When my family moved to Florida we spent a few years visiting the sights and exploring what the sunshine state as to offer. Unfortunately, I was not yet two years old so I don’t remember any of it. My dear dad decided that this summer would be a good time to remedy that, so last weekend Mom, Dad and I drove to St. Augustine, the oldest continually settled city in America. It was fun being a tourist in my own country, and even better to have the whole trip planned by someone else. Dad did a great job so the days were full and enjoyable.
Saturday morning we drove up and explored the old town, which is mainly one long street. It was fun to see that my country has cute little narrow old streets, too. It has become rather touristy, but there’s still some interesting history and the crowds don’t bother me at all now that I’m used to living in a crowded European city. Here’s the day in pictures.
Here’s Dad in front of the oldest wood schoolhouse in the US.
Here’s my crazy Dad saving the day.
Money in America is complicated. It’s nice to use my credit cards again, but being asked if I have anything smaller when I pay for an $11 item with a 20 dollar bill is rather annoying. Knowing the price I see is no the price I’ll pay because tax is not included is also annoying. It makes for rather interesting price schemes as well. Check out the admission sign for the living history museum, which was well worth whatever price we ended up paying.
Below is the genki crew in front of the old Flagler hotel which was converted to house the personal collection of Mr. Lightner and is now a museum open to the public. It includes something from about everything from taxidermy to crystal wear, rocks to Egyptian mummies, samplers to shrunken heads.
Ah! I love Spanish moss in live oak branches!
The St. Augustine lighthouse
Hey, it’s almost like Fasnacht!
In Japan I ate fish like this. In the US, this ‘dirty stick’ is a candy and cookie covered, gooey chocolate covered pretzel stick. Yum.
The wax museum did better with costumes than with faces. Now that’s the kind of dressing up I’d like to do.
The second day we spent most of our time at the Castillo de San Marcos, the fort built by the Spanish to protect their ships coming up the coast that were laden with gold and spices from Spain’s productive colonies to the south. Florida didn’t have treasure so St. Augustine was just a military town.
I’ll end with some random reverse-culture shock observations:
Everything is bigger but smaller. It’s the same distance to our local park as to the center of Basel, yet mentally the park is very close but I lived well outside of Basel.
Things I see frequently in the states that I didn’t see much in Europe:
- Yellow school busses
- Khaki shorts
- Golf shirts
- Smiles from strangers
- Cars, cars, and more big cars
Americans talk to strangers. Waiting at the airport I heard many conversations between strangers that quickly got friendly personal and ended just as quickly when it came time to board the plane. “Good luck with your English test and I hope you mother gets through her surgery.” “Enjoy your vacation and be sure to find the right gift for your Aunt.” I thought the Swiss were cold to strangers and now I think the Americans are annoying because they won’t let me alone to read my book. I’m sure I’ll be used to it again quite soon and will learn to flip some internal switch when I go between countries.
Who says Americans don’t think about trash? Here’s a trash can getting the ultimate treatment.
That last photo is just weird. Do you have any explanations? My suggestions:
- eco-friendly hearse for tree-huggers
- for coach passengers who insist on the McDonald's drive-thru
- she's eager for her break and wants to scare potential customers off
Or maybe it's a prank. Her fellow horse-draw-carriage-drivers slipped it on while her back was turned, and now she's been driving around with it wondering why no one wants a ride.
