Castles and Rockets
CASTLES AND ROCKETS
May 3rd, 1990. The bus from D.C. to Orlando included 3 stops on my Greyhound route. Traveling alone usually means strangers end up talking to you! Obviously, this can be both good and bad. On the first bus, I had a great conversation about photography with Brian, an art student from Ohio. He warned me to be careful traveling on the Greyhound buses, especially at night.
This is something that many young travelers do to save money and I was no exception. To cut on hotel costs, you take the bus or train overnight and hope to get a couple hours of sleep. Hopefully you wake up still hugging your carry-on bag! Then, after dropping off your bags at the hostel, you can spend the day sight-seeing! This was how I crammed in so many places in so few days!
The next 2 stops were Fayetteville and Jacksonville, where I found out Brian was right. In both places the Greyhound stations were full of shifty looking men.
Scared and homesick!
My journal says,
“For the first time in the US I felt lost, scared and homesick. All these men were just staring, and I felt intimidated and frightened. There was one nice German couple who were also waiting, so I talked to them. I just want to get to a friendly hostel with lots of young folk. The bus is an hour away from Orlando now. Left DC 1pm yesterday and will arrive in Orlando 7:15am. Three stops and a Sightseeing
While dropping of my stuff at the youth hostel at 8am, I met a sweet South African girl. We ended up going to the Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom together all in one day!
“ Bought a 4-day ticket from a guy at the hostel with 2 days left on it. When I got back tonight, I sold the last day left for $25 – not bad.”
After spending the second day at the Kennedy Space center with hundreds of other European tourists, I headed back to the hostel.
couple of hours of sleep doesn’t make me feel like a beauty queen”
Reading my journal today, I see such a confusion in my soul. It was like I was hurling myself at whatever was in front of me to see what would happen. One moment on a high of adrenaline and the next feeling lost and depressed. One page states,
“Oh God, snap me out of this state of mind.”
It was time to leave again, this time on a midnight bus to Miami! “Bus departs Orlando 12 midnight arriving in Miami at 5:55 am.”