Weltreise_after - Heiko Armbruster persönliche Homepage

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Why english?
Ich habe in den Staaten soviele Amerikaner kennengelernt, dass ich eigentlich 2 Homepages schreiben müsste. Jedoch ist mir das zu viel arbeit. Daher ist die Folgende Ausführung nur in englisch. Wenn jemand kein englisch kann, soll er sich ein Wörterbuch kaufen und anfangen zu übersetzen. Ich werde diesen Dienst in Zeiten der Globalisierung nicht übernehmen.

I met in the USA so many Americans that I should write two pages. But this is too much work. Therefore the following page is only in English. If somebody can't read English he/she should buy a dictionary and start to translate. I won't provide this service in times of a globalized world.
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The Map

Travel Locations

Mannheim
Dortmund
Düsseldorf
Key West (Florida)
Miami
Chicago (Illinois)
Los Angeles (California)
Palm Springs
San Francisco
Beijing (China)
Frankfurt (Germany)
Berlin


Dortmund / Düsseldorf

Flying from Frankfurt is more expensive than Düsseldorf. I got an Air Berlin Flight from Düsseldorf to Miami. Why not connect the musts with some friends visiting. So I traveled 2 days earlier and visited Werner and Wodan. They live in Dortmund and the train from the union station took an hour to the airport. I had a room beside the airport, so I got a breakfast and had only to walk for around 0.3 miles. It was great to see them both with a lot of fun. In the evening of the 2nd day I took the train to the airport and my room. We did some sightseeing in Dortmund, and went for lunch.

Flight Düsseldorf/Miami

The flight itself was very uneventful. In Miami it rained or better it poured. The rain was so much as it is in Germany for 10 minutes. But there, for hours and days.
The time shift is not to be underestimated. I was watching a movie in the Island House of Key West and fell simply a sleep. Then sleeping for 8 hours like a stone.
Everything is behind a glas wall. You feel between "very good" and "ok" but live drains off you. And then "bam".
Island House of Key West

From Miami to the Keys it is quite near. There is a shuttle transport in a shared van from Miami int'l to the Keys. It cost around 90 $ one way and it took 4 hours.

Boy was that cool. No need to think of clothes. You simply drop them and be yourself. People don't look at you [Except those who think you 're good lookin]. But after a while you get used to that, and no laundry or anything else.
Temp was ok. No need to hide. 90 - 95 / 32 - 35

With loss of clothes everything was fine. You didn't feel like it was to hot. It was just ok. Even walking distances in the evening were possible. Outside the resort only with clothes. Walking to the city/harbour could be done. Just a bit slower but fairly ok. Once we went out for dinner and I was invited for a lobster, I had oysters for starter and it was fabulous. Ok they do the oysters with a topic of cheese and spinach (which vanishes the taste of the sea whithin the oyster) but still it was really fantastic. They didn't put much spices to the lobster, but if: it would be a mishandling of food. A lobster dosn't need much at all. It is tasty fby itself. Do not bust that food.

Back to the Keys: Key West is for straights also. It is for young people who like to party. Live starts at 8 on duval street. It is like the Reperbahn in Hamburg, which is in the day time a normal street and converts in the evening to a party mile.

After the dinner invitation, we hit some men's strip club and then went home.


Miami

After comming back from the Keys I visited for 3 days Miami (Arrival from Key West/Miami/Departure to Chicago). The travel from Key West to Miami took simply 4 hours with the shuttle. If you didn't want to get up so early the day is gone. You could only go for a diner and that's it.

First I needed  some clothes. Clothes are in the US far more cheaper than in Germany. So I departed from Germany with empty luguage and went in Miami shopping. 2nd day: I took the bus from downtown to the Aventura Mall in the north. I went to the cheese cake factory for lunch. It was very good and the cheese cake was a class of it's own. The temp was like in the Keys 90-95/32-35. But they got an air condition in the bus and blasted at the fullest to 72/22. When you have a bus ride of an hour, you are going to get a cold, definitly.On my third day I was smarter and used normal clothing on my way to Chicago (65/18). This meant sweting on the outside and being perfectly dressed in the building.  

Chicago

Every time you got used to a city, a ship comes with the name "Gotta go" You start building a relationship to the people you got acquainted of and then you have to leave. Even booking the flights/trains at the latest within the journey you have to leave. In the beginning you don't think of that in your journey. But leaving the first few goals behind you makes you aware of that pain you feel leaving the things.

