Viewing posts from 2009
I boarded the flight to Nürnberg, sat down in my seat, and fell asleep even before take off, only to wake up again during landing. So I guess it was a smooth flight. Washing machine is running, there's tea in the cup, I'm home.
The flights so far were on time, US-Airways staff lovely (even the ground crew), and technically no issues. Except that during the transatlantic flight I suddenly felt nauseous. I barely kept my lunch in the stomach and was cold-sweating for quite a while. It eventually got better, with the stomach still being a bit upset. Eating something sweet helped a lot, apparently I was experiencing some kind of hypoglycemia, even though my blood sugar level is usually normal. Either way, I didn't get much sleep on the flight. I just hope that the flight to Nuremberg will be as smooth as the previous flights.
Breakfast at 7Eleven, a short stop at Siesta Key, Sarasota, and then: Myakka River State Park. Originally I didn't have it on my list, but I'm extremely glad I visited it. It is very scenic and has a couple of short hikes. It is probably best visited by canoe, unfortunately I've never done that before thus I didn't dare to try it traveling alone...
The Everglades look quite a bit like the moors in Northern Germany. For me who grew up near such places the Everglades probably aren't as scenic as for others. One interesting aspect is that the vegetation is quite different from what I've seen in relatively old documentations, as the swamp is slowly drying out.
The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is located North of the John F. Kennedy Space Center and is a large marsh area. I watched Manatees, got some photos on Scrub Trail as well on Palm Hammock Trail and got quite wet on Oak Hammock Trail. The hammock trails are quite interesting with a very distinct tropical vegetation. The Wildlife Drive is also very interesting, though in the afternoon there were not many birds to see. The bald eagle was nowhere to be seen, the osprey sat at the highway instead, but I saw some birds at least. I forgot the bird guide and have to look up at home what exactly I saw...
Fursuit bowling after Megaplex started one hour late, but was very entertaining. Unfortunately, it also ended late, so we didn't get to visit a theme park. Instead, BBF, Yappy, Kwisa and me chatted a bit and afterwards drove to Downtown Kissimmee. At night, we had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's at Downtown Disney with more than 10 people. The Macadamia Chicken was excellent.
The concert of Matthew Ebel was great. He needs a band, though. He's a hell of a piano player, and his voice is excellent. But the pre-recorded drums and bass don't sound right.
I'm having a blast. From what I had about Megaplex beforehand, I was expecting some kind of American MMC. And indeed, it is a relax-a-con deluxe. Even though there is not overly much programming, the panels and events are excellent. The Megaplex staff is running the convention very smoothly, everyone is having a great time and its fun to hang out with all the folks here.