New York - Philadelphia - Washington - Niagara - Boston - New York
10 days / 9 nights
Tour dates: any
1 day –Arrival in New York, meeting and transfer to the hotel, 2 nights in New York.
2nd day –Sightseeing tour of New York for 4 hours with a rise to the observation deck (entrance tickets on the spot $ 30 / person)
Day 3- D a day in New York, optional for an additional fee - a cruise to the Statue of Liberty, a musical on Broadway.
4th day- Check-out from the hotel, excursion with a guide to Philadelphia for 6 hours(2 hours of the road + 4 hours of excursion). The excursion program includes a visit to the Liberty Bell, which sounded on the day of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, to the Palace of Independence and the US Mint. You will also see B. Franklin's grave, Betty Ross's house, Love sculpture, Rodin Museum. During the tour, the guide will introduce you to the history of this city, which has been the capital of the United States for 10 years. N och in Philadelphia.
Day 5 – Train transfer to Washington (2 hours), meeting with the guide at the station, sightseeing tour of Washington for 4 hours, night in Washington.
6th day- Flight to Buffalo in the morning (1 hour in flight), meeting with a guide at the airport, full Niagara tour for 6 hours. Visit to Goat Island, Turtle Ledge, Moon Island and Three Sisters Isles. Descent to the foot of the Bridal Veil waterfall, under which the Cave of Winds is hidden. An unforgettable trip to Niagara Falls on the Maid of the Mist ferry. Stop at the ruins of the world's first hydroelectric power station, built by Nikola Tesla. Possibility of a speedboat ride up the Niagara River Canyon to the giant maelstrom. Old Fort Niagara. Lake Ontario - Visit the old fortress, museum and fortifications. Niagara Falls with evening lighting. Night in Niagara.
Day 7- P flight to Boston(1 hour flight), 2 nights in Boston.
Day 8 –Osightseeing tour for 4 hours. You will visit the old city districts of Victorian Beacon Hill and North End, along which the famous Freedom Trail runs; elegant Back Bay, Christian Science and Symphony Hall; English landscape park. This is the city where the American Revolution was born and where the country's great educational institutions - the Cambridge and Harvard Institutes - are located.
Day 9 – travel by train to New York (4 hours), shopping, souvenirs ...
Day 10- transfer to the airport, flight home.
Tour cost for 1 person for10 days / 9 nights:
from $ 2650 / person
The tour price includes:
- Residence in 4 * hotels along the route
- Individual meeting-seeing off by car to the airports
- All specified individual excursions with Russian speaking guide
- Railway tickets along the route Philadelphia - Washington and Boston - New York
- Tax
Additionally:
- Breakfasts in hotels (if possible, we will include free breakfasts in hotels where there is)
- Domestic flights, economy class from $ 275 / person
- Tips for drivers and guides
- International flight, visa and insurance
You can find new offers on the main page of the site in the "News" section.
In order to obtain a US visa, it is better to already have a visa history. According to statistics, those who have been to other countries find it easier to get a visa. In order to apply for a visa, you need to fill out a visa application form on the website, pay the fee and pass an interview, as well as be fingerprinted. The consular fee is $ 160. Even if you are applying for a visa for a short period, it is usually issued for 3 years. You can stay in the country for no longer than 180 days at a time. If you have already made a visa and less than 11 months have passed since its end, then a re-visa can be obtained without an interview.
How to get there
The cheapest option is to fly to New York. A roundtrip ticket from Moscow costs about 20,000 rubles. The best route is to ride from New York to Miami on land, visiting the most interesting cities. You can return by plane. Two weeks should be enough.
Moving around the East Coast and beyond
Buses
USA is a country of highways. Most Americans have cars. Mostly foreigners and poor people travel by buses. Buses usually have Wi-Fi, sockets and a toilet of questionable cleanliness on board. You can take food with you on board, but not alcohol.
The largest bus companies in the United States are Megabus and Greyhound.
Greyhound is an older, more expensive and conservative company that has checkouts and lounges.
If you are driving Megabus, book your ticket online and get ready to wait for the bus on the street near the sign. Its main routes cover the East Coast and the Midwest. Greyhound has a more extensive route network.
The cheapest way is to buy tickets in advance. Sometimes Megabus has $ 1 ticket promotions, but they are quite difficult to catch. Tickets cannot be returned, but dates can be changed at an additional cost. A commission of $ 2.5 is taken for the purchase. Greyhound has surrender tickets, but they are noticeably more expensive.
A convenient aggregator for searching and buying tickets for all major bus networks - Wanderu.
Buses usually leave on schedule, but there are delays. It is better to arrive 15-30 minutes before departure. Tickets are sold without seats, so whoever took the right seat first is a fine fellow. You can book a ticket with a seat for an additional charge.
When buying a document at the checkout and at the time of boarding, you need to have some kind of document with you (license, ISIC, passport). For both companies, you can carry 22.5 kg of luggage and about 10 kg of hand luggage free of charge.
Car rent
The USA is the perfect country for driving. To rent a car, you need ordinary Russian license ( plastic card) and bank card... Officially, it is a credit card that is required, but Russian debit cards, as a rule, do not indicate that they are debit cards, plus some cards are passed as credit cards with a limit of 0 rubles, so they usually fit. In some rental companies, you can only rent a car if you are over 21 years old.
Car rental prices vary greatly depending on the region, timing and location where you pick up the car. Insurance is often not included in the price quoted on the website.
It is often cheaper to rent a car at the airport than in the city. There is almost always a surcharge if you rent a car in the wrong place where you took it. The cheapest rental office known to the author is Fox (from $ 14 per day without insurance for a special offer). The Groupon has discount coupons for rent from Alamo.
At gas stations, prices are per gallon, which is approximately 3.8 liters. The prices for gasoline at different filling stations often differ markedly. On average, a gallon costs $ 2.5–2.7. ... Install the Gas Buddy app on your phone - it shows the gas stations with the lowest prices on the map.
When paying by card, the terminal often asks for the ZIP code. This is, surprisingly, really a zip code.
Traffic rules and fines vary from state to state. Almost everywhere you can turn right under red. The speed limit in most states is 70-75 mph. Speed map.
Free car
For those who want to save a lot and are ready to adjust, there is a car ferry service. You are offered a car with a full tank for a given route. Travel time is usually limited, plus you need to provide proof of your driving history.
Trains
The railway was the main means of transportation in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, until automobiles appeared. After the crisis of the 80s, when many railway companies went bankrupt, all the main directions were taken over by the state-owned company Amtrak. Most people don't use intercity trains.
In the USA, traveling by train is several times more expensive than traveling by bus.
Hitch-hiking
Hitchhiking is not popular in the USA, and mostly homeless and marginalized people use it. Because of this, picking is much worse here than in many other countries. As in Europe, in the US it is illegal, unsafe and ineffective to vote while standing directly on a motorway. It is several times easier for a single woman to hitchhike than for a heterosexual couple. It is best to look as clean and tidy as possible. Cardboard destination signs are popular, but you can vote without them.
Hitchhiking is illegal in some US states and national parks (here about details). In most states, it is illegal to be on the roadway (that is, in the grass five centimeters from the curb is already legal).
Many hitchhikers have complained about problems with the police, who are not aware of the laws of their own country. The police drove past the author of the article four times, while none of the guards took an interest in her.
Most transit roads are motorways. Americans often choose to take the longer motorway route rather than the shorter local road. It is better for the hitchhiker to try to adhere to this rule. All highways are divided into toll ("turnpike") and free ("interstate").
Toll roads are equipped with "service station" - gas stations with an extended range of services (restaurant, shops, info center). The most convenient way to vote is at such gas stations. To find out their location, take a state map from the tourist information kiosk.
On free highways, long-distance vehicles are concentrated in three places - information centers (located at the entrance to every state), rest areas and large gas stations. Truckers prefer big gas stations like Flying J and Love's.
At exits from big cities or at large interchanges, the chances of catching a far-reaching car are also very good. Interchanges between two major highways tend to be inconvenient for voting due to high speeds. It is worth avoiding trips to small towns and small gas stations - there may be almost no cars there. Sometimes, once in such a place, it is easier to go in the opposite direction to a larger exit or gas station and look for a car there.
Cards
In information centers, you can get a free map of the state with the marked "service station" and recreation areas. Gas stations for truckers sell bulky cheap atlases with gas stations, seating areas and other useful information ($ 7).
Money
In the United States, you can take both cash dollars and money on a card. Sometimes there are problems with chip cards - they are not always accepted in small towns. In some banks (for example, in Bank of America), a tourist can open a free debit card with a non-withdrawable balance of $ 1,500 (at the time of closing the account, the money can be withdrawn, if the balance is reduced, the card is no longer free).
Please note that store prices are exclusive of taxes. Depending on the state, the price at the checkout will be 5-15% higher than the price tag.
Connection
There are several major mobile operators in the United States. AT&T has the best coverage, followed by T-Mobile. The prices are about the same - from 0.99 cents per card, each call and SMS - $ 1. There are various packages that include internet and calls (about $ 30). Special offers can be viewed on the websites of the operators.
Lodging
Accommodation on booking.com in New York starts at about $ 30 per person or $ 50 for two. Airbnb is slightly cheaper - from $ 20. In other cities, hostels start at $ 20 per bed, hotels - from $ 60.
Couchsurfing
Couchsurfing is popular in the USA. The easiest places to find lodging for the night are in large, non-touristy cities, the most difficult - in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. It is useful to write an open query in them. You can also consider the suburbs - people in them accept more readily and receive fewer requests. The main thing is to make sure in advance what goes there. public transport... In Washington, the metro is quite expensive and the price depends on the distance, but in New York it is not.
Homeless shelter
Homeless shelters are a lot less trashy than the name suggests. It's usually pretty clean there. The author did not have a chance to spend the night there, but other travelers mentioned that they used this option and remained safe and sound. Although, it may be a survivor's fault.
Tent
Most of the land in the United States is privately owned. You can set up a tent on a private territory only with the permission of the owner, who, as a rule, is not possible to find. Officially, the tent can be pitched for free in the forest belt, marked on the map as the National Forest. The tent is generally allowed to be placed near the church and in the parking lot of Walmart stores.
Food and drink
A distinctive feature of the United States is that here you can not spend a dollar on drinks for the entire trip.
Tap water is drinkable in most places. Even in a good restaurant, you can not order drinks, but ask to bring tap water. It is absolutely free, the Americans themselves, without exception, use it.
There are usually fountains with drinking water in parks and central streets, as well as near public institutions.
One meal at a food court in a supermarket or one main course in a cafe costs an average of $ 7-10. In some cities, there is inexpensive fast food. Supermarkets have a cookery department with ready meals by weight. For finding cheap food, it's helpful to install the Yelp app. It shows the nearest cafe on the map according to the specified parameters (for example, the cheapest or with Chinese food if you are tired of burgers).
