Dallas... not so awesome

It’s my second day in Dallas and I have to tell you guys; it’s just a city. It’s just a bunch of tall buildings and a whole lot of ghetto. Let’s take an example: Commerce Street. If you walk from Houston down Commerce it seems to be going okay. You walk and you see businessmen, people walking their dogs, and the inevitable tall buildings. Then you walk further down, you pass Akard and suddenly the houses are all worn out, a lot of people sit on benches or sidewalks, asking for money and roads are all leading to the freeway. If you only want to see the fancy parts of Dallas, you don’t have many places to go. If you feel like seeing the cozier parts, though, you should go to Uptown. But there’s not much of that either. No, Dallas is a politician’s and businessman’s city. If you’re neither, you should probably head for Fort Worth or Austin.

I did get to go to the Farmer’s Market today, though, where I tasted some of the best oranges I’ve ever had. Experience tells me that if one ever finds good oranges one should buy them, so that’s what I did. Eight for four bucks, and twelve bananas for three. That’s a bargain, and will last me a couple of days. When you’re just a poor traveler that’s good news.

So it’s Saturday and people are walking their dogs all over town. That’s how you can tell you’re in a good neighborhood. The sun isn’t shining, but it’s warm and it’s just getting warmer the further I get into the south. I do enjoy the weather, especially since I know that at home it’s freezing as hell and snowing and everywhere it’s just plain cold. Wish you were here, people!

In the late afternoon I stopped by the Dallas Convention Centre by accident and saw a gazillion 12-year old girls standing outside and inside in weird make-up and way too little clothes. Outside they were standing in their costumes, primarily made out of one or two colors and inside they were doing all kinds of acrobatic stuff. What surprises me is that they all looked like dolls. They were here at an acrobat convention or whatever, and were still forced to look like that. Very strange indeed.

Catch you after the cowboy rodeo thing tonight. Next time I’ll be in Austin, a city I have very high hopes for…

Nadia