Miami- Lignano on steroids

This term break I had the chance to visit Miami in the course of my trip around Panama. Since I had never been to Miami or Florida in general before I was excited to see this part of the U.S.

I did not come there with the highest expectations like someone else might had because this city is so hyped, no I was actually ready to be rather disappointed because most people who have been there told me it's actually not that great and I know from my own experience the U.S cities never really live up to your expectations. And once I was there I have to say I was underwhelmed. But lets start from the beginning.

I went there in February at a time my hometown experienced heavy ice rain that froze over half the city, so I was used to very cold weather. Once you get out of the airport hot and humid air surrounds you completely while you take in the busy airport streets lined with Palm trees. That at least was a good first impression. Also the drive from the airport to Miami Beach was very nice as the highways also have a lot of palm trees around and you get a glimpse at the skyline of downtown Miami. Our hotel was on Collins Avenue in Miami beach, just one street next to the famous Ocean Drive. But that was it for the positive stuff for now. While I was ranting about the worst hotel ever in my post about Rome, I have to take back what I said because compared to the one there Rome was the Burj. If you go to Miami don't ever ever stay at the Berkley Shore hotel, it's the most run-down place I have ever seen in my life, and to me its still an enigma how a place like this can be licensed in a civilized country.

Miami beach itself wasn't so great either, it really reminded me of a huge Lignano in Northern Italy, which we call the “janitor-beach” in Austria. Everything was kind of old an run down, I really didn't see whats so special about it, If I came all the way from Europe for Miami only this would have probably been the most disappointing trip of my life.

Also Miami airport was just a pain in the neck. When I went home from Panama I had to connect in Miami and almost missed my flight. The problem was: Anyone also if you're just connecting must enter the country, which means go through immigration again, claim your baggage, go through customs drop off your baggage and go through security again. And now try doing this when you only have a two hour lay over. Immigration was just a joke, there were hundreds of people lining up and all they had open were three counters while most of the staff just stood there bossing people around rather than opening another counter.

I had to go through this whole process again too although I still had a valid entrance permission stamp in my passport from my prior trip there. When asking the staff for help all you get is rude comments. How ever I managed to get placed in another shorter line and just was on time for boarding. A guy I guess he was in his 80s had only 15 minutes to his flight when still lining up for Immigration, I'd be surprised if he caught that flight. So if you are going to America I advice you taking a flight that flies to your destination directly without landing in the US prior because connecting there really sucks.

There were some peaks to Miami though: Whats really cool is walking down south beach at night to the marina from where you have a view of the skyline of downtown. As for food I'd suggest a BBQ burger at the art deco diner, which was one of the best I've had.

A fun fact about Miami: I did not hear a lot of English there. In fact it ranks number three behind Spanish and German. Due to the high population of Latin Americans Spanish can be heard everywhere and most signs are in English and Spanish. At the airport most of the staff automatically spoke Spanish to me because my ticket said Barcelona and Panama. As for German.. well I guess there were just a lot of tourists.