Grocery stores
In the United States, products are often sold in unusually large packages, and the price depends little on the size. In town, groceries can be bought at a pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens). This is probably due to the price of the license - it is easier to open a pharmacy than a supermarket.
The cheapest products can be found at stores like Walmart and Target. They are often found on the outskirts of the city.
Good wine and beer are made in the USA. The cheapest place to buy it is in large supermarkets. California is considered the wine state, although there are wineries not far from New York. If you wish, you can go to the winery. Usually a tasting costs $ 5-10 per set.
Cloth
Consistently low prices and good special offers can be found in outlets on the outskirts of the city. Outlets sometimes look like small towns with streets, fountains and parks.
There are a lot of great second-hand shops in the USA. They are called Thrift Stores.
Among them there are two types of stores - "decent" second-hand stores with expensive clothes in a retro style and "simple" - with clothes from the mass market (2 – $ 5 per item). But even in the latter, you can dig up very decent things. The easiest way to search for second-hand shops is on the Yelp app.
During the sales season, many clothing stores drop prices to almost the same level. It makes sense to look into American Eagle, Uniqlo, H&M, Blue Navy. They are often located next to each other on the street or in the same shopping center.
sights
So much has been written and filmed about New York that it is difficult not to get confused in the variety of information. New York is considered an expensive city, but in fact, there is a lot of completely free and almost free entertainment waiting for you.
Times Square
The famous square, shining with neon, is especially good in the evening hours. There are eternal crowds of tourists, souvenir shops. People in costumes of superheroes and movie characters offer to be photographed for money.
Rooftop Bars
One of the specialties of New York is the bars on the roof of the skyscraper. As a rule, admission is free. Alcoholic drinks in these bars start at $ 8-10. If you are in a bar for a long time, then the waiters may be interested in you, but you can often merge with the crowd and do without buying a drink. In the Yelp app, you can find such a bar by entering rooftop bar in the search bar.
Metropolitan Museum
Entrance to one of the main museums in the country - for a donation. There is a recommended donation amount that many take for the price of an admission ticket. In fact, you can pay at least $ 1.
Excursions
If you are fluent in English, go on free tours by Free tours by foot. It is assumed that at the end, everyone leaves a tip, but no one insists.
There are tours in Lower Manhattan, where the famous bull stands, excursions to Greenwich Village, where the characters of "Friends" lived, walks in Chinatown, Little Italy and more.
The same tours are available in all major cities. They are found when typing the phrase "free walking tour (city name)" into the search engine
Statue of Liberty Free
The best way to view the Statue of Liberty from the water is by taking the free ferry to Staten Island. He walks several times an hour. There are paid excursions with a drop-off on the island where it stands, but they usually involve standing in line and crowding around.
Central park
A huge park in the city center. Very scenic. You can come here with food, drawing supplies, or a yoga mat.
Philadelphia, PA
Former capital USA. Here Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. Here the Declaration of Independence was signed and Ben Franklin was buried. Also here is the Liberty Bell - one of the symbols of the United States, along with the Statue of Liberty and Plymouth Rock. The best place in the country to learn more about where this country came from and who was at its origins. In parallel, you can read Franklin's memoirs - an incredibly funny, well-written and useful book.
In the city center there is memorial Complex, including the house where Washington stayed, and the same bell. The entrance to the complex is free.
Also on the steps of the Art Museum there is a monument to the film boxer Rocky - it was on this staircase that he ran up in the famous film. Many people repeat this exercise. It is recommended to download the song The Eye of a Tiger in advance.
Washington DC
America's best city for museums. The museums are free, some of them have free guided tours. It is better to allocate a few days for museums - they are almost all large and interesting. In addition to museums, there is the FBI headquarters known to lovers of the X-Files. It is possible to get there by going through a complex registration procedure. For those with an interest in politics, the Library of Congress and other government buildings are open to the public. The city also has a National Mall, a mile-long park. The inauguration of the president takes place here.
In the park, there are many famous monuments that you have seen in movies and TV shows. Here you can also take a photo with the White House in the background. It’s a pity they’re not allowed into the Oval Office.
The best day to be in Washington DC is July 4th. Independence Day is celebrated in America on this day, and you can watch the parade and fireworks.
The best free museums in Washington
National Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics
An excellent museum displaying rockets, airplanes, spacesuits and pieces of space stations.
National art gallery
The Impressionists first began to be sold in the United States, and only then in Europe. Because of this, a huge number of famous works have settled in private collections in the United States. There are not many places in the world where you can see their work for free. Other areas of European and American art are also represented in the museum.
National Museum of Natural History
Butterflies, dinosaurs, animals and minerals live here.
Museum of the American Indian
Basically, there are collected dwellings, art and household items of various tribes living in the United States.
Baltimore, Maryland
A city famous for having the largest number of Art Deco buildings in the United States. Free attractions include the Washington Monument that you can climb.
The city has a paid ($ 9) War Museum of 1812, which houses the original text of the American anthem.
Richmond, Virginia
A red brick city that burned down during the Civil War. Here is the famous Monument Avenue - a street where at every major intersection there is a monument to one of the famous supporters of the Confederation. Rumor has it that they want to dismantle the monuments, as the war between the North and the South is perceived by many liberal-minded Americans as a war for the rights of black people (spoiler alert: this is actually not the case). Accordingly, southerners are associated with defenders of slavery.
There are many museums dedicated to Civil war... They are all paid, but you can buy a combo ticket.
Tredegar iron works- a former factory converted into a museum dedicated to the Civil War. The ticket costs $ 12.
Confederate White House- the house where the President of the Confederation Jefferson Davis lived. The interior has preserved home furnishings, including incredibly ugly carpets. The tour is included in the ticket price. Together with the nearby Museum of the Confederation, the ticket costs $ 18.
You can visit the Capitol Building and the home of the current governor of the state for free. Both have free guided tours every hour in the morning.
Charleston, South Carolina
One of the most pompous and wealthy cities in the old South, with luxurious architecture, horse-drawn carriages and centuries-old trees with hanging moss. Have you seen Gone With the Wind?
Free walking around the city tourist buses... Their routes are shown on a map, which can be obtained from the tourist information kiosk.
Even in Charleston, you can officially swim in the fountains. At the same time, the fountains here are extremely majestic.
Savannah, Georgia
Younger sister of Charleston. An incredibly picturesque, green, quiet and pleasant town with beautiful architecture.
St. Augustine, Florida
The oldest living city in the United States. The city was founded by the Spaniards and is strikingly different from anything to the north. The main source of income for the city is tourism. Especially retirees living in nursing homes in Florida love to come here. There is a fort in the city where Osceola, the leader of the Seminole, was once kept, as well as the oldest house in America and the oldest school.
Miami florida
The city is divided into two parts: Miami Beach, a narrow strip of hotels and spit beaches, and central Miami. The city of salsa, the Spanish language and Cuban culture, the city of white beaches and warm sea. You don't have to go to museums here. Just lie on the sand and watch the white seagulls circle over the endless ocean.
The resorts and islands of Thailand's East Coast, located within easy reach of Bangkok, attract a motley crowd of weekend Bangkokers, adventure seekers and pampered tourists. Transport links are good here, prices are generally more affordable than southern resorts, and if you are heading to Cambodia by land, the eastern beaches provide an excellent opportunity to pamper yourself on the way there, before plunging into the more difficult conditions of the border area.
You will find the whitest sand on those islands that are located at some distance from the mainland; its 500-kilometer stretch looks a sad gray. The hotels here tend to target groups of Thai tourists rather than lonely foreigners gazing at the skyline. In addition, the discovery of oil and natural gas in coastal waters has turned the first 100 kilometers of the coast into an unsightly industrial site with landscape details such as refineries and warehouses, sometimes referred to as the "Eastern Seaside."
Offshore, however, is different, and the islands' beaches are as gorgeous as the famous southern resorts. The first place to stop is a city 100 kilometers from Bangkok called Si Racha, from where you can get to the small island of Koh Si Chang. Its scenic rugged coastline and tranquil atmosphere make the island a great holiday destination. The exact opposite is (Pattaya), located just half an hour south.
The premier destination for package tours, the visitors here are predominantly middle-aged men from China and the West, tempted by the resort's unconventional industry. They are not confused by unattractive beaches. The situation improves when the coast turns east and reveals the island of Koh Samet. It is one of the most beautiful resorts in Thailand and can be easily reached from Bangkok.
To the east of Ban Phe, the landscape becomes more mountainous and the vegetation is denser as you approach Chanthaburi, the center of commerce precious stones in and one of those two regional centers that are worth visiting. Another nice island- Trat, located 68 kilometers along the highway. From there, you can get to Koh Chang, a large tourist-oriented island with great long beaches and great hotels.
A smaller cluster of islands with less developed infrastructure forms (Koh Chang), which has the beautiful islands of Koh Whai, Koh Mak and Koh Kood. To the east of Koh Chang, the Cambodian border post at Hat Lek is one of the two main points in the area (the second, Aranyaprathet, located slightly to the north), where it is officially possible to cross the Cambodian land border.
Highway 3 runs along almost the entire East Coast of Thailand, starting in Bangkok along Thanon Sukhumvit Street and is known by the same name in the cities it cuts through. Hundreds of buses run along the road, connecting all major settlements on the mainland. You can move between the East Coast and the Northeastern regions without returning to the capital. Most of the direct flights to Isan start in Pattaya, Rayong and.
There are two airports on the East Coast. U-Tapao Naval Base, halfway between Pattaya and Rayong, operates Bangkok Airways flights to and Phuket. Bangkok Airways fly from the airport near Trat to and from Koh Samui. Although Bangkok is connected by rail to Si Racha and Pattaya, there is a very slow train passing along this line only once a day. The train runs twice a day to Aranyaprathet near the Cambodian border.
Top attractions on the East Coast
one). (Koh Si Chang) - A small, exclusively touristy island with rocky shores, magnificent landscapes and an attractive relaxing atmosphere;
2). (Koh Samet) - Famous beautiful island bordered by dazzling white beaches;
3). Island / (Trat) - The hospitable guesthouses and the characteristic atmosphere of antiquity make this island worth visiting;
4). (Koh Chang) - Head to Secluded Beach for fun, or the quieter Hat Khlong Phrao;
5). Ko Mak(Koh Mak) - Beautiful island with palm trees and a serene atmosphere on quiet white sand beaches;
6). Koh Kood(Koh Kood) - The most big Island in the Ko Chang archipelago (Ko Chang), the island is famous for its pristine nature, unique flora and fauna.
In contact with
1 day Moscow - New York
Flight Moscow - New York. Arrival in New York. Self-service transfer and hotel accommodation. Free time.
