Homestay Tour #4 – Cincinnati, Ohio

Next stop: Cincinnati, Ohio

Indianapolis – Cincinnati – Lexington, these three stops of my homestay tour are all very close

To reach our next destination it just took us 1.5 hours by bus plus a 30-minute break on a gas station in the middle of nowhere. On August 17th at 6 pm we arrived pretty much on time in Cincinnati, Ohio where a new episode of our lovely game ‘Who-will-be-our-new-host’ was about to start. This time we only knew: we need to find Sam.
Surprisingly easy the mystery was solved since Sam had a big sign which said ‘CBYX’, so no embarrassing asking ahead. Sam picked us up with his car and during the 20-minute car ride Sam told us that he was a participant of the 30st CBYX which means that he just returned from Germany 4 weeks ago! He lived one year in Erfurt where he had a great time. His German was really good that’s why Philipp and I took the opportunity and spoke mostly German with him (we still practiced English with the rest of the family, no worries!).
When we entered the neighborhood where Sam and his parents live, we already noticed that it looked really neat and we weren’t disappointed when we stepped into their house. A very, very beautiful and big house with a lovely garden.

Beautiful and spacious terrace at our host family’s house

Sam’s parents Donna and Jim were also at home and welcomed us kindly to their house. They never hosted exchange students before and therefore they were really interested and curious about having us. They invited us straight away to have beer and wine with them outside on their beautiful terrace. Donna and Jim visited Sam when he stayed in Germany, so they have seen many places and besides that they also have traveled around Europe before. It was great hearing about their impressions of our hometowns.
Donna prepared a delicious dinner: spaghetti with a tomato-meatball sauce as well as some fresh salad. After supper we had a few more drinks on the terrace and great conversations about even more controversial topics like politics. We only stayed with the new host family for a few hours and already felt so comfortable and at home.
Philipp and I got a room with two comfortable beds in it which was great since we stayed in Cincinnati the longest time from all of our stops.

We set our alarm on that sunny and hot Monday to start of a new week of our great adventure in the USA. Sam prepared some french toast and when we were finished we left the house to take a little walk through their neighborhood ‘Glendale’. I had the feeling of not being too far away from the Southern states of the USA anymore. It was so, so hot – just walking casually felt already exhausting. The houses in that neighborhood are beautiful with rocking chairs on their nice porches and American flags waving in the light breeze.

A little citchy house in Glendale, OH

Another one – to me this looks so Southern with the porch and the American flag

The little village of Glendale has a small square with some restaurants, small shops and a park. It is quiet significant that Glendale is located directly at a railway track. It is not used too much for passengers but instead more for cargo trains which are so long since they have so many wagons. Several times per day they pass the village with honking very loudly so that really no one can miss it. We also discovered a typical American gazebo, perfect to take some pictures before returning back home and cool down a little bit. Our host family’s house had the perfect temperature at home, outside it was just too hot and humid for us Germans.

Main square in Glendale

Little cafe at the square

Lovely little park with the gazebo

And of course that’s me in the gazebo

While we were hanging out and resting at home I received a Facebook message from my host mom Lois from Rock Falls which said ‘Please call me. The Cincinnati police have found your wallet.’ I read it and my first thought was: this has to be spam! Then I was doubting, how does the spam know that I am in Cincinnati??? So I thought, well I better check my purse and indeed my wallet was gone! I haven’t even noticed it before!!! So I called Lois who kindly gave me the number of the local police officer in Glendale. I called him to check and hear what has happened. Apparently I lost my wallet right at the village’s square earlier when we took the walk. I guess it fell out when I took out my camera to take some pictures. I can’t believe that I didn’t even notice it earlier… Then I was very afraid that my credit card got stolen, fortunately I didn’t have too much cash with me. Sam took us immediately to the police station. I was really nervous but thank god, everything was still there!!! Someone found my wallet and brought straight to the police station. Lois gave me her business card and fortunately they called her and so that way the whole case was solved very fast. I assume since the police officer isn’t too busy in this really nice and safe neighborhood, he even had the time to put some order into my messy wallet. All dollar bills were now sorted from the lowest to the highest value! I loved that! Hahaha!
I was so relieved and when we were outside I asked Philipp to take a picture of me in front of one of the police cars. In that moment the police officer came outside and told us we should take ‘a real picture’. He opened the back of his car and told me to have a seat. Honestly I never thought I would ever sit in the back of an American police car and I really hope that it was the first and last time! Surely one of the coolest policeman ever!

My wallet and I – I got it back!!!

What to comment under this picture???

This whole incident is just so me. When I told my parents this story, I am sure that they weren’t even really surprised. It seems like things like these ALWAYS happen to me. I am just so clumsy. Luckily this time it all turned out good and in the end we even got the chance to take some cool photos.

