What was your favourite place?

This has been the most common question I've been asked about my holiday, followed by "are you glad to be home?" To which the answer is "No! Are you stupid?!". However, the first question is alot more difficult to answer. But, I do have an answer, which is this (a little long winded but honest):

I have so many favourite places for so many different reasons. I loved both San Francisco and Los Angeles because I explored them on my own, in my own time, at my own pace. Both places had a lot to see and do that I was never bored and I felt safe exploring on my own. I did hop on-hop off sightseeing tours in both cities which were a great way to explore. 

I loved Chicago and would move there tomorrow if I could. I felt a real connection to Chicago that I couldn't really explain. Maybe one day I will live there, or perhaps I lived there in past life? Chicago reminded me a lot of home - windy, on the waterfront, full of art and friendly people. 

New York was amazing. It's New York, of course it is! Its such a compact city of awesomeness. So much to see, do and experience. It's not somewhere you'd go to relax, because every street has something new. But we did take an opportunity to relax a little with a picnic in Central Park. I was there during a heatwave, making New York a hot and sweaty experience. I have to go back to New York, to explore more of the city that never sleeps. 

In Boston I went to Fenway Park to see the Boston Red Sox play the New York Yankees. It was a real quintessential American sporting experience and I loved it! Boston was already a pretty interesting, old, classical city and this made it even better. 

Dallas was a city that caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting such a fascinating, welcoming, historical city. Everything is bigger in Texas and damn hot! Such a diverse city that just begs to be explored. It's huge and yet it's not pretenious. It just is a big, hot city with lots to do, or not do, whatever. 

I loved New Orleans. I had been dreaming of going to New Orleans for a long time. I enjoyed the culture - the party atmosphere, the jazz and the food! Oh my god, the food was fantastic - Gumbo, Jumbalaya, Pralines, Crawfish! sooo yummy. 

Savannah was another city I looked forward too but was much better than I thought. It was a typical southern city, full of city parks and quaint cobblestone paths. It had great inner city bars and cheap beer, you can't go wrong with that! 

I also loved Washington D.C. I was blown away with the amount of monuments to dead presidents and war heroes. I developed a respect for America's respect and honour of their history makers and those that had died for their country. I spent two full days exploring the cities hundreds of museums. I heard a stat that if you spent one minute in front of each exhibit in each museum, including all the exhibits in storage, it would take you 89 years to see everything in Washington museums. And because of that fact alone, visiting Washington D.C. will always mean you'd never be bored! 

Oh and I went to Canada too! Toronto was a great city to visit, it was like New York - huge, compact and so much to see and do. Quebec City meanwhile was perhaps one of the most 'different' places I went too. It's the french-ist city I've every been too (given I've never been to France), the architecture was French, the people were French, the culture was french. It was a wonderful city to walk around and feel inspired by. 

So there you have it. My favourite places. Honestly, I loved the whole trip and so many of the places I went were my favourites for so many reasons. Just wait till I find my next place to live and I have to make a decison on what pictures to frame, now that's going to be a long disucssion!!

Los Angeles

The end of my amazing adventure was three days in Los Angeles. I had decided to do LA at the end of the holiday seeing as I had to go back there to fly home anyway. After leaving Ottawa I was fairly tired and this is what I expected. Most people I spoke to about LA had said that it wasn't the most interesting of places and a day would do it. So, I figured three days would allow me to sleep in, potter around, do some sight seeing and head home. 

But, turns out, LA is actually pretty cool. I stayed at a hotel in West Hollywood and had the biggest room, with the biggest bed ( I tested it out - I could sleep lengthwise or widthwise without any limbs hanging off any end). It was a great, central location to stay. About 6 blocks away was a stop on the hop on - hop off sightseeing tour that I booked. The tour was great, stopping at many of the places I wanted to go.

After a sleep in on the first day I ended up packing in a lot of sightseeing and holiday activities before heading home. Heres what I squeezed in:

- A tour around downtown LA, seeing the financial, fashion, jewellery districts. 

- A tour around Hollywood, seeing the hollywood sign, paramount studios, rodeo drive and the sunset strip.

- Lunch at the Farmers Market. Sampling the Gumbo at a Southern stall and the Laksa at the Singaporean stall a second day. 

- A visit to the La Brea Tar Pits. 

- A visit to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). 

- A tour around Santa Monica. 

- Walking along Santa Monica pier. 

- Shopped at Tiffany & Co. on Rodeo Drive. 

