Huddersfield Examiner - Phileas Blog

New York Part 1: Sex and the City tour hotpsots, cheap Marc Jacobs bags, Empire State Building and much more

2009-10-01T08:19:38Z

225 days, 9 countries, and 65 cities, towns, villages and islands later, we are now reaching the end of our eight month tour of the world.

With only two weeks left, our final stop was New York City. What a perfect way to our trip of a lifetime!

]]> We had been let down at the last minute by a guy I know who offered us a bed at his for the time we were there, so we were left with having to find two weeks accommodation in New York two days before we were arriving there.

That set us back about Â£350, meaning we couldn't afford to go to Boston for a couple of days during that time, which we had originally planned to do.

Nevertheless, we didn't allow it to dampen our final two weeks, and we booked ourselves into a hostel for the first nine nights on the west side of the city, before moving over to the east side for our final six nights.

August 8th:

Our first hostel was the Broadway Hotel and Hostel, on 101 street. It seemed a nice place when we arrived, although we got quite a shock when checking in. We had paid a deposit online, which then told us our remaining balance to pay would be $399. We had planned to split this equally on our credit cards. However, after tax that final amount came to $521! The lady on reception simply said, "Welcome to New York!" Anything over $120 has a huge amount of tax added on to it.

She then informed us that we had to pay cash only, but neither of us had enough cash on us to pay that amount. The lady ended up accepting just one credit card.

We were then shown to our six-bed dorm. There was just one other guy in there and didn't we know it! We could smell his body odour from the corridor and when we walked into the room it was actually hard to breathe!

As he had just arrived and was there for 11 nights, and we had to endure nine nights there, I went back down to reception and asked if we could change rooms, preferable all female!

They only had mixed dorms but the room they changed us to was far more pleasant! Having said that, one thing I will definitely not miss about travelling is hostels!

After quickly freshening up and changing, we took a subway to Times Square. It was everything I had imagined it to be. The streets were heaving and the atmosphere was incredible. I had a very good feeling I was going to love New York.

We wandered around and walked to the Rockefeller Centre. Great place, but way out of our price range! We had planned to eat and drink there, but having looked at the menu, we quickly took a few photos and moved on!

We stumbled across the Magnolia Bakery, featured in Sex and the City, in our quest to find a reasonable priced restaurant. There was a queue about a mile long of people wanting to buy there cup cakes. Sarah and I had been meaning to get one, but whenever we passed it the queue was huge, so we always said we would go next time, which never came!

My friend Lucy, who had been to New York for a holiday a few weeks before, texted me and recommended a bar called The Mean Fiddler, on 47th Street. We headed there and had a few cheap drinks and some food. By the time we had eaten, the bar was still pretty quiet, so we left and walked to the Hard Rock Cafe for a drink. It was a really good atmosphere in there, clearly full of tourists, so we stayed for a couple of cocktails, before heading back to The Mean Fiddler, which was heaving by this time. It was definitely a good choice by Lucy, and we stumbled back to the hostel at around 3am. It did worry me the next morning when I realised I had no recollection of the subway journey back home!

August 9th:

Despite our sore heads, we had a busy day ahead of us, so we forced ourselves out of bed and headed out. Besides, I hate staying in dormitory rooms for longer than I have to!

We jumped on the subway to 72nd street and walked to the Dakota Building where John Lennon was shot. I was half expecting there to be some kind of memorial plaque for him but there was nothing, so that was a little disappointing. I think the only tribute to him is at Strawberry Fields in Central Park.

We moved on then and walked quite a few blocks to Columbus Circle, which is another Sex and the City hotspot! For any S&TC fans, it is where Carrie and Aiden break up! We also later found out that Bruce Willis, Janet Jackson, Madonna, and Renee Zellwegger also have apartments overlooking that area.

Our next stop was Studio 54, on 54th Street. Of course, it has been closed for years now, but as big disco fans it was still great to see where disco began. It has now been transformed into a theatre where Carrie Fisher is currently performing. Judging by films I have seen and pictures from its days as a nightclub, I thought it actually looked pretty similar from the outside.

We then walked on to 5th Avenue and had a look in Jimmy Choo, Saks, and Tiffany's. In Tiffany's Sarah and I couldn't resist looking at engagement rings, and we immediately picked out our future diamonds. Mine was at a reasonable price of just Â£5,000. It was so beautiful!

We then made our way to the Empire State Building, stopping off at the New York Public Library; another Sex and the City hotspot! The library is featured in the film and is where Carrie and Big are supposed to get married, but Big stands her up at the altar! We finally got to the Empire State Building and took some pictures from the outside. It's a pretty impressive building. Unfortunately, we didn't go to the top as we had been recommended by a friend to go to the Marriott Marquis hotel bar in Times Square. The bar is on the hotel's top floor and is revolving, so we assumed we would be able to get good pictures of New York from there, similar to the ones we took in Chicago. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but by the time we actually went to the bar, we didn't get chance to go back to the Empire State Building. Next time I go to New York, that will be my first stop!
Anyway, here is one of my best photos taken from the street......

We jumped back on the nearest subway and got off at Canal Street, which is in Chinatown. I thought I had arrived back on Koh San Road in Bangkok, it was crazy! Lots of people selling knock-off bags from suitcases! It was definitely an experience, but with a hangover, not what I needed; it was too much! We walked to a department store which had been recommended for discount clothes and bags, called Century 21. It is good and worth going to but we quickly discovered you need a lot of time and patience to actually find a bargain. The store reminded me a lot of TK Maxx, or even Primark, but with designer clothes. Half of the clothes were on the floor, or you had to search through rails after rails of clothing to find what you wanted. Admittedly, I am sure you can find great bargains but we neither had the patience nor the energy to search through the store, so we left empty handed.
We jumped on the subway back to 96th Street, and settled in for an early night.

August 10th:

After breakfast and our final laundry stop of the whole trip, we headed into Times Square hoping to get cheap Broadway tickets at the Ticket Office. This requires a good couple of hours queuing in the baking heat. As we had arrived pretty, we killed an hour or so wandering around aimlessly and stumbled across Manolo Blahnik's. That small boutique by 5th Avenue quite possibly has the most amazing shoes I have ever seen in my life. I still dream about them! The ones I fell in love with would've set me back about Â£500, and as I had just extended my credit card by a few hundred pounds, it took all my will power to resist! Luckily, the sensible voice in my head took over, and I left with them just being a dream. I have told myself though that one day I will go back to New York and buy a pair of Manolo Blahnik's!

We headed back towards Times Square, and happened to walk by the Ed Sullivan studio where The Late Show with David Letterman is filmed and also P.Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment record Label.

