Anna The next stop on our journey was: Flagstaff, Arizona. This time, we managed to travel with flixbus to Flagstaff. It was quite the trip because before embarking on our journey to Flagstaff, we had to take the bus to LA again. So around 9 on a sunday morning we hopped on the bus back to LA. After arriving in LA we transferred to another bus which was headed to Phoenix. When we left Phoenix around half past 11 in the evening, it was still 38 degrees. It was so freaking hot! So off we went to our final destination: Flagstaff. I think we arrived around 3 in the morning and we were lucky to find an Uber to take us to our airbnb. The funny thing about our airbnb was that it advertised itself as a “room with a mountain view”. However, when you arrive at 3 in the morning, you don’t see these mountains. So when we woke up the next day, we were kinda stunned with the amazing view of the mountains!
Our hosts were once again just lovely! Ashley and Brian were great people and so friendly. It was however my first encounter ever with someone who had a firearm on him. For me, this was quite a strange realization but in the USA this is normal. They also had 2 pickup trucks in their driveway, which I thought was typically American. We put their kitchen to good use, as we cooked every evening and we watched a lot of Netflix on their huge tv!
We soon came to the conclusion that renting a car was a necessity in Flagstaff, not just for getting around the town but also for visiting other places. So we went to a car rental that was kinda cheap but soon came to the realization that this was a very bad idea (understatement). They had pretty bad reviews on Google and we didn’t trust them, as they didn’t really seem to know what they were doing. That’s why we looked up a more expensive car rental with positive Google reviews. It was kinda scary to rent a car for the first time because it’s a lot of money for backpackers. We made sure to take pictures when we got the car so they wouldn’t be able to blame us for any damages. They didn’t because they were nice people.
So with the rental car came this new acquired freedom! We could go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. During our stay in Flagstaff we visited the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe bend and Sedona. Let’s start with the most impressive one: the Grand Canyon. It kinda gave me goosebumps seeing this for the first time. It was overwhelmingly and breathtakingly beautiful! I had never seen anything like it in my entire life. I simply loved it. We spent a whole day in the Grand Canyon. We hiked some bits and drove to some awesome viewpoints. We even encountered my neighbours from back home! It’s a small world after all.
We visited the Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe bend in one day. We booked a tour through Antelope Canyon, as you can not wander there by yourself. It was really stunning but looks might deceive you. Even though you appear to be alone in all of your photos, there are 25 other people waiting behind you to take the same photo. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth visiting. At Horseshoe bend I once again managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders. The American sun didn’t agree with me. However, Horseshoe bend was very cool as it has the shape of a horseshoe, obviously. We had one rainy day in Flagstaff which resulted in us driving up to Sedona. A little drizzle wasn’t going to kill us. The drive up to Sedona was pretty impressive as you drive through a huge ass forest. I quite liked Sedona and it’s reddish mountains.
Of course, we also had to try some fast food in Flagstaff. So, on our last evening we went to chick-fil-a! I had some amazing waffle fries with an avocado wrap and to top it all of I got a free ice cream! A good way to end our stay in Flagstaff.
