Christmas thoughts . . .

Christmas:
Time of crowded shops and panic buying.
Time of overpriced gift sets that you know will be half price on the 26th.
Time of novelty songs and bad reality show singles.
Time of the same old movies. Again and again and again.
Time of party nights out when you find out a bit tmi about your work colleagues.
Time of karaoke and board games you play once a year.
Time of pointless DVD’s: Comedy, sport and ‘get fit’.
Time of crap gifts ‘oh thank you so much for that rose scented body lotion set – how ever did you know what I needed!?!’
Time of eating way too many sweets, feeling sick and promising to eat better (invariably failing by Jan 1st).
Time to tell the kids, ‘Of course he is real!’.
Time of families! (arguments, tears, tantrum, booorrreedddoomm)
Time to send cards to the friends and relatives you don’t see any more.
Time to hear the same songs. Over and over and over.
Time to be covered in itchy glittery clothes and tinsel.
Time to practice present wrapping skills!
Time to start making promises and plans for the new year ahead ;)

She was 29, going on 30 . . .

So as I advance towards the grand old age of 29, 1 year shy of the big 3-0, I find myself in a rather philosophical state of mind and entering the territory of Carrie Bradshaw as I ask:

What's the big deal about turning 30?

Okay, first some 'fun' facts about the number 29 (courtesy of wikipedia, so hopefully they are correct!):

It is the tenth prime number
The atomic number of copper
Saturn requires over 29 years to orbit the Sun
The designation of Interstate 29, a U. S. freeway that runs from Missouri to North Dakota.

In 365 more days I will be departing the land of 20-something which I have inhabited for the last decade and entering the unknown and scary world of 'the 30's'. So what are my issues with this age?

I suppose to be true, it's not really my issues but other peoples. Especially being female, there are so many pressures that come in the 30's. We are expected by some point in this decade to have great careers, been married, had children (the clock is ticking . . .) before we reach the barren land of the 40's. Because of course if these things haven't happened by the age of 40, we are on the scrap heap.

Who is to blame for this? Men play a part. I don't get the double standards of a man having a relationship with someone vastly younger than then and women doing the same. Personally I think dating/marrying/whatever someone (anyone) 20 years younger than you is a little icky and raises all kinds of psychological questions. But as a consequence of this, many women feel they are in some kind of competition with the younger members of their sex. And therefore we are also to blame. We gossip about our friends, place impossible pressures of perfections on ourselves, obsess over tiny details.

Age is just a number. I have friends of lots of ages and I appreciate the uniqueness of them all, we all need to see each other as individuals, not a summation of the number of years we have lived (or our hair colour/choice of clothing brand/how 'cool' we are). I wouldn't go back to being younger for any amount of money. I've learned so much 'growing up' and I still am.

They may say youth is wasted on the young, but it's only a waste if you don't use it. And I choose to squeeze every last drop out of mine.

But, after all that, I may start shaving a few years off now. Just a few :)

Jenna: Wait, listen to me. I'm 13!
Lucy: Jenna, if you're gonna start lying about your age, I'd go with 27.

(13 going on 30)

6 More Weeks!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells . . .
Er, yeah it is a bit early. But I'm so excited it is only 6 weeks until Christmas holidays and I get to whizz over to Austria for my second Contiki extravaganza! Christmas in the snow, can't wait. It may even make the oncoming Christmas onslaught of toy adverts and hearing the same songs over and over again bearable.
Fingers crossed I can remember how to snowboard and no injuries please (2 broken arms is enough for anyone) and I shall get myself some new wintery pictures of self, this one is soo old!
Anyway, that's all just wanted to gloat a little! Hugs and kisses xx

NYC – Big lady statues, disco fries, Geordie accents in America and tall buildings at night

So it’s almost over (until next time, more on that later!). The last night in DC closed in and the following morning we packed up and loaded up the gold bus for our final journey to the big apple.

Our first stop on this journey was in a place called Annapolis where we stopped at the United States Naval Academy. Those of us who had booked went on a tour of the facilities where we saw where the cadets trained and lived. The regime is so harsh, they get hardly any time off, have to do so much work, I wasn’t sure whether to admire them or think they were crazy. Our tour guide was very very boring and talked a lot. Not great since we were all a bit worse for wear and it was super hot (as usual on this trip). On a plus point we stumbled across all the cadets marching to class in their little white uniforms. Sailor boys <3.

How excited were we when we saw this???

We rebussed after the tour and headed onwards to the city or Philadelphia, home of Rocky, the liberty bell and philly cheese steak sandwiches. Our first stop was the Rocky ‘steps’ at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. No, I did not run up them, but I did walk up very fast (there are a lot of them!). There is also a statue of rocky outside the museum which you could take a picture with.

Whilst in Philly I passed on trying the infamous cheese steak and instead hit up the Liberty Bell (it’s a bit bell . . .) and saw Liberty Hall. Quite nice to see some real American History, especially after visiting Washington.

De de de de de de de de de de . . .