"Home is where they love you"
You trade in "home" and you feel the void which replaces home. Sometimes you ask yourself if the stake wasn't to much.

In Chicago I went for the Adler Planetarium. It was amazing. In the start you notice that its not so a big difference if you live in Florida, Illinios, or Mannheim, Europe and so forth. It's simply on earth and milkyway isn't so far. You wake up and start thinking: Yellow [The first word in the hitchhikers guide to the the galaxy], I travel just round the block. After I visited the planetarium, I walked through the city. Getting to a park for cancer treatments. It was very calm and had six plates with advices for freshly diagnosed people One of it was:

"Find a qualified doctor in whom you have confidence who relieves he can succcessfully treat you"


I thought "Boy is that right. It is something that you can't get rid of so easily.".
Embrace it, value it, and get aquainted to it. The disease will tell you many different stories, where you only have to listen. It enriches your life.








On the second day in Chicago I visited Sears Tower or what it is called now "The willis tower"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Tower


It's a must in Chicago. But queing up is on duty. You can see the whole city. It gives a good view of the city. Over all it takes 3-4 hours.

Gotta go to Los Angeles. on the 3rd day getting to union station in Chicago and to LA.


That train ride is different. It took 65 hours with a delay of 8 hours. The delay wasn't that negative because on timetable we would reach LA by 5 in the morning. With the delay it was 1 pm afternoon.

On the train everything slowed down. The food was not comparable to German railway services. But it kept you alive.

From Alpine to El Paso it was 3 hours non stop [in the south of the map]. At night when the light was shut, you had a very fine view of the stars. Only a truck on the highway, which was as fast as you and drove beside the train. No housing, only the truck, train, stars and you. A blast.

In San Marcos the train was evacuated by the police. In the middle of the night the conductor got us out of the bed. Everything real quick, no time for anything. In San Marcos it was in between 11 and 12 pm. Out of the blue I was standing in San Marcos Bus station, without ID Card, money, visa, medication. It wasn't a good feeling. I could have lost anything. But after an hour we boarded again and the journey continued.




The distances are a bit larger than in Germany.

In the morning, you look out of the window - Texas.
In the evening, you look out of the window - Texas.

It was like somebody stopped the time. We had so much time that I got aquainted to Rose, who boarded in Dallas and went to LA. After a bit of small talk, we started playing domino where you had to give stones with 2 numbers to the lying ends with the same number. One number had to fit the lying end. We played Domino for several hours on different days. There was plenty of time to kill.

When we approached california, the people in the train cheered. The mood was brightening.

Los Angeles

The train with the delay killed that day nearly. But beiing tired and not used to the heat 85-90/30-33. I got to the hotel. Getting rid of my luguage on my back. After droping my baggage in the hotel I took the bus to the Pacific. This time I was used to the air condition. T-Shirt and Short enough. The bus never left the road - It went for half an hour just on one drive [Wilshire Blvd]. It went through that area of postal code 90 210 [Beverly Hills]. I had a lobster with some uncooked oysters [That Rockefeller thing with spinach and cheese really harms the oyster]. On the way home I met a girl in the bus, I had a nice talk about relationships and boyfriends. When you start talking to the people, you meet a lot of different men. Anyway you never walk alone, if you are able to talk to the people, most of them are friendly and don't mind if they have a nice talk for half an hour. Only Germans and Chinese think that it harms.

The day after: I took Amtrak to Palm Springs (30 min train; 2,5 hour bus). The bus had after an hour a brake down.

114/45 You stepped out in the heat, you start walking and after a few steps you are done. Well done. The heat presses you into the earth. The bus was parking at a gas station, and even those few steps to the supermarket were enough.
It never went better until the sun was downing. It was advised to stay in shadow. In the sun you had a sun burn within minutes. People who didn't follow that advise got burned and their holidays where over. They had to stay in their room with an air condition.

Additional there were things like:
- Mix up the sun lotion with the after sun lotion (The aloe vera thing doesn't protect at all, it's AFTER not before)
- Using a lotion which only has factor 6
- Don't use any lotion at all
- Fell asleep in the pool on a air matress
I just had some luck to get not burned in the beginning. In the start you think thats a small problem, but after a while you begin to notice that live from 11 am to 4 pm vanishes and nobody is around the pool.

