Note: The blog for the first day is not a lot of fun to read and super long, so feel free to skip that, because it’s a total downer.
Note 2: I wrote this several days before posting and I don’t feel as strongly anymore, but I’m still leaving it as is because at the time it was an awful and stressful experience. I’m proud of having been able to handle the situation as well as I did and it was an important experience for me during this trip. But if you want to skip the negative stuff (in italics), go straight to 2019-03-17.)
2019-03-16 Orlando, FL (or rather: a random starbucks, somewhere in Orlando, FL)
What a total shit of a first day in Orlando. Pardon my French, but there is no other way to say it.
After having spent over 8 hours on the overnight Greyhound and barely sleeping for half the trip, I made it to Orlando, Florida at 5 am on Saturday morning. My host had texted me that I could come to his place straight away and either hang out in his backyard, or give him a call and he’d let me in. I was super excited and thought that was so kind of him to offer. I went to the bus station and made my way across town to get to his place. It took me over 2 hours, because the buses stop every few blocks and I had to transfer at the central bus station, which is a bit chaotic, so I missed my bus and had to wait an hour for the next one. I finally made it to - let’s call him Kevin - Kevin’s place and there’s a big party going on. I’m a bit confused, as it is 7:15 in the morning and he’d told me he doesn’t stay up too late. I thought I was at the wrong address, but the number on the mailbox was the right one. I tentatively stepped into the house and was greeted by a handful of very drunk people. I asked if this was Kevin’s house, but no one could tell me. I wanted to leave and call Kevin, but one of the guys told me he’d find someone who knows where they are and who the house belongs to. The next 3 or 4 people didn’t know either where they were or who even owned the place, so I got ready to leave again. I was extremely disappointed. I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did. Finally, someone found Kevin and he came to say “hi” to me. He was super drunk and draped his arm around me while swaying dangerously with a beer can in his hand. He told me that some girls were staying where I was supposed to sleep, but I could stay on the couch in the living room (where there were currently about 10 drunk people and everything was super dirty and messy). I was completely shocked. This was the complete opposite of what I had expected. Kevin told me to take off my shoes and come to the beach (strip of sand by the lake in the backyard) with them. I told him I was tired since I had just traveled for over 12 hours and that I needed some rest and his place was too crowded and loud. I was respectful and told him thanks for offering me a place to stay. I told him that I couldn’t stay with him, not like this, and thanked him again. I picked up my stuff again and wanted to leave. He got angry and asked me why I couldn’t just stay for a while, grab a beer and hang out. I told him again “thanks for offering me a place to stay, but this isn’t for me. I need some peace and quiet” but he didn’t seem to want to accept that answer. I started to feel really uncomfortable and thanked him again for his kindness but told him that this just wasn’t the right place for me and that I’d find somewhere else to stay. He still seemed extremely angry, so I walked away as fast as I could. I walked until I had left the neighborhood and was on a main road again. He texted me, calling me disrespectful, I was so glad that I had gotten away from that place.
I was kind of in shock, now that I think of it. I stood by the side of the street for half an hour, not knowing what to do or where to go. I was tired, hungry and in desperate need of a restroom to clean up. I felt lost and angry and lonely. I decided to take the bus back to the city (I had to get some change first so I could pay for the bus, so I bought a can of Arizona iced tea at a gas station), find a starbucks and see where to go from there.
When I finally got to the starbucks, I got myself an iced coffee, found a table in the corner that had an outlet and settled down. I spent the next 9 hours in that starbucks. I had an outlet for my phone and laptop, wifi, a restroom, and no one tried to kick me out. It was ideal for my situation. The whole time I was there, I tried to find a place to stay. I messaged at least 10 people on couchsurfing, I looked at Airbnbs, I checked out hotels, but nothing really seemed to work out. Then, finally, at almost 5 pm, I got a message from a host that I could stay with him that night. I was so relieved! He lived quite far from the city center and it took almost 2 hours with public transportation to get there, but at least I had somewhere to stay.