After being at the police (weird even writing that!!!) we went straight to Downtown Cincinnati. The first stop on Sam’s city tour were the banks of the Ohio River. The river is quiet characteristic to the city because it divides the states of Ohio and Kentucky. We walked along the Ohio River and admired the beautiful new green area they have created: trees, fountains, benches – all very modern combined with some traditional elements. My favorite part was probably the huge metal swings facing the river in the ‘Smale Riverfront Park’. I enjoyed sitting there a lot and would have loved to stay there a lot longer.

Downtown Cincinnati – stairs down to the banks

‘John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge’ with the little park at the banks of Ohio River

Modern waterfalls

Swings in the Smale Riverfront Park… Love the idea and that they swing for real!

Me on the lovely swings

Ohio River

The paddle of an old paddle steamer, as well as a paddle steamer on the Ohio River under the bridge

As I already mentioned it was super hot and humid that day (even though on the photos it looks cloudy and dull) and we had a hard time just walking slowly through the city but we continued anyway. We walked over the ‘Purple People Bridge’, an old bridge crossing the Ohio River just for pedestrians. On the bridge we felt a little breeze which felt so great. We also saw many love locks and I am actually wondering if there still exists a bridge in the world where you can’t find these locks…

Purple People Bridge over to Kentucky

The Smale Riverfront Park seen from the bridge

Skyline of Cincinnati

When we made our way over the bridge we found ourselves in Kentucky (actually I didn’t know that in that moment, I guess Sam forgot to tell us and so we just heard it a few days later). The first thing we saw was the ‘Hofbräuhaus München’ and of course we took a little break there. I wasn’t that happy in a long time for this great cold air-conditioned place! All three of us got a big glass of original Oktoberfest beer and ‘enjoyed’ the Bavarian atmosphere in the middle of the USA.

Philipp and I pretending to feel at home (neither of us has actually ever been to the Oktoberfest…)

There you go – easy as that!

Our lunch!

After that stop we felt really refreshed (I was actually freezing by that time… there is almost never the right temperature for me) and we made our way back over the bridge and that way also back to Cincinnati and Ohio. We walked through Downtown and just let the impressions sink in.
Next stop was the Contemporary Arts Museum. This was definitely something different and I liked looking at the art although some was actually quiet odd and rather difficult to understand. After spending some time there, we became quiet hungry and Sam took us to an Italian restaurant called ‘A Tavola’. I would like to mention this place because I seriously haven’t felt so much like being in Berlin than there. Sounds quiet weird, BUT the interior and the whole atmosphere was just like in a restaurant somewhere in Prenzlauer Berg or Friedrichshain. The people working and eating there just looked really different – most likely like students or hipsters. The whole interior was just so different to a typical American restaurant and the menu also looked rather Italian. Unfortunately the pizza we took was a little bit disappointing and not like in Italy… but the atmosphere definitely made up for it.
It was evening by then and Sam had another highlight of Cincinnati to show us. A 20-minute walk passing the Washington Park, the Findlay Market area as well as an gentrification district ‘Over the Rhine’. The buildings there are quiet old but you can already see the potential. Right now it is in between a place where rather socially lower people live (and actually many Afro-Americans as well) and at the same time cool and hip stores, bars and restaurants are opening.

Water fountains at Washington Park, in the background the Cincinnati Music Hall

Colorful houses next to Findlay Market

Main entrance of Findaly Market

We went to definitely one of the coolest places I have been so far. A very plain and rough looking building from the outside, but after walking up to the 3rd level one can find the brewery ‘Rhinegeist’. It is one huge hall where the beer gets brewed, a bar sells it and costumers can play table tennis and Cornhole while enjoying their beer.
We had a great evening with good beer and playing Cornhole for the first time in our lives. Sam told us it is a game which college students tend to play. Basically the players take turns throwing bags of corn at a raised platform with a hole in the far end. Simple as that and quiet fun.

Rhinegeist Brewery

Playing Cornhole

That’s their beer

When we were about to leave, we met some guys outside the bar which we chatted to for a while. Turned out that one of the guys has lived in Portland, OR the past years and he gave us some recommendations where to go to have fun. He told us that he loved living there and all that sounded really good, so we got really excited about arriving there soon.

We walked back to the car where we had to pass some dark corners with some creepy persons, but everyone greeted nicely and we made it back safely to Glendale while having the weirdest conversation: German articles and that they make absolutely no sense. I love these late night conversations!

