26/12-14: So I went to Miami...

Wal-Mart's missing people board - one woman had been missing since 1989!

Literally drenched in paint...

Going through security check before entering the festival

The gang after the first night of LIC festival

Me, Marie Ale & Dani ready for day 2 of LIC

One of the stages - more than 60,000 people!

The hotel room was.. tight..

Næsten inden julen var helt ovre fik jeg pakket tasken og fanget et lift til Miami. 

Vi var to grupper GRSP'ere (i alt 22 personer) som skulle være dernede ovre nytår, og der var allerede nogen som havde sørget for at booke to lejligheder hvor vi alle skulle bo..... 

Troede vi... 

Det viste sig nemlig da vi ankom kl. 7.30 om morgenen, at der ikke var nogen lejligheder til os.. 

Det viste sig at hjemmesiden var blevet "hacket", og en tredjepart havde fået fat i beskeden vedrørende lejligheden, og efterfølgende overbevist dem der bookede om at pengene skulle overføres til ejeren af lejlighederne i UK - og det var naturligvis en røver. 

Vores situation var altså at vi stod 4 personer i Miami, og yderligere 3 som kom senere på dagen (og endnu flere et par dage senere), og vi havde ikke noget sted at bo i den absolut travelste uge hele året.

Det eneste vi rent faktisk vidste med sikkerhed var at kl. 16 startede Life In Color (en musikfestival), og den skulle vi altså til.

Life In Color (LIC) er en elektronisk musikfestival hvor de sprøjter maling udover publikum - det lyder måske ikke specielt interessant, og jeg havde været i tvivl om jeg overhovedet ville med til en festival hvor de udelukkende spiller elektronisk musik - men det var altså MEGA FEDT!

Vi brugte de første par timer af vores morgen i Miami på Starbucks hvor vi fik fortalt alle de andre at der ikke var nogen lejligheder, og i øvrigt forsøge ikke at gå i panik over at være hjemløse i Miami. Da panikken begyndte at indfinde sig en smule tog vi en lille pause for at købe hvidt tøj til festivallen - hvor man jo selvfølgelig skal bære hvidt så man kan se malingen der bliver sprøjtet på dig. 

Vi besluttede senere at det ville være umuligt at finde en lejlighed hvor vi alle kunne være i med så kort varsel, så i stedet bookede vi et hotelværelse til de næste to nætter, så vi i det mindste havde et sted at sove (du kan se hvor tæt vi boede på værelset på sidste billede). 

Da vi endelig havde fundet et sted at bo som vi også kunne betale os fra, skyndte vi os at tage i Wal-Mart for at købe mere hvidt tøj (og øl :-) ) - og her fik jeg taget mit aller første billede på turen af den lidt chokerende "missing" opslagstavle de havde. 

På trods af en kaotisk og skør start på ferien fik vi på en eller anden måde lagt det hele lidt bag os og havde en virkelig god aften :-)

::::

Almost before Christmas was over I got my bags packed and I caught a ride to Miami.

We were two groups of GRSP's (22 people total) who were going to spend new year's eve down there, and someone had already taken care of booking two apartments for us....

Or at least that was what we thought.... 

As it turned out when we arrived around 7.30AM, there were no apartments for us...

We found out that the webpage had been "hacked", and a third party had gained control over our messages regarding the apartment and convinced the people paying that the money had to be transferred to the owner's account in the UK - and that of course turned out to be a scam.. 

So our situation now was that we were 4 people - with 3 more coming later that day (and another bunch in a few days), and we had no place to stay in the without a doubt busiest week of the year. 

The only thing we knew for sure was that at 4PM Life In Color (a music festival) was going to start - and we were going to go!

Life In Color (LIC) is an electronic music festival where they spray paint all over the audience during the concerts - it might not sound very nice, and I was also very much in doubt if I wanted to go to an electronic music only festival - but it was SO AWESOME!

We spent our first couple of hours in Miami at a Starbucks telling the rest of the 18 people that there were no apartments for us, and trying not to panic about being homeless in Miami. When the panic slowly began getting to us we decided to take a break and go out to buy white clothes for the festival where you obviously needed to wear white so you could see all the paint you got on you. 

We later decided that it would be impossible to find a place where all of us could stay with such short notice, so we booked a small hotel room that we could actually afford for the next two nights and that way we at least had a place to sleep (you can see on the last picture how tight it was).

When we finally had the accommodation for the night checked off we rushed to Wal-Mart to buy more white clothes (and beer :-) ) - and this is where I finally had time to take my first picture in Miami of the slightly chocking bulletin board of missing people.

In spite of a chaotic and crazy beginning to our vacation we managed to put it all behind us for a bit and had an amazing night at the festival :-)