I've started exploring the area around Houston. There are actually many things to do. Recently I went with a colleague to Galveston Island, which is roughly 40km south of Houston. It is actually quite nice, however, not too much to do.
You can walk along the "beach" which is next to the main road, or go to the "Schlitterbahn" Amusement park. Otherwise, there are bars, restaurants and hotels. Nice to spend a day, however not necessarily longer.
This weekend I was with another colleague again at Galveston Island to visit the Moody Gardens. That's actually very nice, reminded me a bit of the Gardens by the bay in Singapore.
There are several attractions. We went to the rain forest and the Aquarium. In the rain forest you are really within the nature and with all the animals.
This fella found particular interest in my shoe laces
The aquarium is spectacular! You are walking underneath the water into the exhibition.
Furthermore there is a penguin area:
And an area with seals:
This was really a nice trip, and I will definitely go back. However it is quite expensive. Each attraction is around 22USD.
Afterwards we went to Kemah Boardwalk, which is back up north towards Houston, close to the NASA Space Center at the sea. There are many attractions like a wooden roller coaster, other rides, like a full year fair. Many restaurants as well.
Nice area, especially for children. Probably would show that to visitors as well.
Furthermore I had a business trip to Sacramento, California recently as well. We went to the old part of Sacramento for Dinner. This part of the town still has the old Gold rush atmosphere from the 19th century.
It's a bit sad, that I couldn't spend more time there. Seems like a nice city, which is worth exploring. However there are some more cities on my schedule to visit in the coming weeks. Looking forward to next weekend especially, which I will spend my favourite city in the US.
Well, after quite some time, I changed continents. Spent a few weeks home in Germany and headed then westbound. Had the pleasure to take the Airbus A380. ALways amazing how this huge plane can take off:
Destination: IAH George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston Texas. I took the chance to work there as from end of March. Welcome to the United States of America!
Let's see how long I will stay here. The US is not unknown to me, since I went on vacation very regularly. It's more the small resp. BIG differences compared to Europe. Everything which was difficult in Vietnam is basically very easy now in the US. Language, administrative things, culture etc. I found an apartment after 6 days, and got settled in. However, I assumed I would easily get an furnished apartment. However, a furnished apartment would cost around 3000$ per month, which I'm not really willing to pay. There are possibilities to rent furniture, but this is as well quite costly. So, as in previous locations, where I lived, I had to do the usual Ikea pilgrimage, ending up purchasing a basic set of furnitures:
Of course there are many other possibilities to buy furniture in the US, but Americans have a slightly different taste, when it comes to interior decoration. So, since I didn't want to be bothered with renting a van, I used the Ikea home delivery service. And since I still had one night in the hotel, next day delivery seemed fine for me. Well, the next day, I was then waiting in my apartment for the boxes to be delivered, including a bed and a sleeping couch! After 4 hours of waiting Ikea called me and said, they couldn't find my address, and that I gave them a wrong phone number. Strangely they could call me... So, the only option they gave me, was refund of the costs and delivery the next day. Since I had no other choice and didn't want to spend another night in the hotel, I went to buy an airbed:
Next day, the delivery worked fine then. The delivery guys found the address without problems. So I could start to start assemble everything. Fortunately during the "waiting day" my internet connection was installed, so I had Internet and TV functionality from Day 1. That worked well. So I had to buy of course a TV and just had to connect it to the cable box and I was good to go. Fortunately the apartment has a fully equipped kitchen, washing machine and dryer.
So, I started to be set up, and went on the next weekend to the Johnson Space Center with a colleague:
Moon landing Module
Cockpit of the Space Shuttle
Lifesize Model of the Space Shuttle
Inside of the Space Shuttle
Model of the Moon Rover
Model of the Space Shuttle
Saturn V Rocket
Saturn V Rocket
I was a little bit disappointed of the Space Center. It is more made for children, since there are a lot of games and plays in order to teach some basics of what NASA is doing, the space programs and general science. It's a place you should visit once when you visit Houston. But it's not necessarily a place to go frequently.
So this weekend it was about time to explore a bit Downtown Houston. Well, another minor disappointment. Since normally the city centers are full of live in any city in the US I have seen, this is what Houston looks like on a sunday afternoon:
The buildings are of course amazing. Houston is the 4th biggest city in the US, so it has to represent:
And of course everything is big, especially in Texas. This is a little video from my daily commute back from office into the city:
And speaking of big...
The packaging of food is of course much bigger here, so you easily find 1kg of Peanut Butter:
Or 1.8kg of Ketchup:
Of course there is plenty of supply of soft drinks:
So, I'm still discovering the city. I know where to get my groceries, and if I'm lazy I'll take an electric cart, which is provided in basically all major stores:
Some other grocery stores are pretty creative:
Trader Joe's actually belongs to Aldi Nord. The concept is similar, but more organic food for rather low prices (what you would consider low in the US, which is still quite expensive compared to Europe). I haven't checked out Aldi yet, but there are some "original" Aldi (Süd) stores in Houston as well.
What I tried out this weekend, was a comic book store. Doing the "Big Bang Theory Thing" :):
This comic book store was rather far away and I found another one by chance in the proximity of my apartment, which I definitely have to visit soon. It's time to get some decoration stuff for my apartment :).
Every day I see something new, and I'm really looking forward to explore the "boring" city more and especially travel through the States!
So I close this post with a picture of one of my favourite vehicles in the States. Obviously the driver needed some coffee, and I hope to be able to update more frequently again.