So onwards it was to NYC. We arrived late afternoon and got dropped off at the Contiki hotel and it was a bit of an anti-climax as we just kind of dispersed. There were plans to meet later thankfully. I headed off to my hotel, the Pod Hotel. It was about 10 blocks away so I got a cab. Check in was super quick and easy and it was a great hotel, such a good location. I did however start to feel lonely. After a month of having a roomy and constant companionship I was alone. Hard to get used to :(

That night I decided to walk to the bar to meet the others (concierge – 15 minutes walk, actually 40 minutes walk!) and happily lots of people had made the effort so we got a chance to say goodbye. My ex-roomy Erin was there and upon hearing how bad her hostel was, convinced her to take the extra bed in my room, I was no longer alone! I then directed a bunch of us to Times Square (since I went to NYC a bazillion time with Virgin) and saw the lights etc. We also checked out BB Kings, which was dead and no where near as fun as in Memphis. I then headed back for an early-ish night and arranged to meet Naomi the next day to sightsee!

NYC's finest (and me looking tres rough)

Day 2 of NYC Naomi and I decided to see lady liberty first. I had previously been over there but was more than happy to go back! We went down to battery park and with our tickets followed to massive queue, took 5 mins just to get to the end of it :( In the queue we saw Mark and his sister Vicky so we cheekily pushed in. Still was going to be a long wait. As luck would have it, a worker saw a couple of the guys had NYC City Passes which gives you a q jump. Mark and I didn’t but he said it would be okay, so what would have been a 2 hour wait became a 20 minute one. Happy days! We boarded Miss Liberty and headed to Liberty Island, got some photos with the lady and souvenired a little and then got back on the ferry and checked out Ellis Island, the place where thousands of immigrants first set foot on American soil. You can practically taste the history.

Post lady Liberty we did an emergency clothes shop ( 4 weeks in same clothes = bad) and visited Macys, Tiffanys and build a bear workshop where I treated myself (watch, necklace, statue of liberty bear!).

Trend setters!

Me and the statue of liberty bear!

That night I headed to the Contiki hotel and met up with a bunch of people. We got some dinner at an ‘Irish’ bar, where the menu included the interested, but ultimately gross Disco Fries and then hit up Times Square again. We then headed to the Empire State Building and went up to see the views at midnight. Very fun, there were quite a few people up there and no queues, and we bumped into some more Contiki’s! I called it a night at about 2am – no partying in NYC, Jill was partied out by now!

Strike a pose!

Last ever group shot at the top of the Empire State

The next day, Naomi wasn’t feeling great so we took it easy. We visited Wall St, the ground zero area, Century 21 and China Town. We then went to the TKTS booth at Times Square and waited in a ridiculous queue. We made a short list of shows and when we got to the booth plumed for Billy Elliot based on cost and what we hadn’t seen. Still cost $70 each for restricted views, Broadway is expensive!!!

After a chill out at the hotel (much needed!) we med at the theatre and had fun watching Americans try and do Geordie accents, with varying degrees of success! It was pretty amazing though and we were only about 7 rows from the front, only couldn’t see a foot or so of the stage on the left hand side, well worth it it seems! Afterwards we headed back to Times Square (AGAIN!) and had some famous NYC cheesecake at Roxy Delicatessan, yummy but HUGE uneatable slices. With that, my last night in the states came to a close

The next day, I did some last minute shopping and met Naomi for Lunch at Olive Garden and finally got myself a paper hat at Hershey World (the best freebie ever!). I then said a sad goodbye to Naomi, who had been my constant companion that past month. I am reasonably confident we will meet again soon (private joke ‘Omi!).

My trip ended with a long journey to Newark airport, a thankfully decent flight back to LHR (and nice people sitting next to me!) and a hop up to Newcastle – and funnily enough Erin was on my BA flight to NCL.

So that is it. Over. Kaput. Finale. Or is it?? Come on, this is me!! Miss Itchy Feet herself. I’m off to Austria at Christmas and will be hopefully touring Europe next year. So this blog will continue and I hope you will continue to read.

As always, I am seeking a life less ordinary.

Love, Jill xxx

DC - Definitely Cool :)

So it was out penultimate driving day and it was fairly long. The traffic into DC was really bad and we also got caught up in the tropical storm again (the one that had been following us from Miami!). We got to our hotel in the afternoon, we were staying in a place called Cheverley, about 30 mins outside the city centre. Of all the hotels we stayed in this was the one with the worst location. But more on that later.

The first night we had an included meal at a restaurant next to our hotel. Hands down, worst food I’ve ever had. Some kind of over salted chicken dish and vegetables that looked like they had been nuked. Thanks for that Contiki. We then got drove into DC for a city tour. DC has a law that you can only do tours if you are a registered guide, which Justin wasn’t. So we had to pick up a lady to guide us and she was the worst tour guide I have ever seen. Kept saying, err and umm and had no charisma or charm and a complete inability to guide people which meant our tour totally overran. However, it was a great intro to the city in that we saw a lot. Went to the capitol building, the Lincoln memorial, Jefferson memorial, Korean war memorial and the Vietnam memorial. DC is such a pretty city at night, it’s built on a grand European-style scale. The buildings aren’t tall but the roads are wide and there is lots of lovely architecture. My favourite one was the Lincoln memorial – reminded me of Planet of the Apes : )

Me and Abe

That night some of us headed to a local bar which was soo busy, but we still had a fun night. We then got to deal with a taxi driver getting us home. No taxi drivers knew where out hotel was, they were all a bit useless. It ended in one of the guys putting the address in the cab drivers sat nav and we made it home eventually!

