Boston

Tour number three started just as quickly as the last one ended. I was lucky enough to have five friends from the previous tour and the same tour manager and driver on this tour. It felt like welcoming family back for this tour, so I was feeling very comfortable for this tour. 

Before arriving in Boston we had lunch in Providence, Rhode Island. It's a small city in a small state. That's about all I have to say on that one really. 

Boston is a very old city, one of the oldest in the United States, which you can really see in the architecture of the city. 

In Boston we went to a restaurant called Dicks Last Resort where they give you a paper hat with a rude comment on it (mine was "Ask me about my rash"), throw straws and napkins at you and are generally just dicks. This probably sounds familiar because this is not the first time I've been there. We also went to a Dicks Last Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida. After dinner a large group of us went to the Bowling alley across the street from the hotel and bowled for a few hours. It was a great way to get to know some of these new faces and have some fun at the same time. 

We got up early the next morning to take a walking tour of Harvard University. We had a great student guide that told us about the history and about student life on campus. Afterwards the day was our own, so I took a trolley ride around the city for some history before getting off at Fenway Park. I had lunch here with one of the other girls and bought some Red Sox fan souvenirs. I had to look the part seeing as we had tickets to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox. You know when you see baseball games on TV or in the movies and they play the ball game songs, there's a party atmosphere, there's action and there's men selling hotdogs?! It's REAL! A group of about 15 of us had great tickets and we soaked up the atmosphere as best we could. I fell in love with my foam hand, it was all so much fun. The Red Sox didn't win, but it didn't matter, now I'm a Red Sox fan forever. It was the best experience in Boston, I loved it! 

New York

I'm starting to get a wee bit overwhelmed with the amount of things that I've done already on this trip and even more so when I realise there is still more to go. This has been a dream come true this trip. 

New York marked the ending point of my first tour - the Grand Southern - with Contiki and with my new Contiki Family. I have made some new friends and some new family on this trip. 

When we left Washington D.C. we headed north to Philadelphia. Our first stop was lunch, and when in Philadelphia, you have to try a Phillie Cheese Steak. It's a french stick sandwich with roasted meat and melted cheese, plus mushrooms, capsicum and onions if you want. It was goooood! 

After Philadelphia we hit the road north again to New York and the end of the tour. As you can imagine it was mixed emotions on the bus - excitement for finally being in New York and sadness at leaving our new friends. But, with such wonderful technology as Facey-book we have stayed in touch while in the big city and now that we have gone our seperate ways too. 

In New York I had a new roomie - Zoe and a new tour. This was the New York Uncovered tour, still with Contiki, but a little different, as it was all in the one city and only for a few days. Rather than a coach bus to travel from place to place we walked or caught the subway. And, New York was having a heatwave - high 30's/40's every day with high humidity. I don't think I've ever sweated so much my life. Plus I was tired. So very tired. After 26 full on days on tour, I wanted a sleep in. 

Alas, the tour of New York started the very next day and I didn't get my sleep in until the third morning. It might seem slightly silly to waste half a morning in NEW YORK on sleep, but I needed it, desperately. And here's why. You tell me you wouldn't need a sleep in after doing all this in the heat after a 26 day tour:

 - Did a city tour on a coach bus

 - Visited a church in Harlem

 - Dropped by the Apollo theatre

 - Had lunch at Grand Central Station

 - Paid my respects at the 9/11 Memorial

 - Took a 25 minute Helicopter around the island of Manhattan

 - Had dinner at a pub in Times Square

 - Soaked up the atmosphere in Times Square at night

 - Caught yellow taxi cabs

 - Rode the subway

 - Cruised out to the Statue of Liberty

 - Did a food cart tour around Downtown, Manhattan

 - Saw 'Newsies' on Broadway!

 - Ate at Red Lobster

 - Had a picnic in Central Park

 - Shopped at Tiffany & Co on 5th Avenue

 - Walked through Rockerfeller Centre

 - Experienced a typical Jewish dinner at a local kosher deli

 - Went up the Empire State Building at night

New York felt a lot safer than I thought it would and despite the warnings of unfriendly Americans, I didn't really experience that. The island of Manhattan is so packed in it's crazy. Every inch of the island is jam packed. It's also fairly well labelled - it's chronological for the most part, making it way to navigate for tourists such as myself. There is so much to do and see, you'd need several weeks at the least to see everything you could, but that would cost a fortune! So, the tour around the city was a great way to see as much as possible, and make the most of the few days I had there. 