Abdol was really nice and welcoming when I got to his place. He has a one-bedroom apartment and I would be staying on his couch. After freshening up, we went to dinner together. We had Thai food at a nice and quiet restaurant before we went back to his place, where we talked for a while and then went to sleep at a decent time. The couch was super comfortable and I slept like a log!
2019-03-17 Orlando, FL
My second day in Orlando was far less stressful than the first one. Abdol and I took his car to go to the city. On the way there, we stopped at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and we were lucky; the sign was flashing, which means freshly baked donuts are available. They were so tasty!
We went to Lake Eola and walked around it. There was a little market going on where I had a nice conversation with one of the vendors who was selling his wood-burning art. We then walked a few blocks downtown before heading back to the car.
We went to a couple of car dealerships because Abdol was looking for a car. I saw a BMW with a Munich licence plate at the BMW dealership. Of course, I had to take a picture. I hadn’t expected to see a German, let alone a Munich, licence plate here!
After looking at a few more cars, we went to a mall, where we tasted some coffee and then we went and got Arabic food. It was delicious!
Back at his apartment, I bought a ticket for Universal Studios for the next day. I’m not a big enthusiast of theme parks, but when in Orlando… I also spent almost one and a half hours on the phone with the Greyhound customer service because I saw that they double charged me for my trip from Atlanta to Orlando. Everything should be sorted out now, though.
2019-03-18 Islands of Adventure, Universal Orlando
I had planned to get to the park when it opens, so at 9am, but i hadn’t set an alarm because I thought I’d wake up on my own by 8am at the latest. Turns out, I was wrong. I woke up at 9:15am, got ready as quickly as possible and then called an uber to get to the park. I arrived at 10:15am and there was already and endless stream of people heading through security and towards the amusement parks. Getting through security went surprisingly fast and I was in the park in less than half an hour.
Stepping into the park was quite overwhelming, especially since I hadn’t been to a theme park in several years, maybe even a decade. I got acclimated fairly quickly and had an absolute blast at the park. The first ride I went on was a 4D Spider-Man ride. It was way more exciting than I had thought. Then, I went on all the water rides. I had to buy a poncho because I didn’t bring any waterproof clothing on this trip and I saw that the people exiting the rides were absolutely soaked from head to toe. The water rides were a lot of fun, but despite my poncho, I had wet feet for the remainder of the day.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was probably my favorite section of the park. I got to see Hogwarts and walk through Hogsmeade. I went into a candy store that had all the wonderful sweets that are described in the books and shown in the movies. It wasn’t very easy to stop myself from buying anything, but I stayed strong.
I continued walking through the park, getting onto random rides and enjoying the solitude of being alone in a big crowd. The amusement park was pretty relaxing for me, which must sound crazy for most people. It was one of the first days in a long time where I didn’t have to be anywhere at a specific time, where no one expected anything from me, and it was refreshing. I went at my own pace (which was faster than most other people’s) and took a long break in the early afternoon to have something to eat at one of the restaurants. I had already gone around the park one time and gotten to go on all the rides I wanted except for one, which had been temporarily closed when I went by it.
I decided to give it another try and went back there. It was open! I stood in line for about one and a half hours and was about 10 minutes from getting onto the ride when they announced they had technical problems but that we were welcome to stay and wait. Since I had already waited for so long, I decided to wait. It took probably another 20 minutes before they got things running again and not much long later I finally got onto the ride. It was fun, but I would never stand in line for 2 hours for something like that again.
When I got off the ride, it was already dark and the park would close in about 45 minutes. I walked to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter again (deciding to make my way round the park one more time) and there, people were gathering to watch a “light show”. I didn’t know what exactly that would involve but it caught my attention, so I stayed. Turns out, they illuminate Hogwarts castle with wonderful light projections. When they introduced the different houses, everyone cheered for theirs and I cheered with them when they showed the Hufflepuff crest.
I finished walking around the park a second time and then took the bus to go back to Abdol’s place. It was almost 10pm when I got there and I still had to pack because I would have to leave at 5:30am the next morning. I took a quick shower and then packed up all of my things before getting some desperately needed sleep.