Next day, we hopped on the bus once more into DC. Our first stop was Arlington Cemetary which is where the military are buried. Anyone who has served in the US military can be buried there, and it is HUGE. Saw JFK’s grave and also the gaves of the unknown soldiers which are guarded 24 hours a day. We then headed to the Iwo Jima memorial, it’s the famous one where the soldiers are raising the flag which is pretty impressive. We then went into the city and Naomi and I pounded the city streets, we visited the Holocaust Museum, the National Archives (saw the declaration of independence and had a National Treasure moment) and managed to get ourselves to a mall and buy new clothes and make it back to the bus on time, yay us!

That night we were free to do our own thing, so a bunch of us headed into an area of town called Foggy Bottom (great name) and had dinner at a pretty awful restaurant (flies in the drinks!) and then went to meet the others in another bar. So that night I had way too much (the lovely Bruce decided to buy me a ridiculous number of drinks) and stayed in a club until we got kicked out – lights coming on and all. Then we got back to the hotel and the taxi’s dropped up off at the one place and we all had to climb a 10 foot fence with spikes on the top of it to get back to the hotel. To this day I do not know how I got over that fence.

(On a side note our group had so many taxi dramas in DC. One group were in a taxi when it got hit by another car and got stuck while they waited for the police. Another guy got dropped in the middle of nowhere when the taxi driver got lost, and another couple had a really scary experience in a service station. If you ever go to DC, stay in the city!).

I think this picture sums it up nicely

The fence

So, following day I woke up on time but made an executive decision that more sleep was needed and passed on the bus ride into town. A bunch of us got the subway into the city later and decided to have lunch at the classiest place – hooters! I had a ‘Strip Cheese Sandwich’. It was pretty gross but the name was brilliant! We then hit a few museums, Air and Space was first – lots of similar stuff to NASA, then very brief stops at the American History museum and­ National History Museum (where night at the museum is set!).

That night consisted of a lovely dinner at a pub in Arlington followed by a gold bus party in the basement of hotel. I learned how to play some interesting aussie card games, witnessed some very drunk boys wrestling and injuring themselves (and then fighting later resulting in a hospital visit : ( ), the very stupid decision to set off firecrackers and fireworks at 2am outside the hotel (you know who you are!) and general mayhem that makes me surprised we weren’t banned from there!

Arggh!

DC was great, would need at least a week to see everything. Next leg is a trip to the naval academy, a pit stop in Philly and the big apple.

Ghosties, how not to drink 1L of alcohol, and pretty cities where maybe I’m not so bad at karaoke?

So next stop, St. Augustine! (Where I hear you say? East coast florida at the top of the state). It was thankfully a short ride from the Kennedy Space Centre to our next stop and we arrived in time to relax a little before dinner. Our hotel for the night was another motel-type arrangement but not so bad. It was arranged around a quad, with a big tree and tables under it and there was a pool (more of that later).

We had an early ish dinner that night as we had to stagger with the white bus. It was a pizza buffet at a cheap and cheerful place, one of the better meals we had. How sad that I can say pizza was one of the better food options on the trip L

After this we headed into the town of St Augustine which is a very pretty, old town. It’s one of the oldest places in the US (about 450 years old) and has lovely cobbled streets and old buildings. There is also an old Spanish fort on the sea front and lots of old cemeteries! Whilst in the town we opted to do a ghost tour, where a local dressed in olde-worlde clothes took us on a tour and told us some spooky stories about the past. It was pretty fun but I did zone out a few times and it also started raining at one point which wasn’t great (only I could go to Florida and get so much rain!). No, I didn’t see any ghosts.

Ghost tour lady and the rain!

After the tour we headed back to the hotel to watch and wonder at the inaugural NZ vs AUS drinking competition! (The back story. My lovely friend Naomi had decided it would be a good idea whilst a little inebriated in Miami to berate our kiwi friend Mike about his drinking abilities. Needless to say this did not go down too well and resulted in the formulation of a plan to hold a drinking competition to settle the argument). The rules of the game were that each party has their own 1 Litre bottle of spirits (!) and they will drink at their own pace until someone gives up/is sick etc.

The contenders! (before of course!)

We arrived back at the hotel and took over the pool area and the competition began. I was Naomi’s ‘coach’ so did my best to help her pace herself. There were bets placed and they were about even! The, yes you guessed it, it started raining again! Not one to let a little rain get in the way of things I toddled off to my room to pick up the poncho I had purchased in Miami – a rather fetching green plastic number. I decided though, that since I was wet I may as well go in the pool! So I donated it to Naomi – who by this point was so wet it didn’t make much difference. Me being an idiot, I’d also left my camera on a table by the pool which resulted in a blurry screen and foggy pictures the rest of the night. Thankfully it did dry off a few days later!

What a lovely poncho! Wherever did you get it?