What was to come next I think made our entire trip in New York City. We were walking by the London Hotel, where Gordon Ramsay has a restaurant, and who was outside? None other than ASHTON KUTCHER!! He was having his photo taken with some Chinese tourists. I didn't care if I left my dignity behind at Manolo Blahnik's, it was Ashton Kutcher, and so worth it! So we stood there hoping to get a picture with him after the Chinese girls, but unlucky for us, he said 'Thankyou' and walked straight into the hotel! Gutting! We didn't have it in us to shout after him! Anyway, Sarah still managed to get a picture of him, and as he was the first and only celebrity we had seen, we were happy.....

The afternoon was spent queuing for Broadway tickets. I had my heart set on seeing Chicago, unfortunately however, the show wasn't playing that evening. When you queue for cheap tickets it is only possible to buy tickets for shows playing that evening. We decided that if another show playing that evening was considerably cheaper than Chicago, we would go see that. After two hours of queuing we found that they weren't cheaper at all, so we headed to the Chicago Box Office. We decided we would go on the Friday evening and were asked how much we would like to pay. We chose the two cheapest options at either $69 or $89, which would inevitably mean the worst seats. As there were no $69 seats left, the guy asked us if we would be happy to pay $99 and in return he would give us two seats worth $135. We took him up on the offer, and he gave us two seats five rows from the stage.

As we felt we had pretty much exhausted Times Square, we got on the subway to Greenwich Village. This is quite an exclusive and expensive part of New York City. Carrie Bradshaw lived there in Sex and the City, and is actually where Sarah Jessica Parker lives. We found a lovely restaurant where we had dinner and a half price frozen margarita! The weather was stiflingly hot, we did sit out but it was almost too hot!
We then had another short walk to 66 Perry Street, which is where Carrie lived in Sex and the City, it was so exciting! We each had our pictures taken outside the apartment.

After the excitement of finding Carrie Bradshaw's apartment, we found a lovely Mexican bar selling $3 margaritas. It was really lively and a great atmosphere, but unfortunately, we could only enjoy one, as some annoying guys decided to sit next to us and talk rubbish to us. They wouldn't go away, despite our obvious hints! In the end, we decided we would have to be the ones to leave. Sometimes I feel Sarah and I are too polite!

August 11th:

We set aside today for a day of shopping. To be honest, our shopping experience in New York couldn't possibly be what we had hoped for when we started out on our trip. I think maybe we were a bit naÃ¯ve in thinking it could have been this great shopping spree. After all, New York was our final stop of an eight-month trip and we were almost Â£15,000 poorer than before we started. Nevertheless, we put a small amount to one side to enjoy a little bit of shopping.
We headed for a shopping outlet called Woodbury Common, which is a lot like Cheshire Oaks, and is about an hour bus ride away from New York City. I think it is actually in New Jersey.
I had my heart set on buying a nice bag, so I spent most of the afternoon debating on which Marc Jacobs bag I should buy. That was until I came across a Michael Kors store, so I had a sneaky peek in there. I settled on a gorgeous green bag, which I now take everywhere with me. I love it. It was slightly cheaper than the Marc Jacobs bags too at just $274. I later looked at a Michael Kors bag in Bloomingdale's and the price was a very hefty $1,400, so I felt like I had found a bargain!

August 12th - Visit to the World Trade Centre Site:

We had originally planned to rest our feet and sunbathe, but the weather laid those plans to rest as it was cloudy and rainy. Instead, we headed towards Battery Park to book our tickets for the Statue of Liberty tour. We could see the Statue of Liberty from the park but as the weather was bad, the pictures didn't come out too well, so we were hoping we would be able to get nice pictures on the tour. Also at Battery Park stands the sphere that once stood in the plaza of the World Trade Centre. Although it was badly damaged during the events of 9/11, it remained in one piece and now stands at Battery Park in memory of all those who died. The eternal flame that stands by it was lit on the year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

We then made our way to Ground Zero, which of course is near Wall Street, in the financial district of Manhattan. Where the seven buildings of the World Trade Centre once stood, is now just a construction site, but there is a museum right beside it, which explains the events of 9/11. It is really quite harrowing, as it also features phone calls and voice recordings from those who were in the towers at the time of the attack, and also those who perished on the hijacked planes. It also has recovered items from firefighters, including their jackets, hats, and radios.
As we were queuing to go in we were asked if we would like to have a guided tour of the site. One thing all the tour guides have in common is that they all have a personal connection to 9/11. The guides are made up of a group who named themselves Tribute, and it now has over 200 members.
Our tour guide was called Geri, and she is truly an inspirational woman. She began the tour by taking us outside to a long plaque that commemorated all 343 fire fighters killed as they fought to save all the trapped civilians. The plaque was commissioned by a New York Law Firm, whose employee was a volunteer fire-fighter and one of the 343 men killed. The plaque told the story of the days events in the eyes of the fire fighters, with the inscription 'Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on.' It was incredibly moving, and very hard to hear.

We then moved inside where we had great views of the World Trade Center site and where the twin towers once stood. The WTC occupied 16 acres of land, and all seven WTC buildings had to be demolished after the 9/11 attacks. Following the collapse of Towers 1 and 2, Tower 7 collapsed at 5pm that night. With 16 acres of land now cleared, they have excavated down 70ft to start the foundations for a new site.

Over 2,700 people died on 9/11, but considering there were 17,000 people in the buildings at the time, it is actually regarded as one of the most successful rescue operations in history. This is partly due to the lessons learnt after the 1993 terrorist attack, when a car ploughed into the basement of the north tower with a bomb. Six people died in that attack, and a lot of evacuation mistakes were made. Luckily, these were learnt from, and although many people died on the morning on September 11, a lot more lives were saved because of the 1993 tragedy.
Each of the twin towers were 110 storeys high. The seventh building which they have since rebuilt is just 55 storeys high, so it really puts into perspective just how high they were.

Geri then began to tell us the story of how she is connected to the events of 9/11. She had been working at an insurance company called Aon for 19 years at the time of the attacks.

Her office was based on the 96th floor of the south tower. The day before September 11 2001 she flew to San Francisco for a meeting she had been called to on the morning of September 11. She heard on the news that a plane had hit the north tower, but at this point everybody thought it was a tragic accident, so her colleagues in the south tower, and everybody else working in that second tower were told it would be safer to stay where they were. Shortly afterwards, as we all know, a second plane hit the south tower. It hit between the 78th and 85th floors, meaning Geri's colleagues on the 96th floor had no way out. That day, Geri lost 180 of her co-workers, some of whom she had been working with for almost two decades. It was heartbreaking to hear her telling us this and clearly very difficult for her. She was obviously very close to them.
Geri continued working for Aon until 2008, when she retired. She now dedicates her time carrying out volunteer work for Tribute.
Geri then took us through to the 'Winter Gardens' in a building overlooking the WTC site. The blast actually completely demolished the Winter Garden, but it has since been rebuilt with the same marble taken from the same quarries to make it look identical to what it was before the attacks.

