Roadtrip Intermezzo #2

Southern California as dry as a bone

Finally, the last episode of our trip before my memory gets too fuzzy. 

We spend most of the time in the car driving through a totally serene and abandoned landscape that could easily be the set of a movie playing on the moon. Strange and alien, amazing rock formations and cacti all around. Death Valley is the most arid and hottest place on earth, next to the Atacama desert in Chile in South America. the Badwater Basin is also the point of lowest elevation, 86 meter below sea level. In the distance you could see Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States. They have rain, if at all, once a year.

It's fascinating to imagine the earliest settlers trying to cross the surrounding mountains and then having to pass through this unfriendly territory. Survival of the fittest at its best, but the only way to get to the coastline of California.

We didn't want to miss Las Vegas, as it was very close by, but in the end the experience there was so bad and overwhelming that we couldn't stand staying there for more than 30 minutes. It's a real freak show, a lot of half naked people dressed in shrill costumes and everything screams at you and wants to suck your money in. At least I got a tasty yet overpriced milkshake before we took flight. I guess the contrast of the quiet landscape all around and then this island of consumerism was a stark contrast which you have to mentally be prepared for.

A short section of the drive through the desert was on the historic Route 66, and it certainly didn't disappoint. It looks very haunted and lost in time, which is what you also see in the movies and documentaries about the period when new interstates were build and the people living there found themselves forgotten and without any possibility to earn a living. The world found ways to turn faster and didn't care about those outside the fast lane.

We stopped at the only gas station around for a coffee, owned by a very nice guy who, to the question how many people lived in the town, responded wholeheartedly: "7 people, 6 too many."
When you have nothing else to do, you resort to quiet particular activities, like shooting signs. As a result, every traffic sign or ad you see along the Route 66 is perforated with bullet holes.

Yoshua Tree National Park, last day in the car and I had to put on new sun blocker every 20 minutes to not get roasted. The Mojave Desert with it's characteristic trees was the most beautiful so far. Fun fact: the rock formations are actually more than 100 million years old and were formed by magma cooling off underneath the surface. 
What a trip! I hope you enjoyed the pictures (the last two in this post were shot by my dad, he has a great eye for beautiful details) and the journey, it was fun to relive the experience while writing about it.

See you next time.

 

Roadtrip Intermezzo #1

Conquering Southern California

Inbetween my studies I had a great 5 days of taking a roadtrip with my father who was visiting California. I will release the whole trip in segmented posts because choosing the right pictures from the giant stack of 1500+ photos takes quite some time and I imagine reading a giant wall of text is not very inviting.
I started from San Diego and took a flight to San Francisco where we began our ride with a great and enjoyable car, the Camaro convertible. Driving top down all the way was a great experience, you feel very close to the blur that is the passing landscape, no boundaries at all. Sunblocker is a must have, for everyone who wants to try it. We drove via the famous Golden Gate Bridge to Muir National Park, our first encounter with the redwood trees the area is so famous for. In Muir the trees are taller than in Yosemite, but no so wide in diameter.
Driving on we entered Yosemite. This place is just pictoresque in every aspect. Waterfalls, great mountain peaks who form a specacular silhouette all around, forests, you name it. Basically you can find a picture book example of how you imagine the wild America to be at every turn. 

After Yosemite we continued towards Sequoia National Park, which has some of the greatest trees, the largest specimen stand as tall as 90m and muscular 12m wide. General Sherman is the biggest of all, but unfortunately we couln´t make it there because of snowy weather conditions and blocked roads. It was quiete a range of very diverse climate zones we passed during the short period of time. Everything from burning 90 degrees to 32 degrees Fahrenheit, desert and snow, 150 feet below ocean level and more than 6000 feet above. 

It was a fantastic place, really impressive to witness all the towering giants who grow there for almost 2000 years after they reach their final size. The root I´m standing next to in the picture above is in the same exact condition for 100 years now, despite the fact that it´s dead. It was used by settlers and gold diggers during that time period who found shelter and warmth in the hollow tree which a historical photo nearby illustrated very well. It´s easy to imagine the mountain lions and bears they tried to hide from. Hard times.

That´s it for the first part, next enroute is a contrary landscape type: desert. Thanks for your time and I hope you follow along and enjoy the ride.

