Ok. In 24 hours I will be somewhere over the Atlantic. I packed my stuff. I thought I’m well prepared this time. I collected everything I need, but I still forget some little stuff (headphones, extra-battery, Bluetooth-keyboard, login for this blog). Anyway, I have my pass, I have the train ticket and a lot of chocolate (as presents). What do I need more. I will try to blog from Charlotte, but maybe I don’t have much time. I hope you will see the first pictures of amazing California in less then 48 hours.

I decide to go to LA. Unfortunately I can’t just say “Scotty, beam me up” and I will be there. But booking a flight isn’t the only task. In a world full of this anachronistic borders and capitalism I need to do some paper work. On the other hand some information about LA and basic knowledge of USA could be helpful.

Somehow I find the website Ebookers.de. They seem to have good rate for flights to America. But the most important feature for me is, that they easily offer Rail&Fly-Tickets. Even though the interface isn’t the best it is much more comfortable to find a good flight then on other websites.

But before I booked the flight I needed a passport. Few years ago I missed the deadline to get one without biometric information. Besides from privacy concerns and critics to the security paranoia we see in the last years the new “ePass” is 59 Euro much more expensive then the old one. Another pitfall is the photo. It must be “suitable for biometric” (in German the very typical bureaucratic term “biometrietauglich”). So another 10 bucks for a professional photographer instead of the cheap photo booth.

After I received my shiny new passport the next step was ESTA. This is some kind of mini-visa you need to enter USA without a visa (Visa Waiver Program). I just fill out the form on the website and after few seconds I get a permission to enter the United States. That was much more easy then suggested by media reports or information on the website itself. If you need information about visa and so on the website of the US Embassy is a good place.

Another useful source is the website of the German Foreign Office. They have a lot of travel and country information, like visa, health care, laws etc., but in German.

Despite the heavy discussions about a public health care system in USA it is obvious that to become ill in the States it could be very expensive. So I take out an additional health care insurance for travel. It’s only 8 Euro, so I think it’s stupid to travel without this.

I also ordered a credit card. I am not such a fan of this plastic devils and didn’t need them here most of the time. But it seems there it could be sometimes easier with one. Another helpful card is the internation student card ISIC. For example Amtrak will give me 15% discount.

Ok, this is article is about the boring stuff. I hope some of the information will be helpful for other who want visit USA. I’ sure to write more interesting stuff, when I am there or even on the way.