Our final stop of the tour was by the American Express office. On the morning of 9/11, 11 AMEX workers were called to a meeting in the north tower. They all perished. In memory of those 11 workers , AMEX commissioned a memorial plaque to honour them all. It is called the 11 Tears and is an 11-sided pool. On each side is a person's name and a small eulogy about them written by loved ones. In the middle is a huge 11-faced quartz crystal which is held up by 11 poles, with water dripping into the pool which looks like tears. Altogether, a very fitting and moving memorial place.

Sarah and I then went back into the museum. Like I said earlier, it has artefacts from the site, recordings of radio transmissions between fire-fighters, and videos about the days events.
A group of retired fireman set up an organisation called Dad's Band. All their sons were then fire-fighters in New York and they were missing. Everyday in the weeks after the tragic events, they would go down to the site, sifting through all the rubble in search of their lost son's. Only one father was lucky enough to find his son's body and lay him to rest. His son was called Jonathan and a few days later they found his fire-fighter jacket. This is now placed in the museum.

The museum also had a wall with a picture of all those who died on September 11.

A new building called the "Freedom Tower", is now currently in the process of being built and will be finished in 2012.

We spent hours at the WTC site and by the end of it we were both ready to leave. As amazing as it was it had completely taken it out of us.

I actually found the whole day a lot harder to take in than what I imagined. Obviously, I remember watching it all unfold on the television, but it doesn't seem as real when you are watching it from thousands of miles away. But being there, even though it is now eight years on, and hearing from those who lost loved ones, was incredibly upsetting.

August 13th:

Despite our great desire to chill out and sunbathe at Central Park, the weather didn't hold out for us, so we decided to finish off the rest of our sight-seeing. We took the subway to Madison Square Garden, and took a few pictures there although there was nothing really much to see. It was a little disappointing.

We then headed to the Flatiron Building, which is on the corner of 23rd Street and 5th Avenue, and is on the east side of Manhattan. It is apparently considered as one of the first skyscrapers ever built, and was the tallest building in New York upon completion in 1902. I actually think it is pretty ugly. You definitely can't miss it! That part of Manhattan has been named after the building and is called The Flatiron District.

We walked on then to Union Square and to another Sex and the City hotspot. This time, the garden behind Jefferson Park Library, where Miranda and Steve got married.

We then walked back into Times Square to a Mexican restaurant for $2 tacos, before going next door to the cinema to watch Funny People!

August 14th:

Finally...the sun was shining again. Taking full advantage, we headed straight to Central Park. The Park runs from 57th street to 110th street, and with Sarah and I staying on 101st street, we were just a 10 minute walk from the park.
We spent the day doing what we do best - topping up our tans! Once again, a horrible, annoying man took it upon himself to sunbathe next to me and ask me completely inappropriate questions. Despite me putting my Ipod in and completely ignoring him, he persisted with the inappropriateness, so we ended up having to ask him to leave, at which point he asked me to go with him! You can imagine my response!
Anyway, other than that it was lovely to chill out and we left about four-ish to get ready for our night out at the theatre.
Chicago didn't start until 8pm, so once we were ready we jumped off the subway at Times Square and had dinner at a lovely restaurant close to the Theatre.
The show was absolutely incredible, and our seats were just as good as we had thought, if not better. We were so close to the stage, it was great.
Chicago, which is all about corruption, greed, murder, and adultery, is absolutely hilarious. Samantha Harris, a former host of America's Dancing With The Stars, plays the part of Roxie Hart, who murders her lover. The music and dancing is amazing. We had a such a great evening.

After the show we then went for a drink at the Marriott Marquis Hotel bar. It has a viewing rotating restaurant, which we had decided on instead of going up the Empire State Building, simply because we thought it would be a lot cheaper. How wrong we were.

The cost of visiting the Empire State Building would be $35, a glass of champagne each at the Marquis, which we ordered because it was pretty much the cheapest thing on the menu, set us back $26 each!

The drink itself cost $14, but we had to pay $7 for a table and the waiter gave himself one hell of a tip!

We couldn't even get decent pictures either, so we were left kind of wishing we had paid to go up the Empire State Building.

Montreal memories of my Olympic mum

2009-09-30T09:30:54Z

We caught a train from Toronto to Montreal as it was only four-and-a-half hours away.

Montreal was one of the cities I was most looking forward to in Canada. I had heard such great things about it, and as many of you know, my Mum competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and I couldn't wait to see the stadium.

]]> On the small downside, we were back in the hostels! Since we have been in America and Canada, Sarah and I have always dreaded our next hostel as we have had so many nice hotels and houses to stay in, but we happened to pick a good place in Montreal, with a perfect location on St Denis street, right in the heart of the city.

Although we were in a 10-bed dorm room, when we first arrived there was only one other person in that room besides me and Sarah and he was never there, so for the first couple of days we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

JULY 14TH:

Our hostel served a free breakfast between 8.30 and 10.30am so we took full advantage of that. Admittedly, it wasn't very good, the bread was a bit stale, but as it was free, we ate it!

We then decided to have a wander around the city. For the first time since we were in Asia, we were in a place that wasn't English speaking, so Sarah and I found ourselves trying to feebly attempt to remember our GCSE French! It didn't go down too well with the locals, but at least we tried!

We walked to Catherine Street, which is where most of the high street stores are, and Sarah did a bit of shopping. I restrained, telling myself it would all be worth it when I got to New York! We then went to Old Montreal and into the Bascilia Notre Dame church, which under normal circumstances, you would not tend to find me in, but it had really cool architecture, and was pretty spectacular to see, as far as churches go!

We then moved on to Jacques Cartier Square in Old Montreal, which is really stunning. There is a lot of art, and is filled with lovely traditional restaurants and cafe's. There were also some street acts playing in the square, along with artists drawing caricatures of people......

We then walked back to the Latin Quarter, close to where our hostel was, via Prince Arthur Street, which is quite an up market place, with lots of nice restaurants and bars.

By the time we got back to the Latin Quarter it had started to rain, so we took cover in a bar and had a couple of drinks, before heading to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The comedy festival was on while we were in Montreal, so there was quite a lot happening near St Denis Street where we were staying. Unfortunately for us, we had picked a time when all the French acts were performing, so we didn't book to see any. We were pretty gutted actually, as the week after Jimmy Carr was performing there!