I'll have to come back though, there is so much more to see and experience. Mark my words, I'll be back to this amazing city! 

Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. was everything I thought it would be and more. My aim was to see as much as possible, monuments and museums galore. 

This was the final stop on the Grand Southern tour and was the longest at a 3 day stint. On the final night we had one final blow out party to commemorate the trip and to start the goodbyes. While we travelled together the next day through Philadelphia on the way to New York, this was the last time we had to drink and party together. We had a t-shirt signing party. Everyone bought white t-shirts and we spent the evening writing notes, drawing pictures and saying goodbye. And did all of this while drinking, so you can imagine the comments that were being made! I also managed to face off against 4 Aussies in a battle of Flip Cup and won! It was probably my crowning moment. Needless to say I did NOT feel like a box of fluffy ducks the next morning on the bus!

While we were in Washington for the weekend so were 30,000 Boy Scouts for their National Jamboree and 10,000 African-American woman from a National Sorority for their conference. You'll no doubt see numerous geeky scouts, and beautiful black woman in my photos!

Meanwhile here's what I did and saw in Washington during daylight hours:

Arlington Cemetery. 

Arlington is in Virginia, on the other side of the river from Washington D.C. Arlington Cemetery is where America bury anyone that served in the military service, or during battle, and their spouses too. Presidents are buried there too. It was a very somber place and seeing rows upon rows of white marble headstones, up and down the hills really showed the toll this country has taken during conflicts. We visited the site of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Onassis then went to the changing of the guard at the gravesite of the unkown solider. 

Marine Memorial.

I feel a little bad that I don't remember the name of this site, but you'll know the statue when you see it. It's a dedication to all Marines that have given their life in the name of USA, with a large statue of 6 men erecting a large flag in Iwo Jima. It was here that I came to respect the level of respect and honour that American's show their armed forces and those that gave their lives in battle. 

Nighttime tour of Washington City

On this tour we had a local guide that talked about living in Washington, the diversity of the city and showed us the highlights of the sites. We stopped at the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument (which is currently covered in scaffolding and wrapped in plastic for maintenance work. Locals already thought it was fellic looking and now that it's covered in plastic you can imagine the jokes!), Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial. All of these were very big and very well done, true dedications to the heroes and presidents and the great work they did. 

Smithsonian Museums. 

Get this, if you were to go to each exhibit and spend one minute at each item on display at each museum and did this until you saw everything in the storage facilities too, it would take you 89 years to see everything in the Smithsonian collections! Needless to say I compromised on what I saw! The Smithsonian Museums are numerous Museums dedicated to various things. They line the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. On the first day I went with a small group to the Holocaust Museum (almost made me cry), the Natural History Museum (where I went in the butterfly house and saw the National Geographic Nature Photography winners for 2012), the Sculpture Garden (New Zealand does Sculpture art better!) and the National Museum of modern Art. 

On the second day we went to Newseum (a relatively new museum dedicated to the Press, with exhibts on famous headlines like the Unabomber, 9/11, JFK, etc) Did I mention that some of these Museums aren't in the Smithsonian Museum cluster, so heaven knows how long it would take to see EVERYTHING in Washington?! I missed seeing the Spy Museum and the Air & Space Museum, along with numerous Art Galleries and Museums. Oh well, guess I'll have to come back!! 

The White House.

We walked in the blistering heat (I've honestly never sweat so much in my life!) to both sides of the White House. It's a giant White House. With large lawns. And that's honestly about it. It is much smaller than it looks in the movies, or shorter I should say, it always seems so long in the movies, like Buckingham Palace long, but it's not. 

Savannah, Georgia to Raleigh, North Carolina

Over the last few days we have covered a lot of miles. And I mean a lot. One night stops are hard work, you arrive mid to late afternoon, sometimes in the evening and get back on the bus early the next morning to do it again. For those following along on the map, in this stretch we've gone from Miami to Cocoa Beach, to St Augustine, to Savannah, to Raleigh, and end up in Washington D.C. tomorrow for a luxiourous 3 night stay. 

Savannah was a beautiful city, very obsessed with park squares. Have you watched Forrest Gump? The park where is sits waiting for the bus and narrates his story is in Savannah. In fact here it is:

The actual park bench is at the visitors centre. I have a picture of that too somewhere. Savannah is a place I wanted to visit as it really captured the 'South American' culture that I wanted to experience. I definetly want to come back here and explore it more. It's on my 'return to' list. 

