2008 South Carolina: Finally - Myrtle Beach!!

This is where my host family lived: Marion in South Carolina

This is our roadtrip! Over 1000 miles.

Finally we get in to what happened exactly a month ago; Myrtle Beach!! It's a long time and I miss already my time in South Carolina and especially the people there so much. We have planned some kind of reunion with the group and a meeting in Budapest has been just one idea among the others. But, let's return to what happened in South Carolina..

On my way to home .
We didn't speak too much on our way to Florence. Sally gave me my back and so we went in to our small airplane, after saying good byes to Charlotte & Dave. I took a deep breath of the warm and humid Carolina- air before I climped to the small air plane. After the plane had took off I started to feel terribly sad, now I had to say good bye to the state I love. That was the last time to see South Carolina for a long time. I truly love that country, tha state, those places, that climate and those landscapes. I love every hill, field, swamp and beach South Carolina has. Even more I love those people that live in South Carolina. I'm sure I'll come back to South Carolina some day. In New York we flew just beside Manhattan, and I can finally say I've seen New York City in all it's grandeur. It was funny to be in exactly the same spot I had been 6 weeks ago, full of hope. I had gained even more I ever had expected. Now it was all over, and I feel like it was just week when I saw the fast food restaurant where black mean lady didn't serve us. The flights passed quickly and so did the day. At home I went so see my friends, trying to understand I was really in Finland and I shouldn't use English anymore. In my dream I was still in South Carolina. It takes time to get used to speak Finnish again, when heart desires to America to speak and listen to that sweet and gentle southern accent...

The City that never sleeps...

4th day Myrtle Beach > Marion > Mullins > Columbia > Marion

DonUt and Ferrari :) (Donát truly loves cars and taking pictures with them, once the owner of the car showed up just when we were taking a picture :D)

In the morning we had to pack our stuff and leave MB and all the precious memories. On our way to Marion we stopped to Mullins Tobacco museom. It was interesting in some way, but nothing isnpired us when we knew what was going to happen: the good byes. We just tried to enjoy each other's presence as much as we could. Then is the last lunch. Benton and Blakely were also with us, I had to say good bye to them as well. Too many good byes for a small girl like me. It felt horrible that this was our last lunch, we had eaten so many unforgettable lunches in different places together. The atmosphere was melancholic. In Columbia we felt bad already in the beginning of the "last gathering", but it became much worse when one of our leaders, Jim, put some beautiful things about our time together into words. We just couldn't help crying. So we cried, laughed and tried to take pictures at the same time. The thing that our food in trailer had spread all over caused some cheer to our down moods. Last hugs and that's it. I had left behind the best times of my life. Only thing that makes me feel better, is that I can recall these times and I will see these friends in the future, that's for sure. I owe so much to Lions Club for changing my life, for real. This journey changed my way of thinking and helped me to know myself better, everyone should do this. We didn't speak anything on our way to Marion. There Lexi and Emily came to say good byes to me. I hate saying good byes to things I like so much. I started to pack my stuff and listened to some country station. I've started to like country music, it somehow resembles South Carolina. I noticed that I had left one of my bags to Columbia. Sally calls to say that she got it and will give it back to me in Florence airport the next day. I couldn't get sleep, I had just too many things in my mind.

Last hugs

Messy messy messy... :)

3rd day in Myrtle Beach

... I haven't mentioned about the problems that 2 showers cause for 14 persons in one appartment, who go to the ocean and to pool 3 times a day. And the panic that beasts called "Palmetto bug" living in our room cause. I succeeded in killing one monster by hitting it 100 times by hair brush. At last my brush was full of bug's flesh. And then Joyce, who is too conservative to lead and understand us. But we won't let her to deflate us, instead of that we make fun of it. Still, we know how to behave.




We were on beach, swimming pool and visited to Ripley's aquarium. Funny creatures, I like fishes and other underwater creatures. If I don't remember wrong, we were also in Wal-Mart, like we do often! WE LOVE SHOPPING IN WAL-MART! This was going to be our last night here, so we decided to do something entertaining. It's a pity, that it's thundering, so we can't stay outside. :( We sat in living room and talked all night long. Some of us slept on couch or on the floor. The atmosphere begun to turn into melancholic, when we realised this was going to be our last night together here.

