1) I know you're wondering, so I'll answer this question first. Can you get "Hawaiian pizza" in Hawaii? The answer is yes. I saw a pizza place that offers pizza with ham and pineapple that is called Hawaiian. I wonder how Hawaiians feel about it but am afraid to ask.
2) It really is beautiful here.
Click to enlarge, as always.
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| Sunrise from Waikiki Beach, right outside my hotel. February 3, 2016 at 6:29 HAST (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time). |
But let's not get too far ahead.
The time zone change is weird. It's five hours behind Eastern Standard Time. Daylight savings time is not observed here, so in the summer, Hawaii is 6 hours behind Eastern Daylight Time, such as Toronto and New York City, etc. Right now, it's just five hours.....
The flights were long, but I didn't really feel it. Maybe just excited to be here?
By the way, Westjet from Toronto to Vancouver has TV channels for viewing for free, which freaked me out because all I could think was, "Oh no, now the guy beside me now knows that I watch The View!"
I left my place in Toronto at 9 AM on February 2 to get to the airport super early for my 12:55 PM flight. I got to my hotel in Honolulu / Waikiki at 12 AM HAST on February 3, which would be 5 AM EST. So 20 hours from door to door. I was up at 5 AM HAST, which is 10 AM EST. Five hours sleep, but only feeling it now... Not a complaint, just weird how body clocks reset themselves.
Anyway, before I fade quickly, which is happening fast, I'll just say that the Waikiki area of Honolulu is totally touristy and if I lived here, I would probably hate it but because I'm a tourist, I think it's pretty nice. Really ritzy, which I was not expecting. There's a stretch of Kalakaua Avenue that is really high end, with its Rolex store, Apple store, Macy's and Armani Exchange, etc. It looks like any other expensive American city, which I was not expecting.
Normally, I like to visit the tourist areas of a city first, and then spend the next few days de-romanticizing the city by using public transit, going to grocery stores, etc. But I did that today. I really wish I had stayed at my hotel and the touristy area of Waikiki only because I spent all this money to stay at a resort, and I'm not spending time in it--I'll do that Friday.
So, I saw some homeless people today in the not as pretty parts of town. People on transit are nowhere near as friendly as they are in Austin or Nashville, it's a lot like Toronto. On the other hand, I would say a good 60% of people on the bus looked Asian or mixed Asian. I wanted to say, "Hey look at all of you! Look at all of us!" A woman who works at the hotel said I blend here, which was nice, I guess....
Some cultural things I've noticed that surprised me:
1) people really say "Aloha" and "Mahalo" (thank you) to each other. I remember President Obama saying "Mahalo" to the press before he left for his Christmas vacation to Hawaii. I thought he was being sarcastic, but now I get that people actually say it and mean it. Surprised me for some reason. Also interesting, the recorded voice on the buses throws in Hawaiian words when telling people to keep on moving back. I did not expect that.
2) This is a pretty casual city, as I had read. I went to the state capitol, and people were wearing Hawaiian shirts (also called Aloha shirts)--not as colourful as we've seen, but in that direction, with pants. And that was office wear!
I had sworn I wasn't going to get too casual, but by the end of today, I was wearing my board shorts and sandals to dinner. It's great to have board shorts that look like shorts, so I can go right from the beach or pool to dinner.
Anyway, I'm babbling. Here are some photos.
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| View from my hotel room lanai (balcony) when I arrived. February 3, 2016 at 12:11 AM HAST. The crazy thing to me is that I got one of the cheapest room categories at the hotel, so this is considered the ugly view because it faces the city! I think it's lovely. |
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| View from my lanai, a different angle, and at daylight. February 3, 2016 at 8:09 AM HAST. |
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| Same view as the first photo in this post, later in the day. Waikiki Beach, right outside my hotel. February 3, 2016 at 3:53 PM HAST. |
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| People on the beach doing the hula while a guy plays ukulele. For reals, y'all! Okay, they're probably tourists, but still... it happened. February 3, 2016 at 7:56 AM HAST. |
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| Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii. It has the distinction of being the only royal residence built in the United States. Various Hawaiian monarchs lived here until the queen was deposed, (by American interests, ahem). February 3, 2016. |
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| Front of the state capitol building. It's mean to represent various elements in Hawaii's landscape, like the trees, the ocean and mountains, etc. |
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| Close up of the capitol's front entrance. Note the way the office workers are dressed. Yes, those are office workers! It's not casual Friday! |
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| The "courtyard" of the capitol. One thing about Honolulu I've noticed: many of the large buildings are open air. My hotel lobby, for instance, is completely open air. As soon as you arrive, the check-in desk is right there; there is no front door. The airport is similar. No walls until you get to ground level, which probably has walls for security reasons. As soon as you get off the plane, the breeze off the ocean hits you in the face... |
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| A view of the capitol's courtyard. Again, you can see the office doors of the representatives and senators. |
Btw, today was 28 degrees celsius. Warm at midday, but pleasantly cool in the morning and evening. A tank top day for sure. I hear it was warm in Toronto, too.
More tomorrow....
