Journey to Miami

Thursday July 8th, 07:00 EET

The Lufthansa plane took off from Helsinki-Vantaa airport to Frankfurt. The plane flew quite long along the south coast of Finland, so it practically flew over Turku.

Some German city

Over Denmark and Germany I noticed that there were lots of wind power stations around. Not just in the coast, but also inland, in middle of big fields. None in the picture on right, though. There were many many small cities in Germany, which glittered very metallic, sunlight reflecting from the buildings. Very few forests.

Thursday July 8th, 09:00-10:00 CET
Changing planes at Frankfurt. The flight over the atlantic took some nine or so hours.

In Miami

Thursday July 8th, abt. 15:00
Arriving at Miami International airport. Well. I really didn't know what to do next. I was supposed to get to Robert's place in about two hours. When I stepped out of the airport, I thought I had come to some airport boiler room. I wasn't. I was just outside. So, ok, it was hot.

Taxi to Northeast Miami would have been some $27, so it was out of question for me. So, I spent about an hour trying to find some sort of bus, which wasn't really easy. There was one bus map at the air port, but it was really messy and very difficult to find a route from there to Robert's place; I needed at least three bus changes.

Thursday July 8th, 16:00
So, I jumped on bus 42, because it sounded promising. Very bad choise. The bus was just $1.25, which was reasonable. The bus went around everywhere, crisscross through all small streets. The houses in the Northeast Miami were rather ugly, as were the streets. It looked more like Africa than a civilized country. Most ugly things were the metal fences which were everywhere around the houses.

The city planning was very much based on equally sized squares. The all very similar white cardboard houses were about equal intervals, with about identical plastic grass (see below) yard around them. In front of each of these ugly houses was a very beautiful car.

1.5 hours later I arrived in some sort of bus terminal full of suspicious-looking blacks and hispanos. All the public phones at the bus station were broken. I waited for one bus which I though should take me somewhere near where I wanted. But the driver said I should take another bus, which would be better, so I started waiting for it. But the last bus had already gone, so I had to wait again for one hour for the first bus. Anyways, after some time I got a bus to a big mall (Aventure Mall), which was actually totally wrong place. I tried to call Robert with a telephone, but he didn't answer. So I abandoned the idea of bus travel, and took a taxi ($8) to his place.

Thursday July 8th, 19:00

Visit at #42
*** Magi2 (^magi@magi.yok.utu.fi) has joined channel #42 #42> hihii #42> Taalla Miamissa on kuumaa <#42:anipa> pöh #42> Hmm, niita Miami Beach Babeja (tm) pitais viela nahdaa <#42:Axu> magiami *** Signoff: Magi2 (Leaving) <#42:anipa> s/nahda/pann/ <#42:anipa> poh, se pakeni

I arrived at Robert's place. He lives as a tenant in an apparently very typical floridan house.

We went to IRC using his machine to see if there was anyone there. Not really many people around at this time (well past midnight in Finland).

I gave Robert two of the five beer and cider bottles I had brought with me as presents.

Friday July 8th, 06:00
Robert had to go to work early in the morning, so I left too. My plan was to go to Miami South Beach, which is a long island in Miami, and a rather famous tourist place. Robert gave me some fruits. He opened the coconut, and I drank the coconut milk. It was delicious. So, I went to the bus stop to wait for the first.

The bus came after about an hour, I think. Anyways, I got to the Miami South Beach. Well, the houses there were much prettier, although they still looked like cardboard buildings.

I went to see the beach.

The beach at Miami South Beach

The beach boulevard. Some plastic grass on left.

It was very much like any big sand beach in Mediterranean or anywhere else. The grass everywhere in Miami was like plastic: very thick, like a 7cm thick rug, and the leaves of the grass were very stiff, very hard, and bright green. I heard later that it might not even be grass at all, but a succulent plant that they use as a substitute for grass. Apparently it also grows slower, as all grass in Miami seemed to be about the same height. I just wonder how they cut it.

As you can see, there were very few people.

Some strange plants were growing in the grass ridge, which had some real grass too (wow!). It was preserved.

The grass ridge in the beach.