JULY 15TH

Finally we had some sunshine, and we thought what better way to spend the day than at the Olympic Park. Rather than jumping on the Metro, we chose the cheapest option and walked it, so it took about an hour and a half to get there. When we finally arrived I was completely taken aback. The Olympics was obviously one of my Mum's greatest achievements (other than having me of course!) and it was so amazing to see it right in front of my eyes. It has changed a lot since 1976. The sloping tower wasn't built back then, and they have now built a retractable roof on to the stadium, unlike in '76 when it was all open.

We had a look around the gallery, which had lots of pictures of the 1976 Olympic Games, before heading outside where we could see all the flags of the countries who had won medals that year.
There were also a number of plaques which listed all the events in the different sports, and came across my Mum's event: the 4x100m relay.

We then went back inside just in time for the guided tour of the stadium. I was so glad we decided to do this tour as we wouldn't of been able to see inside the actual stadium without it, and that's the part I was most interested in seeing.

It has changed a great deal since the games, there is no running track for a start as the stadium is mainly used for football games and concerts now. I thought it was such a shame they got rid of it, but it was still incredible to see. I could still picture my mum on the track! I had always wanted to see it for myself ever since I was little, and as emotional as it was, I was so happy I finally got to see it. I felt a great sense of pride standing in the stadium, and it is a moment I'll never forget.

We also took a tour of the swimming and diving pools, which they have pretty much kept the same since 1976, and is now open to the public for swimming lessons and recreational swimming.

At the end of the tour, our guide pointed out where the Olympic Village used to be so we took a walk up there. It is now a residential home, so we couldn't go inside, but outside on the grounds it still has the Olympic Village sign so we were able to take some pictures from there.

Only later when visiting my family on Prince Edward Island, did I discover that my mum used to sneak food out for them from the Olympic Village cafeteria, and Derek Ibbotson, who was also there at the time, lent my auntie and uncle and cousins his motel room for the night as they had nowhere to sleep!

We had spent almost the whole day at the Olympic Park by the time we had exhausted the place. There have been a lot of amazing days since I have been away (pretty much everyday has been incredible!) but that day will be particularly memorable for me.

We then decided to walk to Little Italy and have dinner there, only we didn't realise how far it actually was. Two hours later we arrived. Feeling absolutely famished and dying of thirst we picked the nearest restaurant, and it turned out to be really good. It was still really hot so we sat outside and both had a lasagne. I think I must've had about six glasses of water with it!

When we arrived back at the hostel, more people had arrived in our room, so it was almost full. A German girl decided to sleep in the bed above me. Little did I know then she would drive me insane. I got no sleep as she was constantly moving and blowing her nose all night! Everytime she moved, it felt like an earthquake, she was driving me mad...the joys of hostels!

JULY 16TH

The weather wasn't too good again, and as we had exhausted all the sight-seeing, we decided to go to the cinema to see 'The Hangover.' We were out of the cinema by mid afternoon, and as we didn't want to be stuck in the hostel all evening, we quickly got ready and went out for dinner and a few drinks. We started off at a bar opposite our hostel for a glass of sangria, before heading to a lovely Greek restaurant on Prince Arthur street. To make it even better, the restaurant allowed you to bring your own alcohol, making it a much cheaper meal for us! We then walked to St Laurent street to have a few drinks there. We ended up at a bar called GoGo, which was good, but as you are expected to tip every time you ordered a drink, it soon cut into our funds, so we decided to be sensible and not have too late a night!

I was feeling pretty hungover, so I stayed in bed till midday. It was good though because by the time I had got up most people had moved out so it was back to being an almost empty room again!

After finally mustering the energy to have a shower we walked to the port at Old Montreal and had lunch in the square. There was a huge pirate ship at the marina, along with a stunning yacht, so we took a few pictures of that and had a walk around the waterfront.

That evening, we stayed by our hostel on St Denis Street, had a curry for dinner and watched a bit of the festival, which was pretty impressive. We were leaving for Prince Edward Island early the next morning, and as I was pretty hungover from the night before, I opted for an early night, looking forward to the next 11 nights in a house!

After I left Vancouver, I had this feeling that the other cities in Canada we were visiting wouldn't quite compare to Vancouver. I was wrong. Montreal is beautiful. There is so much to see and do, and if you like good food and wine it is the perfect place! If I could speak French, I could definitely live there!

New York Pt 2: The homes of the TV shows

2009-09-23T15:07:07Z

August 15th:

It was another hot day so we headed back to Central Park for the day. It was stiflingly hot with no breeze, and with no pool to jump into, even I was struggling with the heat a little bit. Nevertheless, I got through it, and we had another good few hours in the sun.

]]> That evening, we went back down to Battery Park for our sunset tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The hour long boat ride was amazing, taking us around the harbour and within a stones throw away of the Statue of Liberty. It was incredibly impressive, and with the sunset, we were able to take some amazing photographs.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

STATUE OF LIBERTY

We also saw the Brooklyn Bridge, and got some great pictures of New York's skyline, which again, looked phenomenal.

NEW YORK SKYLINE

For just $12, the tour was worth every penny. A must-see when visiting NYC.

August 16th:

Although it was another gorgeous day, we still had a few of the big department stores to have a nosey in, so our first stop was Bloomingdales. The store is absolutely huge, and with lots of money, one could easily spend the whole day in there. However, that could also be said of Macy's and Sak's Fifth Avenue. It actually wasn't that enjoyable, as neither of us had any money to spend. Bloomingdale's is where I saw the $1,400 Michael Kors bag though, which made me feel great when I only spent $274 on mine..... And it's not a knock-off!! That's what I call good shopping!

BLOOMINGDALES

We then walked for what seemed like hours to Schwartz FAO, where Sarah and I queued with the children to go on the big Piano, featured in Big! It was great fun but annoying trying to get a photo of each other as there were kids running in front of the camera. I was screaming in my head at the mothers who clearly knew we didn't want their kids in our photos but didn't do anything to get them out of the way! Sarah managed to get one photo of me and I think my annoyance shows.......

ME ON THE BIG PIANO

We then had a quick look in Macy's, before taking the subway to Soho, where we had planned to go out that night. We settled on a nice restaurant for dinner where we both had fish and salad, and a glass of wine. Soho is a fantastic area, with a great atmosphere. It is not far from Greenwich Village, which is probably my favourite district in Manhattan. I definitely prefer the east side of the city than the west.

