DAY 4

We woke up late in Atlanta, just in time for brunch around the corner, one of the best we’ve recently had, by the way. Mari is in love with brunches but she is getting the feeling that they get bigger and bigger each time we order. Here you can find some pictures of some of today’s (huge) orders: Mari’s amazing French toasts with the best syrup ever, Linds’ corn cilantro pancakes and Elizabeth’s herb roasted turkey sandwich. None of us could finish them by ourselves. Fortunatly syd had asked for a small portion of potatos and eggs and could help finishing everybody else's.

We were not in the mood to do touristy things around the most popular attractions in the city, like the aquarium, the World of Coke or CNN studios, so we decided on an alternative route instead. There tends to be no disagreement between us in these situations, since, although we have very different personalities, we usually have the same interests when it comes to getting to know people and places.

So, we decided to visit the Martin Luther King museum which is the same place where he was born, raised and buried. AMAZING, a totally must see for anyone visiting Atlanta. It is actually very simple, but you just cannot leave this place the same. We both cried watching the short movie about his life and surprisingly found ourselves reading out loud the same quote of a 1000 pages book of his speeches. It was a very special moment that we want to share, so here it is:

“And I am convinced that if the Negro succumbs to the temptation of using violence in his struggle from freedom and justice, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness. And our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. But there is another way, namely the way of nonviolent resistance. This method was popularized in our generation by a little man from India, whose name was Mohandas K. Gandhi. He used this method in a magnificent way to free his people from the economic exploitation and the political domination inflicted upon them by a foreign power. (…)

“For in the long run, we must see that the end represents the means in process and the idea in the making. In other words, we cannot believe, or we cannot go with the idea that the end justifies the means because the end is preexistent in the means.” (Speech on Love, Law and Civil Disobedience).

Syd left the place much more motivated to find her own way of changing the world through social design and Mari renewed her inspiration to search in the law mechanisms to fight against global injustice.

We should end the post here and propose a 1 minute reflection but the day wasn’t finished so…….

After leaving the museum, our always-so-kind hostess Lindsey picked us up and took us to our next chosen destination: the alternative neighborhood of 5 Little points. It proved to be a really interesting place to hang out on a beautiful sunny afternoon. A lot of second hand clothing, good deals on clothes, accessories and esoteric items, Mari bought herself a cheap and fancy coat for the winter in Providence and Syd some nice stones that she found herself specially connected to. We finished the pleasant afternoon in a very cool pub with a 10 pages menu just for the beers.

Then to thank our gracious hostesses for taking care of us in Hotlanta Syd cooked a delicious, yet extremely healthy dish of asparagus and barley with an appeteaser of homemade garlic and onion potato chips! No pictures were taken because we were too busy getting ourselves together and cooking, but this dish shall be repeated at another point so we'll add pictures then!

DAY 3

After one long and invigorating night, and a delicious brunch (uncle Dave’s yummy pancakes and Syd’s home fried potatos), we said good bye to uncle Dave, aunt Lisa and Izzy and got back on the road after telling our best friend Paul (aka our GPS) our next destination: Lindsey’s place, Atlanta, GA.

It has been the longest distance so far, about 400 miles (650 km), which took us aprox. 7 hours. The hardest part of the deal is that Syd is driving all by herself since Mari clearly lacks practice and we are not willing to risk our lives in the learning process right now. So, Mari feels kinda guilty (which Syd thinks is absolutely absurd), and in order not to be so useless she tries to entertain and assist syd with about everything she needs, and she also makes up new assignments for her own like creating this blog and feeding it with new posts with our news and photos (and upcoming videos!), which of course count on the indispensible editing skills of Syd.

We also had a remarkable event today. So, putting a little context, Syd decided to make Mari have this full American experience with all its typical traditions and habits. Since we started the first day of journey, syd screams every time she sees this place called “Waffle House” (and it is everywhere in the south). She wanted to take Mari there no matter what, which we were finally able to do today. Mari was really curious about it because every time she asked why she was supposed to go there, syd would give vague answers .. “oh, it’s not that good”, “no… not great at all.. but you’ll see, you just have to go”. So, once there, syd orders this “sweet tea” and says “you HAVE to taste it”. And Mari asks: “Why, is it that good?”, “Actually, no, but you just have to…it's very much part of the southern american experience”. Mari tries it, it sucks, syd laughs. Mari is just about to give it a second chance when we are surprised by this cockroach passing just next to syd’s hair, a cockroach that brouth with it a 10% discount and a free dessert due to the waitress' extreme embrassment and guilt. So then we enjoy our meal, and though it was not bad, it was not that good either, but definitely a must-have American experience.

