Ocean Five
Thursday, 09.02., Miami
Back
in Miami again. The same city, but it feels different now that we been here before.
The ways to go and drive, they are known, forming little nets in the mind instead
of labyrinths on maps. The hotel, another one, but we knew where to find it already:
Ocean 5 in Ocean Drive. The front of the hotel is painted in yellow, rose, green
and blue. The floor is stone. The breakfast coffee is from - Cuba.
"Where
are you coming from," Valentino, the desk manager asks.
"The Everglades,"
I tell him.
"Germany," Ronnie corrects me, and adds: "but right
now, from the Glades."
We had planned to go there on a daytrip in the
first days, to see the alligators, the turtles, the grass lakes, but somehow never
made it. It was in Naples, that the thougth struck me that we could still visit
them. That actually, they were right along the way we drove, right along the Tamiami
Trail.
More
last minute planning: the way we spent this day. Even though it was clear from
the beginning. A walk through Lummus Park. And then, after the East Coast we walked
along yesterday, a walk on this West Coast beach, to listen to the waves, to drink
in the colours of the South. Pink and turquoise. All those colours.
"And
the heron. See, it is still there, looking for fish" Ronnie said.
"And
the waves! Now this finally looks like the Atlantic Ocean."
"Do you
know the weather forecast for home?"
"Yes. You don't want to know."
"Snow."
"Right."
"So
let's get some more of that sun."
So
we went. Filling up our souls with this different wind, with this feeling of spring,
of summer soon to come.
"And this evening?"
"Dinner in Jerry's
Famous Deli?"
"Mozarella sticks and Budweiser?"
"And
the pancakes I had on our very first morning here."
This
Deli, next to Haddon Hotel, where we stayed at the beginning of our trip, at the
other side of Lummus Park, in 15th Street. This Deli that looks out of a sixties
movies, with red couches, round coffee cans, and star photos of the thirties hanging
on the walls. I wished they had one of those back home.
Yet
I am still not sure what is the best. The discovering of a new place, or the returning
to a place that you discovered. But I guess we will return there, to that beach,
to that deli, to that magic. And maybe one day, we even go and visit Mickey Mouse.
- DL,
2005, Wernau am Neckar -
additional
information about the trip and the author
can be found here
