Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ok so its been a while since I've written anything but the last 3 weeks have been pretty mental and now having made it to LA I have some time to fill you all in...
It now feels like years ago when I was in South America but it is in fact just under a month ago when I was waiting for my delayed flight at Lima airport, stuggling to stay awake as I listened for the annoucements. I was quite sad to be leaving but once I was on the flight and it was time for me to be landing at JFK airport I was pretty excited about being in New York again.
Having been to New York before I was looking forward to just chilling out over the next couple of days before the tour started. The first thing I did was buy myself a new camera, so I am now back in business and I will get my photos up ASAP. I loved New York the last time I came and I still love it, its a great city and I feel completely at home there. The days I spent walking round Central Park, Times Square (where I found people playing the pan pipes !!!!! and I thought I had left this all behind in Peru...) and Broadway. Did a bus tour round Uptown Manhattan where I saw the soup kitchen from the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld, the Dakota buildings where John Lennon lived and died and the building from the Ghostbusters... very cool. I also made a stop off at M&M's World (now have a slight obsession with M&M's) and Top of the Rock, which is where you can go to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and look out on to the rest of New York - it gives you some amazing views and you can see the Empire State building in all its glory. At night I went out with some Australian guys I met in my hostel who were a great laugh and we went out partying in whatever bars we could fnid that were open, which is not many on a Sunday night. On another note the Central Park Hostel is a great place to stay, although I was in a mixed dorm with mostly men and the next morning the room stank.
I wished I had more time in New York, just because I love it and I met some great people there. For some one who is moving around a lot over the next year I seem to be getting too attached to the places I'm visiting... I spent much of my last day there trying to find out how to get to New Jersey which I had only just realised was where my starting hotel for the next tour was. It all worked out though, after a bit of a panic on my part and once I got there I had the best surprise ever. The room was HUGE!!! and the there were two MASSIVE beds with EXTRA comfortable pillows, a BIG tv, a beautiful bathroom, a tea and coffee maker and it was only a Holiday Inn!!! I actually thought I was in paradise... especially after the hostel and South America. I had also been put in a room with one of the other girls from the tour so I got to make a friend before the tour started which was nice.
Meeting the rest of the tour group was ok, it turned out there were two groups that would be travelling the same route and staying in the same places as us so in total there were about 24 people plus the 2 insane tour leaders. We were introduced to the van which we would be spending an awful lot of time in (just too much time in fact) and the trailer which would house our food, luggage and camping equipment. Yes camping, I was camping. And indeed cooking... I didn't tell my group that the last time I cooked it was so bad the food turned myself and my mum in to vegetarians.
Our first stop was Philadelphia where we made a quick visit to see the Independance Hall and the Liberty Bell... it was a really pretty, clean and typically American town. We then headed to Washington and we had our first taste of what it would be like spending the majority of the day squashed in a van with 12 other people we didn't know. We pretty much dealt with it by sleeping lots while Allen the tour guide sang his heart out to whatever song was on at the time. He knew the words to every song ever! Setting up the tents for the first time was... amusing. Thats all I'll say on that although we did get much better. The campground we were staying at was really pretty and for the first night we got lots of beer and we all chipped in to help with the first meal. When it got dark we were taken on a tour of Washington at night where we saw the Capitol State Building lit up and all the monuments and statues of great presidents long since gone and of course the White House. The second day of the tour was spent walking round and visiting the museums and looking at the famous sites during the day. Washington is nice, very clean and very grand looking. You needed more than one day to do all the museums and to see it all. On the second night in the campsite we had a bit of a drama when Dave, the other groups tour guide nearly set himself on fire trying to light one of the lamps. It was scary, he pretty much set himself alight and had to go to hospital. He was ok and very lucky, he got away with very light injuries to his neck.
