Thoughts from a Dane

Holding in line at the freeway on the way home from Flagstaff, a homeless man stood with a sign: “Homeless – need help.” The hopeless and fearful look in his eyes made me I grab all the coins I had, pull down the window and wave him over. I apologized since I only had coins, but he took my hand, looked at me with a great smile and said: ”Merry Christmas and a happy new year” And you could tell that he meant it.

The system in America is so different from in Denmark, and the amount of homeless people is enormous – I still haven’t gotten used to it, and my heart hurts every time I see one of these despairing souls. I feel selfish and materialistic, but also very grateful for what I have. I remember when I was a little girl, travelling in Asia. I remember seeing so many homeless people and asking my parents for money again and again. In the end my dad had to tell me: “Nadja, even though we want to, we can’t give all of them money – we can’t save all of them.” So I had to look away.

But even though I can’t save them all, I can still save one’s day. And that is what makes it worth it.

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Back to the road trip. After Yosemite Elise and I continued to Las Vegas for one night. We didn’t do much else than eat some good food and wander around. Eeeeearly next morning we drove to Zion National Park, Utah where we spend the rest of the day hiking in the beautiful mountains and experiencing some incredible views. When the sun went down we chilled in the Jacuzzi (with a mountain view, just saying) and had some lovely dinner in the restaurant. Thursday we went to Grand Canyon – beautiful place but freaking cold! We drove to a point, ran out of the car, took some pictures, ran back to the car and continued to the next point. It was difficult to enjoy because of the weather, but I still find it unbelievable that places like that exist. We spend the night in Flagstaff and drove home today, Friday. Great road trip! It is definitely a different, yet fun, way to travel.

 If there's anything you want me to know, anything you want me to write about, you are welcome to leave a comment :) Thanks for the comments so far!

Rooooad trip

Just wanted to share this beautiful song :-)

Christmas is near which means decorations, "Santa Baby" in the radio, christmas food, presents and of course - vacation! Two days before the christmas vacation started Elise and I started our road trip. We headed towards San Francisco, but stopped in Solvang , the Danish Village, on the way. It felt like a piece of Denmark was placed just outside Santa Barbara, California. It had a copy of the Little Mermaid and Rundetårn; it had danish bakeries and chocolate stores; and then it had a café selling Æbleskiver (a danish christmas dessert) - Elise tried it for the first time and loved it!

When we came to San Francisco we just relaxed the rest of the evening and went to bed. The day after we walked a lot! Walking in San Francisco is like walking in the mountains! Up and down and up and down. We took the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf, walked down Pier 39 where we had our first Corn Dog (quiet good actually), walked to the top of Lombard Street, walked down againg and towards Coit tower, after which we took the street car to the Castro District and had a good lunch; after that we walked to Haight Ashbury and went back to Union Square for shopping. After a long day we went to China town, had some good dinner, went home and hit the sheets. Saturday was Alcatraz day. We cruised to the island from pier 33, saw the introduction video and took the audio tour through the cell house. Yeah, sounds really boring as most audio tours are, but it was actually really well made! It showed Alcatraz' interesting story in an exciting way. Read about it here: http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/history.aspx After that we went shopping in Westfield Shopping Centre... again.

Sunday we took a quick trip to Alamo district and to the Golden Gate brigde before heading for Yosemite National Park. We arrived in the afternoon so we made a short visit into the actual national park, stopping a few pictures on the way. When it got dark we went back to out lodge, had some dinner and went to bed. Monday was a long day spent in the national park - we drove to Glacier point, hiked to the top of Vernal Fall and took a small trip to lower Yosemite falls. What a beautiful and peaceful place - I will definitely try to come back here one day. Tomorrow we will go to Las Vegas!