Texas thunder storm

…or so they say here. The Texans are very proud people. How painful must it have been for the proud Texan soul when Alaska joined the union in 1959 and claimed the title ‘biggest U.S. state’ from Texas.
My Texas experience had some major surprises in store for me and I loved that. Initially, I had no intentions of going to Texas but when I changed my plans and decided to take a Southern route to go to California it was clear that I would be passing through. When I thought about Texas the first three (rather random) associations that came to mind were: the TV series ‘Dallas‘ that I watched a lot in my childhood, G.W. Bush and Big Oil. I did realize that probably a thing or two have changed in the ~30 years since ‘Dallas’ came out – and maybe that series was never an authentic depiction of Texas in the first place… But these were my random associations. Another one was that Texas is a very Christian state. When the Greyhound bus pulled into the parking lot upon my arrival in Houston in the middle of the night, the first thing I saw was a gigantic neonlight cross next to the bus station. I couldn’t see if it belonged to a church or hospital or something else. Thankfully I did not stay in Houston but transferred to a bus to San Antonio. San Antonio is in South Texas (some people claim it’s already Mexico). Although the city is very large it doesn’t feel like it at all when you walk around downtown. I was amazed how clean, pretty and walkable the city is. I arrived at 6 am in the morning and had a few hours to kill before meeting my couchsurfing host, Jake. He lived right in the city center in a former hotel that was converted into an apartment building. All the old hotel interior etc. were still there. This was the best couchsurfing experience in a while. Jake took me to a local brewery (some of the best beer I had in the U.S.), the riverwalk, the Alamo, Tower of the Americas and at the end of the day of course… margaritas (good, strong and too many)!

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Chicago / Gotham City

They call it the windy city and not without reason. Chicago is certainly one of my Top 5 cities in the U.S. This was my second time here and I was visiting Marissa again who I met three years ago when she was couchsurfing at my place in Heidelberg. Marissa lives in Bucktown, a very hip neighborhood of Chicago with plenty of good restaurants. Since my last visit she got a cute black shih tzu. His name is Igby. I’m not much of a dog person by the way. But that wouldn’t stop the dog to fall in love with me (according to Marissa that is). He insisted to sleep with me on the couch and once even on my chest. And he passionately liked to lick my ears… for minutes.
Marissa also took me to her yoga lesson once. I had never done yoga before and was curious. This was an advanced course and I had a hard time to follow all the exercises. The teacher did a great job and was quite encouraging but at some point I thought I’m going to faint. Yet, it was interesting and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility to do it again some day…
Chicago gets freezing cold in winter and although this time I was visiting at the end of April I still experienced a few chilly days. I decided that I have had enough of the cold and do not want travel any further north. Therefore I have altered my travel route significantly. Instead of going to California via Minneapolis and Vancouver, Washington and Oregon I decided to go South, visit my friends in Knoxville, Tennessee again and then go to New Orleans, Texas and Arizona.