2nd day New York - Niagara Falls
Breakfast. Drive to Niagara Falls (~ 620 km) (American side of the Niagara River). Scenic road, magnificent panoramas of Niagara, Observation tower, observation decks. Cruise on the Niagara River under the waterfalls at will for additional. fee (payment to the guide on the spot). Night in Niagara Falls.
Day 3 Niagara Falls - New York
Breakfast. Excursion to Kozliny Island with magnificent panoramas of the river and waterfalls; the island of the Three Sisters; scenic views Niagara beauty: river, rocks, boulders, rifts and Niagara Falls itself. Return to New York by scenic road through the state of New York. (~ 620 km) Overnight at a hotel in New York.
Day 4 New York
Breakfast. Sightseeing tour of the city, which includes the main attractions of the city: Downtown, Battery Park, Wall Street, Ground Zero, panorama of bridges, UN, Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue, Broadway and much more. The duration of the excursion is 9-10 hours, including the time spent on gathering the group (about 2 hours). Rest at the hotel.
Day 5 New York - Washington
Breakfast. Moving to the capital of the USA - Washington. (~ 370 km) Guiding, travel information on the way. Sightseeing tour of the capital. An evening excursion to the Memorials and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is included in the main program. Overnight at the Washington hotel.
6th day Washington DC - Orlando
Breakfast. Visit to the Arlington Memorial Cemetery, the Museum of Aeronautics and Space, the National Art Gallery, and other attractions. Flight to Florida, Orlando. Self-transfer to the hotel. Overnight in Orlando.
Day 7 Orlando - Walt Disney World *
Walt Disney World World Resort, often called Disney World or WDW) - the largest park in the Disney empire On the territory of Disney World, considered the best place for family vacations in the world, there are currently
4 theme parks:
Magic Kingdom,
EPCOT Center (Epcot Park),
Animal Kingdom,
MGM Studio (Pavilions - attractions of the Metro Goldwin Meyer film studio);
3 water parks:
Tyhoon Lagoon
River Country,
Blizzard BeachDay 8 Orlando - Universal *
Breakfast. Visit to one of the amusement parks.
Universal Orlando consists of 2 theme parks: Universal Studios & Island of AdventureUnivbersal Studios Florida - The park is divided into several parts.
Hollywood Sector: Most Popular Attractions: Terminator 2: 3-D Battle Across Time.
New York Sector (NY): Most Popular Attractions: Revenge of the Mummy.
Production central sector: The most popular attractions are the beloved giant Shrek and the romantic Donkey.
Sector San Francisco (San Francisco): The most popular attractions: Disaster - learn all the secrets of disaster films and experience for yourself.
Beetlejuice "s graveyard revue - monsters, dead and other representatives of the world of shadows + cheerful rock and roll, in the Beetlejuice cemetery.
Woodpecker "s kidszone - Special kids' corner!Islands of adventure - the second park of the complex consists of 5 "themed islands".
Marvel super hero island - super heroes and super rides!
Jurassic park (Jurassic Park) - one of the most beloved and visited "islets" of the park. The famous attraction, designed based on the plots of the movie trilogy of the same name.
The lost continent - famous myths and legends, fairy-tale characters and mysterious creatures of all eras and peoples are gathered together here on the "Lost Continent" - tales of 1001 nights, the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, many attractions located here are stylized as giant multicolored dragons.
Toon lagoon - this part of the park is dedicated to water attractions and entertainment.
Citywalk is an entertainment complex with numerous bars and restaurants, cinemas and discos, nightclubs and shopping malls.
Well, we finally got to another continent. Thoughts to visit America have been wandering in the minds of the family for a long time, but everything was somehow too busy. And the flight is long and the visa to receive the whole story. Actually, therefore, probably few of our compatriots visit the United States for tourist purposes. But in vain. Now I can say this with absolute confidence. As always in my stories, I will describe the places we visited, tell what impression they made on us and what conclusions we made from what we saw.
I repeat, in my story I express a purely subjective opinion of three people, I do not impose anything on anyone and I am not going to argue. I am writing what we saw, what we had enough time for and what we experienced during the trip. So, the introduction is over, we begin the story. Go.
Why USA?
And really why? There are probably a number of reasons for this. First, for the last new year, we closed Europe safely. They closed it all completely, even if in some countries they did not look at everything, of course, to see everything and everywhere human life is not enough, but I want to see as much as possible. We have closed the main sights of Europe.
Except for the time being in the UK. Never in our trips did the foggy Albion get in our way, I think London is a matter of the near future, but for now it is not up to us. Secondly, America has always attracted our family with its device.
We think this is how our homeland should look like if it weren't for so many sad events from the first half of the last century to this day. A country of absolute democracy, complete freedom, what is it? We all read about it, looked at it, heard it, but few people really imagined it. I wanted to understand why thousands of our compatriots every year try to leave, forgetting their homeland as a nightmare. What is the reason, what attracts this distant land? How does it all differ from the same insanely beloved Europe in the end? These are the questions we went to look for the answer.
I am writing this story during the trip, so maybe I will add some things to the trip, change something. So do not judge strictly, I write sincerely as I can.
Visas, tickets, car and route.
Since August 1, 2011, the rules for applying for an American visa have undergone a number of changes.
It is difficult for me to judge whether it has become easier or more difficult, until now I have not submitted documents, but in general, the current process did not seem very complicated. We go to the embassy website, look for the desired link, and end up in filling out the DS-160 form. The form is large, very boring, with a bunch of questions. Knowledge of the language in this case is not necessary, the pop-up menus are translated into Russian, everything is not difficult to fill in, the main thing is to endure. An electronic photograph of yours is also attached there and as a result we receive confirmation that our form has gone to the embassy. This paper must be printed and kept with you. Next, we pay through VTB24 to a payment (in our case, 4200 rubles per person), it can also be found through the embassy website. After that, on the same site, we are looking for how to sign up for an interview. I must say right away that it didn't work out for me through the website, I called the embassy (I dialed for two days) and as a result, a nice girl signed us up for a certain date, asking me to choose a convenient one for us. By the way, when filling out the DS-160 form, questions constantly appear, the purpose of which is to find out whether you have acquaintances in the United States or not.
Since we don't really know anyone in the states well, I honestly wrote everywhere that no, I don't know, and so on. It seemed to me that the presence of acquaintances does not guarantee the issuance of a visa, but rather, on the contrary, gives the consular officer the understanding that you have someone to stay in the United States, and they are unlikely to want to see an extra illegal immigrant there. In any case, at the interview, the task is to show (you can say and prove) that you are in no way going to violate the US immigration laws and stay to live there. We took everything with us. Certificates for real estate, for cars, the presence of a grandmother - a disabled person of the first group dependent, a certificate of the existence of a business, and so on. Looking ahead, I will say - nothing came in handy. Considering that we do not live in Moscow, we went with a reserve for an interview scheduled for nine in the morning, having spent the night at a hotel near the embassy. The consular section the next morning met us with a line of about a hundred people, which, however, was briskly moving through the police cordon to the door of the embassy. Why is our militia standing at the entrance ... Oh, excuse me, the policeman will scan everyone's passports, I still do not understand. Yes, I completely forgot, you MUST take a 5 × 5 color photo for a visa.
On the website of the embassy it is written very extensively about this, I thought the pictures in the DS-160 were enough, as a result we ran to take pictures to the metro station. The embassy does not provide such services. There are three security cordons at the entrance - lighters and telephones must be taken away without fail. Inspection as before boarding the plane. I will not describe the procedure further, it is rather tedious and, in principle, does not depend on us. I can only say that all fingerprints are taken without fail. We were at the consular officer for about three minutes. He greeted everyone, got acquainted, found out what we were doing and what we were going to do in the USA, did not ask for any papers, rummaged in the computer and approved the visas. By the way, what is convenient - you can take a visa for two years, paying one hundred dollars. We did just that, we want to use them to the maximum.
Yes, moreover, it is not necessary to book hotels and plane tickets before obtaining a visa. The presence of tickets is not a basis for issuing a visa, and in case of refusal, there will be monetary losses (in addition to those 4,200 rubles, which are also not refunded, regardless of the result of the interview). In general, when he said, “Your visas are approved,” it was very pleasant. Somehow it immediately felt that it was not in vain that we were going to Moscow, and for two days I filled out this stupid form and called them.
Are there many refusals? It's hard to say. While we were waiting for someone to leave with passports and sad faces, someone more cheerful. I was unable to draw a conclusion. It seemed that they were being refused, and all the same to many. I could be wrong, of course, in any case I don't consider myself exclusive with an American visa. Passports with visas came in four days by express mail. By the way, I didn't have to pay extra for it.
From that moment on, we began to book and order everything, starting, of course, with air tickets. I will not describe the selection process for a long time, I will only say that the direct flight seemed long and tiring, plus Aeroflot is a little expensive. As a result, a German Lufthansa flight was purchased via Frankfurt am Main. Three hours to Frankfurt, one and a half at the airport and less than eight to New York flew quickly and quite pleasantly. The food was good, the planes were new, the flight attendants were friendly. Booked from hotels only in New York - Crowne Plaza Hotel Times Square Manhattan - a solid four with a good view of Times Square from the fortieth floor in our case. I book the rest of the hotels along the way, since we did not rigidly tie the route to cities and dates, we figured it out approximately. I also ordered a car from Avis as always. They gave me a Kia Sorento. The car is new, not bad. He took the navigator with him. Regular cheap Lexand with iGo, Navitel and Garmin maps. We ride on iGo maps - very convenient and understandable. An approximate route looks like this: New York - Niagara Falls - Atlanta - Miami - Orlando - Washington - Atlantic City - New York. What will eventually come out I will write. Departure was made on September 17th, return tickets on October 10th.
Yes, just in case, before the departure, I made myself an international license. So far, the truth is nobody needed them, even in the rental office, but let them be.
New York and everything connected with it.
The funny thing is jet lag at eight o'clock, I want to tell you. We hadn't really slept for more than a day, arrived at JFK late in the evening, but we didn't want to sleep normally. Although I vaguely remember the road from the airport, perhaps simply by the fact that it was already dark.
Our hotel was located in the very center - there is nowhere central, exactly in the middle of Manhattan. Times Square certainly makes an impression, especially at night, especially when you see it for the first time. The number of luminous monitors and people around is so huge that in the first second you get lost and, in principle, do not understand where you got to and what to do here. But beautifully insane, personally I have never seen anything like it in Europe. Perhaps in Tokyo or Singapore you can experience similar sensations, I don’t know, we haven’t been there yet.
So the first impression of New York was shocking. The hotel room is small, as I said on the 40th floor of a rather tall tower. There is no minibar. There is no free water. The prices are sky-high. However, I still liked the hotel. First of all, of course, the location and the view from the windows. I think if you approach the search for a hotel with the inherent thoroughness of many, you can choose better and cheaper, probably, but to be honest, I finally dug in these hotels in Lipetsk, so I pointed to the one that was a little cheaper than the others. In general, I think that I got it ok. If we manage to stay in New York for a couple of days at the end of the trip, we will stop there.
