Artem's Blog

Hello everybody! Pretty much all day yesterday and the day before yesterday we were driving home from Key West, Florida. The trip took 30 hours (26 hours of pure driving). We made 3220 mi (5184 km) in total. Was it easy? Hell, no! I think next time we decide to go that far we’re definitely flying. Although, it was worth doing it once for fun, no question. As they say in Japan: «If you never climb Mt Fuji you are a fool, and if you climb it more than once you are a fool». I can’t agree more about this

Few words about Key West: it’s a paradise. Beautiful sunny place on the earth with myriads of tourists from all over the place! We’ve spent two days there and I felt sorry about leaving the place (or not spending more time there). The drive to Key West from Miami was no fun considering that when you’re driving you’re driving through small towns with 35-45 mph speed limit and tons of stop signals. One thing that I liked though is when you’re driving on the highway, you have Atlantic Ocean on the left and Gulf of Mexico on the right. If you just think about it, it’s truly amazing. And the view is gorgeous too. How did those folks manage to build the highway over the water at all? That’s something I was asking myself all the time. Also I liked the sign: «Use caution: crocodiles crossing».

When we arrived to the hotel, I felt tired. And considering that it was chilly outside, we’ve spent the rest of the day at the hotel, drinking beer, watching TV and posting to this blog

The next day we took the map of Key West, car and went to downtown. We ended up on Duval street (the main street in Key West). There, we parked the car for 40 minutes at the meter (we ran out of quarters quickly) and went to a french restaurant to have a breakfast. I ordered some fancy omelet with tomatoes, cheese and sausages and Darya got Crocodile’s legs with African elephant’s blood and melted cheese (nah, just kidding, we can’t remember what it was now).

After satisfying hunger, we took the car again and we were trying to find Hemingway’s house but ended up at Southernmost Point accidentally. Took pictures, of course. One of them:

If you go to the south, you can go no further than this point in US. Read the sign, it says: «90 Miles to Cuba». Do you want to go to Cuba?

The next thing was Hemingway’s house. We went there and tried to find the parking for the car but had no luck. So we proceeded to the old town area and found all day parking for only $15. Then we ended up at Front St and saw an ad about jet ski rentals. Remembering that I wanted to do that, I asked about the price. And then the man who I asked told me that we could also try para-sailing. Darya hesitated but I decided to give it a try. I’m I glad I did so! Because it was so much fun to see the island from 600 feet above the ocean. The views were unbelievable! And Darya enjoyed it too after all. I knew what I was doing

After that we rented a scooter for the whole day. You can see many scooter drivers in Key West because it’s a relatively small town, it’s hard to find the parking and scooter solves all those problems.

Do you like coconuts? Well, you can find them pretty much near every palm tree! Thanks to scooter, we were at Hemingway’s house in no time and parking wasn’t a problem. Nowadays the house is a museum and you can take a guided tour if you want. But we decided to explore it ourselves. I can spend another hour or two describing the house. But let me just say that I was really thrilled with what I’ve seen and read.

After attending this exciting place we continued exploring Key West by scooter. At this point I can say that we have seen every street and every place possible there for like 10 times, not less!

After we had enough walking, we went to the food store and bought beer there. Then we ordered pizza at some restaurant and went to the hotel (by that time we felt tired and happy). We had to be driving the day after so I needed to have enough rest. What happened then? Driving… a lot of driving… And so I’m finally at home writing this post. Vacation is over and it was fantastic!