Key Largo and Everglades

On our way to the Everglades Nationalpark and Fort Myers we took a stop at Key Largo (largest of the keys), because the whole way north would have been too long.

I'm sure Key Largo is a lovely place with lots of great sights ... but we only had half a day left, we were going to leave the next day and our guide didn't say anything about good sights, except one, which was actually right next to our hotel! (Holiday Inn)

It's the boat African Queen from the movie Key Largo (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I guess it's not the very same boat, but a rebuilt, but no one cares. Actually the island had a different name first, but then Hollywood came, shot this great movie, which had worldwide success and the people thought: "Why don't we name our island like the movie, so many tourists will come?" AND BAM! Key Largo it was.
Great story, isn't it?

But other to that, we had nothing to do in Key Largo, so we spend rest of the day here:

Sadly, pools aren't big refreshment, because water temperature = outside temperature. It's like walking into a tube. But you can arrange better with the heat inside water.

The next day, we got up early to drive to Fort Myers and make a stop at Everglades to see some alligators.
My mum and I wanted to take a guided tour instead of just walking and because we're very convincing (and annoying) my dad finally agreed. Lucky him - the tour was for free and started just at our arrival, so we didn't even had to wait.
Sun was really cooking that day, there was no shade at all and we forgot suncream, so we kinda rushed it. But we did see alligators!
A lot.

Just to make sure. It's not the same one!
They also have lots of other animals like turtles and birds and frogs ... and mosquitos! Damn it, I hate them!!

But something I've learned! I've you're afraid of mosquito bites, just hang in the sun! Mosqitos dry out in the sun and that's why they only "live" in the shades.

We bought the anti mosquito spray 'Off', which must be the most deadly chemical cosh ... it really keeps them away.
German sprays DON'T HELP HERE!

I Love Key West Part 2

I wasn't going to let so much time pass during the entries, but hey. It happens, right?

So my second day in Key West was really great.

First, we drove to the town (of course) and walked down to the southernmost point of the US. I have to say, this place is really nice!
Trees, houses, everything is just beautiful. I'd love to live in a place like this, but sadly I'm living in a not so pretty part of Berlin.

So here's me 90 miles away from Cuba. This spot is closer to Cuba than it is to Miami! Underneath the berries is my mum.

We also found this cute thing nearby. I've always just seen them on TV and I never thought thing like this actually existed nowadays. My mum forgot to hide her arm though...

After this we went home to have "lunch." You know, the Keys are very famous for their Lime Cake. And although it sounds disgusting, we had to buy some. Of course!

So we headed to the hotel to eat some cake ... an because I know myself (I don't like most cakes ... I'm the fried food type) I got myself some sushi from the supermarket. Well it sure was good ... but I didn't check the label and ended with spicy sushi. WHO ON EARTH PUTS CHILI SAUCE IN SUSHI?!?! IT'S NOT DELICOUS! SPICY TUNA MAKI ARE MADE A DIFFERENT WAY!

Eh ... well ... it was quite alright.

The cake was not. I can't even describe it ... I ate a small piece and that was it. Just not my taste.

Afterwards we decided to go for Hemingway's house. I have to say ... that guy knew how to live.

We wanted to see his favourite bar, too (good stories), but it was crowded!

So we went here for dinner:

Which was a great decision!! Probably the best food during our whole trip. We just went there, because we had coupons for drinks from our hotel but it was great!

Very big cocktails - the only ones during this two weeks (talking 'bout expensive...)

Ribs for my dad:

I don't know what they did with the fries, but they were so delicious, I could have eaten two servings of them alone!

My mums Italian sandwich:

My tuna avocado sandwhich:

This was so good, I'm going to make one like this at home. You should try it out as well... SO GOOD!


So this was pretty much the Key West part of our trip. Some more interesting pictures:

I've taken these pictures, because we don't have these M&Ms flavours in Germany and I've never seen them before. I've tried the pretzel ones (German, hello?) and they're weird ... chocolaty, sweet, crispy, dry and salty. Really weird.

I remember, they sold this stuff in Germany, when I was in elementary. Nowadays you can't buy it anymore. I tried this to remember and it was just as chemical as I thought! I don't think there was any ham in this ham ... I think we have a law against stuff like this in Germany.

And last one!

We didn't get in. It was already filled.

Well then, see you soon!

I LOVE KEY WEST Part 1

It's the title, it's the topic.
I've only been to Key West for a few days (eh... two), but I liked what I saw. The atmosphere, the look and the people - I really did like it all.
So I'm going to show you a lot of pictures, that's why I'm splitting this entry into two.

But first a little history class:
Key West has actually nothing to do with "West" - it's the southernmost point of the US. Key West is more of a translation mistake. The first English speaking settlers misunderstood the original name Cayo Hueso (means island of bones, long bloody story) and renamed it to Key West. Great huh? Okay, now that you've learned something, we can start with the pics.

This tour was one of the longest (I guess it actually was THE longest) journey during our trip. Driving from Miami to Key West takes some time, but it's very interesting, because the most time, all you see are bridges.
It basically looks like this:

You have tiny tiny islands, that can hold nothin but a road. The height difference between ocean and land is not even 30cm and yes, left side of the lane is water again. Sometime for miles. It can be a little frightning.

So we drove and drove and yeah, nothing interesting happened. Or I don't have it on picture, because we had our film camera with us. We only had a stop here:

And lunch at IHOP. I love diners! It's really sad, we don't have places like IHOP or Denny's in Germany. It's really nice there.

Our food (of course):

So yeah, I had a burger... But if I remember right, it was the only one during my 2 weeks there! I didn't eat the mayonnaise and it was good! What kind of buns are these? Never seen them before.
Maybe you wonder ( I guess you didn't even realize, but I'm telling you anyway), why my parents had breakfast for lunch. In my family we love warm breakfast (basically because we never have time to make one). We love it so much, we could eat it all the time. I love having bacon and eggs for dinner.

A couple of hours later we arrived at Key West (sadly our hotel was quite outside). I have pics of our room, but they look the same like the ones in Cocoa Beach. They look all the same...

This day was almost over, so we decided to just drive to the city and take the ghost tour. Again, I have lots of pics. But it was dark! I can't show you, I'm sorry.
It was a really interesting tour, where a guide takes you through town to all the creepy places, where people died or murdered or I don't know forgot to turn off the oven. Stuff like this. He (his name was Mike) did a good job, it was very funny. Or maybe it was supposed to be scary and he did a miserable job. I don't know, I felt entertained!

That day, we also took the chance to see the boardwalk. It's totally famous, because every evening the people gather to celebrate the sunset. There are lots of artists and strange curiosities and when the last sun beam vanishes, everybody claps. It's great.

On this pic, it's a little too early, there aren't a lot of people there yet. But there will be when it's getting darker.

They also have guys like this! I never thought, they really existed.

It was so cool!


The next entry will be about our second day, Ernest Hemingway, more food and everything else.