After Washington was Tennessee... the best things to happen in Tennesee were a visit to Memphis where we got to see Graceland and the whitewater rafting which was so much fun! Our group was split in to 2 for this, the other group got a guide who looked like he was 12. I remember laughing about this until I met our guide who looked like he was at least 70. He was the manager of the place and had been whitewater rafting for years which made me feel a little better but still... he had no teeth, was so skinny with long crazy grey hair. Was quite nervous about the rafting but as soon as we got going had one of the best times ever. Didn't fall out!! But one of the guys on the trip did because he leant towards the left... despite being told to lean towards the right. Was very funny and he just claimed his wife had pushed him. It was one of the girls birthdays on this day too and we surprised her with some Jack Daniels and a mountain of doughnuts, which we all enjoyed ;-) and stayed up late in to the night setting off fireworks and drinking.
The group got on really well from the beginning, we were split in to 4 groups of 3 and it would rotate between van cleaning, dish washing, cooking and morning crew. Everyone did there bit, although 2 of the guys were a bit lazy. It turned out that 2 of the girls in the group would be on the same flight as me to Fiji and would also be in Sydney at Christmas so that was great news. A lovely New Zealand couple (the one who was 'pushed' out of the raft) also offered me a place to stay in Auckland, was lucky to have another great group. From the start we didn't really mix with the other group although as the trip went on this got better and we had a bit of competition going between the two which I think resulted in us winning... I'll say this resulted in us winning although this comes later in the trip.
New Orleans was the next stop and we were really looking forward to this as we would be staying in suites - i.e no tents for TWO whole lovely nights. We stayed in the French Quarter where there was no sign of the damage from hurricane Katrina. It was really pretty with a great night life and good shops. The first night was one of our big nights out. We all had quite a bit to drink at home where we played 21's (a great drinking game) and then headed out for food and some of the biggest cocktails I have ever seen. The next day was very amusing seeing Allen with a huge hangover. Luckily we had a free day which we spent looking round the town ending with a ghost tour that night which was really interesting. They have stories about all sorts of ghosts and vampires. It does seem one of the unluckiest places in the US as it has been hit by so many floods, fires, all sorts of disasters.
We weren't looking forward to leaving New Orleans as it is a great place, also it meant tents again but we were quite excited by Texas and going on a swamp tour. Cajun Jack leads the swamp tours and this guy is crazy! We went down the river and saw some of the biggest mansions in Texas which contrasted greatly with the tiny floating houses on the swamp. It was like another world when we went in there. We also saw an alligator sunbathing on a log which was cool. Texas was beautiful and hot as we continued to drive through to San Antonio and Austin where we got a great surprise... no tents! But cabins, with a porch and a swing. They were so welcome and good. We went to see the Alamo, it was a name I had heard but didn't know anything about. It was a 19th century battle between Mexico and Texas, it lasted 13 days and with everyone on the Texas side being killed. What is amazing is that the Texans (who ironically were not from Texas but from other US states and also some from Great Britain) only numbered around 100 while the attackers had over 1000. It was really interesting to learn about the battle and when I went in to the shrine there I got shivers down my spine. After the Alamo we spent the day walking round San Antonio which was a much nicer place to be than Austin. At this stage in the trip I was getting a bit bored with all the towns we were visiting, after South America it was a bit dissapointing... it wasn't a let down as such, its just they all started looking the same after a while.
After Texas however the scenery started to change and America started to look very different as we stopped in Del Rio where from here we went in to Mexico for a beautiful Mexican meal and dancing. Had a great night out, although found it odd that you could walk straight over the border in to Mexico but on the way back in you had to sit in a scary office while police triple checked your passport and visa while you're trying very hard to sober up. The town we visited in Mexico was built very much for tourists as it was a border town, it was great fun though and the two groups really started to mix here. While we were here we also went to a drive in movie which was a really cool experience, just need to remember to take a jumper next time!
We were now getting in to the part of the trip I was most looking forward to... this was Carlsbad Caverns, Monument Valley, Zion, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Carlsbad Caverns were beautiful, they are huge and look like they either belong on the moon or under the sea. We stopped off in Roswell, where we made tin foil hats so the aliens couldn't read our minds. There was a parade happening at the time and there is something wrong when the parade are fascinated by you... in some cases the people in the parade were openly laughing! We also made a stop in Santa Fe which is another pretty town. All the buildings are made out of what looks like brown mud and they won't allow any other building material to be used. It was nice because it didn't look like the rest of America.