Room, where sleeps 4 persons, looks like this..

2nd day in Myrtle Beach

Beach and pool for the whole day! 10 in the morning we woke up and headed for the endless sands of Myrtle Beach. Finally I fulfilled my dream: jogging along the waterline, when the beach lasts forever! We swimmed many hours and had fun. We buried each others to sand and enjoyed, once again, the beautiful and sunny day. Finally we got enough to stings of jellyfish, sand and salt water, and moved to pool. There we floated on mattresses, ate water mellon, drank coke and got tanned. We all admitted: This is the life! The feeling was relaxed, calm. We went to eat some dinner, and after that shopping to Colonia Mall. I got lost in the very beginning, but I found 4 shirts!


In the evening we went back to swimming pool! That's what I call FUN! We made so much noise, weird that no one came to complain, it was quite late. We chased each others, ran around the pool, threw balls and shot by water gun. Sally said to one of the hostel residents: "Don't worry, they're from Europe, they're... different" :D It was about 1 o clock in the night when we went back inside. After drying ourselves a bit we headed for the shops, that are open 24/7 in the great city of Myrtle Beach! The evening was full of typical amusement.

1st day in Myrtle Beach

It's RRRReggy!

Donát and our at least 6-stars-hotel



It's SPLASH!

First we gathered to Charleston, and then continued to our pit stop, the city of Georgetown. We ate lunch at continued to Myrtle Beach, that we had been waiting for. Finally we were in our "glorious" motel! It was a small building, that had 3 bedrooms (2-3 bunk beds in every one of them), 2 toilets, kitchen and living room. So we all 14 persons slept there. First we found a dead cockroach from our room, or they are called "Palmetto bugs" here, and then we found another one, and that one was LIVING! We all screamed and bounced in small space trying to kill it, with no avail. Then we went to eat to some kind of pizza buffet, Charlotte and Dave had come over to see me. The cleaner of the restaurants tried to make a record by cleaning table as fast he ever could, all sweaty. I must admit he was quite quick, it took just about 5 seconds to clean one table full of dirty plates and stuff. Then we went to MB Pelicans' baseball game, that I had been waiting for! Professional baseball game, finally! Donát threw the opening pitch! I loved the game, pity that the others didn't. They just don't understand the greatness of baseball! Mascots Splash and RRRREGGGYYYY amused us. :) Reggy is my favorite! We got bored with the game (or the others did, I didn't) and we went to look around the stadium. It was huge. American baseball games are much more tedious than Finnish baseball games, it lasted for 4 hours, I would say. The opponent team, Indiands, led until Pelicans made a home run and won the game! The ending was smashing, fire works and stuff! It was already night and still 28 degrees. They play the games late in the evening, probably because it's just too hot to play in midday.

Donát after pitching!

After the game we returned to the motel and then left to catch some "night life". It was about midnight when we went swimming to the ocean. The beach was almost empty except some fishers, shell collectors and odd guys. Some of us went swimming and some took pictures bouncing along the beach cheerfully. Some people in the beach were REALLY weird and a bit scary, there was one black guy who practiced some kind of martial art, and some who asked if we have cigarettes or "something else". We asked from the fishermans if they've got any fish and what kind of fishes are they fishing and the answer was: SHARKS! They said that sharks come to the shallows in the night time and we were just like baits there! I hope they were kidding. They should have said something if we were swimming with sharks. But there ARE sharks in Myrtle Beach area, that's not a joke. I read it from the newspaper how someone had seen a shark in this area. It was about 2 o clock when we returned to the motel. Today a notorious leader JOYCE joined us. She is really conservative and was indignant about we being outside in the city so late. She said that we disregard the rules, which is not true, we are in our best behaviour - we just like to have some fun, which is not illegal.

Girls just wanna have fun :---)