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From Abroad

Hey folks! Sorry for my long absence at the blog – I was on my longed for Thanksgiving trip. We had nine days and wanted to cover as much as possible. And we did: Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, Washington DC, Fallingwater and Pittsburgh! If you want to know exactly what we did there, I need to refer to my German blog: http://hannes-in-america.blogspot.com!

About a month ago Lorenza and Giulia (two exchange students from Italy) as well as Doris and me were discussing what we wanted to do for Thankgsgiving. Since all of us already spent some hundred bucks in flight we thought about renting a car and make a roadtrip. This should save us some money (if we were succesful will be unveiled a the end of this post). We wanted to start on Friday and Doris and me had to be back in Washington on Wednesday, the 26th. Of course we wanted to cover as much as possible and so we decided for the following route:

This should allow us to see Niagara Falls, Toronto and Montral within 6 days. Again, I uploaded some pictures to illustrate our journey and hope you enjoy reading about it.

I-79 north for five hours. That is pretty much all you have to do to see the Niagara Falls. And all you students in Morgantown who’ve never been there before: let me tell you, it’s worth it.

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We arrived there in the evening and just had a short stop before we proceeded to our couchsurfing host who was situated in St. Catherines, just 15 min away. On the next morning we went back to the falls, found a surprisingly cheap parking spot for the day (only 5$) and enjoyed this wonder of nature in the daylight.
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You can not only see those cascading waters from above, but take a journey behind the falls, too. It was awesome to hear, see and actually feel the power of the Niagara Falls. And we’ve been there in the wintertime – it has to be even more impressing in the sommer, when twice as much water is travelling down 150 feet free fall.
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After this unforgettable experience we entered our rental car (a Kia Spectra) again an drove northbound, heading to Toronto. Again, we found a couchsurfing host for the night. Unfortunately we hade to learn, that it can happen that the same address occurs in two different places in Toronto. If you don’t doublecheck the zipcode (and I didn’t) chances are good the you find the right address but the wrong house. We found a one story house in a quite, one-story-house neighborhood whereas we were supposed to end up in a 39-floor building in downtown Toronto.

Anyway, about an hour later we arrived at the right spot and, man, surprise surprise. Our host Zoe lives in a brandnew appartment “tower” with parking garage, lobby and even a concierge. Not the average couchsurfing experience : ) Zoe offered rare combination of an upscale flat and an unbelievably generous and open personality. It was a pleasure to stay there. And later this night it got even better when we discovered that the penthouses in the top floor were not yet finished, not locked and hence a great opportunity to shoot a great picture of a great city.
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Here a picture of the four students of us, Zoe and her dog. By the way – it is a great example for the distortion of an image if you use low focal lenght (low zoom) – my face is actually not twice as big as Giulia’s ; )
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No sightseeing in Toronto without the CN-Tower. Incredible.
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This evening we left Toronto for Kingston. Denise – a good friend of ours from Vienna – is staying for an exchange semester at the local university. Although it was officially not allowed to host people in the rooms, nobody seemed to care and we slept well in the dorm room. Kingston was a perfect break since it is situated perfectly between Toronto and our next goal Montreal. And if you ever drive on that road, consider to make a short detour on the Thousand-Islands-Parkway. I admit, that the end of November is prolly not the best season to visit this beatiful piece of land, still I had to opportunity to take a picture full of atmosphere as you can see above.
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Montreal… hmm. After all we heard about this city we decided to spend two nights there and only one in Toronto. I wish we would’ve done it the other way around. I mean I liked Montreal and it is worth a visit, though I was a little disappointed due to three reasons. First, Americans love Montreal for it’s European attitude. I agree it IS quite European and I was reminded on France or England when I walked through the streets. Still this is nothing thrilling for me. Second is the end of November definetely not a good time to visit Montreal – half of the shops and restaurants in the Old Motreal were closed and there were hardly any people on the streets. Third, the weather was the worst you can imagine – cold, windy and raining. Anyway – the picture shows Lorenza, Giulia and Doris and you can even see the Olympic Center in the background.

Due to the mist we spent our second day completely in the underground. In every other city I know this would be hardly intersting, but Montreal has a unique subsurface shopping “world”. Hundreds of shops and restaurants in several downtown buildings are connected by underground walkways. We hiked across downtown Montreal without stepping outside even once – unbelievable.

Early next day we drove back to the United States. Lorenza and Giulia planned to spend Thanksgiving in Boston and New York so I delivered them to the Greyhound bus stop in Albany. Doris and me traveled further directly to Washington DC. We were invited at Eric Jaesches family for Thanksgiving. And not just Doris and me, but also my father. He managed to book a flight that brought him to Dulles this very evening. So we had a little family reunion. But since my father was very tired due to the long flight and I was very tired due to the long drive (800 miles in 12 hours straight), so we had a good night’s sleep.
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The Thanksgiving day itself started with a tour through the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. My father as well as Doris and me enjoyed this interesting collection of aviation very much. And guess what… I took the opportunity to make some nice pictures : ) just like aboves from the fasted aircraft ever, the Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird.
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...or what do you think abour this one. The astronout is floodlight so brightly and the background so dark that it even seems it’s levitating in the free space.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the feist itself but let me tell you, that is was delicious, generous and we enjoyed it soo much to be able to participate at this very american experience.
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Black Friday. Instead of going shopping we planned to see some museums and exhibition in Washington DC. Unfortunately we were not the only ones who decided to do so. But after we eventually found a parking spot, we could see some of those sights, most Europeans only know from TV. And we started with good old Albert : )
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... the Lincoln Memorial close by…
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...an from a little further away.
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As I mentioned earlier, I grew up on a farm in Salzburg. My parents are still operating it, keeping a livestock of around 200 goats. Still my father is a very interested and knowledgeable person. Considered that he learned English only in elementary school, 35 years ago, it is astonishing how well he still speaks it, allowing him to have conversation without any big problems – respect.

I am very glad that he took the time to visit me. He’s not only a very busy farmer but also currently running for mayor in my hometown Seekirchen. So I really appreciated his visit and hope I could show him some interesting apects of the States.
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Finally I have to say Thank You to family Jaeschke, again. They hosted us for three nights in there beatiful home close to Washington. They shared breakfast and dinnertable with us, supplied us with great advice and hints and even allowed us to participate in the familiy’s Thanksgiving meal. We greatly appreciated that and hope we can give back this hospitality if you ever visit us in Austria.

So this was our Thanksgiving trip. Costed us around 90$ for transportation, since we shared the car and gas expenses by four. Accomodation was free everywhere since we couchsurfed again : )