After dinner, we hopped back on the subway to our hostel to get ready for our night out. Naomi, a girl from Manchester who we were sharing a room with also came out with us. We went back into Soho to find a few bars there. It is very difficult to know where to go in New York if you are not familiar with the city. We found a nice bar where we had a drink, before heading to a late night bar called Gold Bar. We had been recommended this bar by a friend of a friend who is a DJ in New York. Apparently, it was the place to be on a Sunday. That is, if you are a millionaire!!
It was a great bar, playing great music, but it was ridiculously expensive. The cheapest drink was $15 but then you're always expected to tip, so one drink would set us back $17. I kid you not, there was a bottle of champagne on the menu for $29,000! More than both mine and Sarah's engagement rings put together! We just had the one and left in search of a slightly cheaper place. We did eventually find somewhere, had a couple drinks then headed back to the hostel.

ME, SARAH AND NAOMI

August 17th:

Today we were checking out of the Broadway Hotel and Hostel and moving to a hotel on 23rd street, on the east side of Manhattan. It was really great that we got to experience both sides of Manhattan.
Luckily, we had pretty much seen everything we wanted to sight-seeing wise, so with the weather so hot at 90 degrees, we were looking forward to a few days of sunbathing.
We woke up just in time to finish packing and changing before we checked out and got on the subway over to the east side. Annoyingly, we got off at the wrong stop and we had to walk for what felt like miles, to our next hotel. Our suitcases had got so heavy, I was starting to wish I had kept my backpack! Anyway, we finally arrived and we checked into our room. This time we had booked a private room so it was much better. Very basic, but clean. As we got there just before breakfast finished we took advantage of the free food then headed to a nearby public pool, which was free. Despite the amount of kids running around, it was a big pool and a nice place to sunbathe. Our hangovers had begun to kick in by that point so it was exactly what we needed!

August 18th:

We woke up to another glorious day so we headed back to the pool. We were under the impression that the pool opened at 11, but as we were queuing we quickly realised we were the only people on the right side of 50! It turned out 11am-midday was seniors only, and had to be at least 55!
We finally got access to the pool at midday, and settled ourselves there until the sun went down.
After a quick shower back at the hotel we headed back out and walked down 3rd Ave and Bowery in the direction of Little Italy. We hoped to find Patricia Field's shop, but we couldn't find it. We did come across some lovely bars and restaurants though, stopping in one for a cheeky $3 Margarita, before making our way to Little Italy. It was a hot and humid night, and just as we had finished eating the heavens opened. We had planned to go straight back to the hotel after dinner, but the thunderstorm meant we had to go find refuge in a nearby bar, and wait it out with a glass of wine! Luckily, by the time we had finished our drink, the storm had eased, so we made our way to the subway stop.

August 19th:

We had just one more shopping outlet still to see, so we got up early and headed to Jersey Gardens. The outlet is about 30 minutes out of New York City, and we got the bus from Port Authority at Times Square. It is quite different from Woodbury Common, in that it is all indoor, and the shops are much more high street brand names and cheaper, rather than top designers. We had a great day, mainly because the clothes were far more within our price range. I had been looking for a pair of my favourite brand jeans, For All Mankind, as I had been told I could get them for a fraction of the price I pay in the UK. Our first stop was Saks, where I tried on about 8 pairs of jeans. I settled on one pair, which, after tax, I expected to pay around Â£80. I got a nice surprise when I got to the till. No tax was added to them and I found I had a 30% discount card for Saks, so I actually only ended up spending Â£50 on them! In England, they retail at, at least Â£170, so I felt I'd found myself a nice little bargain!
After a few hours of shopping, we had dinner in a lovely Mexican restaurant, where we both had an amazing salad and a couple of frozen margarita's to wash it down, before heading back to the bus terminal. We were both absolutely shattered. Shopping really takes is out of you!

August 20th:

We made our way back to Times Square, on the corner of 51st street and Broadway, for a TV and Movie Tour. We had expected an open top bus, so when it arrived to pick us up and it was actually a coach, we were initially a little disappointed. Having said that, it turned out to be a lot of fun. All he guides who work on these tours are aspiring actors, so very enthusiastic about everything! Our guide, Jesse, was very funny and entertaining, and often quite embarrassing, when he would suddenly burst into a song and dance. We didn't stop off at every film location site, but Jesse did point out many locations from films, including, The Devil Wears Prada, Hitch, Spiderman, The Godfather, the Mode Offices from Ugly Betty, as well as, When Harry Met Sally.

DEVIL WEARS PRADA MAGAZINE OFFICES

We also stopped off and got out at Will Smith's house in I Am Legend......

I AM LEGEND HOUSE

The Ghostbusters Headquarters.....

GHOSTBUSTERS

The Huckstable's house in The Cosby Show.......

COSBY SHOW

And, saving the best till last, Monica, Rachel, Joey and Chandler's apartment block in Friends.......

FRIENDS APARTMENT

We also went for lunch at Ben's Pizza; a location they have used in Sex and The City and Men In Black II.
The tour lasted about 3 and a half hours, and all in all, it was very entertaining. Definitely worth the $36 we paid. Throughout the tour, Jesse would show us clips from the films and TV shows he had shown us locations for, so it was interesting to see what the locations looked like in the films.
We were also shown where celebrities including Janet Jackson, Renee Zellwegger, Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, and David Schwimmer live. Janet Jackson lives in Trump International by Columbus Circle, setting her back $50,000 a month!

The bus dropped us off outside the building where many of the cast from Gossip Girl live, on Madison Avenue. From there Sarah and I walked to Central Park, after realising, although we had been to Central Park, it was merely to sunbathe and we hadn't actually had a look around.
We walked first to Strawberry Fields, which was commissioned after the $1m donation given by Yoko Ono to help towards the conservation of the park, following John Lennon's death. Although, the whole Strawberry Fields area is a memorial to John Lennon, the plaque on the ground, spelling out, Imagine, is the only clear tribute to him. The plaque, I thought, actually looked a little tacky as people had placed teddy's all around it.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS

IMAGINE PLAQUE

We then walked on to the Bethesda Fountain, and on to the conservatory where there is a statue of Hans Christian Anderson, and also Alice In Wonderland.