- A tour through the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills to stalk the homes of movie stars. Seeing the homes of Bruce Willis, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Christina Aguilera, Sasha Baron Cohen, Jason Statham, Al Pacino and Jackie Collins just to name a few. 

- Had a pamper evening with a manicure and pedicure. 

- Walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

- A movie at a theatre on Hollywood Blvd. 

- Souvenir shopping. 

Thats a long list. 

I was pleased to have the time in LA that I did and would definelty enjoy going back to see more. I didn't get to Disneyland in the end, so thats on the list of things to do next time too. If you're not much of a movie person, or into celebrities, then I can see that LA wouldn't have a heck of a lot to appeal to you. The tours are really focused on it's famous history and celebrities, but it's LA, so you'd kinda expect it. It was a great place to explore on my own and I enjoyed having the wind down (or wind up perhaps) to the holiday. 

I left LA on Thursday night on a 12 hour flight to Auckland. I left knowing that I had done everything, seen everything, and taken full advantage of everything my time in North America had offered me. Not to mention, spent enough money to make a small man cry. My credit card adores me right now. 

Ottawa, Canada

When I was planning my holiday I knew that I had to make some time to visit Ottawa, the capital of Canada. 

My good friend Ele moved to Ottawa a year and a half ago with her partner Dave and their son Luke. Dave is an Ottawa native and they wanted to make sure their son grew up knowing both sides of the family and both of his heritages. While I hope that one day they will return to New Zealand (either briefly or more long term) I knew that visiting them in Canada would be a great time. 

I flew directly to Ottawa from Chicago and was so pleased to see Ele and Luke greet me at the airport. The comforting thing about seeing a best friend after a year and a half is it doesn't feel like it's been that long. It could really have been a day and a half, it's all the same. 

Ele lives in a family friendly suburb about half an hour out of Ottawa. It's a nice area with lots of parks for two year olds to play in and bars for Mum's and their friends to enjoy on nights off. 

I throughly enjoyed being off tour, having no timeframes to stick too and being able to sleep in (much to Ele's annoyance - no more 9.30am crack-of-dawn calls when you have a two year old I guess - haha.) We spent lots of time catching up on life, talking with the freedom that being in the same place and the same time allows, and that alchohol allows. Yep, we drank Ele's house dry on the first night and turned to her neighbour Erica for drinking assistance. 

During the day we entertained Luke, a sweet and energetic two year old. He's not much of a talker, but boy can he move. He's fast, he climbs like a monkey and he's a pretty good boy to boot. His Grandmother took him one day so that Ele and I could go to the local water park. She talked me into trying a rather tall and fast ride, which I actually enjoyed. I especially enjoyed the long rides through the 'Kongo'. Ele and Dave showed me around downtown Ottawa and the parliament buildings, in the pouring rain. And we decided that a trip to the local Zoo would be not only touristy, but a great way to entertain Luke. Only, it took several stops at petrol stations to find it at 70 kms out of the city. Once there, it wasn't quite what we had expected. Rather than a commercial zoo like Wellington (and what we were expecting) it was more of a family run farm park (kinda like Lindale farm). Not that that was bad, just different. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Dave's best friend Adam, his wife Darlene and their six month old daughter Brynn at a BBQ on my last night in Ottawa. We stayed the night at Dave's parents place (they were away in Toronto for the weekend) which really is in the middle of nowhere. 

To be honest, there isn't as much to Ottawa as any of the other Canadian cities I've visited and I can see why it's bypassed on the commerical tours. But Ottawa wasn't about Ottawa for me, it was about visiting my great friend and having some down time with her and her gorgeous family. 

I was sad to say goodbye after four wonderful days and head off for a full day of flying to LA via Toronto. That update yet to come. . . . 

Cleveland & Chicago - My new favourite city!

Once back in the states we headed west towards Cleveland, Ohio and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This place was a tribute to all forms of Rock & Roll over the last 4 or 5 decades. I'm not such a music fan, so some of the exhibits were a bit lost on me. What wasn't lost on me was the talent one of my fellow contiki travellers displayed on the free-for-all piano sitting outside the front doors. Murray sat down and demonstrated his amazing piano skills by playing all forms of music, including an impromptu duet with a random stranger. They drew quite the crowd and we were like proud mama bears of our Murray. 

Back on the bus we were informed that our hotel had been double booked by a group of senior citizens in town to compete at the senior Olympic Games (or something to that effect). Rather than kick the seniors out, our tour manager and driver managed to find us an alternative place to stay and this place was cool! Out in the middle of no where they had found a hotel that had all rooms around the outside of a big atrium that had a pool, ping pong tables, mini golf course, arcade games and much more. We had so much fun playing games all evening, that we didn't care that we weren't where we were supposed to be. 