The pool party ended after midnight when we were asked nicely by the security guard to leave the pool (getting used to that sort of thing) and we moved the party to the Jonas brothers room. The rest of the evening saw an ambulance, a fire engine and a police car called when one of the girls fell and hit her head (not anyone who was with us may I add!), far too many drinks being consumed, sustaining ourselves with pringles, a wrestling match that ended in a broken window and the competition being declared a draw (but Naomi won actually!). And I lost my white haviainas. Damn.

So that was St Augustine, fun fun fun! Out next stop was the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia. Always wanted to visit here and have a ‘Gone With the Wind’ moment. Its such a beautiful place! We got there around lunch time and we headed to a local park to take our group photo. Considering how much alcohol some people had consumed the night before, it came out pretty good! We then walked through city and Justin gave us a tour/bit of history. Savannah was the only southern city not burned by the Union army during the civil war, general Sherman gave it as a gift to president Lincoln apparently. Thankfully they didn’t. The city is made up of parts and squares, in a similar way to London. Everywhere are beautiful trees that have moss hanging from them. We visited the square where Forrest Gump was filmed and got told a bunch of other stuff I have forgotten (whoops).

Say cheese!

We then went for lunch and those of us who had signed up did a trolley city tour. Did I mention it was RIDICULOUSLY hot and humid? So we were tired, feeling fragile and as sweet as out tour guy was, boy was he boring. The tour consisted of telling us who lived in every house we passed (or who had lived there, or who built it etc etc). He showed us a few movie spots like where Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was filmed, but I hadn’t seen the movie! When it was finished, we found finally got out room keys and Erin and I chilled for a little which was nice!

We opted not to go to the optional dinner as it was a pricey $40, no drinks included! Instead we headed down the riverfront and found a cheap and cheerful bar to visit and had some generic American food and had a minor bitch fest. Only marred when we realised we had been sitting next to a table of white bussers most of the time. Oops.

We then headed to Wet Willies (part of a chain, was one in Memphis too) home of slushy cocktails. I tried ‘the strongest one’ but it really wasn’t that strong. Or my alcohol tolerance had build up by now? We watched some of the guys do karaoke and then Justin took us to another place (also doing karaoke – Tuesdays must be popular for that in Savannah!) where I met a English barmaid who had lived in the states for years which was kinda cool. I also got in the karaoke spirit and sang a few numbers – not too badly I was told. Highlight – Walking in Memphis, as I now know what the words mean and the gold bus crew singing out bus song ‘In My Head’. Muchos Fun!

So Contiki is getting closer to the end, how sad. But we still have a pitstop in NC, Washington x 3 and a twist of NY city to come!

Miami nights, the boat that rocked and I want to be an astronaut!

We arrived in Miami mid afternoon and headed straight to our hotel, the Wyndham. It’s an airport hotel so it’s a 30 minute ride in Miami itself. One of the nicer hotels though, quite posh!

Most of us had paid to get entry into a couple of clubs on both Miami nights. First night we were driven into Miami beach on the coach and Justin did a bit of a tour as we went, talked about the history of Miami (the city was built with drug money) the Cuban connections and the unique art deco architecture. The traffic was awful – there was some latino singer at the concert arena.

We were free to do our own thing for dinner so Naomi, Erin and I got a table at a sidewalk restaurant and had some (very expensive!) pasta and a bottle of Cava. This part of the evening was slightly marred when I had to argue with the waiter to accept my travellers cheque and then argue to get change from said travellers cheque (fyi I’m NOT going to tip you $40). We then headed to a bar where we got 2 for 1 drinks and met up with the other Contikis and also got to know some of the new white bus people better (they had joined us in NOLA).

I forgot to mention that we were at this time playing a game called ‘Assasins’. Basically everyone gets someone elses name on the bus, you need to get them alone and say to them ‘1,2,3 you’re dead’. Very sad game, white bus had been playing it a week or so earlier and it was ALL they talked about. We were not quite so enthusiastic and by the end of this first evening most people were dead! I was ‘assassinated’ by a Jonas brother in conjunction with some of the other boys, sneaky working in a team!

Anyway! Tonights nightclub was going to be Mansion which is one of the biggest clubs and a celebrity hangout (well if the Kardashians and Jersey Shore cast can be considered celebrities). Apparently if has lots of rooms, but I actually only saw 2 of them! We stayed most of the time in the first room we came into where most of the contikis were, the music was a great mix of pop, dancy stuff and older music. We had a really good time and danced until my feet got so sore I had to change my shoes (and thanks Ray for spilling a whole drink on me!).

Miami Ink!

The next day Naomi and I hit Miami and saw all the highlights! Miami beach was huge but it was a crappy day so no sunbathing to be had. We also visited Love Hate tattoo shop the home of Miami Ink which was very cool but the minimum cost of a tattoo is $250 :O (for a small black design!). We also visited DASH as Naomi was a huge fan of the Kardashians – it had hardly any clothes in it and you could buy a bottle of water with a picture of the sisters on it for $10 – WOW! We then hit a few shops as it was getting to the point where I needed new clothes. We had been on so many nights out that I was getting sick of my stuff, so I treated myself in Urban Outfitters. By now it was raining really bad, we didn’t have any coats or umbrellas so everytime we went outside we were getting drenched (thanks Miami!). When we went into store they were offering us paper towels to dry ourselves off, we were literally dripping. It was about 3.30 and the bus wasn’t coming until 5pm so we got a taxi back to the hotel.

