USA
USA Week 5: Rest and Baseball in Durham
Rest and Baseball
In Durham
Need rest
After the National Parks of America, and the other sights of San Diego , Los Angeles and Las Vegas , we were now ready for a little rest. It can certainly be tiring to travel for a long time and it is important that we take a rest in between. We don’t think there is a better place to do that than in this city.
Why
Durham?
Durham is a city in North Carolina that belongs to Raleigh. This city has a major airport, is known for Duke University and of course its excellent baseball games. This city is also known for its absolute aversion against racism. Last year, for example, a statue glorifying slavery during the Civil War was knocked down by protesters. Everywhere you see banners with texts against racism and texts about love. Their common message is “Hate has no home here” and “Doesn’t matter where you’re from, you are welcome”. They want to say that really everyone is welcome in their city, it doesn’t matter where you come from. A nice thought, we think.
Besides these fun facts, we chose to stay in this city because of its location. North Carolina is roughly between Miami and New York, our next and last 2 destinations of our road trip. It is therefore the perfect place to relax between all the hustle and bustle of the big cities.
street scene
Durham is a beautiful city. You see a lot of greenery and the streets are well maintained. The houses are usually gigantic and painted in beautiful colors. So is our house. It is a large house with a porch at the front and a large terrace at the back with stairs to the extensive garden. Our house also has a porch that overlooks the garden. It is a house as you see many in Durham. Nicely maintained and typically American built.
Durham Bulls
We spend most of our time in Durham on the beautiful patio or large veranda of our temporary home. With temperatures over 30 degrees, it is the ideal place to stay. But every now and then we also take the time to go and watch baseball games. The Bulls , Durham’s baseball team, did not do badly in their league and we loved cheering them on in the games we saw. Of the two games we went to see, they lost one and won one. That last one was very exciting!
If you’re going to watch a baseball game, we’d recommend going on a Thursday night or Friday night. At the weekend, more families with children come and the entertainment around the field is also provided for. Unless you have kids of course, then Sunday is the best day to go and have a look! Even for people who are not immediately into sports, baseball is really fun to watch. Especially the entertainment around the field, but also the actions on the field, can be very amusing at times.
What to do?
This city is more than just baseball. Downtown you will find many cozy restaurants with an eye for healthy food. In all the places that we have already visited in America, we did not find any restaurants without fast food. So yes, and we are happy about that. The restaurants they have here are really good. We definitely recommend Mateo’s and Alley 26 . Both restaurants serve tasty, refined tapas and drinks. You can also find a restaurant downtown where they have all kinds of beers on tap. You can even find Belgian beer!
The American Tobacco Campus is also a place not to be missed! Especially in the evening it is very pleasant to stay there and it is close to the Bulls Athletic Park, the stadium where the baseball games take place.
Furthermore, the typical American high schools and universities are the hallmark of this city. It is nice to walk along and through these campuses. We were lucky enough to visit it at a time when many students were graduating. It was nice to see these students, in traditional attire, celebrating their graduation.
Next destinations
This city certainly brought us peace. We will use the new energy we have for our next and final two destinations in America. Our next destination is sunny Miami and our last destination is vibrant New York. We will therefore need our energy for these two world cities! Be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram to stay up-to-date and see our best photos from this trip.