Manhattan itself is insanely simple, it has avenues - wide avenues along the island and streets - respectively, streets perpendicular to the avenues and there is Broadway, piercing the entire island from north to south. Avenues and streets are numbered. Streets are divided into west and east, depending on their location, respectively. Searching for an address is a pleasure. For example 1605 Broadway - the house number on Broadway is immediately clear, to make it easier, they write - at the intersection with the western forty-second. Now, finding the right house is not a problem at all. By the way, this is how I described the address of our hotel.
The most convenient way to get around Manhattan is by taxi, many people use the subway, we didn’t. Taxis are inexpensive and there are a lot of them. Everyone remembers films about New York? That's right, some yellow sedans on the streets, in principle, are very similar to the truth. Get the car, sit down and say the address. It's better to catch something fresh, the classic Ford Crown Victoria is clearly out of date and if you go far enough in such a taxi it will not be very comfortable. Optimally catching the Ford Escape, we really didn’t succeed even once. There are a lot of police on the streets, they are everywhere, practically at every step, at most intersections, on all avenues and squares. Police officers really behave modestly, so to speak. They are, and it seems they are not. If you behave yourself, do not violate public order - there are none, I personally did not want to attract the attention of these guys with pistols. Apparently, no one wants to, so you can feel safe in the city center.
By the way, one more fact, in America it is forbidden to smoke indoors in principle. In hotels, bars, restaurants. Not even on street grounds. Specifically, in New York, there are very few places for smoking, and you will rarely find people who smoke on the streets. Nevertheless, the people smoke, the police do not pay much attention to it, the ban is formally there, but it is not brought to the point of absurdity. I think a couple more generations and Americans will quit smoking everything, young people who smoke at least, and they look at smokers with outright pity as if they were suicides. They drive badly in the city, the traffic light algorithm is very peculiar, as a result, pedestrians are not allowed to pass even when the pedestrian traffic light is on. The funny thing is that sometimes even the police do not let you in.
Everyone beeps and everywhere for the slightest reason and without, no one gives way to anyone, everyone climbs through and at the same time - traffic jams only at rush hour in the evening after work, and then they are not as deaf as in Moscow. By the way, it is almost impossible to catch a taxi at rush hour, the office plankon drives home and snatches the car out from under your nose so skillfully that you don't even want to swear at him. A taxi stopped, dropping a passenger, three seconds and a clerk in a suit was already sitting in it and dictating where to go. You can stand to vote for quite a long time, the locals somehow migrate at this moment between the streets and catch cars in the gateways. At this moment, the local bombils begin to work - nimble children on large Lincolns. It's not difficult to catch this, but it's expensive. They carry it within Manhattan for 30 bucks - three times more expensive than a taxi on the meter.
Food is sold at every step for every taste, mainly mobile wagons with a local analogue of shawarma. We ventured to buy only water, kebabs in them, or something there smells not appetizing and smokes wildly, nevertheless it is very popular among the natives. In general, it is not difficult to find where to eat in America, there are a huge number of establishments, and now I am ready to argue with the all-Russian myth about tasteless American food. Yankees know how to cook steaks like few in Europe, except Italians, and scrambled eggs and potatoes for breakfast, albeit simple, but nutritious.
Breakfasts in hotels, by the way, for an additional fee. We had breakfast there only on the day we left New York - a regular buffet for a lot of money. Once we had breakfast in Planet Hollywood in Times Square - the food is ordinary, but you can even go just for the sake of an interior completely dedicated to the theme of Hollywood films. Of the restaurants, I would also note Red Lobster at the intersection of Broadway and West 39th - in the evening you have to wait about half an hour to sit at a table, but the excellent menu of seafood delicacies is worth it, as well as Ben's restaurant between Sixth Avenue and West 32nd Avenue is solid steaks and pickles, good local beer. Pay close attention to whether the service was included in your bill (usually 15 - 20% of the bill), if not, the waiter himself will ask you for tea, not give - to leave the guy (girl) without a salary. By the way, the service is friendly everywhere and very fast, food is also prepared almost instantly, which, oddly enough, does not generally affect the quality.
Of course, to be honest, in three or four days it is impossible to see even ten percent of the sights of a city like New York. And I will not tell you that it is enough to go to the Statue of Liberty and climb to the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building and consider that you have seen New York. In such cities, everyone chooses what to see first of all, and of course the world famous sights fall immediately under the sight of a tourist. We were no exception and immediately went to the southern part of Manhattan, where, following the signs, we quite accidentally ran into the Empire State Building. I can warn you right away - you shouldn't buy tickets from sellers on the street, they offer a bunch of all sorts of unnecessary services, such as to take you out of line, some kind of express tours, and so on. None of this is required. We stood in line at the official ticket office for a maximum of 15 minutes, the same amount was required to pass the security system (everything is standard, phones, belts, bags, metal detector frame). Then follow the signs to the elevator, again a small queue to the 80th floor, a souvenir shop, an elevator to the 86th floor and you find yourself on a stunning platform for magnificent photographs of the New York panorama.
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Any self-respecting tourist should have a photo from this site, like a photo from the Eiffel Tower, for example. For an additional fee, you can buy a ticket for another elevator, which will take you to the uppermost, 102nd floor of the tower, but we did not go there, in the reviews of other tourists I read that it is impossible to take pictures through the dirty windows of the 102nd floor. If anyone still wants to check, you are welcome, perhaps 15 dollars and not the amount that is worth saving in this case. It is windy on the site of the 86th floor and there are a lot of people, for those who love the film "Sleepless in Seattle" the site will be interesting also because the final events of this wonderful, kind and very romantic film develop on it.
There is Madame Tussauds in Times Square, we went to it to compare it with Amsterdam, which we visited several years ago. There are clearly more exhibits, they are placed more literately and with the scale inherent to the Americans. In my opinion, it's worth a visit, in any case, take a picture with, albeit not very similar to yourself, but still, Bill Clinton or Justin Timberlake, you are unlikely to succeed anywhere else. Again, there is a cute gift shop and a small photo shop offering photoshopped photos of you and various characters like King Kong. We bought ourselves, there are clearly nowhere else of these. By the way, they take pictures everywhere, both in the Empire State Building and in Niagara, but more on that later.
I can say that just walking around the city gets boring pretty quickly, it's still not Rome with the Trevi fountains and the Coliseum, where every street is of historical value. You quickly get tired of gazing at skyscrapers, but in principle it is not possible to get around the island on foot, it’s too big. It is optimal to take a taxi, from point A to point B and so on, even if the distance is relatively short. Spend five bucks, save an hour of time and, most importantly, your own legs. I know what I'm talking about, the walk from Times Square to the boats going to the Statue of Liberty took a good three hours and cost everyone a lot of energy and nerves.
During the entire journey, the most interesting thing was, again, an accidentally found place where the WTC Towers used to stand. We did not get to the memorial complex - tickets are ordered on the Internet for a month in advance. The excitement around this place in America is now frantic. On the site of the 5th and 7th buildings, new complexes are being erected and are almost built. The speed of construction is impressive, the scale is also amazing. But this is typical for Americans, as we have already noticed - to amaze the imagination. No joke, the Empire State Building was built in, scary to think, one year and 45 days! It is rather difficult for me, as a builder, to imagine this, nevertheless it is so and it deserves respect for the project executors.
We reached the ships on the island of freedom by two o'clock in the afternoon, at the box office they warned that from that time we would not have time to visit Ellis Island, where ships also go after the statue of liberty. To be honest, I didn't even look at what was there on this island, the statue was important to us. Frankly, she does not make the impression of something incredible, but visiting New York without her is the same as visiting Paris without the Eiffel or Rome without the Coliseum. We did not buy tickets inside the pedestal, anyway they are not allowed into the crown now, maybe on other days, but on Sunday when we were in the crown they were not allowed.
It is worth visiting the island, if not even for the sake of a statue, then for the sake of a magnificent view of Manhattan and Jersey, opening from it, and of course for the sake of duty photographs. Although the panorama of New York is actually very, very beautiful from there. In general, the very symbol of American freedom in the person of this French statue is undoubtedly important, because millions of people sailed, persecuted for some sins in their native countries, unhappy, sailing for weeks in difficult conditions across the ocean and the first thing they saw was she - with a torch , as a guarantee that all their troubles will end here, on this earth, and even if it was not so at times, it is still worth recognizing the importance of the Statue of Liberty in the establishment of America as a country of immigrants.
I write all these pretentious speeches only because I really can't think of anything more about the statue, from the point of view of common sense the Empire State Building made a greater impression on me both as an engineering structure and as an architectural one.
I also noticed that there are a lot of squirrels in parks all over America and in New York in particular. They are everywhere where there is even the slightest bit of grass or a tree. Squirrels are fat, arrogant, completely unafraid of people and ignoring. At the same time, squirrels are the only living creatures we found on the streets of American cities. Neither yard dogs nor cats were found.
Yes, I forgot to say, the queue for the statue can seem very long, it can stretch for a good five hundred to seven hundred meters. This is due to the system of the same notorious American security, metal detectors and so on, but the queue moves quickly and let it stand for forty minutes after all, I think this fact should not embarrass anyone much, the Russian people are used to such queues, as it seems to me. Of what we wanted, but did not visit, I would mention Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art (I really wanted to see Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans. There is a chance that we will visit them at the end of our trip, since we planned three days before departure New York again.
Of the shops, I will note SAKS on Fifth Avenue, but September is not the best time for shopping. So we leave New York.
Niagara Falls. Waterfalls.
Avis in New York has a huge number of garages and my task was to find the closest one. He was found in the area of West 54th Street. A sweet woman of about sixty, without much emotion, designed a car that was kicked out of the parking lot by a young neg ... sorry, African American. Lexand navigator works and that's all I can say about it for now. The truth is so-so, running ahead, I will say that the iGo maps went out on the third day of the trip, while I was driving on Garmin maps.
The rather large Kia Sorento SUV turned out to be front-wheel drive, which is not a problem in the conditions of chic American roads, but somehow it's a shame, I ordered an all-wheel drive, well at least the automatic transmission. We got out of New York easily and quickly, honked enough, they don’t drive there any other way, after several days on foot, you feel a little euphoria behind the wheel. We took the direction to the north of the state - the city of Niagara Falls on the border with Canada.
By the way, we missed a moment, if you get an American visa and have time, get a Canadian one, I think there are fewer problems with it, but on Niagara you can see the waterfalls from the Canadian side, they say the view from there is more interesting. Alas, we were unable to verify this.