BETHESDA FOUNTAIN

THE CONSERVATORY

ALICE IN WONDERLAND STATUE

Central Park runs for miles and miles, so obviously, we didn't have time to walk it all.
We arrived back at the hotel early in the evening to get ready for our final night out in NYC, and of the whole trip!
We met a friend of ours called Emily, who we had met in Fiji a few months before. Emily is from New York State, and she had moved to New York City for the summer on an internship. She took us to this amazing restaurant called Metro. I probably had my favourite meal in months. It was great to catch up with Emily for a couple of hours, before saying our goodbye's again. Sarah and I then jumped on the subway to go back in to Soho. We had been recommended a good club to go to, but as it was only early, we decided to check out some of the bars first.
We ordered a drink, and just as we were about to pay, this guy who was stood behind us told the bar man to put it on his tab. Out of politeness, we got chatting to him and he left a while later, but not before giving the bar man a wad of cash, so Sarah and I could pretty much drink as much I wine as we wanted all with his cash! We didn't get our purses out all night! That gave us a good enough reason to stay in that bar longer than we had first planned, and by the time we left, I think we were both a little tipsy! I was really going to miss the generosity of American men when I arrived back home!
When we finally left, we went in search of the club, but we couldn't find it, so we went to a bar called O'Neals, which is the bar Steve owns in Sex and the City. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good, so we left and went home.

August 21st:

We both woke up with extremely sore heads, so we scrambled out of bed, had breakfast, and headed straight for the pool. The pool closes between 3 and 4pm, which is really annoying, and by the time we arrived back at 4pm, the clouds had turned black and it started to pour down.
That evening we walked to a lovely restaurant called The Smith, just a few blocks down from where we were staying. With it being a Friday night, it was absolutely packed, and everybody looked amazing. With my hair scraped back, specs on, and no make-up on, I felt incredible unattractive! Nevertheless, we had a nice meal, and left for an early night in.

August 22nd:

Our last full day of travelling. I could not believe it was coming to an end. Although I was looking forward to catching up with all my family and friends, I felt gutted that it was all going to be over so soon.
As the weather stopped our plans to have a last day in the sun, we decided to go for a pedicure and manicure. Although we couldn't really afford it, we put it on the credit card and we did find a really good deal for just $27. That killed a some time and it was a lovely, relaxing couple of hours.
We then walked further down 3rd Avenue and after much searching, we did find Patricia Field's shop. She is the costume designer for Sex and the City, but I wasn't very impressed. I thought it was a sex shop at first!
That evening, we went for a nice meal and a couple of drinks. Neither Sarah or I wanted to draw anymore money out of the cash machine, meaning we were limited to what we could buy. We ran out of money by 9pm, so we had to resort to another early night.

August 23rd - Time to go home!

August 23rd and 241 days on from the start of our amazing journey. It was now time to go home. I am writing this a couple of weeks later, but I remember how sick to the stomach I felt at the prospect of this. I have appreciated every single day I have been able to travel, but I was physically gutted it was all coming to an end.
Each day has been a different adventure, and we have met some amazing people who I hope will be lifelong friends.
Sarah and I had been planning this trip together for almost 3 years before it actually came to fruition, so for it all to be over in what seems like the blink of an eye, is just so surreal. A year ago, Sarah and I were itching to get away and everyday we would count down the days. I cannot believe that was a year ago. This has been the best year of my life, and I know I will cherish all the amazing memories I now have for the rest of my life.

There are certain places I have been to, and some things I have done which I will never get to do again, and then there are others which I can't wait to do again.
So many things pop into my head when I think of the past 8 months, but the ones that particularly stick out in my mind are the 3 weeks we spent on Koh Tao in Thailand and the day we fell in love with diving, tubing in Laos and the people we met there. That was probably the single best day of my life. It took me 5 days to recover but so worth it!
Then there was the jungle trek in Chang Mai, and meeting the Lahoo Hill Tribe, who were truly inspirational.
From there we made our way to Australia and our university reunion when Helen came out to meet us, and the amazing time we had on Fraser Island. The kiwi experience in New Zealand was incredible, meeting amazing people, and doing crazy activities like the Nevis Bungy Jump, and the Franz Josef Glacier hike, which was a once in a lifetime experience.
Next came North America, and the fabulous week spent in Las Vegas. I want to do that every year!
Vancouver was great fun staying with Lindsay and her family.
But, I think the most sentimental and overwhelming part of my trip was visiting the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. I felt a great sense of pride towards my mum, and I am so glad I have got to see for myself a part of my mum's life which was such a huge achievement for her and what was such a huge part of her life.
Finally, the last two weeks spent in New York were incredible and so much fun. It was the perfect ending to the perfect trip. The only downside of New York was that Sarah and I had very little money, but what could we expect after travelling the world for 8 months! Next time I go back those Manolo Blahnik's will have my name written all over them!

We arrived back in the UK on the morning of August 24th. We landed at Heathrow airport and Sarah's friend Lucy who lives in London with her boyfriend, was there to meet us at the airport so they gave us a lift to Kings Cross where we had to catch a train to Wakefield Westgate...... Now that was a shock to the system!

ME AND SARAH AT THE TRAIN STATION

Since I have been home I have had a fun packed few weeks catching up with all my friends and family. First there was our annual trip to Liverpool for the Beatle's festival, which never fails to disappoint and was great fun. Then last weekend was my birthday, which was excellent. The weather was gorgeous so we were able to sunbathe for the day, before some of my other friends came over in the evening for a BBQ. We then had a great night out in Headingly and Leeds.

What the future now holds I don't really know. I have booked to go back to Thailand on September 28th, to what has been my favourite place of our adventure, Koh Tao. I have booked to do more dive courses and hopefully in a few months I should be working as a professional diver. I don't expect this to be a permanent career move, but what this last 8 months has made me realise, or confirm, is that I am not a 9 to 5 office girl. I need to be outdoors and active, so hopefully this will be a perfect move for me for just a couple of years.
I still hope that one day I will be able to find a job in television, which is something I have always wanted to do since I was small. While I am in Thailand I plan to do an underwater videography course which will then enable me to work as a videographer out there. I will build up a portfolio of work, and I hope that, along with the work I have done at the Examiner, will help me towards finding my dream job in television, or at least give me a step in the right direction.
Whether this plan works out or not, only time will tell, but I am happy enough in knowing I now have a goal to aim for.
I am looking forward to seeing what the next chapter of my life will bring.

The Rocky road to Philly

2009-09-17T13:46:41Z

"After a short train journey from Washington DC, we arrived in city number 3 of the east coast in North America, Philadelphia. As it proved pretty difficult to find a decent hostel in Philadelphia, we treated ourselves to a few nights in the Travellodge! Again, it was a luxury we had been missing!

]]> The following morning we got up early for our complimentary breakfast, before heading into the city. The Travellodge was located close to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so we went there first and ran up the steps leading up to museum, as they are the same steps featured in the Rocky films. We weren't the only ones racing up them! We then had our photo taken by his statue.

