sofia ------ I haven't been to florida but I have been to the disney in california.
we went to eurodisney just after it opened. it has the characters but lacks the oomph of the home grown version. it doesn't seem quite right some how without the full american touch. disney in french, german and other languages doesn't work for me.....
cover versions are never as good as the original.....
Sofia wrote:But, I guess I hadn't thought our 'wild west' may be one of a kind. I can't think of a similar landscape in Europe. Is there one?
Well, only those regions (e.g.on the Balkan or in Spain), where some wild west films have been recorded, are partly similar.
Sadly many people who come to the US go to pre-packaged places like Disney World.
I love North American nature. Brazil had great nature spots but I've always loved the pine forrests and am not to fond of jungle.
Going up to the mountains in California was always one of my favorite things.
But alas, so many tourists are just going to NY and to Orlando. For "shopping" and Disney World respectively.
I dislike pre-packaged culture like out theme parks. I wish people who visited us would go to places like Yosemite more often.
I went across America on the Greyhound Bus and paddled in the Pacific Ocean.
In the redwood forest north of Sausalito I learned John Muir (Muir Woods) was a Scotsman.
Then when I got to Boston I went into a bar and Muddy Waters and his blues band were playing.
How amazing was that?
American and Canadian trains are (or were? - I know they are stuffed in England now, since privatisation - or so I am told) wonderful. I really wanted to land in San Francisco, and take the train over to New York - taking time and getting off where we wished (we had Amtrak passes - and could have got them for the whole country, not just the east - the pass included Viarail to Montreal and Quebec - wow!), The friend I went with decided against it - but really regrets it - now - we sort of have plans to at least take the train across Canada - (I assume it stops in Toronto?). I think that is a fabulous way to see a country - although driving across would be greta too - but I am a bit skeered of driving on the wrong side of the road!
And the music is a great draw to the US, by the way - blues, jazz.....
America has really BIG GEOGRAPHY to make up for not having much history to speak of. It has some EXTREMELY friendly people, and travelling in the remoter parts is always rewarding in terms of people. It has relatively cheap fuel and COOL WINNEBAGOs. It has NEW YORK for mad days and nights. It has CALIFORNIA for mad ideas and food, HAWAII for a beautiful place spoilt by man, VIRGINIA for quaintness and hot pools and Chesapeake Bay, NEW MEXICO for balloons and pueblos... the list is endless! I want to come back again! Ignoring the ugly, the banal and the tawdry is easy in a country that large.
Tomorrow we'll leave for our 5th trip to Florida... Sounds crazy, I know, but right now I live 500 mls away from the nearest coast, as opposed to when I lived in Gothenburg... there I sat on my bike, and in ten minutes I was smack in the middle of the habour!
Why Florida? Why 5 times? My first trip to the States was for Christmas and the next 4 weeks after that, 8yrs ago. There I stayed at a friends place in Georgia, celebrated the Holidays with his family, and experienced southern hospitality in its best form. That really did it for me.
I've visited USA 5 times so far, been to Boston (pre-a2k), Miami, Atlanta (pre- and postolympic), New Orleans, Wilmington(!), always the coast in some way(Hilton Head, Tybee Island, Savannah, Charleston, St. Augustine, Daytona, and for the second time, Cocoa Beach), prolly cuz I miss the water so much where I live now.
I've postulated that our vacations shall always go to a beach somehow, and so far my wife agrees!
Euros
Does anyone know hoe euros like exchange?...I mean Like how much is a euro in America?
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
1 US Dollar = 0.76552 Euro
1 Euro (EUR) = 1.30630 US Dollar (USD)
gosh I had forgotten about this fred.
When I were a lad, a half-crown was called "half a dollar" and there were eight of those to the pound £.
Which meant £1 was worth $4
It slipped back a lot in the intervening years, but now it's on its way up again.