Wide highways (Interstate) pierce the whole of America up and down, highways are toll, although as we understood not in all states. The quality of the pavement is about the same as in Europe and just like Europeans, Americans are constantly expanding and modernizing their roads. It's really sad to look at this, you understand that life is not enough to see such roads in Russia.
600 kilometers to Niagara flew quickly and unnoticed. The speed limit on almost all interstates is 65 to 70 miles per hour, the entire flow usually exceeds this speed by an average of 10 to 12 miles per hour, both cars and trucks. The police are not visible, but they are, several times were seen how the police fined drivers along the road. The fact that America is a country on wheels you understand as soon as you leave the city walls. Each congress is a celebration of the stomach and three or four refills. Gas stations with a diesel engine are, by the way, a rarity, as well as diesel cars.
There are clearly more hotels along the road than those who want to spend the night in them. Along the highway, typically American fast food such as McDonald’s, SubWay or Burger King, and of course KFC, nicknamed Rostix in Russia, prevails. If you want to eat well, look for cafes like Friday's - a fairly large chain of pleasant eateries, mostly found in New York state.
Niagara Falls is a small village, as it would be called in Russia. Moreover, the village is seasonal and the season at the waterfalls is clearly coming to an end. Restaurants and hotels are almost all closed, even in the huge shopping center not a soul. But on the waterfalls themselves, life is in full swing and there are a lot of guests who want to see this natural miracle. The hotel was ordered from New York - Sheraton at the Falls. Please note that there are two hotels with this name and one of them is in Canada. If you do not have a visa, you will not get into your room under any circumstances. The hotel is old on the American side, but the rooms are clean, large enough and much cheaper than in New York. The most important thing is pedestrian accessibility to the park with waterfalls, and you hardly need anything else in this town.
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The waterfalls make an impression, there are no words how beautiful the Niagara River, bending around the island with the park on both sides, falls from a height of fifty meters. The stream rages and dances over the stones, creating the impression of an incredible force of nature, capable of absorbing everything in its path.
It is a very beautiful sight, but it is even more interesting to watch how Americans put on a show with their inherent scale from everything that is on their land. For money, you will be taken by boat to the very heart of the large Horseshoe Falls, where the flat-bottomed boat, filled to capacity with curious tourists in beautiful blue raincoats, will stand for five minutes, allowing you to taste the beauty of this wonderful wonder of the world; and they will let you run along the wooden flooring to the very beginning of the "Veil", where you will get wet from a huge amount of splashes and at the same time wildly rejoice that you have climbed to the highest platform, kindly for your pride called "Hurricane", where you must take a picture in yellow puffball, raising her hands up in the pose of the conqueror of Niagara.
After that, in a souvenir shop, you need to buy a diploma with the inscription “I survived at the most dangerous point of Niagara Falls”, enter your name there and hang it at work in the office, showing it to all colleagues. Finally, you can grab a burger and fries at a local eatery, where very cute provincial American women will gladly offer their simple assortment of dishes. Feed the insolent sparrows with a hamburger bun, which will begging all the time while you eat on the open veranda of the cafe.
The park on the American side is very large, you can even get tired of walking, but if you buy a special pass at the entrance, which includes visiting all the attractions, it will include free travel on a bus running through the park, decorated in the style of old trams. By the way, there will almost certainly be a table at the hotel, at which it is proposed to purchase special Niagara tours, which include a bunch of all kinds of excursions and so on. In fact, this is a divorce. Everything that is indicated in the brochure can be visited either by buying a ticket locally (several times cheaper than the cost of the tour), or even free of charge, simply by buying a tour you will be taken there on a big bus and allowed to walk.
A bus tram running through the park will take you almost everywhere where you are offered to go on this tour, but it is much cheaper and without a rigid time frame. So I definitely do not recommend buying. Judging by the helicopters plying back and forth, there are also helicopter excursions, but we, as people who are not very extreme, did not go on it. What's bad about Niagara this time of year is the lack of working restaurants. At the time of our arrival, almost everything was closed, although Friday's in the hotel functioned well.
But in general, one full day in Niagara is quite enough, as it seemed to us. Everywhere they floated, went, again part of the park's pavilions did not work that day, perhaps it just happened by coincidence, or maybe they had already closed in preparation for winter. Nevertheless, I definitely advise you to visit the waterfalls, you will get a lot of positive emotions and from an aesthetic point of view, it is worth enjoying the magnificent nature of this place.
Atlanta, Kentucky and Tennessee in transit.
The path to Atlanta was not short - one and a half thousand kilometers, so they really did not rush, having booked a hotel in the capital of Georgia, taking into account an overnight stay in the middle of the way.
As a result, the daily runs in the area of four hundred miles were not so tiring and allowed to enjoy the surroundings to the fullest. The fact is that interstates have one bad feature - they are boring to drive for a long time. There is practically nothing along the tracks, all recreation areas are arranged at exits at a short distance from the noisy traffic of cars and there is practically nothing to see. The same problem is on the German autobahns - boring. On the way, we entertained ourselves with periodic stops for a smoke break in various places on the road with light snacks and refueling sometimes. We must give the car its due, the fuel consumption is low and it quite confidently consumes the cheapest Regular gasoline with an octane rating of 87. By the way, the most expensive fuel at filling stations has an octane rating of 93, but I have never seen anyone refuel it.
The refueling principle is not the same as in Europe, but more like ours - first you pay, then you refuel, though you only need to tell the cashier the number of the dispenser, you choose the type of fuel yourself when refueling, there is usually one pistol, and there are three buttons. I have never met diesel fuel at petrol stations. You rarely come across gas stations with boys who fill up and take money from you. As I said, it is wiser to move at the speed of the flow, not lagging behind or ahead of it.
Sometimes traffic jams occur on the highway, usually due to accidents or road workers (whether it is familiar or not). All the way to Atlanta, we stood in traffic jams for two hours, although in principle it does not bother us very much, and you won’t scare Muscovites like that at all. On the first day of the journey, there were no special adventures, we drove all the way, the emphasis was drawn in the Cincinnati area - it became dark, and in time it was quite late. There are no problems with hotels - this is what a real automobile power means, the only question is the level of the hotel and the amount of money that you are willing to spend on it, in fact, its level depends on this.
We rode around the outskirts of the capital of Ohio for a long time, somehow we didn't want to stop at a completely primitive motel, accidentally came across a large and glowing Holiday INN in a town with an excellent name - Florence. Of course, I cannot call myself an expert in English perfectly, nevertheless, despite many years of study, the lack of practice does its dirty deed, nevertheless, at the everyday level, I always communicated with everyone normally with mutual understanding and without asking again. In the state of Kentucky, they speak anything but English. With the girl at the reception, we patiently tried to understand each other for about ten minutes, after which we spat and she silently gave the keys to the room. To be honest, I still did not understand what she wanted from me that evening, to sign or write something with a credit card, and what is incomprehensible, the poor thing tried, but she could not speak slowly and articulately in principle. A similar problem arose with the waitress in the hotel restaurant, if we could choose the dishes on the menu after reading their names, then the side dishes, drinks, etc. were specified three times, and I got the impression that the girl was talking about food more for herself than for us, because this muttering under my breath could hardly be called communication, in vain I did not turn away at that moment. Although at the same time everyone is, in principle, really friendly and sincerely wants to be useful, but somehow in their own way, in the Kentucky way. A funny event that raised my self-esteem took place at this restaurant - when ordering a beer, I was asked for an ID to check if I was 21 years old. Apparently at twenty-nine I look good, that's what a healthy lifestyle, a gym and proper nutrition means.
The hotel is clean, quite new, there are smoking rooms, which in itself is a rarity in the US lately, parking is free, although it does not seem to be guarded. We didn’t start breakfast in the morning, for some reason we don’t eat in hotels on this trip, or rather we eat very rarely, I’m tired of the buffet with bacon and orange juice, probably. Long live scrambled eggs and fried potatoes and ham! Any roadside cafe of your choice, except McDonald's and Burger King.
On this day, we decided not to rush anywhere at all, so we drove gazing at the signs in search of something curious. The sign with the inscription "The lost sea adventure" seemed curious, promising at least some kind of adventure. We boldly turn off the highway at the sign, drive ten miles and find ourselves in a parking lot near a fairly decent park with a picnic area and a large number of Aboriginal people with children inside. The park itself was not very interesting to us, not for that we went to the states to eat sandwiches on the grass. But in the depths turned out to be the largest underground lake in North America, a guided excursion is offered to it for a few dollars, to which we safely managed. A pretty strong girl in a girl scout costume led a group of two dozen different-colored tourists, including, in addition to the owners of stars and stripes, our family and the family of never discouraged and always smiling Japanese, just like we who got into this adventure, obviously by accident , deep into the large cave, in which footpaths were equipped, it was a bit dark, but still interesting.
We wandered through the caves for about an hour - a tedious task, I must say. As a reward, they received a couple of minutes of absolute darkness (the girl deliberately turned off the light in the cave), I want to notice scary sensations and not very pleasant ones, and a walk along an underground lake on a punt with an electric motor, in fact, the lake is large and beautiful, there are a lot of fish in it, which is true launched artificially, as our companion said. To be honest, knowing now a few Americans, I would not be surprised if they pour this lake itself with pumps manually so that it does not dry up, otherwise Tennessee would have lost one of the sources of income, and so groups of tourists come regularly and I would not be surprised if these caves they bring it on purpose, and not just as we are by accident. This hole in the mountain is not required to visit, but if you take a route similar to ours, still look, I think many will like this place, it is hardly worth going to it on purpose, there are many more interesting places in America.
Such as, for example, Georgia State Aquarium in Atlanta. The biggest nuisance that happened on the way to Atlanta was that the navigator was very buggy. The iGo maps stopped loading (which is a pity, it was a pleasure to drive on them) there was no time to figure out the reason, I turned on the Garmin uploaded there and drove off. Garmin's cards are primitive, apparently some old ones turned out to be, but thank God that there are at least those. There is nothing to do in the states by car without a navigator, although, in principle, in any country that you do not know, there is nothing to do without a navigator.
The location of the hotel in Atlanta is optimal for visiting three main attractions, I'll tell you about them, one day spent in the city did not allow us to see everything again, but by the way we liked the city, it is much quieter than New York and at the same time it is not even a remote province , everything is very cultural and civilized. We started with Georgia Aquarium - according to the description - the largest aquarium in the world. A stunning place, as always done monumental, on a grand scale and with the aim of impressing. By far the most interesting pavilion - marine life - is huge, even an aquarium it is difficult to call it, a huge glass pool or something, in which marine life of all sizes and types swim. The spectacle is mesmerizing, you can look at this beauty for a very long time, it is almost impossible to describe on paper everything that happens there, to convey the feelings that you experience at the sight of such animals, too.