ROCKY STEPS

ROCKY FOOTPRINT

VIEW OF PHILADELPHIA FROM THE TOP OF THE STEPS

ME AND SARAH BESIDE THE ROCKY STATUE

An hour and two very sweaty girls later, we walked into the city centre. The weather seemed even hotter than it was in Washington.
We went to the Liberty Bell Museum, as it is now recognised as an international icon of freedom. The museum allows visitors to learn more about its origin and history. It was interesting and certainly worth a visit.

LIBERTY BELL

We then moved on to Independence Hall and the Declaration House, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Our final stop for the day was Benjamin Franklin's house which was pretty cool. We had also planned to go to Betsy Ross' house, as she is the woman who apparently sewed the first ever American flag, but we were told it was all a lie so we didn't bother!

INDEPENDENCE HALL

DECLARATION HOUSE

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S HOUSE

We had worked up quite an appetite by this time so we found a lovely Italian restaurant, where we shared a pizza and salad. Having already been in America for a good couple of months, we soon realised that sharing meals was definitely the way forward. The portions are huge and we often found ourselves only being able to eat half of what we had ordered! After dinner, we found a liquor store and bought a bottle of wine, before heading back for a quiet night in, in front of the TV.

August 6th:

Having finished all our sight-seeing yesterday, we had planned to spend the day sunbathing at a local park we had come across. Unfortunately, we woke up to rain and thunderstorms, and we found ourselves with very little to do. We wandered into the city, before walking for miles to the nearest cinema, only to find we had just missed the showing. We walked for miles again back into the city and luckily found this great Mexican bar advertising $5 margarita's..... We didn't have to think twice! It actually turned out that we got 4 glasses each for just $5 each, and even though we were both desperately trying to save as much money as possible for New York, we couldn't turn down this excellent offer! So a couple of hours and 8 Margarita's later, we left the bar feeling slightly tipsy!

We walked a few more miles to get a Philly Cheese steak from Pat's; a restaurant regarded as the best in America for Philly Cheese Steaks. The sandwiches also originated from Pat's so we expected them to be delicious, but unfortunately we were disappointed. It is more of a fast food takeaway place as opposed to a restaurant, and because they are always so busy I think maybe they rush them a little bit. The steak wasn't great at all. There are definitely much nicer steak houses in America.

The following day was our last day in Philadelphia, and the sun was out again so we went to Fairmount Park for a day of sunbathing, which is just behind the Museum of Art. Sarah had a hair appointment in the morning, so I went down to the park on my own. For some reason, this man who must've been about 55, thought it acceptable to come and sunbathe with me and invite me round to his apartment. I felt pretty disgusted so I put my ipod on ad ignored him hoping he would get the message. Unfortunately, he didn't for a while, and as Sarah wasn't due back for a few hours, it made for a pretty uncomfortable morning. He eventually left and I moved to a different part of the park as he said he might come back! Other than that, Sarah and I spent a lovely afternoon topping up our tans and resting our tired feet before spending our last two weeks in New York City!

Washington DC - Capital letter

2009-09-10T08:05:34Z

I had a really great time in Chicago and I can't say I was particularly ready to leave. I could've easily stayed longer had we had the time, but that isn't to say I felt like spending over 12 hours at Chicago O'Hare airport, which in turn, has become by far the dullest day of our trip.

]]> My alarm woke us up at 4.30am to catch the subway to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 7.25am, but the subway took an hour to get to O'Hare and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get there. That is when our nightmare journey began.
We arrived at the train station at 5.10am, only to find that rail works were happening on the line we needed to be on to get to the airport.

We were advised to get on one train that would take us to another station where we would then have to get a shuttle bus to another subway station which would then get us to the airport.

Clearly, this was going to take us a lot longer than an hour, and indeed it did! We arrived at the airport 35minutes before the plane was due to leave. We rushed to the desk only to be told we would not be able to get on the flight. The guy gave no explanation but we put it down to our late arrival. Although, we were surprised when we weren't questioned why we were late, and also they automatically put us on another flight free of charge. We were grateful for that but it did mean waiting at the airport for 12 hours as the flight wasn't until 6.40pm. We decided against going back into Chicago for the day as it would've been too stressful a trek with the train.

We got some breakfast and tried to sleep for a couple of hours as we were shattered from the 4.30am wake up call. The day was so dull and boring. It was mostly spent reading and catching up with our journals.
The day passed and we were able to check our bags in at around 4ish. We had dinner and arrived at our gate to hear the flight was delayed by 40minutes. What's 40 minutes when you've been waiting 12 hours! Anyway, after speaking to a few other passengers, it became clear that US Airlines had actually messed up quite a few of their flights that day, resulting in dozens of people missing their original flight. One group of people missed their flight because they were told the wrong gate number. By the time they were told the correct one the flight had already left. On that same flight, they had even left behind one of their flight attendants because she too was told the wrong gate number.

We finally got on the plane at around 7.15pm and arrived at our connecting airport, Philadelphia, an hour and a half later. We rushed to the next gate to catch our flight to Washington DC only to find that flight was also delayed. By this time it was after 10pm and Sarah and I were like walking zombies. I have never been so tired.

When everybody was able to finally board the plane and we were ready to go, a guy sitting next to Sarah was talking on his mobile. Despite the flight attendant asking him numerous times to turn it off, he continued to use his phone. Eventually he put the phone down but didn't turn it off. We had just got onto the runway when his phone rang again. This time everyone was really p***ed off, so people started shouting at him to turn it off. The flight attendant was equally annoyed and told him that if he didn't turn it off immediately he would tell the pilot to turn back around and go back to the gate to throw the guy off the plane. The idiot refused to turn off his phone so that is exactly what we did.

Anyway, the guy must've apologised and turned off his phone as after getting on and off the plane a few times, he was eventually allowed back on. Personally, I don't think he should've been allowed back on. He wasted almost an hour and he was a horrible man.
We arrived in Washington at our hostel at around 1.30am and crashed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was exhausted.

Monday August 3rd:

As we had wasted a day at the airport the day before, our time in Washington DC was cut short, but we were hopeful we would be able to get all the sight-seeing stuff done in a couple of days.
We walked first towards the White House, seeing the Treasury Department along the way. Obviously, we couldn't really get anywhere near the White House, but we did manage to take a few good photographs from outside the gate. It looked a lot smaller than I imagined!

We then made our way to the Washington Monument and the World War II memorial.

Behind the World War II Memorial is what is known as the Reflection Pool, as it reflects the Washington Monument and the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. It is also featured in Forrest Gump when Jenny runs through the water when Tom Hanks is giving a speech!