We arrived in Savannah around mid day and promptly lined up at 107 West Jones Street. This is a normal home on a normal street, with an amazing history. Mrs Wilkes Boarding House is an institution in Savannah and in the USA. You line up for about an hour and when you get to the door you sit at a dining table with other customers. In front of you is a table covered in about 18 dishes of homemade southern food and the biggest plate of the most amazing fried chicken you can imagine. You dig in and when you empty a bowl or plate they replace it. At the end of the meal you take you dishes to the kitchen, pay and attempt to roll yourself back your hotel. It was quite honestly one of the most amazing meals I've had here and real quintessential South USA culture experience. We ate so much food that i'm pretty sure we were 'food drunk' on the walk to the hotel, where we proceeded to curl up in the foetal position on the reception floor (that's no joke - the rooms weren't ready and we were about to go on a tour of the city). 

After the tour we went out to a local pub for a few drinks and a few rounds of pool. The majority of the group moved on to another pub after an hour or so, but a smaller (and cooler ;) ) group stayed behind. With $2 beers and pool tables to play can you blame us?! We had a ball and spent a bit of time flirting with a group of local boys, whom were enamoured with out accents. 

The next morning more sick bags were passed out on the bus than throughout the rest of the tour combined. It was going to be a very long and messy drive to Raleigh. 

We stopped in Charleston, South Carolina, another very pretty and old city on the East Coast with a lot of history, in fact it was the site where the Civil War began. 24 hours after Mrs Wilkes, a lot of beers and not much sleep we needed food, and pronto. After a brilliant steak, we finally managed to appreciate the Charleston city and visited the markets. 

We spent a total of 7 hours on the bus today, which is a lot for one day. You can't move much, there's constant chatter or music, or movies playing and it's hot. Oh and smelly. Anyway, we arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina around 6pm. To be honest not many people have had much positive things to say about Raleigh. Based on my experiences so far there is something very awesome and different about each city and place we visit, so I'm sure there is something about Raleigh. Unfortunately we won't really get to find out as this stop is really just a stop for a stops sake. We are back on the road tomorrow to Washington D.C. I can't wait, there is so much to see and do there! 

Florida; Reality nothing like Expectations

Day One, Panama City Beach

My expectation: Arriving for the first day/night at a super hot, sunny Panama City Beach and going for a swim in the ocean. 

Reality: Arriving for the first day/night at a cold, wet, flooded Panama City Beach and going for a swim in the pool where I can see the ocean. Not able to swim in the ocean because of the weather and the red flags. 

My Expectation: Finally being able to do some laundry after 10 days. Only one pair of pants left. 

Reality: All washing and dryer machines broken. Still only one pair of pants left. 

Day Two, Orlando

My Expectation: Short drive to Orlando, followed by an afternoon at Disney World. 

Reality: Torrential downpour made the drive slow, arriving in Orlando at 5pm. No time for Disney World. 

My Expectation: Fourth of July, would be epic, lots of festivities, lots of cheeriness and fireworks. 

Reality: Tour manager is decked out in USA flag gear, but not one other single American we've met is or shop is decorated. Muppets in the hotel are setting off fireworks that sounds like gunshots and there's smoke everywhere. And it's still raining. Having a party in the laundry room. 

Day Three, Orlando

My Expectation: Go to a theme park, maybe Universal Studios because it's a Contiki 'optional' that we can get the tickets for easily enough. Not too fussed. 

Reality: Freakin loved it! Three of the girls and I went off together to explore and do the rides, spending about 7 hours there in total. Did Transformers, The Simpsons, Men in Black, Cat in the Hat. Bought Minion merchandise from Despicable Me and had a ball in Suess Land. Visited Harry Potter Land and Jurassic Park. Have made a new travel decision - visit the Gold Coast theme parks next year, (who's keen to join me?!) oh and visit Disneyland in LA seeing as I couldn't get to it here in Orlando as planned. 

My Expectation: TGI Fridays would be another typical fast food place (despite going to one in Dubai 4 years ago). 

Reality: Had a bloomin good steak and a delicious desert. 

Day Four, Miami

My Expectation: The same good food, good service and cheap prices. 

Reality: Good food, terrible, rude service and expensive prices. 

My Expectation: The beach would be like beaches at home, but better - white sand, lots of room, not many people and cold water. 