Perhaps the photographs will give at least the slightest description close to the truth, but in general it is certainly a must see. Of course, this aquarium is more interesting to visit with children, but adults will also find it incredibly interesting. There, for a separate fee, it is proposed to watch the dolphin show, we did not go to it, we were afraid there would not be enough time for everything. There are open small aquariums with stingrays and similar animals - you can touch, but this is not for everybody. There are many animators on the territory, constant children's contests, the kids have a lot of fun, alas, the truth is only those who know the language, which means only the locals. There is a large and inexpensive self-service dining room. Of course, you can eat, but to be honest, the student canteen at MGSU, where I get a second higher education, surpasses this institution in the variety of dishes several times. So in the aquarium it is better to look at the fish, to entertain the kids, if they are at the right age and boldly head to the World of Coca Cola, located on the territory of the same park with the aquarium.
Orlando. Parks. Ocean. Sunny Florida.
In Orlando, our path lay primarily due to the presence of a huge number of all kinds of theme parks around this settlement. Including the most interesting us Universal Studios and Disney World (not to be confused with California Disneyland - I confused, but these are completely different things).
Plus, I wanted to take a short break, about five days, to take a break from constant skiing, after all, moving every two days will tire anyone, and the only impressions will be from the road and roadside eateries. Therefore, the question was approached radically, on the advice of friends (about them separately at the end of the story) and with their help, a condominium (an apartment or apartment, in other words) was rented on the website www.vacationrentals.com from a wonderful and very responsive Russian girl Irina (more likely an accident , we didn’t look for a compatriot), which we hadn’t seen even once, but communicated perfectly on the phone and the Internet. I will describe the process of booking and settling separately, the process is interesting and unusual for us. On the above website, send a request for the property you like, indicating the length of stay and dates of arrival / departure. They tell you if there are free ones for these dates and how much it costs. If everything suits you, you send the credit card details, in return you receive an agreement, there are options for an electronic signature, or you just print it and sign it back by fax. After that, you will receive a letter with instructions for settling in which contains the code from the gate to the complex (if the territory is closed), the code of the lock where the key is located (as a rule, it is a small box near the door to the apartment) and that's it. We arrived, entered, found the desired apartment, entered the code into the drawer, the key fell out, opened it and live. To leave - the key is back in the drawer, the door slammed shut. The money was debited from the card, everyone is happy, everything is fine.
In my opinion, a great system that allows Irina not to dangle from Miami to meet us 160 miles away, and we do not depend on anyone and come at a time when it is convenient for us. By the way, the rental system on the coast is very well developed and I would not recommend staying in a hotel either in Orlando or in Miami or anywhere else on the coast. A small house or condo will be cheaper and more convenient than any of the most luxurious hotels.
We settled in Orlando for five days, the goal is at least three parks: Universal Studios, Sea World and Disney World. Plus, relax and decide on the movement on. It's far to go to Miami, and the worst thing is that in the opposite direction from Washington. And we would already be moving home, after all, most of the vacation at the time of departure from Orlando will be behind. Well, yes, we will decide in the process, of course, as actually always. The apartment in the Vista Cay complex turned out to be truly luxurious, and the Americans know how to create entourage. Guarded territory, swimming pool, air-conditioned entrances.
The apartment itself - three bedrooms, a living room with a kitchen, a hall, two tosses about 150 square meters - is an oligarch's dream. Furnished with taste and light luxury, everything is competent, everything is comfortable and in its place. Large kitchen, a bunch of household appliances, TVs in all bedrooms and in the living room. Super easy. On closer inspection and after a couple of days of living, of course, you begin to find flaws, where without them, for example, the doors are very simple in themselves and creak strongly, the ceilings by the standards of even our Khrushchevs are the same as in them, the sculpture of dolphins instead of cast iron turned out to be wooden , but this is particular of course. Beds a meter high are also very unusual for a Russian person and not very comfortable. Although I am certainly finding fault now - an excellent apartment, exactly what we needed on this trip. So again, I can recommend it to everyone, especially going ahead I will recommend Orlando to those who have little kids, and if there are several kids, then it's a fairy tale.
The trip here will be remembered by them for many years, although it is better to go in this case for at least a week, and then you are unlikely to have time to visit everything. In my story, I, too, will not go deep into the description of each attraction in each park that we visited, because in this case my story will drag on for two hundred pages, I will describe the impressions of each park and try to explain for what audience they are mainly created, how is it again it seemed to us.
So Universal Studios - visited first, about 15 minutes drive from our condo. The parking lot is 12 dollars, it is more convenient to drive the car onto the roof, there it is closer to the entrance. A ticket is about $ 100 per adult. In general, all the parks around Orlando are distinguished by a high cost of the entrance ticket, so if you are traveling with your family and specifically walking in the parks in the vicinity of this Florida town, it makes sense to purchase a Pass, which entitles you to multiple visits to several parks at once. For the most profitable programs, check with the customer support desks of each park. Pass also gives you the right to visit all the rides without a queue, which sometimes saves time quite significantly (for the most popular rides, the queue stretches for 30 - 40 minutes). In general, it's up to you in any case, all prices for standard admission tickets for adults range from $ 80 to $ 100. An incredible number of people in the parks come from all over America, which is not surprising, because in these huge entertainment complexes there is actually something to see.
Universal Studios is a luxurious world of Hollywood films collected in themed rides... The rides themselves are different, but as a rule, they are funny in their naivety, although this is, if you look at it from the side of a Russian person, Americans laugh, get scared, and admire. Truly children at any age. Since from the moment you entered the park, visiting all the attractions does not require an additional fee, of course it makes sense to visit all the shows offered by the park. The only inconvenience is that some of them have to hand over bulky items (backpacks, bags, cameras) to a special storage room. Usually these are the ones on which you will be twisted in some kind of chair. Again, everything in the park is done on a grand scale and typical American gigantomania. Of course, children will enjoy much more than adults, for adults the park will seem naive and toy (for example, frankly puppet sharks in the attraction based on the famous movie "Jaws"). Nevertheless, I definitely recommend for visiting, simply because I have never seen anything like it in our homeland. Be sure to visit "Shrek 4D" - the feeling of spiders running down your legs is hardly comparable.
In general, the park is wonderful, but in terms of the level of the attractions themselves, in a number of points it is inferior to another local attraction - Disney World Hollywood Studios. We will talk about him a little below. The next park in our program was Sea World - I think the name speaks for itself. As it seemed to us, the park is quite old and, accordingly, is no longer as popular as the same Universal Studios. There are enough visitors, but there is no rush to the crowd, some of the attractions do not work for some reason. we have an aquarium with sharks, built on the principle of the Georgia State Aquarium, nevertheless, it is inferior to the one described above in Atlanta both in size and in saturation with exhibits. There is also a good pool with dolphins, judging by the pictures with them you can swim, but no one did this in our presence, the mammals themselves do not pay much attention to visitors, living in the pool with their dolphin life.
Of the interesting and memorable things I will tell you about the imitation of the polar station - firstly, everything is very realistic, and secondly, there is an opportunity to observe belugas, walruses and white bears in conditions close to their real habitat. It takes your breath away from these magnificent animals, gracefully swimming past you behind the armored glass of the pool, you can endlessly look after them and you can only admire the wisdom of nature that has created such majestic creatures. In addition to the station, I advise you to visit the penguins - the best penguin world I've ever seen. And a rich collection of these same waterfowl. From small to very large and some kind of healthy brown, covered with wool - this was the first time I saw such, alas, I am not very torn in penguins, but I looked at them with open eyes with undisguised curiosity. The park has a large children's play area and a pizza buffet. I do not recommend visiting a cafe. Expensive and very little food. In general, I am ready to partially take back my words on the topic of good food in the states.
After Atlanta, the number of establishments with a normal kitchen began to decline sharply and almost disappeared in the south of Florida. The staple food in all interstates after New York is McDonald's and Burger King. True, something positive was also discovered - Red Lobster turned out to be a chain of restaurants throughout America, although it is an extremely popular chain, but if you have a little patience, you can eat very tasty seafood in almost any state. In the south, fish is generally cooked well, even in America, the country of hamburgers in our opinion. But I digress from the main topic of this part of the trip, sorry. So, we continue to walk through the parks of Orlando.
The third on our list was Disney World, which turned out to be a whole complex of various parks and entertainment facilities with an area equal to the Lipetsk region (relatively, of course, but the scale is similar). To get around the whole world of the great Grandfather Disney, even a week, it seems to me, is not enough here, you need to take a guidebook, a map, money and live on the territory of the "world", since he also has plenty of hotels. We didn’t have so much free time, as a result, I moved in the direction of the index I liked the most, logically thinking that for three adults, the youngest of whom will soon be thirty, Hollywood Studios will be somewhat more interesting than Magic Kingdom, at least based on the name.
I dare to believe that my intuition did not disappoint me, since this entertainment center left us perhaps the most vivid impressions of the design and richness of the attractions, as well as their thoughtfulness and realism. From the point of view of obtaining useful information and touching history, there are much more impressions from the Kennedy Space Center, but about it a little lower, but for now Disney and its Hollywood studios. Here I will probably focus on a couple of attractions that truly amazed to the core. This is an excellent tour of Hollywood films, including mainly Disney ones - the essence of the tour is in a slow ride on a special trolley through the episodes of various films, decorations are created inside each hall and the most interesting thing is robotic mannequins, so professionally and realistically made that if you do not look closely, some can be mistaken for living people. Here you will find Indiana Jones and Alien and the greatest Wizard of Oz and classic Hollywood Mary Poppins and several gangster films, I can't remember everything. Everything is bright, spectacular, albeit a little naive, but at the same time insanely beautiful.
I also really liked the attraction based on Star Wars, I am generally a big fan of the whole saga, and to feel it, even if not for long, but the presence inside it is incomparable with anything. The attraction, judging by the inscriptions, was opened this spring, so we are lucky, its essence is as follows. You are put into a capsule representing a passenger space shuttle, fastened with a belt like on an airplane, the lights go out and rushed. The feeling of presence is complete, I have never experienced anything like this, the shuttle under the control of C3-PO (who knows, he will understand), makes something incredible, the screen in the entire front panel and 3D glasses create a complete visualization of the ongoing flight, and how the capsule moves in space , creating overloads, turns, braking, even a slight feeling of weightlessness when you fall from the orbit of Coruscant at the time of the battle between the clones of the Republic and the droids of the separatists, down to the foothills of the planet's skyscrapers. Wow! Fantastic feeling! Thanks to the creators of this miracle of modern computer graphics and robotics. You can also go to the performance of a parody of Indiana Jones, but it is quite naively made, in some places I would even say primitive. It is worth going only for the sake of seeing a black man on a motorcycle in German uniform... The Negro is a true Aryan, this is so American.