Would you pay $10 for this?

Erin (my roomie) was ill, had been all day, so N and I headed to get our (bad) included dinner in the restaurant. Glad we went early as the service was super slow! Luckily we had enough time to go make ourselves beautiful in time for the booze cruise that night! The bus took us the Bayside area and we got on a medium sized boat and they cranked up the music and the drinks flowed. The queues for the bar were massive so everyone was getting at least 2 drinks at a time. I felt kinda bad though as I had not thought to bring any change to tip with, oh well . . . The slightly weird thing about this experience was the fact that the guys serving the drinks and playing the music were all dressed in their white sailor outfits, did look a bit strange. Everyone got merry pretty quick and the DJ did his best to speed things up by playing ‘SHOTS’, but I quietly gave my tequila away (bad Vegas memories). The party wound down, but poor Alana was really sick and had to get taken to hospital. A man down we headed onwards!

Group photo :)

Naomi and I attempt to DJ!

We waited around a while and then got onto a couple of buses to take us to Nikki Beach, our club for the night. This was, by far, the craziest bus journey I have every taken. The driver turned off the lights, put on some loud music and everyone went crazy! People were climbing everywhere, some questionable things were happening at the back . . . I have some interesting photos for sure!

Nikki Beach is a bit of a blur, its and indoor/outdoor club, very nice but confusing! I got lost coming back from the toilet which wasn’t fun but randomly met an English guy and had a chat about why we were both there ;& (A side note – both clubs in Miami had one set of toilets (with 3-5 toilets each) for the ENTIRE club. Cue huge queues and very skanky places near the end of the night. Very dumb).

Next day we waved ‘buh-by’ to Miami and took a short drive to Cocoa Beach, home of Kelly Slater! It’s a big surf town so we hit the beach and enjoyed a little swim in the Atlantic Ocean, later we had some (bad) dinner on the cute little pier and a little dip in the hotel pool. All in all, a chilled night (well deserved and needed). Especially as the next say we were headed to . . . .

The Welcome sign in Cocoa Beach!

Yes, I can surf!

Me, Naomi and some Indian guy at NASA!

(sorry about the underline!) NASA! Okay, well technically Kennedy Space Centre, but it’s still where the shuttles take off from! A very cool place, we did a simulated shuttle launch, watched an IMAX about the moon landings, toured the facilities including seeing where the launched take place and we got to see some of the capsules, rockets and space suits and touch a piece of moon rock! Naomi and I had ‘Get your space on’ (private joke gold bus!) dog tags made and revelled in the NASA branded merchandise! I am the proud owner or some space ice cream (still not eaten!) and a NASA baseball cap – which I’ll probably never wear but it’s still cool. This was once again one of the places that I hadn’t really thought about visiting but was actually soo much fun and I totally recommend it, we have 5 hours there but we could have done with another 2 or 3 at least.

Visit over, back to the bus (AGAIN!) and onwards to beautiful Tallahasse for ghost tours, impromptu pool parties and the infamous AUS vs NZ drinking competition. Yes things could get, er, worse?

Orlando in 36 hours, Harry Potter(!), Pool party part un and falling asleep in the everglads

Soooo onwards and downwards to the beautiful state of Florida which was to be our home for the next 7 days – the longest we would spend in one state. Soo much happened that we will do Florida in two parts – number one Tallahasse to Miami.

We left New Orleans and bussed our way along the coast. Today Justin decided we would be stopping for lunch in Pensacola Beach. Pensacola Beach is one of the tourist communities affected by the BP oil spill in the gulf and he thought it would be nice for 50 hungry people to go and spend some dollars there. To get there we had to drive along a very long bridge which I can’t find on the map but I remember it took ages to get there! Little Erin, Naomi and I headed to a local sports bar for lunch and Naomi and I enjoyed (?) $2 margaritas just because they were $2!

Onwards to Tallahasse the state capital of Florida, surprisingly as it seems like a really small place. We got there late so didn’t see much, we went to Applebees for one of our better included dinners (and it seems to be a hot place as when we left people were paying to get in to for some karaoke thing, I guess not much happens there!). Some of us then headed for a local bar which had a ‘wheel of fortune’ for free beer and played some pool and air hockey. Headed home at a reasonable hour to enjoy a room to myself, which resulted from a reservation muck up (after Erin and I had shared a bed in Memphis too!). Worked out quite well as I was ill and could not stop coughing due to *still* being ill.

Orlando beckons the next day and we get there early afternoon and a bunch of us decide to check out some water slides at Wet’N’Wild. Lots of fun, lots of queues and pretty hot. Managed to do most of the rides which was a good effort considering we were only there about 5 hours. The best had to be ‘Disco H2O’ where you go down into this funnel type thing with disco balls inside and disco music and you spin round a bit before getting chucked outside, pretty fun! That evening (still a little ill) we went for our included dinner – pizza which we waited nearly an hour for and a laundry party with Naomi. I hadn’t washed my clothes in a washing machine since the grand canyon, it was a crisis situation! The others went to a bar and got drunk and had a pool party at crazy oclock and I got woken up a few times, fun and games!