Monument Valley was one of the highlights... great big rocks jutting out of the desert. We spent our time there with the local Navajo's. They took us on a tour of Monument Valley where they showed us how to shout out so the sound echoed at least 4 more times. We also got to see the sunset before heading back for a lovely meal and local dancing which we all joined in with. It was a great laugh. We stayed in a hogun that night, which is a traditional house and was surprisingly warm. Zion National Park was next on the list and this place was also beautiful but looked very different to Monument Valley. On our way there we stopped off at a really nice little spot, called the Horseshoe. It was a really tranquil spot where we all relaxed in the sun. Dave's team at this point though were upping the ante on the 'competition' which seemed to have no rules and they put a giant rock in front of the trailer wheel. Allen didn't notice this and tried to drive over it. Thankfully no damage was done but we all decided that Dave and his group didn't need to know this and we would pretend that the trailer was broken and it had to be left behind with all our stuff in... Allen played his part so well, screaming down the phone at Dave we were all pretty freaked out by how well he did it. So when we reached Zion we all looked really sad, without our luggage and when Dave turned up he was so ashamed and apologetic we all felt really bad. It was a good trick, which we finally came clean too when Dave was about to drive off and look for Allen. He loved it and seemed really proud of us all for fooling him so thakfully we all had a good laugh about it. No more rocks were put in front of our trailer after this...
We went hiking in Zion which I was so pleased to finally be doing. I thought there would be a lot more on this trip and was glad to be doing something active at last. Although we kind of went off the trail and the hike turned in to mountain climbing but we all made it back down again so that was a relief. Some of the rocks were a bit dodgy shall we say. The next stop was the Grand Canyon where we were all told we had to decorate brown paper bags and put them on our heads for the majority of the drive so we wouldn't get a glimpse of it... we all did this and once we had set up camp we were told to put them back on and the other group led us to the edge so we all had to take the bags off together and get the view at the same time. It was such a good idea and I'm so glad we did it!! The Grand Canyon is spectacular, just so incredible! We watched the sunset, drank champagne and had cheese and crackers. Was so good! The next day was an early morning as we were hiking 6 miles in to the canyon. This was great, hard work but great. We did 12 miles that day and we were shattered that night. I then got my final view of the canyon the next day when I did the helicopter ride... this was the best bit and by far the best way to see the canyon. Its so hard to describe and the pictures don't do it justice. Definately worth a visit if you can.
After the Grand Canyon the good stuff just kept on happening... Las Vegas!!! Where we stayed in another hotel which was again great as we had had two very cold nights camping and Allen surprised us with a streched hummer. Possibly the best night out yet and the most fun had ever. We all went completely crazy, had to move cars half way through and the second one had a pole to dance round inside!!! We all got drunk, didn't need to eat as we had had one of the biggest buffets ever for lunch and went to see the casino's, gamble and dance the night away. Ended up in the club in Treasure Island which we found out the next day was one of the biggest clubs on the strip but we had left because we hadn't liked the music. The second day there we looked round all the casino's, they are really cool places and when you enter them you have no idea what time of day it is. Some of them are beautiful and are so extravagant in their decoration. Its a really cool place.
This brought us up to the last day... Disneyland!!!!! This is where we all started acting like the biggest kids, had a great day with Space Mountain being the best ride and Splash Mountain a close second. Its surprisingly quite a small park but it was the first one out of all the lands of Disney so maybe they just haven't built it up yet. This was also a sad day as it was the last day of the trip and some of us had to say goodbye. Most of us had become pretty close and it was strange saying bye. This was yesterday, today those of us that are left are exhausted!! In 21 days we have travelled from New York to LA (camping!! in case I hadn't mentioned that before...) which crosses 3 time zones and goes through over 9 states. Today is a relaxed day, tomorrow i will be going star spotting before my flight to Fiji!!
- comments