Summer holidays and summer classes.

When I came back, I was a little bit jetlagged, but that went quickly away. One week after my arrival in Switzerland, I already began to work at McDonald's Yverdon to pay for my travel and for my holidays. I asked them to work at a 80% rate, but I ended up working more than 150 hours a month. The good thing that the money was coming in bigger amount, the bad thing is that I did not have that much time for my family, my friend and my girlfriend. In addition the 3rd of June I began my summer classes. Those are online course that you have to follow, work that you have to complete and tu submit to the teacher before the deadline. I had to take four of them at the during the summer, which is the maximum allowed by the university in order to stay in my time schedule, which should allow me to graduate next year. The holidays schedule was very tight, but hopefully I could be helped by my girlfriend for a couple of assignements.

The vacation:

If I had to work that hard, it was also because I was leaving earlier for the United States to have the vacation of my life. My girlfriend and I decided to stay three weeks in the US, and doing a roadtrip around with a rental car. Although the vacation were really expensive, it was by far the best vacation of my life. We saw so many différents and beautiful things, we also saw some of the typical american things that this country should not be proud of...

Some picture will be added under this post.

We landed first in New York where we spend 5 days. The city is huge, there is more people living in New York than in the whole Switzerland altogether. The people in this city looks more like European city, they are stressed, always in a hurry. On Manhattan, the number of building is very impressive! We stayed in a cheap Airbnb in China Town. Although it was not a no go neighborhood, I would not recommend to go there. The people in the area were mostly not mentally stable..

Then We took a plane to Las Vegas, where we rent the car. This city is crazy: we went to a restaurant where if you weight more than 350 lbs, you can eat for FREE! There is also roller coaster on the roof top of a 300 meter building, luxus hotel and resort are everywhere on the strip. The temperature was over 42°C when we landed.

We then left for lake Powell which is a 6 hours drive from Vegas. This was my favorite place of the vacation. The lake is incredible, small canyon where you can go with the boat, amazing colors, warm water, I just loved that place! We bought a tent at Walmart and went camping on the border of the lake to keep prices as low as possible.

We then headed to Antelope canyon, which is exactly the kind of place that you can see in the "127 hours" movie. Although those landscape are breathtaking, it is a little bit similar throughout the walk, and we had to wait a lot before going inside the canyon. 

When leaving, we stopped at the horseshoe bend. The view was great and you feel the power of mother nature when seated next to this. Stunning.

We then drove to Monument Valley, we arrived there for the sunset, it was amazing. We also camp there, and woke up early to make sure to caption the sunrise over the valley, and we did. It was great. Right after, we wend into a loop that is open to the people into the valley. As the visitor center was closed, we couldn't get the information that it was recommended to have a 4 wheeler high clearance vehicle. Our car may have suffered from it. 

We then left for the Grand Canyon, which was a 4 hours drive. We arrived there at 12. Because of that, there was already a lot of people. We still fond some great and quiet places to stay and took amazing pictures. I liked the grand canyon, but I think that the landscape is very similar throughout the drive.

We then came back to Vegas, for two nights, in order to discover the city and to get ready for the next steps of our travel.

We then left Vegas for Death Valley. After a 3 hours drive, we entered the national park. The temperature quickly went up to reach 47°C. Bu surprisingly, it was not too difficult for us to handle this. You are just sweating a lot, but you don't feel oppressed by the heat.

We then continues our trip to Lake Tahoe, which was a 4 hours drive. The lake is pretty awesome even if it looks more like our European lake than lake Powell. The only bad thing is that it is a typical American vacation places. Prices are incredibly high and we could not afford to sleep there. We had to go back on our trip and to find a camping on our way to Yosemite.

Yosemite, one of the most famous national park of the United States. For us, Swiss people, it is not as beautiful as it should be for other people since we have pretty much that kind of landscape in our Alps. But still, the fresh air, the animals, the clear water, the waterfall at 2000m over the sea. just one word: Great.

We left Yosemite for Sacramento where we just spent one day, we did not really visited the city since we did not have the time. It was more like a stop on our way to San Francisco. 

San Francisco was surprising. The weather became so cold in a couple of miles just because we entered this micro climate. As all hotels and Air bnb were full, we found a kind of hostel in a bad part of the city. Because of that, we only slept once there and left the da after. But, if you go into the good quarter, and the touristic place, it is probably one of the most beautiful city in the World. We still really enjoyed it.

We then drove to San Diego, which is a 9 hours drive. We spend 2 nights there in a crappy hostels. The only good thing is tat the hostel location was perfect. We mostly went to the beach and visited San Diego downtown. When leaving, we stopped by the place where I learned to fly 3 years ago, and talked to my instructor. Great seeing him again.

The last stop of our trip was Los Angeles. The city of angels. Bug city but so different from New York. More south american city than New York, we had a great time visiting Venice Beach, going to Hollywood, but it was not a highlight of our trip.

We then have to separate each other which my girlfriend. I will now be flying to Dallas while she will be flying back home. The separation was hard, but kind of get used to it. This semester will be shorter than the previous one and I cannot wait seeing her again.

New York

Lake Powell

Monument Valley

Las Vegas

Death Valley

Yosemite

San Francisco