Date: 16.07.2010 – 01.08.2010 (17 days)
Visited places: USA
(Washington D.C. -> Savannah -> Orlando -> Kissimmee -> Cape Canaveral -> Miami -> Everglades N.P. -> Fort Lauderdale -> Key West -> Philadelphia -> Jacksonville -> New York -> Niagara Falls -> New York -> Washington D.C.)
Traveled distance: ~ 5 700 km
Crew: First real trip alone! :]
Goal: Visit highlights of the American east coast.
Route:
Pokaż USA east coast Trip 2010 na większej mapie
After attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference in Washington D.C. as a part of Microsoft Students to Business team, I stayed in the USA for about two more weeks. I thought that if I’ve already came to the US during vacations, why not to mix business with pleasure and do some sightseeing 
All other members of my “student” team have booked flights back directly after conference or had already plans, so I’ve decided to leave as a single backpacker .
I have to admit, I have never before traveled alone for longer than a day, so I wasn’t sure how it will look like. There was a lot of uncertainties, I thought I will be always alone, without anyone to speak to… luckily it appeared that I couldn’t be more wrong I’ve met surprisingly many other single or in-group travelers, who were always willing to talk or go and visit some places together.
The funniest thing was that I’ve even met two polish guys who attended the same conference as me! There wouldn’t be anything weird in it unless I’ve met them week after the conference, in Cape Canaveral, almost 1500 km south of Washington! Many funny situations like this happened during whole trip which I would probably not experience when traveling with friend(s)… but let’s start from the beginning.
During WPC I haven’t had enought time to actually visit the city of Washington. Therefore I’ve spent there first day of my trip
I went to the Greyhound bus station and bought a bus ticket valid 2 weeweeks for any connection in the USA .
My goal was to reach the Key West – the southernmost point in the Continental United States, then come back to Washington, go to New York and if everything is fine, visit Niagara Falls.
Everything was planned (more or less 
), so in the evening I took a bus and set out to the south First stop was Savannah in Georgia. To be honest, there is not a lot of really interesting places between Washington D.C. and Florida. I just wanted to make a stop on my way and Savannah looked like a good choice It’s definitely worth to go there for a day-trip. I don’t think there would be a lot of things to do for a few days though… small town with really cute houses and a cool old factory and.. that’s all
Not to waste my time, I stayed in Savannah only one day and went to Orlando… after short trip around the city I went to my real destination – International Drive. It’s a world-famous street along which you can find dozens of amusement and aqua parks – Wet ‘n Wild, SeaWorld, Universal, Disneyland and many, many other
Next stop was my childhood’s dream – Kennedy Space Center. Probably most of young boys were dreaming about being an astronaut (or something like this;P). So did I 
Visit at Cape Canaveral allowed me to see what I’ve missed. Luckily or not… While visiting it I’ve met polish guys whom I wrote earlier about. It was such a coincidence… they attended WPC as well, but we’ve met in Florida few days after that . We spent a pleasant day visiting the Space Center together.
In the 5th day of my travel, after few hours in a bus where I met some Korean girls who were traveling to Miami as well (no, they didn’t attend WPC:P), we’ve reached it It was already late, so we’ve only taken taxi to the South Beach, where we’ve stayed.
In the morning the first lazy-day started… a little bit of visiting city, but mostly lying on the beach and swimming in the ocean After almost week of traveling nothing could be more fun than that .
After a little bit of relax I went to the Everglades National Park, which is about 80 km west from Miami. This national park is famous of a decent population of gators. Tourists can see them (and other animals as well) from very close distance while sitting on air-boats (which are so terribly noisy!).
That was extremely interesting adventure, being so close to gators, awesome!:)
And after the trip if gators didn’t taste you, you can check how they taste!
Next day I was planning to set out to Key West, however because of Tropical Strom, the only way to Key West was closed. I was imprisoned in Miami. Not really the worst place to stay though, so it wasn’t that bad
I had opportunity to get to know the city better and visit Port Lauderdale which was nearby.
On the 24th of July the storm was over (well, I haven’t seen a single drop in Miami during it… but I believe it was “somewhere” ), I could finally go to Key West.
And on my way I understood why they closed the road – I definitely wouldn’t like to drive here during tropical storm or a hurricane
On my way I’ve met a guy who was coming here for years and decided to retire here… some time He wanted to show me around and I started to understand why he likes this city so much… it’s simply charming! And the best thing was sunset! I’ve literally seen one of the best sunsets in my life there! All because people in Key West come everyday to the main square right at the ocean to celebrate… the sunset A lot of musicians, acrobats and artists come to show their performances and amuse the spectators. Whole thing (sunset:P) is commercialized as hell, but come on… it’s US
After coming back from Key West I stepped by to Miami for one more day – yes, I really liked it!:) – and set out on my way back up to the north.
I didn’t have a lot of time if I wanted to see Niagara Falls, so I decided to go straight to the Philadelphia. It took me 30 hours (!) to get there by bus, but it was worth it!:)
After a day in Philadelphia I was already excited to visit the city of my dreams – New York!
The Big Apple, Gotham, Center of the Universe, The City That Never Sleeps, The Capital of the World… all these are just nicknames. However you would call it, New York is the one and only! I love skyscrapers and when getting out of the subway in the center of Manhattan I felt like in heaven 
I almost couldn’t see the sky, huge skyscrapers were all around!
In NYC I’ve met my friend Jenny, which I’ve met in India more than one year earlier! Meeting new people is great, but meeting old friends after a long time is so much better! So many things to talk about, so many things happened in both mine and her life! I’ve really enjoyed stay there.
She showed me some cool places and bars in the city which you know only when you are local… or with locals But of course I went to see some must-sees as well. In the morning I took a ferry to the statue of liberty to see the great New York’s skyline from distance and the Statue of Liberty… from close Even though I was there really early, the queue was enormous, so I strongly advice to be there at least an hour before the opening.
Ufff, sorry for that many photos, but this city is really (really!) COOL! I love it!
Primarily I was planning to stay in New York 3 days and then go to Niagara Falls, but I decided to go to Niagara Falls after two days and then have one more day in NY, just to be sure that I’ll be able to come back to Washington on time
So I went to the Niagara Falls… and again in the bus I’ve met a girl from Switzerland and a boy from Germany whom I spent a whole day with
As I said… while traveling alone you are never alone
We had a lot of fun walking around (and running under )the falls, going to Canada (on foot!:P) and sleeping on the grass after whole exhausting day of sightseeing
That was definitely a blast and after it we had to split. They were just beginning a their American trip, while I was almost over
After seeing the falls I came back to New York for one more day, visited Times Square and few more highlights and took a bus to Washington.
I had a flight in the afternoon, so I decided to go to the Arlington National Cemetery and Pentagon and then I’ve sent the postcards!
I have always problem to send them early and I usually wait till the last day ;/ But I’ve managed to send them when I was still in US! And it’s something I can be proud of! I’ll tell you why… while being in India I wrote all postcards quite early, but I couldn’t find any mailboxes in the jungle of Kerala (weird, huh?) and when I finally came to New Delhi on my last day… it was a national holiday (Gandhi’s Birthday) and all post-offices were closed. All in all I’ve sent them from Poland . I’m so sorry, but it’s really how it was!:)
Ok, enought about India… let’s come back to the America.
So… where did I stop? Ahhh… writing postcards in Washington.
So after that I took a plane and came back to Poland
That’s it
