My Most Inspired and Nerve Racking Trip Yet

As of late traveling has lost much of its muse to me. The act used to inspire me greatly, snapping away photos in Romania, lying in my hotel room and writing into my travel journal in Syria, sitting and sketching at a café in Dublin.

I have been maintaining my usual travel habits, however the places which I have been going have simply failed to impress me. I’m starting to find it all a bit blasé, myself a bit Jaded. As of late though I have found myself moved to such a point that I have decided to set upon my most daring expedition yet and travel down the East Coast all by myself. No friends, no plans, no money, no car and nowhere to stay. I am purposefully pushing my limit in order to push myself out of my comfort zone and set out for a time of self discovery. All I have purchased is my flight to and from New York, and my train ticket back up the Coast from Savannah to New York at the end of the trip.

It all started with a need to understand the American artist. My initial inspiration was with “Object of Beauty” by Steve Martin and then with “Just Kids’ by Patti Smith. Living in Southern California you can’t help but feel like you are living in a bubble, a foreign country within the United States. We lack the culture and characteristics that are usually associated with the image of the rest of the country, with the stories we were so used to reading about as children. Where is the farmer and his wife of American Gothic by Grant Wood(left),

the almost abstract sceneries of Milton Avery(right), and the underground venues where Nirvana played their first concerts? This to me is the true America. 

Although the aforementioned books are mainly set in New York, the characters come from elsewhere and the theme is that of self discovery- something I have realized I need to do. I believe that to grow one must see. We must see what lies beyond, meet people whose ideologies are foreign to us, and go down roads we thought we would never see but always hoped to. Spending the summer with my family in England, by my pool with my roommate, partying in Vegas, and a spa weekend Palm Springs have all been a lot of fun, but I feel like I am missing something and can’t bare feeling like there are bigger and better dreams to live out. To me that dream trip has always been the East Coast from New York down to Georgia. A land I imagine to feel like home. Moving to New York has always been my greatest desire but I’ve let my sense of reality and pessimism get in the way. Sometimes you just have to get up and do that thing you dream of, and this is it for me- or at least the first steps of finding it.

The greatest reason of all for this trip (at this specific moment in time) is to go to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and see the Alexander Mcqueen exhibit titled “Savage Beauty.” Mcqueen and Yves Saint Laurent were my introduction to fashion as art. I was fortunate enough to see the YSL exhibit at the DeYoung Museum , shortly after his passing, and I would never forgive myself if I were to miss this exhibit after Mcqueen’s passing- a sort of closure  by paying my respects to their work. 

Image via Fault Magazine

I own the book from the exhibit and have spent countless hours looking at the pictures but am dying to see the garments and textures in real life. So since the last day is the 7^th of August, I bought my ticket for next week and am setting off to New York.

My plan is to meet up with my best friend Allie in New York for four days and discover all the places Patti Smith mentions, the restaurants Andy Warhol used to sit at (and discuss homoerotic themes with his Factory Crew), the places Alan Ginsberg might have performed at, the diners artists would spend hours sketching in.

 I also want to use this as an opportunity to research Urban Farming. A couple of months ago I read an article about Annie Novak of Brooklyn’s Eagle Street Rooftop Farm 

(http://blog.urbanoutfitters.com/features/about_a_girl_annie_novak)

  and was genuinely inspired.  

 Lying there on the Hudson River is a massive warehouse whose roof has been transformed into a giant farm. Urban Farming, I imagine, is big in San Diego but not massive. All our community gardens are at capacity and even our "local" produce comes from 40+miles away usually. So one of my first goals is to visit the farm and see if it is something that might be possible to do in San Diego.

From there I shall get on a greyhound bus and head to Philadelphia (for the simple purpose of eating a Philly Cheesesteak) and depart within a few hours to go to Washington DC. I will most likely do the touristy things such as go to the White House etc, but my goal is to visit museums, eat at local eateries and see what culture lies within the political parameters of this city.

From there I will head down to North Carolina (Raleigh or Charlotte-not sure which one yet) and hopefully go to the Cat’s Cradle, which is the underground venue that I talked about Nirvana performing in. 

Finally I will head down to Charleston and Savannah where I will reunite with a dear friend who moved away two years  ago and hopefully live out my dreams of the South of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind,” before taking a 18 hour train ride back through the countryside to Penn Station in New York before promptly returning to San Diego for the fall semester.

It is bound to be countless hours of being scrunched up and looking out of the Greyhound window and trying to sleep, spending nights drinking coffee at 24hr diners to avoid steep hotel prices, miles of walking through cities I have never been to, and sleeping on strangers’ couches. But I know that what I acquire from this trip is not only going to be vital in my future travels, but also in my future life plans. And I may cross out some cities for others along the way.

NightHawks by Edward Hopper 

Who knows maybe I will fall in love with  a farmer in South Carolina and never come back… A girl can dream can’t she.

WISH ME LUCK and

A bientot darlings!

We will see how all these plans pan out and I will update the blog with many photographs and stories in the week after I return (if I do return). 

PS:Yes I have assessed the dangers of traveling alone by bus as a young female, and will be using the MyMoby app, to update my closest friends of my location at all times and send out alerts with the push of a button if need be.

http://www.mymoby.com/

I highly recommend this app for students while drinking and partying, studying at the library late at night, or traveling alone. Best of all it's FREE.

Still your prayers would be greatly appreciated.