The park, of course, produces a much more expensive enterprise than the same Universal Studios, the approach is clearly with a soul and they do not spare money for attractions. Of the minuses - there are very few places where water is sold, given the heat at forty degrees, this is a big omission. With the weather in Orlando, we were generally lucky, the rains all came either past us or at night, and during the day the weather was great, it could be even a dozen degrees cooler, it hurts to wander around the parks in such heat, salvation is only in souvenir shops, and there it is like if you come in, you just can't leave empty-handed. I recommend all three of the above parks to visit without exception, especially if you have children, if they are small and you like such easy adventures.
It’s easy to kill a day at the park, it’s not worth it anymore, there’s nothing to do there too much time, everything should be in moderation. For lovers of history, those who know who Neil Armstrong is and what he is famous for, everyone who watched the movie Apollo 13, who heard about the brilliant designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who is interested in space and all the unknown, as well as fans of the wonderful Star Trek series ) I recommend visiting the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, just fifty miles from Orlando. We moved there on our last day in this city, in fact, already on our way to the ocean, to the coastal town of Siesta Key recommended by our friends, I will tell about it a little later.
The cheapest entrance ticket from those that we bought - about $ 30 and you find yourself in the world of American astronautics, the pride of NASA, where the era of space exploration began in parallel with our Plesetsk, from where the famous shuttles, missions to the moon and many other things started on their expeditions more. In the rocket park there is a real Saturn 5, which launched the Apollo program ships, the lander of Armstrong and his expedition to the moon, a full-size model of the shuttle and an imitation of a flight on it, two iMAX cinemas with magnificent 3D films about space, several interesting attractions dedicated to my beloved Star Trek , the Enterprise's cockpit after all, from the set of The Original Series Season 1! Ten years ago, I would have sold my homeland for the opportunity to sit in the chair of Captain Kirk on the bridge of the NCC 1701 A (here, very few people will understand me, and those who understand must die of envy). And soon, the real shuttle Atlantis, decommissioned after the closing of the program, should be handed over to the museum of the center!
This is an exhibit that is definitely worth seeing. In general, I drove to Siesta Key with a complete feeling of absolute bliss and euphoria from touching the history of space exploration by mankind and thanks to NASA for this opportunity. I highly recommend it to anyone who is not indifferent. I certainly wanted to end my stay in Florida with the ocean, but the journey to Miami seemed too long for us and in the opposite direction from our next destination - Washington, DC. In this connection, again after listening to the advice of our New York friends, we decided to drop by for a day in the resort town of Siesta Key, located a hundred miles from Orlando. The experience of ordering apartments through the same site www.vacationrentals.com this time turned out to be extremely unsuccessful. The condo, compared to Irina's Orlandian, was rather dirty, very old and insanely expensive.
The only plus is the proximity to the ocean - a five-minute walk to the beach through the closed territory of the complex. By the way, in this regard, Siesta Key is very wonderful - all access to the beach is blocked by complexes stuck along the coast perpendicular to the beach in huge numbers and equipped with signs with all kinds of threats to those who illegally enter the territory. In fact, there is only one access to the beach in the city, there is also a large free parking and showers, but there are no changing cabins at all. By the way, they are not in Bulgaria either, maybe now it is so fashionable and we are behind the times, but it is fundamentally inconvenient, especially for women, of course. The Atlantic Ocean is warm and calm at this time of year, the sand is white and not hot at all. The width of the beach is amazing - in wide places up to half a kilometer of sandy zone, even in the Maldives we have not seen this. There are very few people - apparently out of season, although it's strange, the weather is beautiful and the water is amazingly warm. In general, the impression was created that there are much fewer people on the beach than gulls and pelicans, these are the real owners of the coast at this time of year. By the way, there are also a lot of fish along the coast, the water is very salty, but the waves were small and it was pleasant to swim. In any case, for us personally, there was nothing very impressive on the coast, but there can be no consensus, we are not fans of beach holidays at all, perhaps the impression was spoiled by not the best place where we lived. The beach itself is beautiful, the sand is simply amazing, there are no words here, and I think it's very cool to relax on the coast, again with children, again when you want to sunbathe in the sun.
Siesta Key is a typical resort town, even the number of expensive convertibles is up to world standards. In Miami, I think it's much more noisy, probably more fun, so everyone makes a choice for himself, as well as the choice of whether it's worth getting a visa and flying so far for the sake of a beach holiday at all. If you don’t like to travel, don’t like to explore the world, get new impressions, but prefer to lie quietly on the beach with a cocktail in hand, then you should hardly go to Florida. On the other hand, if you at least partially repeat our route or for some other reason find yourself in the states, I highly recommend that you visit the beaches of Florida and plunge into the Atlantic Ocean. So, goodbye Sunny State, our way lies to the north, most of the journey is behind, ahead of the capital, a little New York and, according to tradition, summing up my story on board a Boeing 747 Lufthansa.
Washington. Columbia region.
And here again I am driving a Kia Sorento for many days already grinding with wheels the magnificent asphalt of wide interstates to the music of real country music and rare comments from the suddenly working iGo navigation system. This time, the system took us astonishingly picturesque country roads. Of course, they can be called country-side very conditionally, there are at least four lanes in both directions, by Russian standards, a mere autobahn. But the landscapes on the roadsides are much more picturesque, on large highways, as we understood, it is forbidden to build anything, everything is at the ramps, but here you are - on the right, on the left, shops, gas stations, old motels, parking lots of used cars, and whatever.
You know this is a real American province. Not as glossy as large cities such as Atlanta, not like the resort town of Orlando, but nevertheless very clean, well-groomed and very beloved by its residents. It’s a paradox, in America there is also poverty, you can see it in the poor houses along the highway, in simple and not very new cars, in provincial cafes with free-standing toilets, but this poverty, I don’t know, is proud or something. You take it for granted, not as something negative and negative, no, they do not live like this out of despair, it is just that this level suits them and they do not see anything humiliating in it.
I've noticed a lot of people drive pretty old cars. Old, but in excellent condition. They are satisfied with this car and this is enough, it is serviced on time, does not fall apart on the move and none of the people around him point a finger at him - look what a wreck he has.
Poverty in America is radically different from poverty in Russia, in our country poverty borders on squalor, on poverty, and this, in my opinion, is the worst thing. There is poverty in America, but there is no poverty, there is nothing that could dishonor both the country and those who live in it, at least we did not see it. We bought five pounds of real fresh Florida oranges from a roadside shop and ate them all the way to Washington - nearly 1,600 kilometers. And to spend the night, like on the way to Atlanta, we stopped in Florence, although that Florence was in Kentucky, and this one in North Carolina, I won’t be surprised if Minisot or Ohio have their own Florences, for example, there are a lot of Petersburgers all over the country in the capital of us was waiting for the sparkling lights of the Grand Hyatt, very well located in the middle of all the main museums and attractions.
I will dwell on Washington in detail, it deserves it.
Where will a tourist in Washington go first? Well, of course, look at the residence of the presidents of the state in which they are currently located. The White House is currently fenced in with several security rings, concrete block barricades, and lots of police. Access inside is completely closed, as far as I understand, and there are no excursions at the moment inside the White House, the tourist center that was engaged in this is constantly closed during our stay in the US capital.
I suspect that there are special days for excursions, perhaps now it is necessary to sign up for them, in any case, we limited ourselves to a few photos on duty against the background of the world-famous house with a semicircular colonnade and moved on. If there is no task to visit shops, of which there are as many in the capital as elsewhere in the USA, then it makes sense to walk from the White House, bypassing the Washington Monument, in the direction of the Capitol. Firstly, you also need to take a picture with the Capitol, after all, one of the symbols of American democracy, and secondly, along this peculiar alley there are the main museums of the city, admission to which, by the way, is free, which, after the crazy expensive parks of Orlando, seemed the height of delicacy from the outside the US authorities.
In general, in Washington, all museums are free and all are worth visiting, alas, again, this requires a huge amount of time. I will dwell on the one we visited, first of all - the Museum of Natural History - a huge collection of dinosaur skeletons already deserves that you turn your attention to this museum, and having found inside several halls dedicated to the development of man and almost all large US animals and creatures underwater world, a stuffed elephant, a whale (I never figured out actually stuffed animals or a polymer copy, if a copy, then incredibly accurate). There is definitely something to see.
Then go to the Central Art Gallery, unfortunately part of the exhibition was closed when we arrived, but in the gift shop you can buy cool posters - copies of paintings by famous artists, which we immediately did. Next, you should definitely go to the most visited Aerospace Museum, which houses the spacesuit of the First Cosmonaut of the planet, as well as an excellent exposition of aircraft of all times, from the model of the first glider of the Wright brothers to the Boeing 747-100 cockpit, various rockets and landing capsules of the Apollo project from different years. A large exposition of World War I and II aircraft (it's a shame there is not a single Russian), a lot of things on civil aviation, in general, this museum is a great addition to the Kennedy Space Center. What is interesting, judging by the exposition, the Americans recognize our common leadership in space exploration with them, one full-scale mock-up of the famous Soyuz-Apollo docking is worth something and they have our rockets and, as I said, the spacesuit (suit) in which Gagarin flew into space also, photographs of the Queen and von Braun.
In general, even some kind of pride for the Motherland appears (for the first time during the trip). However, in what is dedicated to the Second World War - not a word about us at all in any of the points. Why do the Americans fundamentally refuse to recognize, if not the dominant role of the USSR in the war, then at least its participation, otherwise it is a shame for the country and for the veterans and for the millions of victims (here I became kind of very patriotic). Of course, this is not correct, but we will not change anything here. Although criticism is criticism, and the museum is still amazing, a must visit.
And finally, the Museum of American Indians is a very peculiar place, completely incomprehensible for our person, but it has a cafe with national cuisine(very good by the way) and a souvenir shop that is already familiar to any tourist place in America, in which there are various national goods that you can hardly buy anywhere else, given that the museum is free - you can easily visit it for the sake of a shop and a cafe, I think it will be interesting.
There are still a lot of museums, as I wrote above, to visit all the time it takes many times more than what we had at our disposal. I briefly described where we were, what, after all, everyone decides for himself to watch, they say the Postal Museum is very interesting, for example, we simply did not have enough time for it, as well as for the Lincoln Monument and the Library of Congress. So it makes sense to return to Washington again. The city itself is amazing, it, like no other American one, is similar to Western European, and in fact it is just as calm, quiet and very endearing to itself. Perhaps this is due to the small size and some kind of general culture of the inhabitants of the capital, it is difficult to say, but the city quickly disposes of itself and you start to miss it from the mere thought that soon you will have to leave it.
