Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Arrival in New England [Part 1]


We are at the start of a brand new travel series. This time Jasmina, Selma, Amer and I will be visiting the 6 states of the USA that make up New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) as well as the state of New York. It's a region well known for the rich history and wonderful colors of autumn. Luckily we managed to see a lot of beautiful fall foliage during our trip. 

Pilgrims from England first settled in the region in 1620, forming the Plymouth Colony (a town which we would visit towards the end of our journey), the first successful English settlement in the Americas. Ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America.



Up, Up and Away

Our journey begins after a 6 hour drive from Mostar to Belgrade. We arrived at Belgrade Airport in the night, slept a bit in the car, until eventually at 4 o clock in the morning the check in started. We flew with Lufthansa Airlines toward Frankfurt. There we had a 5 hour wait for our overseas flight to Boston.

While we waited in Frankfurt we made use of the Leisure Zone inside the Airport, which had really great chairs where we found some rest (mostly our backs who hurt a lot because of the long journey). It was a 8 hour flight from Frankfurt to Boston. In Boston we went through customs and rented our car, and our road trip was officially a go!


Danvers

It was 6 in the evening when we arrived at the Danvers Knight Inn motel. We had a pleasant stay here. Actually from the start we noticed how friendly people were in these parts of the world, something we would come to appreciate during our stay in New England. We drove through Danvers but didn't stay there. You can imagine how much we needed that shower after a 24 hour journey.

Right away I spotted the wonderful fall foliage in the motel. I loved the calm evening. It was just what we needed after such a long journey. But staying inside for the rest of the day was not an option. We needed to see more right away. The rush of discovery came over us, I guess. We decided to venture out to Salem, which is only a 20 minute car ride away from Danvers.


First night in Salem

I will be talking in detail about Salem in the next post, since we visited this town again next morning. At night Salem is quiet and empty looking. But it only appears so. People are inside bars and on night tours around town. Salem is of course known for witches and which hysteria back in the 17th century. As I said, more on that in the actual Salem post, here I only want to talk about our experience here on this first night.


Salem at night is actually a great sight. The streets are decorated for the fall season and Halloween, and the spooky history shines through in every corner. We parked our car on a small lot behind the fire station, where parking is free at night and kept exploring the town from there.



I tried to take these night shots with as few people as possible in them, just because I wanted to show the small town charm. Of course a lot about witches and magic has been heavily commercialized here, but still, the true feeling of the wicked past can be felt in the town squares and narrow streets.





A last few glimpses of Salem crowned our evening until we eventually returned to our motel. It was quite the contrast in this one day, and actually very overwhelming. This feeling would continue on our way through the many small towns and natural wonders of New England. More on that in the second part.

We are at the beginning of our road trip. This is the journey coming up. Marked towns are the ones we slept in. I hope you'll return for more...

End of Part One
To be continued...

36 comments:

  1. Hope you have a wonderful journey, Mersad.
    Thank you for joining in at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-dream-of-lifetime.html

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    1. Already back home. Now I'll be posting the photos in parts as I edit them and write it all. Thanks for visiting. :)

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  2. Although I am not fond of travelling... i can imagine for those who like it, like you... it must be very nice to make such journees.
    Wishing you all the best and very much fun, looking forward to your next trip-photo's

    Have a wonderful ABC-day / – week
    ♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ (abc-w-team)
    http://melodymusic.nl/a-b-c-wednesday-19r/

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    1. Thanks Melody. We all love to travel, and this trip was very special as you'll see in the upcoming posts.

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  3. Reisebericht! Super, die lese ich immer gerne.
    Leider werde ich deine nächsten Teile erst nchträglich schauen müssen, weil jetzt wir mit dem Urlauf daran sind. :-)Bei uns geht's bald auf die Kanaren los.
    Liebe Grüße

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  4. It sounds like a fascinating trip.

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    1. Thanks, it truly was for us. Hope you will like the rest!

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  5. I visited Salem many years ago - a fun place. New England is gorgeous!

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    1. Salem was great. It will be the focus of my next post!

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  6. awesome pics. love the night and street shots

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  7. Beautiful photos, Mersad!!! I have been to New England...especially Vermont, many times and I love it there! Of course, Vermont is only a 2 hour drive from Montreal. :)

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    1. Yeah we dabbeld with the idea of going to Canada as well but we didn't have the time.

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  8. I guess it's a sign of my own age that I have a hard time identifying with your seemingly tireless energy. I can't imagine the four of you going out again on the night of your arrival in the USA. But I'm glad you did. We would have missed these night photos of Salem if you hadn't.

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    1. It's really the adrenalin that kept us going not so much the energy :) I think I went to sleep within 5 minutes when we came back to our motel. :)

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  9. Great shots of Salem at night. Can't wait to see more!

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    1. Thanks Linda. Can't wait to share more. It's hard not to post everything at once.

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  10. Beautiful photos from a wonderful trip! Nice to see the rest of it.

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    1. Thanks. More to come. 3 new posts from this trip each week until we're done!

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  11. You take such lovely pictures. Look forward to the next installment.

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  12. Salem sure is a picturesque spot. Stunning, actually.

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    1. Next post is all about Salem. It's going to get really interesting.

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  13. wow---was für eine großartige Reisae. Tolle Fotos hast du mitgebracht.
    LG susa

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  14. You once again show your mastery of night shooting. I especially like the one with Jasmina and her friend in front of the restaurant. Well done.

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  15. Great shots, Mersad! You do so well with the lights and streets.

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  16. Fantastische Fotos und Berichte....macht wieder voll Spaß dich zu begleiten.

    Liebe Grüsse

    N☼va

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  17. What a lovely trip and great shots too

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  18. Welcome to the states. We were in Salem this summer. I am sure it is much better in the fall. Enjoy your journey!

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  19. Wow! What a great trip you had! I've been through the area but not as extensively as you did. It is beautiful country and seeing the fall foliage must have been delightful. I really like your style of photography, by the way! Will be back for more!

    Leslie
    abcw team

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  20. Just the right amount of spookiness in your third from last photo, love that perspective. Interesting to see Salem after hearing so much about it. Lovely time of year to visit the area for autumn colour.

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  21. Looks as though you had a bewitching time!

    ROG, ABCW

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  22. You did a fantastic job on these night time shots. I get that small town feel and few of them have a bit of spooky feel to them.

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  23. I'll have to catch up with your USA trip. I haven't been out east for about 55 years...since I was ten. You always make the trip so enjoyable. :)

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  24. Hi Mersad, great photography of your entire New England trip. What date did you arrive for this?

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