressive and glorious buildings and squares and we were totally overwelmed of the beauty of the city, especially in the shining light of the moon. It is definitely worth a visit! We quickly decided that we have to come back any time in the future and perhaps the next time even in the daylight. A few hours later we continued our journey towards the airport of Genf where we had to reach our plane to Rome. Everything went fine - we survived the flight despite the fact that the plane was a prop airliner and a few hours later we were able to sit down in our cosy seats in a very big plane and set off in Rome to cross the Atlantic ocean. We had a little intermediate stop in New York (and we immediately hit McDonalds at the airport to get our first McSundae in America) and then we continued our flight to Miami.

Finally, and after almost 30 hours of travel, we landed safely but really exhausted in Miami :) We reached there in the beginning of the night and therefore the landing itself was really overwelming because of the many lights of the city we could get a glimpse of through the little windows of the plane. Really, really tired we immediately went by bus to our motel which we had booked in advance before our trip. We had no problems to find the right buses and also the motel was easy to find. It is located on the Biscayne Boulevard and everything about the motel and also our room looked very nice at first sight which made us really happy because now we could finally fall into a bed! :)

On the next day, we started to explore the city by feet. We walked a little bit through the center of the city and then we went by bus to Miami Beach, which is actually an island immediately next to Miami. Miami Beach is connected to Miami with various bridges and some of them are actually quite long which makes it very impressive to go over them with the bus. In Miami Beach, we immediately went to the beach to get a first glimpse of the sea. Eve

n in February the water was quite warm and it was very pleasant to lie in the white sand of the broad beaches and enjoy the warmth of the sun of Florida. I have to say, I have never seen such nice and beautiful beaches like in Florida. A few hours later when we were getting pretty hungry, we found it very hard to find an afordable place to eat. We walked up and down the Ocean Drive and we soon discovered that is was actually not the best place to look for a cheap meal because it is probably one of the most expensive streets in Miami. But even in the streets near the Ocean Drive we were not able to find any place cheaper. Because we were getting hungrier and hungrier and because it was our first night in Miami, we decided that it would be alright if we allowed ourselves a Pizza on the Ocean Drive, even if it was a fairly expensive one ;) Afterwards, I can tell that the Pizza was actually worth the money - it was delicious!

In the next days, we walked to various famous places of Miami. We enjoyed a walk through the financial district with its high rise buildings, we tried ice cream in the Bayside Park and we did a little shopping and saw a fake “Lady Gaga” in Lincoln Road. It turned out that it was a training for a security crew who had to learn how to protect famous people. However, they were not able to fool me, an actual fan of Lady Gaga, and we had quickly discovered that it was not the real “Lady Gaga” ;) Nevertheless, it was amusing to watch all the people getting crazy about having just seen a famous star!

After a week in Miami, we rented a car so that we were able to get out of the city and explore even more of the country. We visited the Everglades National Park and did a trip on the water on a hydrofoil vessel. However, the most impressive thing in the Everglades National Park was actually not a boat trip that you could book in a bureau, it was the huge amount of aligators that were lying in the water besides the streets. When we went with the car through the park, we stopped here and there to watch the impressive movements of these animals. What is more, we were not only able to see aligators in the Everglades but also a variety of birds and other wild life animals. There was even a traffic sign that said “Crossing “.

Our journey by car continued towards Key West. We drove on an extremely narrow island that leads to the town of Key West. In fact, the island was that narrow that sometimes on the route there were only a few meters left on each side of the car between the car and the sea. In Key West, we spent one night in a motel and rented two bycicles which turned out to be a great way of exploring the town as Key West was not really big. In the evening, we found a nice place to eat when we were walking alongside the harbour. It was a little pub with live country music and musicians who were making music barefoot. What is more, it offered finger food and a delicious Key Lime Pie which is definitely a must to try if you are visiting Key West. All in all, it was extremely comfortable there and probably the best place to spend an evening in Key West! It was a great opportunity to inhale the feeling of Key West.

The beginning of Highway Number 1 in Key West

On the next day, we wanted to finally do the thing which was the reason why were coming to Florida in the first place - we wanted to visit our friend Mike! :) He spent a year abroad in St. Petersbourg which is located on the west coast of Florida. For this reason, we had to cross the country which actually meant that we were able to see some more aligators in the Everglades again. In St. Petersbourg, we were finally able to hug our friend again ;) He showed us Eckerd College, the university where he was staying, and it turned out as a fascinating place to spend a year abroad. Located right at the sea, it offers a huge amount of different water sports and also the possibility to lounge in the sun as it has its own little beach. In my opinion, it is a great place to study because I can’t think of a better place to study for an exam than at the beach ;) For this reason (and because the university also has a very delicious cafeteria ;)), my boyfriend Sebastian quickly decided that he also wanted to spend a year abroad there and therefore he is going to apply for it next year. In the next days, our friend Mike showed us more of the nice places of St. Petersbourgh and we spent three very great days with him at the Eckerd College!

Because everything has to come to an end some time, we had to leave Mike and the Eckerd College to go back to Miami for our plane back home. On our way back, we additionally saw many interesting towns, villages and beach sides, and it can be said that it was not just a drive back but also a great opportunity to see more of Florida.

On our flight back home, we were finally able to work through all the impressions we got on our unforgettable holiday in Florida which was actually one of the greatest journeys I have taken so far. Florida and its landscape are unique and I will definitely come back any time in the future!