Reality: White sand, no room, way to many people and warm, but strong weather. 

Day Five, Miami

My Expectation: Cuban food from a Cuban restaurant would be amazing and a real cultural experience. 

Reality: After waiting 40 minutes to be served we walked out. A block down the road was a Brazilian place, that had the most wonderful Brazilian food ever. I had a seafood stew/laksa - without the curry - type meal. It was chocka with shellfish and so delicious. 

My Expectation: Bubba Gump Restaurant was a rip off of the Forrest Gump movie in name only. 

Reality: It was, but it was a homage to the movie. Of course I bought some souviners. 

Day Six: Cocoa Beach

My Expectation: A small beach stop on the way to the next one. Potentially the beach would be covered in cocoa, not overly sure on this, but the name suggests it. 

Reality: Had a great night by the pool with the BBQ going. Even had smores for dessert. The beach was beautiful, huge and sandy white with a long pier. And evidently, no cocoa on the beach. 

Day Seven: St Augustine

My Expectation: Kennedy Space Centre would be a cool stop, with some astronaut stuff and some souviners. 

Reality: A very cool stop, with several 45 min documentarys to watch and seeing inside the Atlantis Space Shuttle. I even met a real astronaut! Very cool. 

My Expectation: Yet another stop along the way. Another boring beach town. 

Reality: A beautiful Spanish influenced town. Architecture, a town square and a cool shopping strip all with stunning and quaint 'old town' charm. 

After a week in Florida we leave tomorrow for our next stop at Savannah, Georgia. I'm looking forward to getting out of this state and heading north. Overall, this state has hardly matched my expecatations. Some has been way better than I thought and lots has not, my first time being disappointed with my trip. But, I'm still glad I went, don't get me wrong, I just don't need to come back, well to Orlando maybe. 

New Orleans, Louisiana

Like every other place we've been so far New Orleans is completely unlike any of the others. The biggest difference personally is that New Orleans was number 1 on my priority of places I wanted to go when planning this trip.

We left Memphis, travelled down through Mississippi, into Louisiana and arrived in New Orleans late in the afternoon. Sadly 11 of our little Contiki family were getting off in New Orleans, including a couple of my new friends that I'd been hanging out with :( So to celebrate, or commiserate, we had a costume party. 50 people did pretty well to pull costumes together in 2 hours (mainly from a great costume place around the corner from the hotel) and we walked down the river to get on the Paddlewheeler that took us on a dinner cruise along the Mississippi River. For the first time in weeks we were the ones having photos taken of us by strangers as opposed to the other way round. 

After the cruise we went down Bourbon Street, looking for somewhere to hang out for the evening. I decided to head home around midnight. I wasn't feeling 100% and I really wanted to get up in the morning and enjoy the day exploring the city. 

The next morning a group of 10 of us went to a cooking school class in the French Quarter. It was brilliant. The tutor was a local Grandma, really funny and so good at teaching. She demonstrated Gumbo, Jambalaya, Pralines and a desert. Not only did we get copies of her recipies, but we got to eat what she was cooking. We got to here her secrets and methods. My roommate Sarah is a chef, so Im hoping she'll practice and invite me over to her place in Masterton to sample when we get home. Hint hint. 

After the cooking school Sarah and I walked around the French Quarter - the touristy friendly part of the city. We shopped at the local markets and checked out some local restaurants for a dinner venue. We had already decided that we didn't want to get stuck into having dinner at the hotel with the rest of the group, we were in New Orleans for gods sake and wanted to try as much of the local cuisine as possible. A group of 8 of us met up and went to a local place and had a wonderful meal of alligator and crawfish. Delicious! 

With so much of the tour and holiday left to go, and a travel day tomorrow, no drinking tonight. Pacing oneself is so important on this long trip! Tomorrow we head to Florida. We are doing a grand tour of Florida, so will be there for several days in total. Looking forward it, as we as Fourth of July. These Americans sure know how to celebrate I can tell you that much!

Memphis, Tennessee

After the scorching heat of Dallas, Texas we crossed the state of Arkansas into Tennessee for a two night stop over in Memphis. It was a jam packed few days;

1. A quick sight seeing tour of the city.

2. Crossed over the Mississippi River. 

3. Went to my first American Baseball game - Memphis Redbirds vs. Albuquerque Isotopes. Go Redbirds!

4. American hotdogs at the Baseball. Because, well, you kinda have to don't you?!

5. Went for a tour around Graceland and paid our respects to the King of Rock n' Roll and Elvis' grave. 

6. Toured the Rock n' Soul Museum.

7. Ate fried chicken at Gus' Fried Chicken place. A small, off the beaten path, local chicken place, that has officially ruined KFC for me forever. 