Our only full day in Orlando was next! We had decided to hit Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios as that is where HARRY POTTER world is! We upped the stakes and bought express passess (best $70 I had spent in a while!) so we could skip all the queues. They were amazing, walked past all the people queuing and didn’t wait more than 10 minutes, which is pretty good in the middle of August! Our first stop was of course harry potter world (officialy ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’). Something was wrong when we got there so had to wait an hour in the queue with De, Trudy and Naomi. So we sat on the ground (it was hot and we weren’t precious) ate Choros, pretzels and slushy drinks for breakfast and got excited.

Finally getting in to Potter land - so excited!

Harry potter world is really cool, if a little smaller than I imagined. The Hogwarts village has been done in such detail, you can go in all the shops, buy things from the movies (like butter beer and bertie botts beans) there is an owlery to send postcards and you can visit ollivanders. Trudy and I headed for the duelling dragons ride which was lots of fun and our first use of our express pass, it was set up like the challengers for the tri-wizard cup, very cute. Something I loved about universal studios was the quality and detail everywhere. All the rides are so well maintained, no wear and tear and really well made! Every ride the staff have uniforms themed to that ride (not just that area) its soo cute! On this ride they were dressed like the people who look after the dragons in the film! We skipped the ride inside Hogwarts as there was a huge queue and our queue jumpers didn’t work on that ride (bummer) but we cheered ourselves up by buying wands and other paraphernalia!

We next hit up the water ride section of the park, and oh my god the rides there get you SOAKED! Not damp, not wet but ‘oh my god everything I am wearing (including my underwear) is so drenched if I stripped off I could fill a paddling pool with the water I squeeze out of it’. Much fun, but kinda icky when its humid! We also checked out some more rollercoaster and superhero themed things, waited in a queue for 30 mins for bad fast food (there were only TEN people in front of us) and relaxed a little as our wonderful express passes took all the stress out of the day!

That night we had a barbeque (where even though I paid I ended up with no food – hmmmmm) and a party with a ‘D’ theme (Well gold bus was ‘D’ theme, white bus all had different letters which made it hard to tell who was what). Most of us got in on it (I was a domino!) but some lazy sods didn’t bother – you know who you are :P! It was actually pretty tame, lots of us went in the pool, some of the guys had nerf guns so there was a bit of a nerf war and Amy decided to have a little strip in the pool but pretty calm! Stayed in the pool until the security guy kicked us out (hmm, will that happen again??) at a rather early 12.30am and had a good nights sleep for the journey to MIAMI!

Okay, a side note on our journey to Miami. We were told we would get a tour of the Everglades included, yay we said. Justin says, if you don’t want to do it you don’t have to but there is nothing to do at the place we leave the bus. So we go on a little tour in these trolley type things. One of the most boring 90 minute periods of my life. Grass. Water. Birds. A gator. Repeat. For 90 minutes. Also one of the most boring tour guides in the world, he talked about alligators for 20 MINUTES! I was tired, ill, a little hungover and just wanted to sleep. We nearly killed Justin for not warning us. Bad times.

It really was that boring!

But, we were on our way to MIAMI!!!! So all is good.

TBC – Miami clubs, DASH, Miami Ink, booze cruises, SHOTS!, beach bumming and NASA baby!

I left my heart (and my liver) in New Orleans

So we leave Memphis early on a Monday morning and board our coach to NOLA!

We stopped in the morning at generic American rest stop which had a cool Louisiana shaped sign (see picture!) and then I *think* (it was a month ago - need to get this blog finished before I forget everything) we stopped in some little place and got amazingly huge sandwiches. And may I say it was ridiculously hot still and getting more humid.

So we continued to NOLA, as we drove we went through Brentwood, LA (home town of Britney Spears - Naomi, Erin and I were the only ones sad enough to admit to knowing this when Justin asked who came from there) and as we drove in New Orleans Justin told us a bit about the city and the impact of hurricane Katrina.

Justin used to live in New Orleans and coincidentally he left the city just a few days before the hurricane hit. We drove on a massive motorway/flyover type thing which I remember seeing people walking on in footage from years ago. We also drove past the Louisiana Superdome which is where thousands of people tried to shelter from the hurricane. It's repaired now but it was pretty wrecked by the storm, I really can't imagine what it must have been like. Shame on the US gov for not doing more to evacuate the poor and vulnerable.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which was in a good location, only a couple of blocks from Bourbon Street. Not the nicest inside however, Erin and I got to our room to find it had an industrial carpet cleaner left in it. We really didn't want to know why they had been shampooing the carpet. Then, revelling in the fact that we had more that 30 minutes to get ready, we decided to try out the hotel pool. Let's just say it was about the size of a paddling pool. Oh well, it was hot and humid so at least we got wet!

