USA trip recap

In these 11 days (from 2019-11-01 till 2019-11-11 ) I saw 2 new countries (USA, CANADA), crossed 12+1+1 states (New York, New Jersy, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ilinois; Ontario) 12 cities. But the main point was meeting friends on the road. Staring with Alexandra in Arlington, than Glendon and Joseph in Philadelphia, Kobrowsky in NYC, Samir and family in Manchester, NH, Awdo with family in Endwell, NY, Ana and Radoš in Hamilton, ON, skipped JB in Toronto, Eduardo and Roxanne in Kalamazoo, Ron and Laura in Chicago. They are the reason I experienced more in this short time than others probably do in 1 month. Also, all of them were great hosts, taking great care of me. I hope I’ll be able to return the favor one day. But for now, all got a small souvenir from Slovenia, key-chain with Slovenian flag. So to conclude, the trip was demanding but great.

Days:

• 1st – Coming to America
• 2nd – DC & Philly
• 3rd – NYC
• 4th – NYC museums
• 5th – Boston
• 6th – Manchester
• 7th – Endwell
• 8th – Niagara
• 9th – Kalamazoo
• 10th – Chicago
• 11th – Traveling back

Cost

Costs with everything included (transport, eating, sleeping, partying, gifts, insurance, attractions …) was approx 2000 €. While I bought cheap flight tickets, had friends and family that provided me with a place to stay and food I could afford car rental with an additional fee, enjoy an extra beer or two, in general not looking too much on expenses and still being on a budget. I’m grateful for that. Otherwise, most things were paid with a credit card (even a few things from home), spent some 350$ in cash.

Packing

On this trip, I packed really lightly. I took just SwissGear carry-on backpack for 11 days. Had 4 (+1 I was wearing) sets of t-shirt/underwear/socks, additional sweater, small towel, toiletries (100 ml or less), 10x Marlboro (42€), phone with charger, power socket converter, power bank, padlock, small headphones, folder with document/ticket printouts, passport, credit and debit card, cash, gifts and a snack (homemade sandwich and mandarins). The whole amount would grow or shrink depending on what I gave/spent or get/bought. I was wearing Levi’s jeans 501 and hoodie, Salomon low walking shoes and MONT down jacket.

Transport

This was 24.000 km trip, approx 20k with 4 flights (Turkish airlines, good service, cheap 400€, from Ljubljana, but extra time for Istanbul), more than 3.000 km between cities, 2.000 km with bus (mostly Greyhound, cheap, good network, wide schedules, often late, WiFi not good), 850 km with car (renting is cheap, extra fee expensive, tolls cheap, roads OK, gas cheap, parking in big cities expensive), 250 km on train (Amtrak, late, expensive). In cities metro/trains (week pass in NYC) are good, but I preferred walking so there were days that I walked around 30 km (20 miles), together I done between 100-150 km (you see/experience more, but you are slow, also got blisters), ride a bike in DC few km, (not) skated in NYC.

Telecommunication

Phone and data are really expensive there like you are in some undeveloped country. I spent my limit of 60€ in minutes. Tried to by local SIM, didn’t work on my Huawei phone. So the option is WiFi, got it at friends’ houses, buses (not working all the time), stations (bus, train, metro in NYC), Starbucks, free WiFi in most restaurants, museums, public places, …