USA & Canada trip 2005 photoblog

Home at last

Wow, that was a long trip :) Got home two days ago (or was it yesterday? *confused* :-D) and slept for 17 hours. Was pretty dizzy from the jetlag for some time, but feels like it is over now.

Although it is really cold here and I have to wear a big winter jacket, it is really nice to be back home. Colors on the trees are beautiful here (see photos below taken out of my window) and I have enjoyed going back to good, solid danish food like dark bread and milk to recover my body back to a normal, healthy state again.

It has been an amazing trip with tons of experiences and new friends. First of all, the people who have been so kind to let me stay at their places, cannot thank them enough:

- Mike and Rebecca in Kingston
- Rich and family in Niagara Falls
- Adam in New York
- Niko in Pembroke Pines

I highly appreciate your hospitality, you are the ones who made this trip possible!

I was trying to make a list of everybody I have met on this trip but realized that it would be huge and thereby have the chance of forgetting someone. So instead, I want to say thanks much to everyone I have met along the way, all really nice people who have been kind to me and let me experience their everyday life. Come by my place any day and I will return the favor :-)

A special thanks does go out to Luis and Matt for arranging the camp despite a hurricane just leveled the area a few days before and my very good friends Adam and Christian in New York.

Tonight I will be headed to my gym, looking forward to see all my friends there again.

If any of you all wanna get in touch with me and missed my email, it is graugart@gmail.com.

Well, I guess that's it for this blog. I have really enjoyed making it, and I might continue with another one some time as it is good for practicing my photography :) I think I will end it by quoting the danish writer Hans Christian Andersen:

"At rejse er at leve"

(to travel is to live)

On my way home

Sitting in Newark Airport waiting for my flight to Amsterdam. A short trip of about 8 hours :-( From there I fly to Copenhagen, but that is only around one hour. Hope to get some sleep during the flight, but it is always difficult for me.

Will post again some time when I am home.

Last few days in the sun

Yesterday Luis (owner of the gym) hooked me up with a guy called Nik, with whom I am staying with for the last few days here. We went out last night, but the magic KGB powder did it's job perfectly and had us both up fresh for some nice training at 10:30.

After training we wanted to go to the beach since this is my last day with nice weather for a looong time. Unfortunately it was very overcast and also there was no parking sports by the beach due to a boat show going on.

Me and Nik after training this morning.

The gym we trained in.

Parking by the beach was up to $40!!

Downtown Fort Lauderdale

I backed out of the Orlando trip when I found out that it was a FIVE hours drive each way. Don't wanna spend 10 hours in a bus on my last days here. Went with the guys to downtown Fort Lauderdale where the bus was before I found out about the length of the trip, so after they left I had a nice walk around the town checking it out and enjoying the weather and beauty.

Boooring day

It has been cloudy and rainy today so we have been really bored. Went to the mall and walked around for some hours. My Visa card doesn't work anymore for some reason. Should be plenty of money on it so I must call the bank tomorrow morning and hear what is up.

Tomorrow we are going to Orlando. The guys I am staying with in the hotel are flying home from there and I am going with them just for a day, should be fun. When I get back here I will stay for a day with a guy from the gym before I fly home friday.

Cool old car in a surf shop today.

Karl and Arnir sharing the hotel bed.

NO ELECTRICITY!

Have spend 4 days in a hostel with no electricity and no hot water, which sucked. I have now moved to a hotel with electricity and internet, complete luxury :)

Weather has been awesome though, really enjoying the sun here before I am going home to cold and dark Denmark. Just sad how everything is completely trashed after the hurricane. Signs and trees are down and it's just one big mess.

Training has been really good, been working out 6-8 hours a day friday through sunday. Got my BJJ purple belt yesterday.

A tree fell on the road where my hostel is.

Traffic light.

Insanely long lines at the gas stations.

Burger King sign about 500 metres away from the restaurant.

I was not planning to enter anyway.

Always open, easy with no roof!

One way.

A tree fell by Burger King.

Kavanagh's Matrix Jitsu

The camp crew.

Matt choking out Christian.

Power Ranger attacking John.