Post cruise fun with Kate and Naomi

The first night we had signed up for a paddle boat cruise on the Mississippi. The boat was pretty cool and they played some jazzy type music. There was food which again was yucky and not what we were told it would be. Can I just say 80% of the food I ate on this tour was pretty gross. We all had a few drinks from the worlds slowest bar staff and enjoyed the views.

After the cruise we headed to the original 'Pat O'Briens' home of the famous New Orleans hurricane to meet up with the rest of the Contiki's. Hurricanes are like an institution in NOLA and wow are they strong. They don't taste that strong as such, but I had 2 in about 1 1/2 hours and combined with a few vodkas on the boat I was very tipsy!

Next we hit another NOLA 'landmark' 'Tropical Isle'. This bar is the home of the hand grenade. The bar only sells these drinks (and I think maybe beer) and you can get them slushy style or regular in one of two sizes, if you get the big size it comes in a nifty neon yellow cup and you get a little mini hand grenade floating in your drink. I really do wonder who thinks of these things. Needless to say these were also very strong, so by this point you have in the region of 70 very merry contikis! So we headed off to Razzoo's for more fun, dancing on the stage, test tube drinks and other fun. I am pleased to say I was good and started drinking water here (there are photos for proof!) and so started to sober up and remember the night!

http://www.tropicalisle.com/

Razzoo's - Messy

So the next day I rose reasonably early but bed looked so comfy I decided against an early departure. I did manage to get out though and see the city, I mainly walked around the french quarter which is really pretty. I've always thought New Orleans looks nice after seeing it in films like interview with a vampire and runaway jury. I did some souvenir shopping etc and got a pedicure - generally enjoying having my first afternoon to myself!

Night two I went for dinner with some friends and then we stopped off at Cafe du Monde to try their famour Beignets (see below) which are like pillow shaped doughnuts covered in icing sugar. LOTS of icing sugar. They must go through tons of the stuff. Nice, but sickly.

We then headed to a 'locals' bar which Kris (other bus manager) had chosen. It was okay, but lacked atmosphere. That night was one of those could go either way nights and I wanted to have fun as it was Janice's last night (she was only doing the half tour 'Southern Adventure'). We decided to head over to Bourbon Street and stopped in Tropical Isle. I admitted defeat though - still sick as I had been from Dallas and after such a humid day I called in a night just after midnight.

Onwards to Tallahasse and Florida.

New Orleans was lots of fun and crazier than I could imagine. Will be going back at some point, that's for sure!

Memphis, I love you

So, we arrive at our next destination, Memphis, TN.

Okay, I'll admit it, I know little to nothing about Memphis (beyond Elvis and 'Walking in Memphis') and it wasn't a place I was super excited to be visiting, how wrong was I!

We drive into the city to the sound of Marc Cohn and do a quick city tour of a few sights such as Beale St (whilst discovering the Bieber is in town and the city if full of tweens!).

Our hotel is pretty nice if unremarkable, and the first night I had opted in to a dinner at a famous barbecue place called 'Rendezvous'. So the night is hot and sticky and we get there and there is a big queue outside, I think this was because we had reserved a pretty huge section of the restaurant - sucks for those without a reservation! So we have a random buffet type meal of ribs which was pretty rank imo, and we've also paid to have free beer, but me being sick couldn't drink the damn stuff which was annoying so ended up going to the bar for a cheeky glass of wine. The atmosphere was pretty good though, we had a jukebox in our section and I attempted to liven up the atmosphere with a great double bill of the Venga boys and the Macarena (see evidence below of me attempting to do the dance). Didn't catch on, shame!

Next - Beale Street - Saturday night, one word, awesome! Okay so there is lots of ID checking this night, once to get onto Beale St, then to get in a bar and then for every drink, overkill? So, first stop is BB Kings blues club. The music is pretty cool but Naomi and I were just not feeling it, the bar was smallish and the Contikis there were all spread about and we were lacking the group fun we normally had. So after some dramas in getting Kate her ID (which had been 'borrowed'). Naomi and I decided to pace the street, first we found Janice, De and Trudy and had some hugs and hellos and they wanted to continue there wanderings so we parted ways. Now at this point, I still wasn't feeling in (lots of nights partying was starting to take its toll!) but this was the city where Naomi and I learned to work through the funk as it ALWAYS turns out to be a good night. First turning point, bumping into Mick who was in such a high and infectious mood! Second point, having a huge blue slushy cocktail thing in a big glass - strong! Last point, returning to BB Kings and finding we have taken over large sections of the dance floor! Brillaint night, only spoilt by tripping on cobbles on the way home and ripping the bottom of my dress, grr!

Drag myself out of bed the next day, determined to see stuff even if I didn't get to bed til after 3 (this was the start of a theme!). Firstly we went to Graceland. Now I'm not an Elvis fan, but it was kinda cool. The house was actually very small but it was decorated as it was when he died. There was also all his records, some costumes etc and LOTS of people. Tons. And they walk slowly!