Some sand vine

Friday July 9th, 15:00
I headed back to Robert's place. The bus ended up at "the Mall at 136th Street" (they have this really clever way of naming things). Well, I was supposed to take a bus to Robert's place from there, so I waited for it for an hour. But it didn't come, so I went to look for a timetable. I found it, and at the same time the bus had just gone. Fine. I would have had to wait for another hour, so I took again a taxi ($10).

Friday July 9th, 17:00
Back at Robert's place. We went to IRC to see some people. There were some. I had left my home computer running, and myself on IRC there, so I got the discussions logged. connro is Robert's IRC nickname.

Visit at #Wicca

*** connro (connro@ABD4F5E6.ipt.aol.com) has joined channel #wicca <connro> mm everyone <gaoithe> mm <hallu> mm <connro> hi vampy, magi is here with me :)) <Vampiria> halu :D <Vampiria> and connro <Vampiria> Oh? <connro> in miami :))) <Vampiria> Hug him for me, will you? ;) <connro> i just did :)) <gaoithe> miami! oh boy:) <connro> he went ahhhhhhhh <Silme> connro :) <gaoithe> silme:) <connro> (or EEEEEKK or whatever /Magi) <Vampiria> :D <Vampiria> haha ;) <connro> hi silme :))))) <connro> suomi yha pystyssa? * Vampiria shakes her head <Fairie> on <connro> kiiiva ;-) *** SkinNE (Shagboyuk@modem-52.herceptin.dialup.pol.co.uk) has joined channel #wicca <connro> The quantity of genuine Miami Beach Babes (tm) in South Beach is totally overrated in propaganda <connro> (/Magi) <SkinNE> mm all <connro> some though <gaoithe> what you doing in miami? (besides seeing connro)? <gaoithe> and miami babes <gaoithe> I better stop the list before I get jeleous <gaoithe> :) <gaoithe> magi, the problem I talked to you earlier was virtalähde <gaoithe> found out when I got a small jolt fromn the casing:) <connro> Sorry <connro> hop <connro> we went outside <connro> to take a photo of a toad /Magi <Vampiria> :) <connro> And a lizzzzard <connro> Poisonous toads here <connro> (/Magi) <gaoithe> lickeable toads?:) <connro> I think not..I saw a newspaper today which told that they are deadly <connro> ok folks gotta go /connro this time ;) <connro> mp and bb :), goin to the beach :) *** connro has left channel #wicca (connro)

We explored the wildlife in Robert's small yard. Robert hunted for the lizard below for maybe 5 minutes. It was very quick runner and hid easily.

A lizard

It was very hard to get it stay still.

Robert with a frog from his yard

The frog wouldn't stay still

BE STILL! No... Observe that the frog actually started to jump during the 1/120th second exposure...

There you are, nice froggy (on plastic grass)

Bearcut, Key Biscayne

Friday July 9th, 18:00
Robert's friend Alan came soon with his car. After a while we left to see Bearcut, which is the northern cape of the Key Biscayne island near Miami.

Well, it was a very nice place. Swamp, coastal mangrove stand, etc.

A swamp bird in Bearcut

Mangrove trees

The sandy path at the beach ended at some point so we had to wade a little. The water was very warm, even hot, because it stayed quite still in the very shallow beach.

Struggling in the magrove stand

Some crabs (or something) crawling up the tree. A bit dark, sorry. They looked a lot like spiders. Luckily they didn't drop on my face while taking this pic.

Robert, Alan, and Alan's dog

There was also some petrified mangrove trees in the beach, which Alan told us is very rare.

The petrified mangrove tree trunk was exactly at the sea level

A very noisy locust or something

Friday July 9th, 20:00
After the trip to Bearcut I called Ian by phone from Biscayne. He couldn't come right away, so I had to wait for a while. I went with Robert and Alan to a restaurant the at Key Biscayne, and Robert offered a very nice seafood meal there.

After that we said goodbyes and I stayed at the restaurant, waiting for Ian.

Friday July 9th, 22:00
Ian came to get me with his car at about 22:00.

Ian and Susanna's home was very nice, although it was originally a garage. I gave them the remaining three beer and cider bottles. Well, then to sleep.