Timbits from LA & Santa Monica

My roommate Oleg and I made a two-day trip to LA out of necessity because, continuing my list of things that can go wrong on vacation, our apartment got flooded during night and we had to move out. First time this happens to me, imagine the feeling of jumping out of bed into a wet sauce of steaming water and dirt. Originally I wanted to call this post "Into the swamps and back again" as a reference to Tolkien but decided against it. This should be about LA and the things that happened there, so with this checked off let´s continue.
The first stop in LA was the LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts. They have a great collection and fascinating exhibitions in the Japanese pavilion that are really worth the visit. Unexpectedly, I also saw my first John Singer Sargent that day, wow! His paintings are just phenomenal, after admiring his artworks for more than 10 years solely from reproductions in books or the internet, this was stunning.

Because of the heavy traffic, time rushed by and I paid a short visit to downtown LA and walked around. The city is just too huge to expect to see a lot by foot, but I had my first burger in the States with fantastic meat which made up for it.
I decided to try to meet another local and stayed the night at Nathan´s place, another couchsurfer. He was great, responded to my spontaneous request and took time during his working schedule to make sure I got to the right address. The neighbourhood outside of Downtown is actually quite pretty.
Nathan is an animator so we had similar interests and I could browse through his library of books and saw many familiar titles. He treated me to a nice coffee in the morning and shared a great story about his recent first trip outside the US. He went to Japan with a Motorbike and crossed the country with it, packed with all his equipment on the little Honda. He was spotted by a film team who are making a series about people visiting Japan and they were so intrigued by his undertaking that they followed him a couple of days and in consequence he became a minor celebrity. Thanks Nathan for the couch and your time.

The rest of the second day was spent visiting Hollywood. After sightseeing the Universal Studios and the obligatory Walk of Fame I wanted to walk again. Terrible Idea, but I spotted some nice places while not getting anywhere. Now, I have to hark back in order to explain this post´s title. In Canada, Matthijs introduced me to Timbits, the little, sugary bite-sized donuts that you get everywhere in Timmies, which is hugely popular over there. It´s a little arrangement of different tastes so you get some diversity in a while satisfying your cravings for a sweet snack. The photos I made reminded me of Timbits, very small spots, details from a bigger picture. Unfortunately there was no good place to have a wide vista.

The day ended in Santa Monica Beach, visiting the famous pier and enjoying the last glimpses of sunlight. Around the beach are some very beautiful and creative little shops and bars which I hopefully will be able to visit the next time in LA.

Toronto - car accident and visit to Bobby Chiu at Imaginism Studios

Before New Years Eve I had a full day in Toronto which was packed with dramatic events, extreme ups and downs in constant succession.

It all started out to be a great and relaxing second day in Toronto, finally with some daylight and again walking through the city. Because of the holidays it all seemed rather depopulated and empty and there is not much going on. Everything is big but feels just like another city. Again, it was the people I met that made all the difference.
I wanted to find a subway and asked a stranger on the street which led to a great conversation and a quick guided tour around downtown and personal insights about the local affairs. Jess was so helpful, even accompanying me on my ride in the subway to make sure I get the right exit. 
Thank you Jess and I wish you all the best on your year in Thailand. You´ll find your way :)

After walking the city for a bit I had an appointment scheduled for lunch with Bobby Chiu, a personal hero of mine. He is an artist working on so many fields and projects I don´t even recall them all. But what certainly stands out is his activity on Youtube where he is inspiring thousands of people everyday with his podcasts. Aside from that he is a concept artist extraordinaire and illustrator for games, movies and toys, founder of schoolism.com, contributed his art for Tim Burton´s Alice in Wonderland and and and...
So it was great of him to offer a slice of his time and I was extremely looking forward meeting him and his wife Kei, who is an amazing and talented artist in her own rights.
But, alas, fate tested me hard this day. I had a pretty bad car accident on my way to the appointment and all the towing, filling out forms, waiting for the police, renting a new car, cancelling the former contract etc. ate away a great deal of time and nerves. All the while, luckily, Bobby and Kei waited for me and postponed our meeting until I could make it that day.
Finally, the very second I got my new car I hurried to the studio.
It turned out the be even better than I expected. Bobby gave me a tour through the sacred halls of Imaginism, showed me his latest and past projects, even the painting he is working on right now.
Both were just great and we had a great time drinking coffee and talking about art and life in general.
The greatest gift they made me was a real surprise. Bobby got one of their art books out of the shelves and he and Kei both made cute little sketches and signed them for me. WOW!!! Thanks so much the two of you, hope to see you in the near future and check your mail, I´ll send you the book I was telling you about.