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!