Chicago was the next city on the list, and the last place on my grand Contiki tour. It was one city I couldn't miss on this adventure, and even though I was getting off the tour at this stop, I was looking forward to it nonetheless. 

Chicago city itself is very beautiful with lots of public art everywhere, surrounded by water (Lake Michigan) and tall buildings. But rather than feel like New York - a concrete jungle, it felt cam and epic somehow. I felt a real connection to the city, pushing it to the top of my 'fave places I've visited' list. 

We did an architecture cruise along the river. It was a great way to see the city and learn about this history at the same time. Following the cruise we walked along Navy Pier, a tourist attraction on the waterfront. My friends did a bike cruise while I took a stroll along the waterfront and through the parks. I enjoyed some time alone to soak in the city and photograph all the statues and artworks I came across. Back from the bike ride, the girls and I went shopping. Well, they went shopping and I tagged along. After rounding the girls up from the various stores on Michigan Ave, we headed back to the hotel via Millenium Park and Grant Park. Millenium Park is where The Bean is. The bean is just that - a giant bean. It's made out of a mirrored metal, meaning you can get some pretty awesome reflection photos. I could have spent hours there photographing The Bean, especially if there had been an awesome sunset. I might have to get back to Chicago one day just to do that! 

Our last night on tour was at a Pizza place famous for their Deep Dish Pizza. Think a pizza that looks like a pie. I'm not a big pizza fan and the size of the one slice made me feel rather unwell so I stuck to the salad instead. We followed the pizza with a local blues club. The band playing was pretty good and we enjoyed the from the second floor while playing pool. Seeing as a group of us were ending our tour in Chicago, it was a great chance to have one last great time with our new friends. 

There were tears the next morning when we got up to say goodbye. The rest of our friends were (and still are) still on tour, heading off to their next destination. Hugs and many 'you better come visit' coversations later saw them get on the bus. I was rather surprised when our tour driver managed to pick me up and throw me in the air to say goodbye. The bus pulled out and off down the road, leaving us on the pavement contemplating what to do next. 

I spent the rest of the morning packing my bag, saying goodbye to my roomie and heading off to the airport. I was on a late morning flight back to Canada. It was an odd feeling being on my own again. Even though my time with Contiki was finally over (44 days on tour!) I was excited about the next bit of this adventure - seeing my friend Ele again after a year and a half. 

Would I do a Contiki tour again?! hmmmm, good question. I might be to close to such a long time on tour at the moment to give a realistic opinion. I think I'm probably too old - not mentally, but in terms of the amount of partying and drinking that goes on definetly. I really enjoyed making new friends, and I definetly did way more on these tours than I could possibly have done on my own. So maybe I would yes. I'd definetly do more tours, maybe not necessarily with Contiki next time. Yay, more adventures ahead! 

Toronto

Wow, I'm getting a bit behind on the blog updates here. For a while my ipad had a bit of a hissy fit, but  the dude behind the counter at some Canadian tech shop managed to turn it on and off, restoring it to it's former glory. And now for the latest update:

We had a three night stop in Toronto. Get this, 6 million people live in Toronoto. 6 million! That's a lot. Apparently a third of the Canadian population live within five hours of Toronto. I considered it to be the New York of Canada. 

I still had a bit of a cold, so took it easy on the drinking while in Toronto. Probably a good plan seeing as I was getting worried about flying the following Wednesday with blocked sinus'. 

Our hotel was very central to the city centre, making it a walkable distance to our dinners and sight seeing. We walked down to the CN tower, one of the worlds tallest buildings. The view from the top was stunning, I hadn't realise how BIG Toronoto really was. In every direction there was blocks of high rises, houses, more high rises, more houses, more high rises, you get the picture. I guess I should have expected it given the population! At the bottom of the tower was our next stop - a brewery tour around the Steam Whistle Brewery. A boutique brewery housed in an old train turnstile building. 

My next stop after the brewery was the Canadian Postal service. My bag was 10kg overweight, and I was getting grief from our bus driver about how heavy my bag was. So it had to be posted home. A piece of advice for you - it costs twice as much to send a box home to NZ from Canada as it does from USA. But it was fast, home in under a week! If you're counting, that makes 5 boxes I've posted home so far, and now that I'm in LA, I probably have another box to send too. Shopaholic much?! 