For me, I got changed in my sleeping habits. I didn't choose to make a siesta. I was forced to.

5 to 11 am breakfast and sociallising around the pool
11 to 5 pm siesta
5 to 7 pm  being around the pool
7 to 10 pm going to the city for dinner
10 to 1 am being around the pool
1 to 5 am sleep

I was staying at the Vista Grande resort in Palm Springs.In PS you did anything with uber and taxis. Even the smallest distances. Walking was a hard job in the heat.

Once I was standing beside the pool and with palsy hands my mobile flew out of my hand in the pool. At a  point where the pool had 9ft/3m. It never worked again. It had water damage.


This is where my whatsapp messages ended. I got a 7 inch tablet I could only skype to Mannheim, when I had a wlan connection. The times of watching german TV on the mobile where over.









After 6 days I got to San Francisco. The flight was easy. Just one and half hour, no time shift and a awaiting temp of 65/18. On the train to LA I met a women who lived for over a decade in SF. She told me to go to Castro destrict. SF was hillarious. Everywhere were rainbow flags hanging around and it was normal being gay.

In Germany I heard of Alexander Gauland and his aim to segregate the people. This is bordering it makes you feel the borders of Germany or Europe. But standing in SF where you are not to be recognized because it's normal.

I was in Castro and watched in a bar the nba finals where the golden state warriors won. Obviously they didn't win the championship as wikipedia tells you that they lost the 7th game.

All the freedom thing makes me feel NOT to stand back and shut up. It makes me want to stand up for being me. I don't know if this is to much, but the other way round doesn't work anymore. We are not back in 1940 and we don't want to raise that scenario. We are in NOW not in those times. We never ever want to shoot each other cause this is final.

Then flying north (it is shorter to fly over canada than straight over the pacific.) with United heading for Beijing (The underlying song is no mistake).  It was the other way round. I couldn't talk to anybody and couldn't read chinese.

Beijing

I had a very bad jet lag and had to sleep quite long only watching German TV on the tablet. Google Services like Google maps and google didn't work but bing had a chinese search engine which brought at least some results. Skype did work. In whatever way it worked (encrypted/unencrypted), but at least I could use my voip number in Mannheim and my hotmail user for voice chats.
I was accomodated in the Kingrand Hotel. One of the best in Beijing. But still on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square


was something missing. I always thought of the freedom of speech. You start missing things when they are gone - Not when you don't have them and coming from SF everything was more like a shock. The lack of communication made me agressive and the chinese people where not so friendly as the people in SF.


After a few attempts I was aware of using the underground. I could spell my "home base". Knew where it was on the map (They have 18 lines for the subway) and I could ask with signs for the underground.

Based on the sentence "10 billion people by 2050" there is a window like the subway in Beijing where it can be seen what it is going to be. It can be seen that it's way to much people for the system. But how will you reduce the people. Can't say "allow" and to another person "I don't like you that much,naah, you are not allowed" Only the system can be enhanced, or the services provided by the system can be reduced.

Never the less I was to tired and all this stuff on searching for chinese lunch made me end up at KFC. I know I have to apologize to travel 10.000 km from home and then ending up at a global player, which food I could eat in Mannheim. But it was to easy.

In the hotel I got a nice chinese soup for breakfast which was a class of its own every day.

Being in China makes everything more complicated. Even the smallest things. So I missed the train to Moscow cause I didn't find the entrance to the tracks at the correct station in Beijing. There where 5 to 7 stations. And I had plenty of time (1.5 hours) to find the entrance to the tracks.
But as I couldn't read any boards the time ran through my fingers and when I found the entrance the train was gone by 20 minutes.

I had enough and wanted home. Couldn't talk to anybody and couldn't read anything. So I bought an airport express ticket in order to get a flight back home. And at least I got a economy ticket for 1000 € to Frankfurt.

At least I proved the world is round.

What I learned is that you need much less in your life. It all fits in a back pack.
Tracy Chapman - All that you have is your soul


As I said above:
"Home is where they love you"  You give in home and get back a gift which is much bigger than what you expected [The world]. A long time I was stuck to the words "There is no dark side of the moon, really" because it is true. Everything turns. You only have to see the right side.


Aretha Franklin - I say a little prayer



If you can't get enough of that strange love of the world. Just pack your things and go. The world and a whole lot of people awaits you. But you gotta go - quick.

I love the whole world

(And don't forget to make a break in the sun)