"Everything is pretty fucked up down here"

On my way to Florida. Just talked to my swedish friends at the hostel down there, who said that there is still no power after the hurricane, but weather should be good so at least I can chill by the pool :)

I will probably be offline until the power comes back, so no blog updates for the next couple of days or so.

Last night in the city

It will be a sad goodbye with this place when I am leaving tomorrow at noon. This city is so fascinating, yet so scary. So beautiful, yet so dirty. So fantastic, yet so sad. It has everything, from the best of the best to the worst of the worst. There is no way you can not be amazed by this manmade wonder.

Tonight I walked the Brooklyn Bridge at midnight, then going to a spot I found on Google Earth (=super geek) with an amazing view of the skyline. I got a few shots of the skyline and the bridges before it got too cold and I took a cab home.

Thanks to Adam and Christian for letting me experience New York City again.

Lower Manhattan skyline with the Statue of Liberty to the left.

The Brooklyn Bridge.

100% chance of rain

Weather forecast for today said there was a 100% chance of rain all day. 100%? I mean, not even 99%? It did rain about 99% though, so they could have spared me that depression.

Have not been doing much because of the weather. It has been super cold as well. Bought myself an iPod Nano because I was so sad over the weather.

One of the things I wanted to take some photos of here was the Chrysler building. Have been looking at it since I came, wondering how to get the right angle. This night when I was sitting at home I decided to take a walk down Lexington Avenue towards the building and see what I could capture. Following are some of the shots I got.

Decided not to put my usual comments on this time, as I think the photos speak well for themselves, describing the mood of the city this rainy night.

Winter is coming!

It's starting to get a lot colder here and this evening it has been raining a lot as well.

Yesterday I was at the NAGA turnament all day. I'm not a good competitor, lost one by tactic (wrestler took me down once then did nothing the rest of the "fight") and one by fatigue (tapout due to dehydration wtf?!). Who cares, I had a great day with all of the guys from the gym.

Today I walked a little out on Brooklyn Bridge then decided to come back when I had some warmer clothes on and it would be dark so I could really enjoy the skyline. It is an amazing piece of history. Build in 1875 with so many men dying from decompression sickness. Wanted to go there and shoot some photos tonight but it is raining a lot so I will stay indoors and hope to be able to do it tomorrow instead.

Was training in the gym today, really good workout. Rolled with almost everybody and had a great time. I must conclude, that I fight 100 times better in the gym than in competitions. Which doesn't matter at all ofcourse, as I train for the sake of training, not to win anything.

Ryan doing good in the competition.

The Brooklyn Bridge.

Rain...

It has been raining a lot today, so didn't really do anything but eat. Took some photos last night which I never got to post, so here goes.

Times Square facing south.

Times Square facing north.

Empire State Building. Absolutely amazing at night. Wanna go up there before I leave.

Battery Park

Took the subway down to Battery Park just to check it out today. Wanted to try my new lenses. Weather sucks, it's all cloudy so that makes it a little more difficult to get good colors on the photos. My paparazzi 300 mm lens was awesome, makes it easier to shoot pictures of people when you can stand 20 meters away from them and therefore don't have to ask them first :)

Had lunch just around the corner.

You can just see the Statue of Liberty in the background.

Danish flag on a Korean War statue (the red and white one).

Yesterdays sushi chef catching todays buffet?

Poor guy, I guess he was very tired from riding the subway all day :)

Had to try...

Couldn't resist going outside to try my new wide angle lens on the tripod. Took a single shot of Park Avenue. Think I am gonna get some really good ones with this lens.

Park Avenue and 31st street.

Camera lenses powershopping

I finally found a camera store that was open! So I got myself a few lenses, one 70-300 mm (paparazzi style) and one wide angle 20-35 mm. Spend a total of around $600, which I think is a little much actually but I might sell them again when I get home as they are much more expensive there.

Met up with Anders from my gym in Denmark and we went to an all you can eat sushi buffet for lunch. It was only $10 and it was great. No stomach problems (yet).

It got a little late so I didn't make it to class in time. I decided just to watch and shoot some photos instead, Christian could need some new good ones for his website anyway :)