vacation in Ashville, NC

Besides working like a crazy person on shirt designs and on my new domain jung-shirts.com (spread the word!) I have finally managed to go on vacation! Here is a little report about my experiences, but I also realized I barely post any art at the moment. I promise, this will change – the next post is gonna be an arty one!

I just returned from Ashville in North Carolina, about 2 hours with the plane from New York – around 80 000 people live in this small town surrounded by hills, and it is a an average small town in the south of the USA; The city is very touristy, has many art shops, students and a lot of restaurants. I flew there with Becky to visit her mum Claudia and her stepfather Rich. Claudia has just moved there to work as a nurse in the huge, local hospital complex – supposedly nursery is very high standard in this region. We spend a lot of time with relaxing, hanging out in the city, going to yummy yummy restaurants and watching movies in the evening. I left my laptop at home, so this was truly a new experience for me. Enjoy the pictures.

Below you see the beautiful beautiful sight we had on the flight back to New York - the plane flew directly over Manhatten. I was so exited, I forgot that I was nervous. THis is Central Park from above!
Manhatten, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhatten Bridge from above. And Brooklyn to the right, the financial district below.
I saw this flag in front of a house in Ashville and was relieved to see something else than an American flag once in a while. Hail, Snoopy!
On the left is Chris, from "Better Tours of Ashville". We decided to do the "Pub Crawl Tour", which means 4 pubs in a row. Chris told stories about Ashville and about the pubs. In this pub, there was an old bank vault from the 30ies in the back where supposedly two bank robbers suffocated.
I found the Bat Cave in North Carolina. But, seriously Batman, now EVERYONE will find it!
This is the view from Chimney Rock, a sightseeing tourist attraction close to Ashville with view over the landscape.
This green stuff covering everything is called Kudzu and covers all plant life in NC - imported from Japan in 1876, it was supposed to help farmers, but it spread so rapidly that it's also called "foot-a-minute" plant.
The ten commandments for your garden!
Barbeque is BIG in NC. Fried everything, pulled pork and chicken in thick sauces, fat onion rings, potatoe salat and bisquits, here you get it. And what you'll get too is a "I hope y'all come back" from the waitress. I love "y'all"
This is the new house Claudia and Rich life in, 10 minutes walk from the city center. Left is Rich, then Claudia and Becky.