Egregoros

hello

i was on roadtrip in usa from nov 15 to jan 21. thats 68 days i travelled from DC to maryland/baltimore to pennsylvania to niagara to detroit to chicago to kansas to ca-lee-forny-uh to vegas and arizona to tennessee (memphis) to georgia to circle back to DC, a few more places and then home

The plane tickets cost me about 350€ roundtrip from home airport to washingtonDC and back. The roadtrip, ALL EXPENSES DURING, cost about 6000$ for 2 people, roughly 50 days. Includes car maintenance, hotel stays, gas, food, tickets for places, etc etc. And another extra 2500€ spent by me after messing around alone without my road trip partner after the road trip. Total cost for me personally, ~5000€ ish for my 68 days.

I drove about ~9000 miles, ~14500km.


to start off: MARYLAND and PENNSYLVANIA
photo thread begin

walked along/on some river, gunpowder river, maryland, or something like that. its a very cool river because theres enough rock debris to cross the river without a bridge on atleast 2 points, assuming youre not afraid of gigantic short-run-jump leaps from foot sized rock, hopping to foot sized rock, to foot sized rock, with very mild rapids around you. 100 squirrels chipmunks and birds, despite november. Some big rocks have weird cooking pot shaped holes in rocks that look weird.

Also sat on the king and queen seat, last photo, a very fall-off-able rock featuring a 190foot (~60m) drop straight down! (very cool!)

there was a group of ~6 or so college kids there and one of them was scaredy as fuck to do a very easy and not dangerous rock hop waaay away from the tip of the seat; i watched him panic for a good 5 minutes and laughing at him and egging him on so to say. Eventually someone else showed how to do it to him, (just a 2 foot, or 0.66m deep drop, you can ass slide down along it) and he did it. At this point i got bored, walked past him (i was more towards the rock peak) and said "Good job, Handsome" and left. This left him incredibly flustered which was really funny as i walked away

LONGWOOD GARDENS, (repost!)

this place was hyper fancy, and the entry ticket was only 30$. Definitely one of the places where i felt the price was much lower than the value i got out of it.

Minus ofcourse the cold as fuck eggnog i was served that tasted like the worst eggnog ive ever had for 8$ in a 200ml cup, fuck that

The entire 1000+ acre (400+ hectares) during the winter time was covered in insane lightshows on the outside, and the most beautiful garden greenhouses on the inside. There were several displays with LED waterfountains (no water, just LED pretending to be splashes of water) and other light shows synced to various orchestral musics as you walk the gardens.

aesthetic

also a fuckload of bonzai (pronounced BONE-SIGH) photos that i took but ill maybe post them later because who wants to look at bonesigh anyway

WASHINGTON DC

parked car, went in hotel, tried to sleep in hotel next to the white house, some black kid kept doing knock-knock-ditch on my hotel door and it pissed me off

black people kept yelling at me all around washington DC streets for various things
"BUY TRUMP 2028 MERCH"
"SIR YOU LOOK LIKE YOU WOULD DONATE TO WAR VETERANS" bro get the fuck off meeeeeeee im walkin here
"NO KINGS"
etc

everyone that wasnt a tourist, a protesting peasant or merch selling peasant, was a VERY fucking fine-quilted looking motherfucker in five figure $$$ tuxedo / suit on the streets around the area. A hot dog in the whitehouse area was ~15$, but walk 2 streets off the National Mall (name of the giant lawn 5km*0.5km where the whitehouse, washington monument in the middle, and capitol and lincoln memorial are) and you can get a full meal for that, so weird pricing things i guess. Also the whitehouse was like being half-renovated so one half of it was fully demolished for the future ballroom at the time. Lotsa construction so neighbouring streets were extra closed off. Sidenote: it took me about 6 hours of walking around to figure out that the "National Mall" is not an underground mall under the giant whitehouse area lawn.

