The night was cold because of the AC. I ended up using the blankets even if I did not want to, but I guess it is fine because I am still alive.
Everyone was up rather early, but we did not leave the house until around 10am. We had breakfast with the oatmeal and the snacks that the host left us. Moreover, even if no one planned to take a shower in that place, we all did eventually. It was not the most clean bathroom in the world, but we all have bad eye sight so taking a shower was not a problem. As they said, ignorance is bliss and we were ignoring everything just because we could not see it properly.
We left the house glad that the worst housing was behind us and we reached the bus stop. It was just at the end of the street, so it was really convenient. Short waiting and off we went to Cleveland downtown.
Not a long ride and we got off. First destination was the Cleveland Cavaliers stadium. I went there lifting the damaged luggage plus strolling another one. I remember clearly that I tried to use just the left one to lift the damaged one so that I could work out a little bit.
When we arrived at the stadium we noticed one thing: on Sundays literally everything is close. We still took some time to take some pictures around the stadium. There was also the baseball stadium right across the street so we took pictures in front of it as well. I do not know why, but I still feel embarassed asking people to take family pictures of us. I should not be, but I do. Maybe it is because most of the times my dad wants to take family pictures but chooses a hand full of nothing for the background. Like, what are you trying to show in the picture?
Since it was Sunday we wanted to go to the church, but the first one we came across was not letting people in. There was even an armed guard. So we just rested a little bit in a square downtown. Going around with luggage takes so much energy from your mind and makes you feel more tired. I mean, I do not really know because I am only tired when I am sleepy, but my family was having a hard time going around.
At the square there were different stands selling things and I ended up buying a Cleveland Browns t-shirt with the names of the most popular players from the team. There is a huge hype around the team now that they finally have good players. Moreover, they also landed Odell Beckham Junior so the hype was understandable.
Ready to go, we walked to the mall which is actually a very long grass area (like the National Mall in Washington Dc). There was supposed to be the Fountain of Eternal Life but no one of us got closer to take pictures. I guess no one was really interested.
We walked down the mall, or maybe I should say up the mall because it was going uphill. From the top we had a really nice view of the empty stadium. Sometimes, it feels like I am just going around the cities to watch American football stadiums with my family.
Since it was closed, we decided to skip our visit there and headed to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, just five minutes by walk on the side of the stadium. From our position it actually took more than twenty minutes. Moreover, a heavy rain came down for around ten minutes. It forced us to wait at the subway station so that we would have been dry and safe from the water.
Once the rain stopped we reached the museum in five minutes. Me and Genzl were so hungry that we convinced everyone of having lunch first and then visit the exhibition. We had two pizza (one traditional cheese and one pepperoni and sausage), one chicken soup noodle for Genzl and one mac & cheese. Obviously my mom did not finish her mac & cheese so I told my brother that he will never have to finish his food again because mom set the wrong example already. It is funny to tease my mom. I do not know if it means that we are close enough to joke around or if I am just mean with people. Maybe I do not know how to relate or communicate with people without a sort of joking type of communication.
After lunch we discussed how badly we wanted to visit the museum, but we all agreed that the cost was not worth it because no one of us is really into rock & roll that much. So we just visited the souvenir shop with my dad bored to death because he could not connect to internet, but did not want to come with us.
While I was looking around I found so many things I would have liked to buy for the people I know as souvenir. For example, there was a nice commemoration t-shirt for the fifty years Woodstock anniversary. In the end I bought a magnet and a John Denver’s album titled “Greatest hits”. I could recognize “Country roads” and “Leaving on a jet plane”, two incredible songs that I come to appreciate so much.
Done with the shopping, we wanted to go to the shopping mall next to the bus terminal but we noticed that there was no such thing. So we just crossed the street and left my dad and Genzl at the Greyhound terminal to look after the luggage. Me, mom and Gabe went around the city in the direction of downtown.
My mom was actually craving for a Starbucks, though I do not know why since they do not sell anything that could be tasty for a person from Milan. However, as we noticed all day, Sunday is not a good day to hang out and walk around because pretty much everything is closed.
So we started heading back, even if we stopped inside a small number of shops. For example, we went into this candy shop and looked for chocolate or particular sweet gifts. Later on, we stopped to get some smoothie for me and Gabe, plus a donut for Genzl. Then we went into a grocery store to buy the ingredients for our supper and luckily we stayed long enough not to get soaked by the super duper heavy rain that came down.
We reached the rest of the family at the bus terminal and I got my luggage back. Before going to downtown I wrote to our AirBnb host to know the code for the keys to the door of the place. Since he had not answered yet at that moment, I started to read his review. Nine out of ten were really bad ones, describing all the wrong stuff going on from the dirty house to the dangerous neighborhood. Those red flags put me on alert, so I started some researches. I found out that the neighborhood where we were going to stay was actually one of the worst in the entire city of Buffalo. A superficial research on different crimes website showed me that only that week there were more than nine burglary, seven theft and even a shooting. It was too much.
I decided to change place since our host did not reply to my message. But one of the main reasons is that I wanted to keep my dad happy and relaxed. I wanted to avoid stressful situations and bad housing so that I would be on his good side when I will ask him to go to Lighthouse Landing Camp.
The trip from Cleveland to Buffalo was four hours long and I spent those hours looking for a new accommodation. I texted everyone I know from the US and Canada, looked for motels and even wrote to couchsurfers in the hope of finding a place for free or at a super low cost to avoid over spending. In the end, I surrendered and accepted the fact that I would have had to spend a lot. I found two really good places on AirBnb, one with DC and Marvel furniture and décor; one nice, but just that… nice.
We settled for the nice one and I saw €. 192,00 fly away from my pocket. Man, I am trying to save as much as I can to put everything into my music, but it is harder than I thought. Unexpected situations can come our way, but I was still really frustrated.
Arrival, Uber, home. We settled down pretty well and we were all happy with the apartment. It was nice and cozy. It was not that late, so we had time to cook corn beef in the Filipino style. The supper we had felt like home and we were all happy that we could share something so familiar while being away from home.
Me and Genzl did the dishes since we did not help cooking and then everyone just collapsed in their bed. Or the couch in my case.
Godyl Go! 