8. Visited the site that Martin Luther King was assassinated.

9. Drank Pina Colada slushies in a park on Beale Street. Listened to an amazing Blues band play for hours. 

10. Celebrated Canada Day at a Canadian restaurant. 

Memphis was the first city in USA where I felt like we were really seeing the raw side of the city, the not-as-touristy side of the city. As we left LA much of the western states much of the history is about American Indians and now as we are getting into the south alot it's about civil rights. Our tour manager is very good at giving us little speals about the history of the place we're going to, trivia, lessons on history etc. It's so worth doing a tour like this just for that I reckon.

Dallas, Texas

Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, is bigger in Texas. The state is huge and so is their soul, not to mention thier portion sizes!

On our way from Amarillo to Dallas we stopped in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is this gorgeous wee town/city that has some gorgeous architecture - very Spanish and Mexican in origin. We stopped here for lunch and to pick up some cowboy gear for the Rodeo in Dallas. The town centre was one of those quintessential American town squares you see in the movies. We even tried the Fajitas from the vendor on the street. Four us were wandering the city together and all four of us spent over $200 on one item. I'll tell you more about that in person, but at least I wasn't the one that spent $650 on a pair of cowboy boots!

I hadn't given to much thought to Dallas, I knew this was where JFK was assassinated in 1963 and that is was part of Texas, so I was pleasantly surprised with how amazing Dallas was. This was our fourth day on the road without a break, and everyone was hanging out for the 2 night stop over. The bus rides have been good and the stops frequent, but theres only so much bus one an handle after a few days. 

On the first night we went to Gators, a restaurant/bar that did a big Mexican Fajita type meal and cheap beers. A large group of us went down the road to the Haunted House. Now, most of you will be surprised to hear that I went to this. To be honest I wasn't going to go, until our tour manager said that the actors can't touch you and so in a fit of some ridiculous courage and 'yolo' (I hate myself a little bit for using that right now) I signed up for it. In groups of 5 we walked through the haunted house and it was actually very good. I mostly got scared by the people that jumped out of the darkness as opposed to the scenes. But I was at the back to the group and lots of the actors would follow very closely behind me. Thank god for Dylan, a very sweet guy wearing a white shirt that illuminated in the dark and didn't mind me grabbing on to it the whole way round. 

After the haunted house we spent the night back at Gators. It was here that people watching became a very fun sport. Some of us more 'mature' travellers had great fun watching some of our group flirt with each other. Hilarious! 

On the second day in Dallas we went down to the JFK Museum which is on the floor of the building from where the assassinator shot JFK. It was a very in depth tour of JFK's life and his presidency, and a lot of detail about the events of the fatal day in which he was shot there in Dallas. It was definetly a little emotional. We also went over the Grassy Knoll where it happened and had a look at the 'X's' that mark the spots where he was shot. I must say that so far in my experience with the USA, they do their touristy stuff very well. They really take their history seriously and are proud to show off what they know and share it with everyone. And that's meant to be a compliment, just in case it sounds like it's not. 

Later on that afternoon we did a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Again, not something that you'd probably expect me to be interested in, however it was pretty impressive to see a stadium that cost over a billion dollars to build. This thing was so flash, it felt like a 5 star hotel instead of a sports stadium 

Then it was on to Fort Worth for BBQ ribs and the Rodeo. At this point I should mention that the whole time in Texas it's been in the late 30's temperature wise. This night is was 39 degrees! 

We had 18oz (half a litre) beers for $3! and the biggest and tastiest ribs I've ever had. 

The Rodeo was a huge cultural experience that I'm glad I went to, but probably won't do it again. There was bull bucking (is that the right name?!), calf wrangling, and all the kids chase sheep and calfs around for fun. I'm sure it's all humane, but I couldn't help watching thinking that these animals were either very pissed off or very scared and it just didn't seem right to be making them that way for sport. That being said, there were some serious skills involved in this sports they were doing, and they did let the animals go as soon as they were 'caught' or finished with. 

Dallas was pretty cool and interesting, and offered so much more than I had expected.