Tomorrow morning (or rather in the middle of the night tonight…) I´m leaving for Paris, to be part of the exhibition Look to Norway during Paris Design Week. I have never been to Paris so I´m really looking forward to exploring a new city! Have a great weekend everyone!
Since my last post a week ago we have spent five great days in wonderful New York City. After being on the road for almost two weeks it was nice to stay in one place for a little while. Also, coming to NYC feels a bit like coming home, because I have been there almost every year the last seven years. I have to admit that no matter where I travel, New York is still my favorite city! This time, in addition to walking mile after mile after mile, we went to Fort Greene Flea, dropped by Brooklyn Brewery (really cool concept where you can buy beer and bring your own food) and spent a lot of time (and money…) shopping in SoHo. We also visited The High Line, my favorite park, which had almost doubled in length since we were there in April 2011.
Now we are back home in Oslo – with cool air, rain, relaxing home life and the best dog in the world! Which is also really, really nice!
Before leaving Washington we had to be proper tourists for an hour or two (mostly because we wanted to be able to say “we´ve been there!” when watching movies and series showing secret meetings by Lincoln and Washington Monuments… ). The architecture in DC is so grand and oversized it´s slightly absurd. I´ve been in Athens and Rome, and it´s easy to see where they found their inspiration when planning the city! Except in Athens and Rome there are a some temples and columns, in DC these enormous buildings are on every street. From DC we drove via Annapolis to Philadelphia, where we have spent a couple of days. Tonight we are staying at Holiday Inn Staten Island, to save some money before going in to NYC tomorrow morning. Hooray!!
On Thursday we left Memphis to travel to Nashville. It was a fascinating place; reminded me a little bit of Las Vegas- except with country music, cowboy hats and boots… (well, I guess you get that in Vegas too…). This was only on the main street of Downtown though – the “Honkey Tonk Row”. We also visited Hillsboro Village, 12South and East Nashville, small and lovely neighbourhoods. We didn’t stay in town for long but still managed to have the best burger (at Merchants) AND the best pizza (at Five Points Pizza) we have ever had! So kudos to Nasville!
The heat seems to be following us through the country. On Friday, on our way towards Knoxville the temperature outside actually reached 126F – seriously, that is 52 degrees celsius!! Didn’t really know that was possible… Thankfully it’s usually “only” around 100ish F.
From Knoxville we drove to Ranouke, at the foot of Blue Ridge Mountain. We were planning to drive the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive over the mountain towards Washington DC. Only when we arrived in Ranouke yesterday there was no motel or hotel room to be found. Okay, we thought, and started moving north, stopping at every motel we came across… At all the places there were other people looking for somewhere to spend the night, and like us they had to keep driving.
After a while we started to realize that something was a bit off. Apparently we are a bit slow – because it wasn’t until late last evening we heard there had been a really bad storm, and that the power was (and still is) out in a huge part of the US. Because of the heat wave and lack of power all the locals were forced to move into hotels and motels. It sounds crazy but there was actually not a room to find in Washington DC and all the surrounding areas- I promise you we tried! So after driving a total of 11 hours we ended up spending the night at a parking lot by a Holiday Inn 30 minutes from Washington.
We are now in DC – at a hotel- many days ahead of schedule. We didn’t get to see Blue Ridge or Skyline Drive, but instead we have a few extra days in Philadelphia. So we really can’t complain!
The National Civil Rights Museum is actually located in the hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassined in Memphis in 1968, the Lorraine Hotel. The museum was great and informative, and of course thought-provoking. It´s a sad fact that this is our recent history, and that discrimination and racism is still going on all over the world.
Short version; motel in Grenada, driving, Graceland, looking over gates, waaay to many souvernir shops, Midtown Memphis, antique malls, great retro shop “Flashback”, Downtown Memphis, excellent fried chicken, Madison hotel, amazing view from roof top… So far Memphis really is a great place!
Tomorrow we’re going to Gibson Guitar Factory (for the husband) and maybe the Civil Rights Museum. And then we’re of to Nashville; no time to lose – so much to see, so little time!
We arrived here in New Orleans on sunday evening, after a 375 mile (600km) drive from Houston. We spent yesterday wandering around in the French Quarter, just looking and enjoying, checking out the French Market, eating at Mr.B´s Bistro; all the while trying to get as much shade as possible. Seriously – it’s warm!! We actually went to the Aquarium to cool off for a bit (and to look at the really weird seahorses). But it’s wonderful to be here, heat and all!
This morning we are checking out and we’ll drive through the Garden District on our way out of the city. We’re also gonna try to drive a bit along Mississippi, on the Great River Rd, and hopefully pass by an antebellum plantation or two on the way. Our goal is to move towards Memphis, my next post will probably be from there. We are discussing whether we shoul go see Graceland or not. We´re not really big Elvis fans, but I sort of feel like it´s something you have to do when you´re in Memphis… but I guess we´ll just have to see how we feel when we get there!
Yesterday we began our summer holliday- a roadtrip from Houston,TX to New York! After 18(!) hours of travel from Oslo, our evening here in Houston was mostly about forcing ourselves to stay awake, because of the seven hour time difference. But after a good nights sleep we are now ready for adventure! Today we will start driving, our first stop is New Orleans where we’ll be spending a few days before travelling up towards Memphis and Nashville.
It’s so exciting and fun not knowing exactly what the next weeks will bring! Hooray! I’ll try to be good at posting during our trip, but knowing how I become when I’m in “holliday-mode” I suspect it won’t be every day…
If anyone out there have advice and ideas for great things we should do and places we should see- please let us know!!
At the moment I’m enjoying the final night of my twenties- tomorrow it’s my 30th birthday, and I’m celebrating it in France with nine of the best people I know! Yay!! I’ll be back on sunday- until then have a great week and weekend!!
I’ve just been with seven childhood friends on a great weekend trip to Riga. I had never been to Latvia or the neighboring countries, and it was fun to experience something for the first time. It wasn’t much of a cultural trip though; except for one hour of sight-seeing we mostly ate great food, drank good wine and had inexpensive spa treatments… In other words – a perfect girls trip!
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