Next we went to the Lorraine Hotel where MLK jr was shot, very sad. It's now a civil rights museum (closed when we were there as it was a Sunday morning) and there is a lady outside who has been protesting about the museum for over 20 years, she says MLK would have thought it a waste of money and the millions spent on it should have been spent on poor people. I think I agree with her, even if she is a little crazy. We also visited Sun Studios where Johnny Cash made music among others. I must admit, I didn't get of the bus here. The heat, humidity and lack of sleep got the better of me! Later that afternoon we also headed to see a baseball game, the Memphis Redbirds. Baseball is pretty dull though, so we enjoyed a bit of the buffet we had provided, watched a bit, I bought a foam finger and we headed back to chill.

Last night - included dinner which was okay but they decided to put this huge band on next to us which mean we couldn't really talk to each other. We had a few drinks in and Irish bar next door and again another in BB Kings but the groups I was with decided to call it an early (ish) night and prep ourselves for the next leg to New Orleans. And I'm glad I did. Do you know what they call Bourbon St (main party street in NO)? Beale St on crack. And that is VERY accurate description as I will further explain next time :)

Memphis, you were one of many surprises on my trip, so glad I got to visit you, may we meet again!

Cadillacs, carnivores and cowboys!

So we resume our journey with a pretty long drive to Texas (don't mess with Texas!), more arid landscapes and dodgy rest stops! On our way we stopped at a tourist attraction known as 'Cadillac Ranch' which according to wikipedia was started in 1974 and is basically a bunch of Cadillacs buried in the ground and

people come along and spraypaint them (or attempt to -the paint I had was rubbish). So we spent half an hour climbing on the cars, painting, taking photos :)

(okay sorry for the underline, cannot get rid of it!)

A short drive later we arrived at our non-descript hotel in Amarillo (White bus had bagged the 'character' hotel next to the restaurant, but we were near the bar and 24 hour iHop!) and due once more to our lateness it is a mad rush to shower and get changed before dinner, Erin and I were becoming quite good at this!

We hopped on the bus to 'The Big Texan', a very cool, tacky, trashy, cowboy steak type place. As 'everything is bigger in Texas' I started with a 32 oz beer in a glass that was so big I could hardly pick it up!

Now, some foolish souls (Joel, Leah, Johnny and Shawn) had decided to try the steak challenge. 1 hour to eat a 72oz steak, bread roll, starter and jacket potato. If you do it it is free. Did they manage it? No. Was it fun watching them try? Yes! They looked so sick! It was the biggest piece of meat I had ever seen on a plate. Even our free included meals were huge. Like I said, bigger in Texas.

After dinner, we moved to the bar area and played with the games there (shooting arcade was fun but fixed I'm sure!) and managed to wrangle myself a few more free drinks. We then headed to Buckles Western Bar down the road. There was less than 10 people there when we arrived then 50 Contiki's rocked up and took over the place. This was one of the best parts of being in such a big group, we brought the party where ever we went! The evening was fun, met some real cowboys, stayed til kicking out time, managed to get 8 people in a 5 seater taxi and went to iHop at 3am. Good times.

Next day was another early start to Dallas! On our way we stopped at Walmart to 'get our western on' in prep for the Rodeo in 2 nights time. Got myself a rather fetching cowboy had (had to leave it on the bus though :( ) and a kids cowgirl shirt, fabulous.

We entered Dallas to the Dallas theme tune and saw a few sites and visited a sculpture of some cattle called Pioneer Plaza (kind boring!) and then hit the hotel, Hotel Indigo. Nice hotel, but our room only had one bed so I had to sofa-bed it those 2 nights. Was weird being so close to the ground.

Anyway, we had our included meal that night at 'Gators', it was a fajita buffet, okay I guess. The bar was a dive though and then they started karaoke. Glad to moe on the Justin's suggestion for a nicer bar a short ride away called 'Blackfriars'. Nice place, not too expensive. I was one of the first to go but gradually the rest of the Contiki's filtered in and we all got a bit snap happy, lots of photos taken that night!

Next day we headed for the JFK museum and saw where he was shot. Was kinda interesting but I am still not warming to American Museum, they are so wordy and kinda boring and it took a long time to go around. We also went out to the grassy knoll and took some pictures. We then grabbed a taxi and tried to go to a mall. We had a crazy taxi driver who insisted on taking us to a stupid locals mall which took ages to get to and was a nightmare to get back from. Trust your instincts guys, when you think someone is sussed, say no!

That night was rodeo time! By this point I was sick. I'd felt sick the previous night but now I knew I had a cold, it sucked. But I continued on! We took the Bus to Fort Worth and some of us went to visit Billy Bob's, the 'biggest honky tonk in the world'. It was empty when we were there but was still pretty cool, would be a great party when full!

We then mooched over to the stockyards and got some seats for the rodeo. Great fun, lots of flags, national anthems, crazy cowboys, kids chasing animals, hot dogs, popcorn and general good times.

We left in high spirits and tried to get in the mood for more fun by singing along to music on the bus. Then Vara (aka 'the Italian Stallion') decided it would be a good idea to do a strip. Thankfully it did not get down to the full monty but underwear was involved and he sat on my lap (!) and crushed my hat :(

That night I stayed out very briefly but illness got the better of me and I retired early like a good girl. I'm glad I did as the night appeared to end with 3am visits to strip clubs and dodgy alcohol dealings. Sometimes you are glad when you miss out on the 'fun'!

Til next time . . .