The third day in Toronto was a day trip to Niagara Falls. I had always heard that the Canadian side was much better than the American side, but I didn't know what that meant and now I do. There are two major falls - the American falls that are wide with lots of rocks at the bottom and the Canadian falls that are a horseshoe shape. They sit side by side, but from the Canadian side of the river you can see both falls front on. To view them from the American side, you'd only see the side of the falls, not such a great view. We dressed as smurfs in the blue condoms and boarded the Maid of the Mist boat cruise. It rained at this point, but it didn't matter, the mist from the falls meant you got wet regardless. 

The American National Park Society(?) has been set up to preserve the natural wonderment that is the parks, and to avoid what has happened at Niagara Falls. The Falls themselves are beautiful and awe inspiring. unfortunetly, you turn around to find miles of shops, restaurants, kids amusement rides, icecream shops and enough neon lights to rival Las Vegas. It was actually kind of depressing to see such an obvious cashing in on a natural wonder. 

I was feeling much better as we left Toronoto and headed back into the USA. 

Quebec City & Montreal - French Canada

The drive from Boston through Maine and New Hampshire heading towards the Canadian border was beautiful. Very lucious and green, which reminded me of home. We crossed the border into Canada with minimal fuss. While some of my fellow travellers were asked lots of questions about their stay in Canada and their travels, all I was asked was "Do you like birds?" as he looked at my Pukeko tattoo. Go figure. 

This might sound naive, and I'll be honest, it is, but I didn't realise how French the Quebec province was. I knew they spoke French, but I didn't expect there to be no English signage, or for the cities to be so visiably French in style. And the most surprising thing to me was that they have French accents, not Canadian accents. They really are so seperate from the rest of Canada in terms of culture, it's not hard to believe it when we were told about how the province has in the past attempted to seperate from Canada to become it's own country. I can imagine that they would try again at some point in the future. 

Quebec City was our first stop, and it's been one of the most beautiful so far. The architecture, the style, the 'feel' of the city is very old and very French/European. I loved the old city, still walled in, making it the only completely walled city north of Mexico. It was also where we had the most amazing non-included dinner on tour - very well done duck and veges. 

The trip from Boston to Quebec City was the day of the Wellington earthquakes. While I was very confident knowing that my family and friends would and were keeping me updated via txt on the situation and their safety, I didn't like being out of touch with the internet. At every stop I'd get on the wifi and read more news about more earthquakes, and by the end of the day I wasn't handling it very well at all. I was very lucky to have a calm and understanding tour manager and a roommate that understood and was able to make my laugh so much I thought I'd pee my pants. 

This day was also my brothers 30th birthday, so I enlisted the help of my fellow travellers to help me sing happy birthday on speaker phone at 8am in the morning (midnight at home). They loved it, my tour manager thought it was awesome and they asked me for ages about the birthday awards our family has started. And I think Lexi enjoyed 55 people from Germany, Belgium, USA, Australia and New Zealand singing to him from Boston. 

Canada is cooler than the States. It has been a welcome change to wear long sleeves and pants (pants!!), and not sweat so much that you have have a serious conversation with yourself about whether you have or have not actually wet your pants while sitting in the sun. 

We left Quebec City and arrived in Montreal. It was a short drive to the city nearby. While still French, it was not as French as Quebec City. Our first stop was down by the wharf for a group photo, then while the rest of the group went on a terrifying jet boat ride along the river, I had poutine (Fries, gravy and cheese curd - a Canadian favourite) and wandered around a beautiful little area of cobblestone shops, small alleyways, all filled with beautiful jewellery stalls, art stalls and souvenir shops. It was so nice to have some time to myself to just go at my own pace and explore. 

The next day was completely free in Montreal, so guess what I did?! I slept in. It was blissful. Every single day on tour has been an early start - usually between 6.15 and 7am every day, and those of you that know me well, know that I hate doing early mornings. So a sleep in was definetly what I needed. Only I as coming down with something - inevitable on a contiki tour I'm told. With a sore throat and feet that have been swelling in the heat this whole trip, I decided to have a lazy day at the hotel. There wasn't too much I wanted to do in Montreal as it was so it didn't take much to convince myself. 

In the late afternoon my friends returned and we started playing games in the hotel room before having a late dinner in the hotel restaurant. Montreal was hosting an international fireworks competition, with Croatia competing on this night. We had a prime spot on the hotel balcony for the half an hour show. 

We said goodbye to Montreal very early the next morning, heading to Toronto and out of Quebec province and into English-speaking territory.