All the flags were at half mast for the death of DICK CHENEY which was the funniest thing for me because the end of the half masting ended in the middle of the evening so i was left rather perplexed for a long time why they were half down in the morning and full mast by evening (daytime photo of the monument with all flags half mast, and few hours later, night time with all flags full mast)

Last photo, after leaving washington DC, saw this highway protest and cringed to death, my god.

the giant rubber screaming chicken costume man waving sent me to orbit + the man fumbling with the canadian flag on the left

Also saw the best protest in Washington DC, though i didnt wanna take a photo, it seemed rude to. A woman in the most elaborate costume (mustve taken weeks to fabricate), dressed as a very elaborate and shiny goth chick demon, solo protesting right infront of the whitehouse entrance booth with a sign against trump. It was elaborate, it was non intrusive, it was eyecatching, it was beautiful to look at, and most importantly, it wasnt retarded. Also had big booba

WASHINGTON DC, SMITHSONIAN

smithsonian museum is cool would recommend (and free!)

some things worth pointing out:
The shiny and pretty rock and crystal collection they have is fuckin awesome. The hope diamond (the diamond, whos every owner ever has died a very gory, publicly violent death or otherwise grand catastrophe. According to the plaque somewhat nearby, The shiny Hope diamond now, very ironically, belongs to The American People.

The hope diamond was behind glass, in the dark, and really small, so i took the shittiest photo of it possible of course

I took a FUCKLOAD of pretty rock photos but unless someone has rock autism i aint postin all that

There was also one section of the museum dedicated to Woke, and it was incredibly cringe and tonedeaf. EXCEPT FOR THE PART of the woke section where it was african artists, they were giga based.

@meso asked me about how the visa stuff went

So i went on a VISA-waiver program, (ESTA), which really fucking pissed me off cause i hate paperwork. But im sure a real VISA wouldve pissed me off even more so good riddance.

I had to take a selfie,
scan my passport,
my job info, and have proof of job ready on hand incase they ask,
my phone number and email and home address.
give One contact person in the USA and their full personal details and address and contact informations.
pay a "not"-VISA fee for the waiver (formerly ~20$, now 40$ this year)
give at least 1 social media account (i gave one, the minimum required to not be flagged for extra cavity searching according to the papers given, gave my old facebook that isnt really used at all).
and the usual "i am not going to bomb the POTUS with bombs that will kill and murderize people" checklist

Some were not necessary to be filled, but leaving any box unfilled was "Grounds for non-randomized extra inspection by border patrol agencies" or something like that. I filled all out and only had a 15 minute interview with the border guard, didnt have to show my gay-porn filled phone and laptop or anything

ESTA IS CHANGING!
Very soon (date pending sometime soon this year, if not already active), there are extra requirements and annoyances added to the ESTA visa waiver system!
The website to make a ESTA on is going to be removed, and is going to be replaced with a phone app
From the past 5 years you must provide, personal and business: All Phone numbers, Social media, email addresses (10 years this), all family member names birthplaces and contact informations and addresses, and facial + fingerprint + dna data collection (dna questionable that they'll succeed with but MAYBE WHO KNOWS, they want to in the law bill at least). Biometric data collection as of Dec 26, 2025, is now crazier feeling, than what i had on entry and exit before from the USA, though they didnt take my DNA when i left.

If You are not a ESTA eligible country citizen, your visa will be about 410$ visa fee + 250$ "visa integrity fee" (bullshit fee) + who knows what else (visa bond fee, google "usa 2026 visa bonds costs" and first link for list of countries citizens that are totally fucked and need to pay a minimum 5000$ visa bond refundable). Bulgaria (meso) should get away with roughly 700$ visa cost to the USA, though talks are to get Bulgaria into the ESTA system so maybe will be easier then.

I do not want to visit the USA again as long as the new bullshit assholish paperwork that needs to be filled out is actual. the old system i filled in 2025 was already on several moments almost enough for me to just cancel the whole thing from frustration. From dead video explanation links, to wrong information between agencies, to not or barely working software. if i have to remember all 10 years worth of phone numbers, emails, addresses ive had as well ill kill myself before filling that paperwork out

its 500x easier to get a China VISA than it is to waive the US not-VISA, i cant imagine how frustrating an actual US VISA is to get nowadays.