East Coast Day 12: Baltimore & Washington

These were the last two town before New York City and the end of our travel. I planned only a night in Baltimore and maybe it would have been nice to stay there more. I didn't dislike the town like someone told me I would, but actually I saw only the harbor and did a little walk around there. Then this morning we arrived in Washington and left in all hurry the luggage in the hotel to go to rent a bike and tour the city. We did all the classical tourist things, like going up and down the mall, up to Capitol Hill, to the Lincoln memorial, around the basin... We also did a thing we discovered by ourself without any guidebooks told us: we go up the Old Post Office tower and see the city from above. I loved it, and it was free! I wonder why no one of the guides I have (3!!!) said something about it. In the afternoon the weather wasted a bit and so I went inside a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a Starsbuck cafe: I had every intention to buy at least a book of the list I have with me but no one was available, actually the Gay Fiction was only one shelf (one shelf!), all the Gay & Lesbian section (fiction and non fiction) was only a stand, in a two floors bookstore. When I asked to the customer service if maybe they did have them somewhere else, a very kind lady searched book per book in the system and said no, they didn't have them. She asked me if I needed them for some sociel studies, like if finding gay fiction in a bookstore was not so normal. I'm not complaining on the service, the lady was very nice, but I really believed it was easier here to find these books than in Italy.



( more pics )

Around the Wor...

By Elisa Rolle

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East Coast Day 12: Baltimore & Washington

These were the last two town before New York City and the end of our travel. I planned only a night in Baltimore and maybe it would have been nice to stay there more. I didn't dislike the town like someone told me I would, but actually I saw only the harbor and did a little walk around there. Then this morning we arrived in Washington and left in all hurry the luggage in the hotel to go to rent a bike and tour the city. We did all the classical tourist things, like going up and down the mall, up to Capitol Hill, to the Lincoln memorial, around the basin... We also did a thing we discovered by ourself without any guidebooks told us: we go up the Old Post Office tower and see the city from above. I loved it, and it was free! I wonder why no one of the guides I have (3!!!) said something about it. In the afternoon the weather wasted a bit and so I went inside a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a Starsbuck cafe: I had every intention to buy at least a book of the list I have with me but no one was available, actually the Gay Fiction was only one shelf (one shelf!), all the Gay & Lesbian section (fiction and non fiction) was only a stand, in a two floors bookstore. When I asked to the customer service if maybe they did have them somewhere else, a very kind lady searched book per book in the system and said no, they didn't have them. She asked me if I needed them for some sociel studies, like if finding gay fiction in a bookstore was not so normal. I'm not complaining on the service, the lady was very nice, but I really believed it was easier here to find these books than in Italy.



( more pics )

Around the Wor...

By Elisa Rolle

Book Preview

Not about my travel, a walk on my memory lane

I said before leaving that I would have take a leave and post only about my travel. But today was not a normal day; strange to say, I heard about it when I called home in Italy, since I don't see any tv or read newspaper here in USA. My mom asked to me if I knew... Patrick passed away. For who don't know me well, you can't understand, but Patrick Swayze was my first crush, really. I have all his movies, even the less important ones, even the ones, I admit myself, aren't so good. I have even some dancing video and recorded all his television appearance in Italy. I have tons of newspapers and pictures. When I was a teen my room was plastered of posters, and still now I have a single glass poster. But apart from all of this, what linked me still so much with him, was that he had the same cancer that took my father from me 15 years ago. Actually, I still remember that, to force me away from my father that last day, a friend of mine tempted me with a Patrick's movie, she said, Elisa, come with me, at least for a little while, she knew that really few things could work. When I heard of Patrick, and the type of cancer he had, I knew how terrible it was and how little chances he had, but I hoped that in 15 years things had changed. I hoped for him and his wife that money and importance could make a difference. Apparently they can't. Rest in peace Patrick, you were with me in a time when I really needed something else to think of, and you will continue to stay with me.

Not about my travel, a walk on my memory lane

I said before leaving that I would have take a leave and post only about my travel. But today was not a normal day; strange to say, I heard about it when I called home in Italy, since I don't see any tv or read newspaper here in USA. My mom asked to me if I knew... Patrick passed away. For who don't know me well, you can't understand, but Patrick Swayze was my first crush, really. I have all his movies, even the less important ones, even the ones, I admit myself, aren't so good. I have even some dancing video and recorded all his television appearance in Italy. I have tons of newspapers and pictures. When I was a teen my room was plastered of posters, and still now I have a single glass poster. But apart from all of this, what linked me still so much with him, was that he had the same cancer that took my father from me 15 years ago. Actually, I still remember that, to force me away from my father that last day, a friend of mine tempted me with a Patrick's movie, she said, Elisa, come with me, at least for a little while, she knew that really few things could work. When I heard of Patrick, and the type of cancer he had, I knew how terrible it was and how little chances he had, but I hoped that in 15 years things had changed. I hoped for him and his wife that money and importance could make a difference. Apparently they can't. Rest in peace Patrick, you were with me in a time when I really needed something else to think of, and you will continue to stay with me.