This is (finally) the last part of our travelling diary from summer spent in the United Stated. In the previous report, I covered post-season work that was done by me and a couple of other friends. It was fun, it was long hours though and in the end, we all were glad that it is over :-).

We were supposed to hit Six Flags theme park one more time as a company retreat, but due to the bad weather it was postponed to mid September… which made it impossible for me to attend, as I had already booked some flights to Miami, FL. Yep, that’s what lifeguards do :-D.

To be specific — we finished work by 9th September, my first flight was scheduled on early morning 12t September. So I had 3 more free days, which we really enjoyed with our friends from the pool. We went to a steakhouse (Outback), a pancake house (iHop)… It was all about eating, packing, and eating once more.

The very last night spent in Baltimore was as easy-going as possible. My friend Neeraj helped me out and let me stay at his place. And since he got new DSLR, we went our for a short walk in the harbor. And man, we took a lot of pictures :-)

Catching the flight in the early morning next day was easy — the transport in Baltimore is superb and after hopping on the first light rail (= train), I got  to BWI Airport a way sooner than I actually needed to. I was a bit afraid of the security checks and everything else, but as it turned out, nobody was really pushy and I was even able to „smuggle“ some  cosmetics I wasn’t supposed to be carrying :-).

I got to Miami right before lunch time and the only thing I had to do was catching a ship — yes, that’s right: We were supposed to go on a CRUISE :-). So I jumped on a blue van (service called SuperShuttle), paid 20$ and got to Miami Port. Once again, way sooner than I actually needed to. But it was a smart choice since there was a buffet lunch being served on the pool deck :-). Right after that, I waited for my friends to arrive… and then we left for BAHAMAS PARADISE!

The itinerary of our 4-day cruise adventure was as following:

• NASSAU @ Bahamas
• COCOCAY @ Bahamas
• KEY WEST @ Florida

Sounds amazing? It truly was! To describe my first experience to someone who has never been on a cruise, that’s almost impossible. Let’s just keep it to „the most awesome 4 days in my life“. Everything was taken care of, you didn’t need to do anything apart getting (at least) some sleep before another day full of eating and partying began. All that mixed with snorkeling, jetskis, gym, jacuzzi, and ordering room service at 2am :-).

The stops we made were great. It all worked like this: you arrived to a port in the morning, went for a breakfast (well, more like four breakfast meals in a row :-), then got off the ship and spend a day on Bahama island doing whatever you pleased, then got back, ate a snack, went to gym/running track and got ready for a rather posh dinner with several dishes (and deserts)… some rest afterwards before evening program (=parties) kicked in :-). That was it, 4 days in a row. We were „genuinely smashed“ — to quote our Aussie friends during the very last breakfast buffet.

In the end, I have to say I was really glad the cruise was over :-). Once we were back in Miami port, we jumped into a taxi and drove over to our hotel in South Beach. Even though we had some plans to see the beach etc., we all went to bed instead and slept for several hours. That was the aftermath after our cruise — it literally destroyed us, yet we had the time of our lives :-)

The only thing we needed to do that day was to pick-up my brother who was arriving from Tampa. And after that, another party. This time at Miami Beach with a couple of lifeguards from around Maryland and also 2 girls from Virginia, who were on W&T as well and also happened to be our high school friends.

As a part of our preparation, we went to liquor store and „got ready“ with some rum. Which was a bad decision to make :-) Right now, that night is often referred to as „a night we will never talk about“ since a lot of bad things happened. No one got injured (or arrested), fortunately, only „material damage“ :-)

After the „night we will never talk about“ we still had almost full three days left before our flight back to Europe. Even though we made a very thorough plan, we had to make a lot of changes as well since everything was a bit different from what we expected. Also, thanks to our wild party on Miami Beach, we lost like half-a-day that we spend in the bed… recovering :-).

So the next day was about sightseeing in Miami, and is there a better way to do it than with a bike? Sure not! To summarize, we biked for more than 40 miles and our main goal was to see Key Biscayne, which was one of the best things we could do! It was beautiful, stunning and we got to see some EPIC houses of american rock-stars and whatnot.

We got back just a couple of minutes before the bike-rental shop closed down. It was very adventurous (and tiring) ride, we got one flat (thanks to bad karma, of course :-), but we enjoyed ourselves like little kids. When I was selecting which pictures to include in this report, I almost started crying and wanted to go back right away :-). We had an unforgettable day, one that I would put among the best ones during summer 2012.

And to make things even more interesting, take a look at this video!

That was our last day in Miami. It was also a very first time we went to bed before midnight and instead of a party we went for a nice meal in a „local“ Cuban restaurant. We needed to get some rest — a long drive to Orlando was on the itinerary the very next day :-).

And it all started rather boring — a taxi drive to Avis car rental, getting another SUV (we ended up with KIA this time) and setting off for yet another fascinating adventure. It was a very long drive and we planned to make some sightseeing breaks. But, as always, we had to change plans :-). This time it wasn’t our fault entirely — our GPS broke down and we had to drive to Miami Airport to replace it, which caused us to cancel the trip to Everglades (national park with alligators and everything else). … I was actually really looking forward to seeing it all, but what the heck.

