I’m in Miami, bitch

the longest day of my life

It was 8 am when the alarm went off. The night before my trip to Spain was pretty rough as I was too excited about it but this time it was ok. I had some good hours of sleep. At the airport in Nuremberg, waiting for the bus, me and my Mum were watching some airplanes taking off. I hugged her when I left and think she seemed like she won’t make it till me coming back. Stick through it. You still got another boy.

The bus left a little bit too late but still we arrived in Cologne quite on time. As my flight was set for 7.30 am the next day I decided to walk around the city centre a bit. First of all I went to the cathedral. After that I was walking along the Rhine and realized “there’s not much to see in Cologne”. On my way back to the train station I met Shardul. He told me he’s from New York and is now travelling through Germany. I told him that I was going to fly to Miami “I got a friend there. Let’s see if he wants to meet up”. That’s how it happened and how I got a great tour guide. Later more.

Shardul and my paths divided and I went to my ‘home’ for that night. I was looking for a place with less light but nope, there is none at the airport in Cologne. The next day ‘started’ after two hours of sleep at 1 am when I just couldn’t bear the comfortable concrete anymore So I just hang around until my flight was due. It was rough. As I quit my contract for my mobile phone I had no internet and at the airport you had to pay for WiFi.

I still somehow managed to spend the time. When I wanted to get my backpack which I gave to the luggage guy the day before there was a drunk maybe Russian guy following me. I have now idea what he wanted. Didn’t speak German nor English. Just some rubbish, a weird language I had never heard before. And he didn’t leave me alone. He was telling something about the reception and “info” and I said “yeah man. It’s on the first floor”.
He didn’t let me go. And started screaming in a language I didn’t understand. The only word I understood was “peligroso” – Spanish for dangerous. So I decided to walk along with him as he denied me getting my backpack. We went up the escalator where he kept on talking in some foreign languages. I bet he made this language up. On the way to the reception a cleaning woman came up to me, I bet she saw that I was a little bit scared, and asked me if there was a problem. Yeah it was. She called the cops who than kicked this weirdo out and I finally could get my backpack.
Nice way to start the day, eh?

After standing for maybe an hour in line to give up my luggage I had it almost done. The girl at the desk just looked like Cameron, a good friend of mine. Anyways she was new, you could clearly tell, and she didn’t know what to do. I booked a direct flight from Cologne to Miami with my last name written Doeltsch. No problem so far. But than they re-booked it and changed my last name so now she couldn’t find me in the system. But older lady to the rescue and eventually I got my boarding pass and could finally enter the plane.

It was a one hour flight to Zurich which I completely slept. Later on I was told they even had something to eat. Never mind.

My “breakfast” – bought with the last 5 euros I had

So there I was in Zurich stuck in the ‘transition’ area … for five hours.

As I only had a one-way ticket and another one-way ticket to Peru some weeks later I wasn’t sure if they let me enter. So I was sitting there. Tired as hell, scared a little bit spending another 4 hours until they opened the gate for the second pass control.
The woman looked at my stunning passport photo and than at me looking like probably the last piece of shit, at least that’s how I felt, and asked me how long I’ll stay in the US and I answered “about six weeks”.
All she said was “uh-uh” and started to punch into her keyboard and clicking around with the mouse. “This is it”, I thought. This is where they’ll send me back.
After a couple of minutes which felt like hours she just said “You were chosen for a random safety check.” Random.
With me about 50 other not-white passengers.

But I managed this as well and could enter the plane to Miami.
The flight was pretty calm except for the landing when it was raining as hell. But guys ten hours in a plane?! It’s the worst. You can have the best movies, which we had, and it still sucks to sit there.
But at least now I have seen the latest big movies like Fast and Furious 7 (good), The Martian (surprisingly good), Mockingjay Part 2 (sucked and I stopped after half an hour) and I re-watched my favorite movie Inception. That was cool. In Cologne I thought how cool would it be if they had Inception in the program and boom they had it. The leaf had changed for me again.
The ten minutes naps I took weren’t really helpful and in the end of the flight my neighbor started talking to me, the rest he was just sleeping, our hostels were like two streets apart. He was from Nuremberg as well and been to the US a couple of times so he told me what to look out for.
As I said already the landing was a little bit rough but seeing the way American cities are built was amazing. It’s all in little squares. So cool.