Cool guys we met in front of the Rhinegeist Brewery

Fountains in Washington Park by night

Our second day in Cincinnati started calm and slowly, but we had some big planes for the day: we wanted to visit King’s Island – the biggest amusement park in this area. And indeed it was HUGE! We spend the whole day there until the park closed!!!
The park is divided into two sections – a water park and the actual amusement park where one can find many rides but mostly roller coasters! I was super excited. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I hate these little rides that you can find on fairs, but roller coasters – I love those! I don’t get sick at all. We chose the perfect day since it was Tuesday noon and most kids were back in school – we almost never had to wait anywhere longer than 10 minutes and sometimes could even enter a ride directly. So much adrenalin on one day, unbelievable!!! Of course this park also had to offer many superlatives: the longest inverted roller coaster in the world and the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. And I did it all and had the best time! Probably the most scary one was ‘Firehawk’ with the motto: ‘lie-to-fly’. This means the riders are flipped on their backs and through the 180 degrees twists one faces the ground directly. It was super scary but cool!
In the late afternoon we made our way to the water park to refresh ourselves a bit. It was great jumping in the water and trying out different slides. Unfortunately it was quiet crowded there so we couldn’t try out too many different slides but it was still great. We finished off with floating on a little canal in the sun and that’s where it hit us: We were very, very lucky getting the chance to travel through the USA and get to experience all this fun stuff on our homestay tour before starting the real life at our final placement.
We finished the day off with my biggest challenge for the day: riding a drop tower for the very first time in my life. I was scared to death and screamed my lungs out!!! But I made it – challenge completed!

King’s Island… You can see the drop tower in the far back where I was almost dying!

Exciting day at King’s Island with Sam and Philipp

We went home and I haven’t felt that tired in a very long time. I was just so exhausted from all the excitement that we just came home and fell directly into bed. When I tried to fall asleep I felt like I was riding every single roller coaster once again.

During the night I woke up due to a horrible thunderstorm. I mean we do have thunderstorms in Germany, but it almost never gets this bad. I have never seen so many lightnings directly following each other and the thunder was so loud. Although it also rained a lot, the temperature didn’t drop and the contrary happened – it got even more humid.

We took it easy that third day and just went into town in the noon. Sam had to get some work done for his studies and so we had time to discover the district of Clifton. But firstly we stopped to get some lunch at a very typical place for this area: ‘Skyline Chili’. Chili is a specialty of Cincinnati that’s why they made a whole fast food chain out of it. One can get either french fries, potatoes or pasta topped with their signature dish chili sauce (which is basically a sauce made out of grounded beef and many different spices – I would compare it to our sauce Bolognese in Europe but without so many tomatoes) and most importantly every dish is topped with a massive amount of cheese. It was definitely something different and new, but I think it won’t become my favorite American food.

Skyline Chili

Afterwards Philipp and I discovered a little bit the surrounding and walked through a little forest. It was nice but at some point we just couldn’t walk in the freaking heat anymore and just sat down in a lovely cafe and got a big portion of delicious ice cream – lemon and chocolate of course, my all time favorites.
We met with Sam again and drove back home. That night they planned to have a big family dinner so we also got to meet Hannah, Sam’s older sister. Everyone helped Donna preparing the dinner and it was delicious: salmon with rice and grilled vegetables! Everyone was enjoying the food, red wine and the lovely company at the big round table. We have been very lucky spending time with this family. They made us feel just like at home and we had great conversations as well as many big laughter. Later we went back to the terrace to drink some more and continue our great talks. Although Hannah, Donna and Jim had to work the next day we were sitting outside for quiet a while before going to bed and I am sure we all enjoyed the night to the fullest.

Our last full day in Cincinnati was probably the most relaxing one ever since we have arrived in the USA. We didn’t do anything!!! We slept in, stayed in our PJs until late noon and just hung out. That was just what we needed after all the excitement the weeks and days before. In the late afternoon we just ran to a store to get Philipp a t-shirt and afterwards we walked from the family’s house down to the village’s square where we met Jim and Donna at a wine bar. It was nice meeting some of their friends and having some drinks as well as burgers, corn and a delicious apple dessert. Later also Hannah showed up and we got to spend some more time with her and unfortunately already had to tell her goodbye. When we went home we made some family pictures with everyone and I think you can see in the photos how well everyone got a long. This was a perfect last evening to round up a wonderful stay with Jim, Donna and Sam in Cincinnati.

Sam, Hannah, myself and Philipp at the wine bar

Family picture with Jim and Donna

Their small dog Charly also sneeked in

On August 22nd it was time to leave. Donna and Jim came back home from work only to say a quick goodbye to us. They also got Philipp and me a very cool Cincinnati t-shirt. A great souvenir!!! Sam took us into town where we caught the Greyhound Bus at 1 pm to Lexington, Kentucky.
Although we said our goodbyes with the family I am sure we will see each other some day again. They invited us to come back any time and since Sam thinks about going back to study in Germany next year, we might see our host family from Cincinnati one day somewhere in Germany.
Thank you Jim and Donna for letting us stay in your beautiful house and for taking so good care of us – it means a lot. Thank you for all the great conversations about interesting topics and laughing so much. A special DANKE to Sam who showed us around everywhere and tried to make our stay as cool as possible!
Another stop of our homestay tour that was incredible and an unforgettable time back there in Cincinnati!

Anneke