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When I got my US visa in March, I never thought that I am going to use it so frequently until my last days in Canada. The whole trip was started with the American Thoracic Society conference in San Francisco in May. I am lucky enough that my institute in the Netherlands always encourages  its students to give presentations all over the world with full trip coverage. 

So, when my supervisor told me that I’ll be attending  the ATS conference in San Francisco, I contacted my high school friend, Ratih, who has been living in San Bernardino, LA for  almost 7 years.  As a movie lover I told myself that would not pass a lifetime chance visiting Universal Studio in LA! So, in May I flew to LA to have a short reunion with Ratih. It was a pleasant reunion! On my arrival Ratih and her husband, Mas Faisal, took me directly to Hollywood hill where we made pictures with the letters, Hollywood sign! Ratih was such a good host; she took a day off to accompany me to Universal City. We spent  one full day  at the studio and later in the evening  we visited the China Town in downtown LA. Ratih also kindly asked her relative, Mas Dudin to take me around Downtown Los Angeles. I never dream that I could step on Britney Spears’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but I did! After spending a night at a hostel located in Santa Monica, I finally ended my trip in LA walking along the white sand beach with palm trees on the side, kinda reminded me of Kuta Beach in Bali.

Felt the reunion was too short, Ratih and I promised to have another reunion in New York City before my return to the Netherlands and her return to Indonesia for good. We set a date: meeting in NYC somewhere in September before the Ramadhan. We both were excited, but unfortunately Ratih couldn’t make it to NY. So, I decided to join Mas Dudin and Mas Taufik in their road trip from Washington DC to NYC!

After 12 hours of traveling by bus, on a very hot afternoon in September I arrived in Washington DC . Again I was lucky to meet a kind Pakistani lady, Jamila Khan, on my way to Washington. She was so worried that I’d get lost in the city that she took me to my hostel with a taxi. I couldn’t thank her enough for her kindness… The next few hours I found myself in a public tour in the Library of Congress. Such an impressive historical building! Later in the afternoon finally I met Mas Dudin and Mas Taufik in the Federal Triangle area (where you can see the Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument from distance), and from there my road trip with them was begun. 

I took the chance to visit old friends from my institute in Utrecht. In Washington I met Anjoeka, who is now working at the National Cancer Institute. She took us to Woodley Park/Zoo before we went out for a dinner in Goergetown with a Potomac river nightlife view.

The next morning we left Washington for Baltimore to visit Jelena who is doing a post-doc at John Hopkins School of Medicine. After a few hours exchanging stories in her apartment, we went to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland state, to visit the annual seafood festival. On our way back we had a short round in Baltimore city centrum, before heading to Allentown in Pennsylvania to stay over at Mas Dudin’s uncle’s residency, Pak Ibrahim and Ibu Fatima.

The craziest thing about this road trip was that we did not have GPS or a big road map. We naively put our trust  in Google map! Luckily we managed to reach all the meeting points without so much trouble. However, our trip to Allentown took us longer than expected because somehow we got lost and made a D-tour by passing Philadelphia! Anyways the city centrum had a great night view, so we couldn’t complain

Finally, on the last day of my trip we drove to New York City . Following traveling tips from Pak Ibrahim, we parked our car in the Central park area and then took the subway to the main attractions. Learning from experience, the first thing we did was buying a map of Manhattan! But believe it or not, we got lost in the subway  hehehe… So, there we were walking around the city because we missed the ferry that could take us for a boat trip around Manhattan island. Anyways, we made our way to the Ground Zero and visited the memorial in Battery Park.  We also took picture with the Empire State Building, the tallest skyscraper in NYC, and the famous Time Square. Time fled so fast and I went back to Montreal later in the evening whereas Mas Dudin and Mas Taufik continued their trip in NYC and Philadelphia.

A lot of people was amazed that we visited 6 cities in 4 different states in one long weekend. Thanks to Mas Dudin and Mas Taufik who took me as their companion and kindly accommodated my  reunion with Anjoeka and Jelena. Our road trip was unbelievably fun, hopefully I could join you in another road trip!