We landed and went to the third pass control. Miami Airport is more advanced than Cologne Airport. So you have machines checking your passport. They take a picture of you and scan your fingerprints and than print you a little piece of paper saying “entry denied”. Great.
So I went to a counter. To Mr Martinez. He was quite cool.
Asked me whether my trip was business or pleasure and how long I will stay.
So I said it’s six weeks vacation.
“How?”
– “Oh, I quit my job”
“What did you do?”
– “Office manager”
“Now you’re just traveling?”
– “Yup”
– “That’s cool man. You’re living the dream. Have fun and welcome to the US”
And bam. He stamped my passport.
I made it, I thought. I was truly amazed and relieved the same time.
I picked up my backpack which luckily made it without any damage and left for the bus that didn’t come.

It got dark the time we were waiting and as we had to go to Miami Beach we were driving across a bridge from where you could see Miami skyline. Plaine amazing. First time for me to see such a thing with my own eyes. It was great.
I hopped off the bus and was walking to my hostel and I have to say: Miami is fucking great. Is it all like the movies. Bright lights on the buildings, palm trees everywhere, big cars and hot girls. Love it.
The moment I stepped out of the bus I was on vacation mode.

The hostel is quite good. The location is awesome – five minute walk to the beach -, clean and the pool is perfect to hang out in the evening with some beers to meet other people.

After about 44 hours – with breaks – I finally got to sleep. I literally fell in my bed.


Welcome to Miami

I woke up around midday. The weather still sucked and it was raining. I took a gap without rain to start walking around the city and get myself an American sim card.
I saw all the places you see from the movies. The beach is exactly as you picture it. The only difference is: nobody speaks English.
I went to a supermarket they greet me in Spanish. I bought my sim card at BestBuy everyone around me Spanish. I got some lunch again everything in Spanish.
Bums arguing in Spanish, a guy walking his Chihuahua and talks to him in Spanish.
Thank god I speak Spanish otherwise I would’ve been fucked.

In the evening I managed to meet with Michael, the guy living here.
I met two Swiss girls in the hostel so we all hang out and Michael showed us around Lincoln Road which is kind of an outside mall. A large pedestrian area with a shitload of shops. We went for some nachos that where OMG so good. And a fucking big plate I couldn’t even finish.
After that he invited all of us into his favorite cocktail bar where we had really good drinks with good 80’s music.
And when they played Falko I was unstoppable.
Yes, he’s from Austria but at that point I didn’t care.

The next two days were pretty much alike. I woke up, went to the beach, back to the hostel to sleep a bit. Went to the supermarket for food and drinks, then laid down at the pool and slept again.
The third night, however, I met with Michael again he had some friends from his former home state coming over and we were walking along Ocean Drive. He told us about the beach, the clubs, the bars, the gay scene and showed us some really cool places.
That guy is really cool. I was so lucky to ran into Shardul. He does impro-comedy and it’s incredibly funny to hang around with. I meet so many Americans, Brits and other nationalities who made an German expression but this guy is rocking it. I had some great laughs with this guy.
In the end we even found a place that served beer from my hometown. Ooh it was so delicious.
And here I got to admit: American beer just feels like water. It tastes a little bit of beer but you drink like a six-pack and you don’t feel anything. Then they have those weird kinds of beer with different ingredients which just tastes like a prank.

For Friday night Michael wanted to go to a concert of Markus Schulz. A world-famous, German DJ. I have absolutely no idea who that is. Michael said something about meeting at 9 pm at his place to have some beers before going there. And at 7.30 pm I wanted to take a little nap as it was going to be a long night … and I slept through to the next morning. 12 hours of sleep after a day full of naps. I’m actually not even mad that’s pretty amazing.
My first few days here were so easy that I decided to stay a little longer.