This wasn’t the last time we went to Florida :-).

With a new satnav (and some extra miles), we headed to Palm Beach, where we got a short rest and went for a „swim“. It was one of the nicest summer places and it had huge waves too, so we played — once again — like little kids!

After that, another 100+ miles to Cocoa Beach, our next destination. We were supposed to see Kennedy Space Center but somehow missed the opening hours… :-) So instead, we went to Ron Jon surf shop, one of the most famous surf places in the world. And since we were in THE surfers’ city, we had to hit the beach and grab some pictures too.

With Cocoa Beach crossed off of our list, there was one very last thing to do. It is actually related to our very first day in USA — when we arrived and got rid off all the responsibilities and paperwork at the aquatics office, we went to Domino’s Pizza for late dinner. And we made a deal that we would do the same thing on our very last day. So guess what :-)

Bellies full Domino style and everyone was happy. That was the very last evening in USA. But we were still more than 1 hour drive from Orlando Airport and had an (very) early flight to catch. Once again, to make a long story short — it all worked out, surprisingly we didn’t crash the car and got safely where we need to be. Then, it was just one very long day and we covered more than 6 thousand miles that day. Awesome? You bet…

True story! :-)

And now, 2 months later, I finally found some time (and motivation) to wrap up this diary. I will be repeating myself this time, but the summer we spent in Baltimore was one of the best times of my entire life — mainly thanks to the perfect work conditions we had, great group of people around us (mostly from high school) and absolutely laid-back lifestyle, which is something I miss the most right now. But what can you do… Life goes on, summer paradise is over and school/work schedule is fine too, only different.

Trust me, if you ever get a change to go on W&T program (lifeguarding or anything else), go for it. You won’t have time later on, that’s guaranteed… And if you take care of things soon enough, you will have an epic summer that will probably change the rest of your life :-D If you are not convinced yet, take a look at this photo collection from our whole summer!

KeyLanding & Post Season

So this is the last report from our Work&Travel summer spent in USA. I would be probably repeating myself now… but who cares:

It’s been one of the greatest summers ever; and the decision we made with my brother and other friends to go there… I consider to be one of the best I’ve ever-ever-ever-ever made in my life!

Last week at work was kinda different. I and my brother were moved to different pool (The Key Landing). We’ve been there already, so we knew what to expect. The pool itself is OK, it’s just that the location is not so good. It’s very far from everywhere… TacoBell, Mars groceries, bus to Baltimore. And since we didn’t have our own car during the summer, that sucks a lot! But as I said, we knew what to expect so we got ready :-).

And the best part is that the group of lifeguards who worked there for the very last week was just awesome and male-only (we weren’t the only ones being moved). So I guess you can say that we enjoyed it!

That’s us watching a movie… at work! :-)

The weather in September wasn’t very good, which was perfect for us as lifeguards– not too many people showed up. I can’t really remember the details now, but I am sure that we had at least 2 days totally off… It was raining lightly, the temperature got down to low 70s F.

So perfect „work conditions“, it can’t get it any better :-)

And we had lotta time for goofing around!

Among other things, I finally learned how to do a backflip. It took me a whole summer and there is still a lot of room for improvement, but at least I am not afraid of going backwards blindly anymore :-).

All-in-all, it went really fast and last couple days lifeguarding were actually the ones most-easy going. We had a great team, enjoyed ourselves tremendously… and just kinda took it easy as the summer was finally winding down.

Post Season

On the very last day of the pools being open (5th Sep) — once we closed down the pool, we started so-called post-season. In the span of next 4 days or so, we were going all around Baltimore and made sure that the pool were ready for winter (hiding furniture, lowering water level, etc.)… one after another. It wasn’t very interesting job, but once again – we had LOTTA FUN!

Not to mention the final after-after-parties only for those who stayed (couple guys), including our very first — but legendary — visit to Hustler Club in Baltimore :-).

After all the work left was done, I had 2 days to pack and say good-bye to everyone we got close to during the summer. We went „celebrating“ to stake house, iHop and couple other places. It all got very emotional and I can’t say that there were no tears involved :-).

I would just like to say one big THANK-YOU to Jule and Neeraj, who helped us quite a lot with everything related to our travels (transport, luggage etc.). Without you, everything would be much more complicated and we would probably get into some sort of troubles. So thanks again, I can’t wait to see you again — hopefully quite soon!

Last night in Baltimore

My last day in Baltimore was amazing. After I finally woke up (which was hard since we had lot of beers to finish before I left :-), I got my stuff ready and left Cockeysville to sleep over at one of our friends in downtown. It was raining almost all day, but that didn’t stop Baltimore Ravens from crushing the arch-enemy Pittsburgh Steelers :-). I didn’t see the game in person — the tickets were outsold weeks prior to the game… But it was just something unforgettable to see everyone wearing something purple and going crazy about the game. That’s just another thing I love about US: sports and thousands (I mean many and many thousands!) of fans cheering up the local team!

We went for one last walk to Baltimore Harbor… then hit the bed as I had to get up quite soon because of my flight to Miami, FL! And that would be the topic of the very last report! Stay tuned :-)