Heyhey, after 15 days I am back from my travels in the United States, Florida. In this post, you will not see pics because I pretty much just arrived home and all the shots are unprocessed. In total, I have around 1k photos but how many are keeper ones, is another story. Anyway, I got loads of content now to show you.
As you know I visited Florida and yeah it was warm, around 25C ( 78F ) were average daytime temperatures and most of the days were sunny.
Beaches were absolutely amazing all over the state but I will start to cover them one by one in my future posts and much other stuff like Kennedy space center and Everglades national park...
Impressions and Differences with Europe
On the first evening, we went to a restaurant to eat. After we were done and wanted to pay for the food. They took my credit card and just walked away with it. Instantly I was like THE FUCK ?? :D
I went asking that what are you doing with my card or is there something wrong. They then explained that this is how it works in here, well okay but then they charged my card without me even inputting my pin code. That actually really bothered me because they can pretty much charge whatever they want from my card or whoever can do it. I was just not used to this kind of payment method, in Europe they never take the card away and they always need the pin code. Anyway pretty soon I got used to this just was strange at first.
So what else... the traffic, let's complain some more shall we :D. I can say that I will never again whine in the traffic jam in Estonia again. When it's a rush hour in Miami, this is fucking nuts.
Overall the laws are quite the same with European ones that use the right-side traffic. The only major exception is that you can turn right under the red light, this is no go in Europe. Also, in the suburban areas, there are many unregulated crossings and the car that got there first has the right to go first as well. Interstates were a cool experience, I have never seen 6 lanes going in the same direction before.
I have to bring out that the traffic culture is fucking chaos in Miami. Half of the drivers are not using turn signals and because of that, I got involved in several near-crash or dangerous situations. Often times drivers just cut each other off without any warning and this causes slamming on the brakes and therefore rear endings. Saw many of crashed cars like that. I got interested that why are drivers in Miami so careless and I started googling.
It turns out that for some reason it's psychological, for many drivers using turn signals is apparently a sign of weakness... and many of these people are used to it and never use the blinkers.
Strangely this is a problem of Miami only, anywhere else I traveled across Florida the driving habits were great.
So no more negativity. I have some funny things to bring out like people saying "Hi, how are you" or "How are you doing" but they never actually wait for an answer or care how I am doing its just an interesting habit of Americans to ask that.
Overall the local Americans I met and spoke with were really friendly and sweet. Many of the strangers on the street or nature paths said hello to me. No one does it in Estonia. I stayed in Air Bnb accommodations and met several awesome hosts and families. Even people working at the Cash registers were in great moods and were interested in our travels and so on. Maybe it's the great climate there :D
Another funny thing I noticed that there are always handles on the toilets, not buttons you have to push like in Europe. Also, doorknobs in the US are mostly the ones you have to turn not to push down handles like here.
I have to mention the portions sizes in restaurants, they are huge. First, we made mistakes a couple of times ordering appetizers and main courses both but we never managed to finish em. When we ordered just the main courses we got our stomachs really full. In Europe, the portions are generally smaller.
OH damn, I almost forgot. Gas price in the US is basically nothing. it was only 40USD to fully fuel our car. In Estonia, we pay 100USD to get same sized tank full, crazy but I liked it, obviously:D.
Okay, that is it for now, like I said, lots of photo content is coming where I cover everything in detail.
By the way, nice increase in Steem pricer has happened since I was gone!