Solo in Dallas - Texas, USA

After studying JFK's assassination for 6 months in modern history at high school it felt surreal to actually be in Dallas. 

Welcome to my 24 hours in Dallas. After flying directly from Sydney on the longest flight in the world (at the time) I arrived quite drained. 15 hours on a plane is an extremely long time, especially when you're travelling on your own! However for anyone who knows the hassle of LAX my arrival was super easy and even enjoyable. I bet you weren't expecting to read that? DFW was hassle free and will definitely be my airport of choice on my next trip to the USA. From the airport I made the trip into downtown where I stayed at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. The staff were so welcoming and I was even upgraded for the length of my stay! My first night consisted of calling home, ordering room service and getting an early night because I only had one day in Dallas and I wanted to make it count!

 

The reason I was most excited to be in Dallas was because I had spent a very long time in history class learning all about JFK's assassination. I couldn't believe I was actually getting the chance to visit somewhere so rich in American history. It was a totally humbling experience. I spent the morning exploring Elm Street and Main Street wondering what it had been like on 22 November 1963. I walked all the way down to Dealey Plaza and it looked exactly like the pictures in my text books. I decided to take the JFK Trolley Tour because although I had learnt a lot I was really interested in gaining a local perspective. I had a wonderful guide and he made my solo trip feel not so lonely! An adult ticket was $20USD (roughly $25AUD) and was definitely one of the better priced tourist attractions I have been to. I was also amazed to learn that Lee Harvey Oswald's house was for sale with an asking price of 1 million US dollars and that was considered WAY over the top. I guess living in Sydney where your average house can sell for more than that had really skewed my perception. After hearing from friends and family how amazing it was I would've liked to have spent my afternoon looking around the Sixth Floor Museum but with limited time I decided to enjoy a little bit more of Dallas. 

So off to the West Village I went. On the walk back up Elm Street the summer heat was starting to hit me. I stopped off at 7/11 where I bought a 'medium' sized drink larger than my head for 79c. Everything sure is bigger in Texas! I continued on and took the M-Line Trolley nearby my hotel that lead me right into Uptown Dallas. It was a lovely place to visit with beautiful boutiques and lively bars and restaurants. I had a lot of fun wandering through the stores as soon as people picked up on my accent they struck up conversation. Texans are super friendly people and made me feel really welcome. 

Jet lag is a weird thing and I didn't start to feel hungry until the late afternoon. So I ate my dinner.. (Can it really be called dinner if it's your first meal of the day?) at Zushi Sushi. At first I was extremely overwhelmed by the amount of choices on their menu. And the lack of chicken sushi - something they had never heard of! But I spoke to my waiter (I wish I remembered his name to say thanks) for a really long time and I decided on the shrimp and crab roll with avocado and cream cheese. Yeah you read that right there was no Kewpie here just cream cheese! Apparently it's a common condiment in the USA. I was a bit hesitant to try it at first but my waiter convinced me it was delicious. He suggested that seeing it was my first time trying cream cheese sushi he would tell the cooks to go easy on it. After waiting for a while I saw my waiter come hurrying out of the kitchen and over towards me. He said that he wasn't happy with the amount of cream cheese the cooks had put on my sushi because he had told them specifically to only use a little bit. So they were remaking my order as we spoke. When my meal arrived I was so thankful for all the extra help my waiter had gone to -and he was right cream cheese sushi really was delicious!

I would have loved to have seen more and tried plenty more of the food Texas is so proud of but I guess that's what happens when you only have 24 hours in the one city. It was incredible to get a glimpse of Dallas and I guess that means there's still a lot left to uncover the next time I visit. 

kirsten