5 things to do in...

... BOSTON!

1. Visit the harbor
Just look at the pictures and I’m sure you know why you should pay it a visit:

 

2. Walk “The Freedom Trail”

The Freedom Trail is a 2,5 mile long walk. If you follow the trail you will see many of Boston’s interesting sights, such as:

• Boston Common
• The Old State House
• Faneuil Hall
• Hanover Street (Little Italy)
• Paul Revere House
• Old North Church
• USS Constitution
• Monument Square and Bunker Hill Monument

  

You can book a tour but I recommend just downloading the map from the Internet (http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/maps/pdfs/boston-nps-map.pdf) and following the trail with the map. Most hotels also offer free maps, so if you don’t have a printer just ask for one at the check-in desk.

3. Discover Boston’s parks

Boston has so many beautiful parks – two of them are “Boston Common” and “Public Garden”.
There are many restaurants around those parks, so if I were you I’d just grab some take-away lunch and enjoy it in one of the parks.

 

 

4. Visit Harvard

If you get off the Subway at “Harvard” you will see young people walking around with hats offering tours through Harvard University. Usually I prefer to explore a place by myself without a tour guide – but because the campus is so huge taking a tour was the best decision ever. Our tour guide was a student at Harvard himself. He showed us around campus and gave us not only background information about the University, but also told us funny stories about (famous) people who attended Harvard – totally worth the 10$!

 

 

5. Go to a Red Sox Game

Even if you are not into baseball, going to Fenway Park and seeing a Red Sox Game is an absolutely must. Tickets start at 20$, so it’s definitely affordable and totally worth the money – it’s such an awesome feeling to watch one of THE most famous baseball teams and the atmosphere is just amazing.

You should totally add Boston to your "must-go-to-list" if you haven't been there yet. If you have, let me know how you liked it! :)

Travel magazine: Death Valley

Last week our homework was to write a paragraph about "The most _____ place I have ever been is _______". First I wanted to write about NYC, because as you may know I'm totally in love with the city that never sleeps, but decided against it, because I thought the adjectives "amazing or impressive" would probably be chosen by other students as well. Instead I wrote about the hottest place I've ever been to: Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley: An awfully hot but interesting place
The most broiling place I have ever been is Death Valley National Park, California. After living in North Carolina for more than a year I had actually been used to hot weather, since in summer the average temperature was about 90° F. But even so I was not prepared for the sizzling hot temperatures which awaited us at the National Park. In fact it was so hot, that a sign at the entrance said that we must not turn on the air-conditioning, because our car would overheat and most likely break down if we do. Since we did not want to be stranded in the middle of a blazing hot desert we turned it off and Death Valley greeted us with 75° at 7.30 am. While we visited the Sand Dunes and Zabriskie Point temperatures had risen to 90 degrees and were still increasing. Around 2 pm we ended up at the deepest point of North America, where with 120° temperatures were at their peak. After six hours of hot air and drinking more than one Gallon of water each we were ready to leave the “the natural sauna”, as I like to call it. Although Death Valley lives up to its name it is definitely worth a visit. However, I have never appreciated the cool air of a hotel’s air-conditioning as much as I did after the cruelly hot temperatures we experienced at the hottest place of the USA.

My big adventure - part II

Alright guys, are you ready for the last 14 days of my journey? After Sacramento we continued our trip through California:

Yosemite National Park, August 28th to August 29th

Around noon we arrived at our hotel, left our stuff there and then went to Yosemite National Park.

 

Sequoia National Park, August 29th to August 30th

The following day our journey led us to one of the most astonishing places I’ve ever been to – I’d never felt so small in my whole life:

 

 

 

Death Valley, August 30th to September 1st

On August 31st we went to the hottest place I’ve ever been to: Death Valley National Park. Temperatures went up to 120°F (~ 49°C) and a sign at the entrance said something like “you must not turn on the AC, because your car will most likely break down if you do”. Since we were not too excited about being stranded in the middle of a dessert we did not turn on the AC – and without drinking more than one Galleon (about 4l) of water we would probably not have made it through the day. But it was totally worth it, Death Valley was amazing.

 

 

 

Since we were super tired because of the exhausting day in the dessert we went to bed pretty early and were all looking forward to the following day. Why? First of all we were going to LAS VEGAS and second it was my 21st BIRTHDAY :D

After sleeping what felt like 20 minutes I suddenly woke up, because I heard people singing and as soon as I opened my eyes I saw candles and my friends singing happy Birthday to me – they are the best! You have to know that I’m always super confused when I wake up and so the first thing I asked was “what time is it? Is it already in the morning?” – well I guess you know what time it was – of course it was midnight ;) We were having a midnight snack with my favorite cake (Red Velvet, yummyyyy!!! :D) and then went back to bed. Annika, Tine, Kathi & Luise: Thank you guys again for this surprise, you are amazing!! :)

September 1st to September 4th

In the morning we left our hotel and were off to Las Vegas! Once we arrived there we went shopping for the evening – and since I was already 21 by then I went into a liquor store to legally buy my first bottle of alcohol in the States. When I went to the cash register I was ready to show my ID – and the guy didn’t even want to see it!! I was about to say “hey, I just turned 21, can you please ask me for my ID?!!” but decided against it..Anyway, I had a great birthday and we didn’t even lose all our money there ;)

 

 

  

Unfortunately Luise’s and Kathi's time with us was already over and on September 2ndLuise flew back to Raleigh and one day later Kathi flew back to Austria. Now only Tine, Annika and I were left. We stayed one more day in Vegas and then continued our journey to Utah.

September 4th to September 6th: Bryce Canyon

 

 

 

September 6th to September 8th: Grand Canyon

Friends of us had told us that the most amazing thing you can do is to watch the sunrise at Grand Canyon, and they were right. On September 7th we left our hotel around 4am and arrived at Grand Canyon National Park around 5.30 in the morning. We spent pretty much all day there and then went back to the hotel - it was more than impressive.

 

 

 

 

September 8th to September 10th: San Diego

 

 

 

After 27 days of traveling our so called “Travel month” was over. It was the best journey ever, we saw so many different places, experienced things I’d never dreamed of and just had a wonderful time.

Thank you girls for this amazing month, it would not have been the same without you!