And in Washington, there are a lot of people who go in for sports, namely jogging, everyone is running everywhere, from small to large, of any build, the impression of a very athletic city is created, I have never seen so much running anywhere in America. And again squirrels, many fat, self-righteous squirrels and homeless people on benches along the streets in large numbers, also by the way a sight that has not been seen anywhere else. However, the fact that the city of the capital is felt, a couple of times I came across motorcars, apparently delivering some important state persons somewhere, I will not say who exactly, I just don’t know, but judging by the motorcade, cars out of five, are hardly lower than vice President (correct if I'm wrong).
It is surprising that such a number of institutions and structures within a relatively small urban settlement, purely visually, does not cause inconvenience to city residents, it seems that officials really want to make the life of citizens easier and cause as little inconvenience as possible with their presence (after all, it's amazing, is not it). You can also take a taxi to a very large shopping center - Tysons Corner Center, it's really a long way to go, but all brands are in one place and to almost any level of income, you just need to keep in mind that there is an intensive repair of roads and construction of viaducts around Washington, as a result - Taxis can be a little expensive, it might be wise to go by car. Nevertheless, we liked Washington, it was a pleasant breath of fresh air at the end of the trip before falling back into the web of crazy New York.
Hello again or I LOVE NY!
From the administrative capital to the financial capital (or maybe the capital of the World? Have you ever thought about it?) The distance by the standards of the already traveled is simply ridiculous - 220 miles. Surprisingly and incredibly, there were no places in the Crowne Plaza, which was already familiar to us from our first visit three weeks ago, so we didn't manage to settle in Times Square again, we ordered a room in the extremely hectic Hilton at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 53rd West.
After the quiet cities to which, to some extent, I would include Washington, not to mention Orlando and Siesta Key, New York met with a huge traffic jam near the Lincoln Tunnel (and who came up with such large buses, and even so many), in which taking into account the traffic jams at the entrance to the city, it took an hour and a half. It's also good Russian ingenuity, the experience of driving in the capital (I mean Moscow) and a bit of arrogance inherent in a Russian person, allowed here and there to successfully bypass neighbors along the stream, although I must say there is quite a lot of rudeness in traffic jams in New York, mainly from bus drivers and taxi drivers ... Finally, already on Fifth Avenue, I almost hit a gaping Yankee at a traffic light in the back of his Chrysler and with a light heart drove the car into the Avis garage, the total of the automotive part of the trip is 3605 miles (entry in the rental office's check), they never checked my car and This time was no exception, I will give you some more advice - be sure to mark "unlimited mileage" when ordering a car, because you are going to drive and drive a lot, so you do not need additional payment for extra mileage, at least I ordered with unlimited mileage.
We used to drive through Europe for a vacation and more, but taking into account the truth, it is always a long enough road home through the territory of our homeland, well, I personally like to drive my car more. Eh ... There would be a bridge or a tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean ... Dreams of course are all, but there would be a bridge ... We eventually drove a lot or a little, I can't say, enough for the first time, it's a pity Miami and Atlantic City fell out of the original plan, well Yes, what our years, we want to come again.
But there was an opportunity to get into the Museum of Modern Art in New York - an impressive institution, I must say, one collection of paintings is worth something, or halls with a photograph that you can walk through for hours. Yes, there are exhibits that are frankly incomprehensible and alien to common sense, where can we go without them, but on the whole the exposition is interesting and extremely informative, only I did not find the Campbell's soup can there, maybe I overlooked it, or maybe they are not there, although I should have perhaps I did not understand, for consolation I looked at the portrait of Merlin Monroe by the same Warhol. There are a lot of beautiful designer furniture, there is an excellent hall dedicated to architecture and design in construction, I appreciated it with a professional look, everything is very worthy.
By the way, during our stay, a very interesting parade took place in the city, I would even say a whole carnival. For several days, the entire Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic and people walked along it, as far as we could understand representatives of various communities in the city, all kinds of schools, municipalities and so on. The spectacle is fantastic, so many people united in a single impulse have never been seen.
It's nice to see that people can be so proud of the country they live in. The rest of the time in wonderful New York was spent on a little shopping and buying regular souvenirs. On the last evening we walked around Times Square - fantastic, of course, although there could be fewer people, and how to explain to the Americans that it is not worth walking with one-year-old kids in strollers in such a crowd, it is very dangerous, children can simply be crushed, plus in such crowds you can it is easy to get lost, and walking is actually uncomfortable, unfortunately.
And yet Times Square is one of the most stunning places on earth that I have ever seen, and New York ... I can't even convey the whole storm of emotions that boil in me after visiting this city that delights with its splendor. I can only say that I put it on a par with my beloved Rome, the pearl of the Mediterranean. Yes, it is impossible to compare Rome and New York, how difficult it is to draw parallels between America and Italy in general, but a new star has appeared on my personal pedestal of the best cities in the world, and although she did not displace Rome to the second stage, it is difficult to win love for Italy in me, but New York made the capital of an ancient civilization move slightly, for which I am very grateful to him, there is nothing better than to learn new things and even more so great new things. Well, Big Apple, we are leaving you, but something tells me that I will come back here and maybe more than once.
God forbid, as they say, and God bless America, she deserves it.
A little bit of emotion and what do we think about it in general.
So what is she, America? Of course, this is a great country, perhaps the greatest on the planet, but first of all, it is a great people, citizens of the United States of America, taxpayers, those on whom the future of the state in which they all live fully depends. It is difficult for me to judge America as a country of opportunities, the realities of the notorious "American Dream" or something like that, we were there as tourists, did not intend to stay, did not try to make money, in other words, did not try to live. I think, of course, there are difficulties there, perhaps not peculiar even to us, only those who live there can judge this, though for the entire trip and even before it, if you had to communicate with people whose friends or relatives live in the USA, never I did not hear from one person a desire to return to my homeland, and if such cases do take place, then this is rather an exception than a rule.
The main thing that catches your eye is almost perfect cleanliness everywhere on the roads, clean roadsides, mowed lawns around. I already wrote, we passed different America, and glamorous Manhattan and the most beautiful Niagara Falls and relatively provincial Atlanta, the same state of Kentucky or the Florida outback. The main feeling in any place is pride in your country, for the right to be called a Citizen of the United States of America. The number of flags is huge everywhere, they are placed in the yards, they are hung on the balconies of houses, they are glued on cars, on license plates, people are thoroughly saturated with patriotism, they are incredibly cultured, very friendly and even though they really do not care how I am doing, looking at that as they ask it, you always want to answer.
For a very long time I have not seen one simple and yet so important thing in Russia - I have not seen smiling people. Nowhere in general, not in cafes, not on the streets, not in cars, we have forgotten how to do the main thing - to be happy that we live, but the Americans do not, they, like children, rejoice in a plastic shark that comes out on them, which in our compatriots only causes a feeling of disgust and desire go away, close inside your own little world and so that no one tries to get out of there. And tell me also that I am wrong, a tourist (I emphasize, it is a tourist and it is on a voucher who came through a travel agency) from Russia can be seen a mile away in any country in the world and, alas, not from the best side. I do not want to offend anyone, again my personal opinion, though based on the facts I saw. The Russian person does not feel free, unfortunately, and this is the main difference between us and them, and this is the trouble of our people and our country, and I think the main trouble, and from it there is already a lack of accommodation and so on ...
Well, I digress. Did we like America? Certainly yes, one hundred percent, and this vacation was perhaps one of the most interesting in recent years, definitely the most informative. I am happy that there are such countries and, God forbid, there will only be more of them, I am glad that we have the opportunity to travel and explore the world, and definitely the best part of it. Would I personally like to live in America? This is a very difficult question. It was sad to fly away from there, on the other hand, having a two-year visa allows you to return there if you wish, there would be time and opportunity. Go live there? At this stage, it is unlikely, there are still enough worries and work at home and living here is certainly more familiar and understandable for a Russian person. Although I certainly do not blame people moving here.
Striving for the best is a completely natural human instinct. And why, after all, normal healthy patriotism, the desire to develop and develop our country, was killed in us, it is not clear why and who needed it. And you can easily be proud of America, you drop into any Rest Area on any interstate, go to the toilet - and you are bursting with pride - I have not seen such cleanliness anywhere, except perhaps except for Germany with its Autobahns, but the Germans are a different story altogether. Clean, cultured, vending machines with cola, vending machines with sandwiches and not a single person of service personnel, of course there are cameras, the police sometimes pass by, but with a huge number of cars, nothing is broken or stolen.
And now we switch to the newest Russian highway M-4 DON, which has been expanding with fanfare for several years now, even up to two lanes in each direction, thanks for that, are there any paid sections? Yes. How much are? Enough to make some citizens billionaires very quickly. And the track infrastructure? This is also the problem, which we are not yet able to solve. In general, I think I came up with such a theory that the State begins with a public toilet, this is the form of a public toilet, especially in a busy place and when it is free, this is the state of the state and the people living in it. So the conclusion suggests itself disappointing for the umpteenth time, where are we still, and where are they already and how much we have before them, the question is open, I think my life will not be enough. No, I am not afraid for myself and for my parents too, we will live our centuries and perhaps even within this country, but of course I am worried about the future of my children who have not yet been born, because our homeland is also distinguished by its unpredictability, which is even more makes you think about going abroad, not necessarily to the states.
And one more, this time the last argument, how many Russians have left the country over the past five years? How many Americans have come to live with us? This is the answer to any question about what America is and what Russia is. Nevertheless, I urge you not to despair and not run headlong, but I urge you to sit down and think, go outside and try to smile, hold the door at the store entrance to the girl walking behind, apologize when you were pushed, get in line, and not squeeze over your heads everyone, and a lot more can be done. You need to start small, start with yourself, think about why you throw a bottle in an urn abroad and throw it on the road at home, why do you smile at a foreigner and come into conflict with a compatriot, do not hide behind masks, do not be outcasts, believe , dream, try to work in the end. And put a small tricolor in the organizer at work in order to remember that after all we are a great nation, we live in a great country and only we have to change something in it, that we can and simply must live no worse than people in developed countries, to defeat servility in yourself and become better, more honest with yourself, with your country, with those who are near, there are many of us, we are able to turn history, even if not immediately, even if more than one generation will pass, but I dream that my children will carry their a double-headed eagle passport with the same pride that US citizens carry their Stars and Stripes passport. Otherwise, I'm afraid they, and I'm closer to retirement, will raise the stars and stripes on a ranch in Ohio in the morning and sing a different hymn in a different language, and if they ask me why, I will answer that I did everything I could, but they left me no choice, I did not leave the Motherland, but she left me ...
And at my work, I will put my own tricolor and the Stars and Stripes dream in the organizer, so that I always know what to strive for. The plane flies up, I will round off, sorry if the last part came out not very constructive, but it is from the heart. I hope I was able to tell you enough about the East Coast of the United States to make you want to visit it, if my story is useful to someone, this is the main happiness for me. If in winter we have enough time and the opportunity, in three months I will write a similar story along the West Coast of the United States.
