Finally: Miami!

nach einigen erfolglosen Versuchen, jetzt endlich:
der Bildbericht über den 2. Teil der Spring break:
(all these pictures are made with my cell phone, because the real, better pics taken with my camera are not on the computer yet)

Miami

Tropical trees in the Vizcaya gardens

After the wonderful time with couchsurfing-Kevin in Orlando, the Chinese van picked us up (Ai's friend Quing and 4 other friends of her, Jing, Haomin, Ji, and Shudong) and we drove half of the night to Miami. There we stayed at the Hilton because that was the cheapest hotel they could find! Soon I found out, that Quing had planned the whole trip very detailed and that we really had a tight schedule...and soon it turned out that we would spent most of the time in the car driving around and that we would stay every night in another place - so not much beach but a lot of other things... (I always had to be patient though until I was informed about the lastest plans - after listening to everything in Chinese and feeling rather dumb before that)

So - Saturday, the 1st Miami - day started with lunch at a Chinese restaurant and than visiting the Vizcaya museum and gardens. That's a house from 1915 (so ancient in this area) with every imaginable kind of luxury and imported European furniture. And surrounded by great gardens. Here the stairs down to the sea:

This romantic fake ship-wreck is directly in front of the house:

After this day we checked in at the "Motel Blu", it turned out to be my favourite place during the whole trip. At first I was a little shocked, as I found out, dass Quing had just reserved 1 room for all 7 of us, with just 1 kingsize bed , but then I checked my e-mails and found out that I am accepted for the BASOTI San Francisco Opera program and - almost at the same time, I noticed that the Motel had a swimming pool, - suddenly I was happier than for a long time, so I spent 1 hour happily swimming and playing around in the water - at 11pm and in front of all the very astonished Chinese people - and after I woke up in the morning I did the same again - before we had to leave for our next destination in the schedule - the Everglades National Park. I just could take one quick cell phone picture while already leaving...



At the Everglades park, that includes almost the whole southern aerea of the Florida - penninsula, we could see many animals... and I learned their names in Chinese!

Here two Uh- üüh's: (and some U - gue's (turtles) in the water, that are not visible here)


A Nja - Au:


Then we visited the greatest fruit stand (and - as I found out later - a local tourist attraction) I've ever seen... they sell homegrown Papayas and those yellow-greenish coconuts that grow here on the palmtrees everywhere - they make a whole and give it to you with a straw in it, so that you can drink the juice out of it. (This is on one of the pics, that are still to come)


At the southest point of the national park - and of Florida: (except the Key - Islands)


The next night we spent at a not-so-nice Budget Inn (again in 1 room, but now everyody was already used ot it - the 3 guys always slept on the floor and we 4 girls in the 1 or two beds)
Then, on Monday, we drove 3 hours to Key West, the southest and last of the keys (the islands south of Florida, connected with a highway) - first impression: A huge dead fish in the harbour. The boat rental-guy said, it's a sun fish, that died naturally and is of average size. (I rather doubt rather every piece of that information):


Ai's food at a Mexican restaurant:


Today, the last day, the Chinese group left back to Tallahassee (where they're at the university - that's suprisingly the capital of Florida by the way!) and Ai and I spent the whole day with taking the bus from our Airport Inn to downtown and back again. (what lasted for hours - how depressing how lost you suddenly feel without a car!)
Of course I've also pictures of that, but .. that's the cliffhanger :) so - next time! (enough for today)