Diverse Florida & always so lovely Mexico City

Vacations are over and now that I have arrived to Spain it is time to start building my life here. However, before doing that, wrapping up my past few weeks sounds like a good idea.

Probably needless to say but the vacations were great regardless of those usual small adversities like flight delays or changed schedules, long queues and misunderstandings with foreign language that you always face when travelling. Also, I didn’t really get a chance to sun bath enough - yes, this is what I was really looking forward to after the autumn in Finland - because of the unbelievably windy and unusual rainy weather in Miami, but luckily Florida provides you with plenty of other things to do.

When being in Florida, visiting Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando are must-does and that’s what we did too. Both are definitely worth visiting even though the price of one day ticket to each of them is around 100 dollars. However, to my big surprise I preferred Universal Studios over Disney and was slightly disappointed with Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Of course, it was awesome to see Minnie Mouse and the Incredible family alive in the traditional Disney parade but the parade was basically the most Disney that I got. For example, many of the rides were not anyhow related to Disney or at least I couldn’t see how just a regular indoor space roller coaster is related to any of the stories - but well, that was awesome anyway. As could be predicted, queuing times were easily 45-90 minutes for all the better rides without the express pass and I can assure that the ones that don’t have a queue in front of them are only gonna give you a good laugh about how ridiculous things exist, but that is amusing too, right?

What I liked the most when being in Florida was definitely Key West, the southernmost part of USA, a small town of around 30 000 people living in there. If you go to Florida, go to Key West and spend there more than one day because the atmosphere is really special and easy to fall in love with and there is also a lot to see in Key West, examples being the house of Hemingway and the harbor of the town. What is more, just the general appearance of the neighborhoods is so lovely that spending time with just wandering around is not a problem. Another high point during the vacations in Florida was visiting Everglades with a boat trip to see alligators in their natural environment. Of course, tasting alligator and frog legs was a part of the experience. Alligator actually tasted good but that might be the case with everything that is deep-fried... Frog legs (not deep-fried), on the other hand, tasted about the same as a fish smells like so you can decide by yourself if it is good or not. Anyway, it was an acceptable change for the overwhelming daily diet of hamburgers and cheesecakes.

This was my first time in USA if a-couple-of-hours’ visit somewhere in the north doesn’t count. I got what I was able to imagine but also experienced maybe the biggest culture shock I have ever had (!) and this is probably because I mistakenly thought that Finnish culture would be to quite a big extent similar to the culture in USA. What hit me the most, was the laziness or even rudeness of people who were supposed to be doing customer service. Some customer servants barely muttered something back to you if you asked something and some didn’t even listen what you tried to say. Sometimes they snapped something back to you with not so nice a tone if you were being stupid in their opinion, but maybe it is their sense of humor that I just didn’t get. On the other hand, Nike and Hard Rock Cafes made exceptions in this, having the most amazing service you could imagine. Clearly, if you go to Florida, you are kind of supposed to survive on your own and not to expect others to mind your business. Rent a car, find things out from your travel guide book and remember to reserve enough time for entering the country no matter if you are staying there or only changing planes for further destination because the customs take tons of time.

When landing to Mexico after being in USA, the change of atmosphere was really evident. Of course, it is easy for me to say this having lived in Mexico but I think that others will experience the same. The careless traffic, not so sophisticated buildings and sales people yelling on the street give some sort of sense of freedom at least to me. Also the amazing talent of Mexicans to get a normal day into a party just within a snap of fingers is admirable. It was amazing how little had changed during the 7 months I was away and how getting back to the people you know, felt like there had been at most two weeks since the goodbyes.

(This is actually from Key West but fits well here :) )

I got extremely lucky and had a chance to spend the New Year’s Eve with a Mexican family which was a really important experience for me and really got me speechless - literally. The feeling, when people who haven’t even met you before, accept you to their home on a special day like you were old friends, is something that I cannot describe but I do recommend everyone to try that out if the possibility is offered at some point. Even though I still struggle with my Spanish I didn’t feel like an outsider at the dinner table but rather the opposite, really warmly welcomed. It was lovely to notice that you can always communicate even though there wouldn’t be plenty of common words that both parties understand. So far Mexicans are the most helpful people that I know and it is easy to feel like family with them. I couldn’t wish for any better start for a new year. With that said, leaving was once again sad but it is quite relieving to know that Mexico will always be another home for me. 

P.S. Ending the vacations is not that bad when you know that there will be new adventures to be explored right around the corner! Hopefully Spain treats me well too!