North American Fun

A short update from my first ever trip to North America. Flying was endurable, the food was something between ok and awful, I sat next to Darwin Deez if anyone knows him (I only know him because several people asked me to play his music during DJ sets). I was hoping for someone nice to sit next to me and I got a Brooklyn hipster. Ainara picked me up from the airport and I was surprised how calm it was there and in Manhattan where we got out. I caught the first glimpse of the city on 42nd Street. Everything was bathed in sunlight. We didn't made it to a show where Ainara was supposed to be singing in time so we hopped on a cab and when I turned around to look out of the rear window a horse was staring at me.

After a short visit to As dorm we walked miles and miles through Manhattan and decided to have dinner in Little Italy where a Russian waitress sympathised with us because we were from Europe and I got introduced to the US system of tipping. Payed with my Visa card American style. After screening good looking people at Trader Joe's we came back to As dorm room where I took a nap got woken up by Ainara with coffee, met her friends, we went to a gay bar then to Brooklyn, didn't really know where to go until someone told us about a "cool queer party" where we ended up between lesbian couples who danced in front of a stage on which Marilyn Manson lookalike drag queens performed to classic hits by the Pet Shop Boys, New Order, The Cure and what not.

Partied late, got up early, had a day full of food and drinks (at the Chelsea Hotel!) and fell asleep quite soon. On Monday we went to the Natural History Museum which took a lot of our time and then wandered around Harlem where really 95 percent of all people were black. Hi segregation. We had delicious dinner at a soul food restaurant, hung out a bit in Manhattan and I fell asleep tooo early after sending out what might have been a hundred couchsurfing requests. I'm settled for next week and will engage in some loft-hopping in Brooklyn.

Tuesday had the perfect weather for Coney Island, loved it a lot. We took many pictures and collected pieces of dead crabs. Later wandering through the Chinatown maze, coffee on the Lower East Side and drinks in Greenpoint where we were being social and met a friend of an amazing friend who's going to be in Montreal soon and guess where I am right now.

After a 10 hour ride on the most comfortable train in the world and a 2 hours break at the border because foolish cops ordered a muslim couple to leave the train and checked all their baggage (I assume this happened because they spent more than 1 hour in the police shed) we arrived in BEAUTIFUL Montréal and I never want to leave again and will tell more about staying here later as I should really go to bed now, it's 4 in the morning.