We got to Atlanta by the evening, with Syd was surprised that it is actually “a real city” (side note from Syd: the suprise wasn't from it being a "real city", but rather that it was so vertical with skyscrapers...she just wasn't expecting she had never heard of Atlanta being a tall city). It has a beautiful skyline, and we were warmly welcomed by the adorable Lindsey and her roommate Elizabeth. More on Atlanta tomorrow.

DAY 2

We had only around 3 hours to do tourism in Washington, so we decided to stick to the fundamentals: the White House and the Capitol. It was snowing and the white house was whiter than ever. We were in a hurry to meet our friend Susi so we had to say no Mss. Obama’s tea time invitation. “Maybe next time, Michelle!”.

Our reception at the Capitol was not that warm, though. As soon as we got there, Syd was told to leave her inseparable bottle of water AND non disposable cup of tea in nowhere else than the trash can. After a short discussion with Mr. Guard, and after being kindly convinced by Susi, Syd accepted to “keep” her bottle and cup in the trash can wrapped in one of these plastic bags made for umbrellas that we found in the entrance. After the 1 hour tour (totally recommended by the way – by Mari) through the US house of congress, we all ran to the secret treasure chest (aka the trash can) and , yay!, there they were, syd happy as a clam.

Back on the road, 5 hours driving led us to aunt Lisa and uncle Dave’s place. We were warmly welcomed by syd’s cute cousin Isabel and slept like babies down in Raleigh, North Carolina.

DAY 1

We finally left Yorktown! Not that we were not having a great time there with the movies marathon and the great company of Papa and Mama Malawer, but we were anxious to start our road trip adventure!

We left in pretty good weather, with a sunny day highlighting the great, white landscape resulting from the last 2 days of hard snow.

Syd was extremely excited and she is very peculiar in these moments, shouting and yaying and repeating incessantly the great news as if she wanted to believe herself: “We started!”, “We are doing it”, “Here we are”!

We turned on the radio and there he was, our favorite Paisa* pop artist, Juanes, the soundtrack for so many unforgettable moments back in Medellin. Plus, it was Mari’s favorite song!!! Perfect start.

We informed our GPS (Papa Malawer’s very useful gift) of our next destination: “Cynthia’s place” and after 5 hours, there we were! Cynthia was Syd’s almost-roommate the summer after college in the beautiful Ithaca, NY, and her and Thomas (her fantastic fiance) proved to be amazing hosts! Syd already suggested that they open a B&B after retiring. Besides making us some delicious shrimp pasta, Cynthia and Thomas offered their place as a meeting point for gathering Syd’s other friends in the area, since that was our only night in the town. And that’s how we met up with Brett, Susi and Sarah, and had lots of fun and lots of wine.

Not bad for a first day of journey, huh?

First obstacles...

We were forced to delay our departure in two days due to the snow. That could have been very depressing cause we both usually get nervous when things don't work out our way. But it turns out that we have been quite relaxed about the hiccup, since syd has been doing a lot of yoga and mari is happy as a child cause she has never seen so much snow is her life.

Welcome to our road trip blog

We created this space to share with our family and friends some pictures and news from our united states cross-country road trip adventure. On the right side of our blog you can find some updated information on our route and the status of our journey. We would love to have your comments and suggestions on the places we are visiting. Maybe you have already done your own road trip and wanna share some advice or know this cool place and want us to go too, please be welcomed!

Here we start off in New York, at Mari's first American (New Yorker more like it) Sunday Brunch, at Stone Park Cafe in the lovely Brooklyn! The food was delicious, the company even better, but the waitress was rude and offputting. Hey, 2 out of 3 ain't bad, right? Here are pictures of Syd's delicious grits, Mari's delectable pancakes that proved to be too much for her still-on-brazilian-diet-sized stomach to finish on her own (but no worries...according to Syd that will change after a few months in the harsh winter cold of Providence), and their fantastic friend Nick with his biscuits and gravy, that honestly looked incredibly gross but proved to be delish seeing as he finished them all in one fell swoop of the fork.