We then walked into the Abraham Lincoln memorial, before heading to the Vietnam War Memorial, and then on to the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial. All a must visit for the history and to see the country's memorials to all those fallen in war. The memorials are so extravagant, it is clear America has great respect for their fellow countrymen.

We then made our way to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was very moving, and difficult to imagine that such atrocities could take place.

The next day we had to leave for Philadelphia, and with the log flight delay a couple of days before, it meant we still had quite a lot to cram in.

Luckily, our train to Philadelphia wasn't until 6pm so we got up early and made the most of the few hours we had left in Washington.

After checking out and leaving our bags in the luggage room we walked over the river towards Arlington cemetery.

This didn't look too far away, but in fact took us an hour and a half to walk there. The heat was incredible, far too hot to be walking all that way! We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, as well as JFK and his brother's grave.

When I say grave, it is much more like a tomb, sectioned off from the rest of the cemetery.

We then took the subway to the Pentagon, which was highly disappointing. Obviously, we weren't allowed to take any pictures, but I at least expected more of the building. It could have been any building, but I guess that's the point!

We hopped back on the subway to go back into the city centre as we had a guided tour booked at the US Capitol.

It was very interesting actually, and definitely a good history lesson. Proof that our travels haven't been all about drinking and tanning ourselves!

Catching up is great, but time is catching us up!

2009-09-01T12:00:54Z

"My cousin Kate, her husband Paul, and their 2 children Keira and Nia, were there to greet us at the airport when we arrived in Charlottetown. At this point, Nia was only 11 days old and so tiny! We went straight to the Farmers Market for breakfast, and then headed back to their house where we sat out on the deck for a few hours catching up. Later that afternoon, the rest of the family came round and we had a BBQ. It was so nice to see everybody again and meet the two new additions to the family, Nia and Simon, who were born just three days apart from one another.

]]> Prince Edward Island is a very beautiful, picturesque place, but it is very small and quiet. Sarah and I were just hoping that the weather would stay nice for the time that we were there, as Kate and Paul have the perfect sunbathing deck, and when the weather isn't too good there is very little to do! Nevertheless, we were just grateful to have somewhere where we could relax before we go back into America, where it will be pretty hectic for our last 4 weeks.

The following morning it was pretty cloudy, so Kate and Paul took us down to the waterfront for lunch. I went to Prince Edward Island with my Mum and Dad 10 years ago, and I could remember the harbour pretty well. I remember we used to go down there a lot for a Cow's ice-cream!

Paul, Kate, Keira, Nia and me at the waterfront

The waterfront

By the time the afternoon came, the weather was gorgeous so we all went to one of Kate and Paul's local beaches. Keira had a lot of fun in the sea, and she couldn't understand why me and Sarah loved sunbathing so much!

That evening, my Uncle John had invited us all round for dinner, so we went to his after the beach and had another BBQ, and drank a few glasses of wine out on the deck. When I came here with my Mum and Dad, we stayed with my Uncle John and Auntie Maire, so I recognised the house well. It also ate my first mussle, which was surprisingly tasty. My tolerance of seafood is definitely getting better!

The following morning was Monday, meaning Paul was back at work. As it was a really hot day, Kate took us into Charlottetown to watch my cousin, Aaron, in a show. He has done lots of musicals, with his most recent being High School Musical in Halifax. He is extremely talented! At the moment, he is part of the Young Company on the island, and the show told the story of how the island became what it is today, how Canada was confederated on the island, along with a portrayal of how the islanders lived. I thought it was brilliant, I really enjoyed it.

AARON IN THE SHOW

We arrived back at Kate's early in the afternoon and spend the rest of the day sunbathing on the deck. The great thing about here is that the sun doesn't go down until late so you can be sunbathing till around 8pm..... which is exactly what we did!

We managed to get another day of sunbathing in, but the weather was short-lived, and by the Wednesday, it was cold and raining. Jane and Dev invited us round to their house for the afternoon, which wad really nice as I hadn't seen their place yet. They live in the countryside in a place called Emyvale, and is actually the same house Jane, Kate, and Sarah grew up in when they were children. A few years after Jane and Dev moved back to the island from England, they bought back the house so their three children, Mairi, Darragh and Liah, could grow up in the house too. It is a great place with acres upon acres of land. They have lots of ducks, and have just bought a rabbit.
By late afternoon, the weather brightened up a bit so we all walked down to a nearby pond, and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking wine in their garden. Sarah had brought Finn and Simon over, and Kate had brought Keira and Nia, so the kids had fun playing together.

Me with Mairi, Darragh, Liah, Keira and Finn by the pond

Jane and Dev's house

The Ducklings

Emyvale

We had dinner at Jane and Dev's, then me, Sarah and Aaron went to the cinema to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which was excellent!

The weather had turned nice again the next day so Sarah and I spent the morning sunbathing on Kate's deck, before going over to Jane's again, to continue our sunbathing. Jane and Dev kindly lent us their car for the rest of the week which was a huge help, so I drove Dev to pick up his van, before Sarah and I headed back to Kate and Paul's to get ready. Aaron was taking us to see a musical at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown. It was called Disco Cirque, and was fantastic. The show took you through the history of how disco music evolved over the years, incuding the rise and fall of Studio 54. The cast were incredible, and they performed every disco number you could imagine, so I couldn't of been happier! They really camped it up in places too which just made it even better!

Once again, the good weather was short-lived and for the next couple of days there were thunder storms. Other than go swimming with Jane and the kids, we did very little.
Luckily, the sun was back shining on Sunday, and we all went to a pool party at Neville and Linda's. Neville and Linda are an English couple who moved to Canada years ago. They have a beautiful home with a huge swimming pool, so it was great to spend an afternoon round there. It was an opportunity to see all the family again, so I think we all had a good time. I also met Linda and Neville's daughter, Kerry, who is really nice, so we went to the beach with her and her friend on Tuesday; our last day on Prince Edward Island, and also one of our last chances to top up our tans!

On Tuesday evening we went to Jane and Dev's for dinner and to say our goodbye's, but it wasn't a late one as we had to be up at 4.30am to catch our flight to Chicago.

At Neville and Linda's Pool

It has been wonderful to catch up with the family again on Prince Edward Island, and hopefully I won't leave it another 10 years before i visit again. We have less than 4 weeks left now, which is scary to say we have been away for over 7 months! Back into America tomorrow for the final leg of our trip......

Chicago, Sears Tower and the best view from a 96th floor toilet

2009-08-31T14:22:38Z

After a seven hour journey from Prince Edward Island, we arrived in Chicago at around midday, only to be told at our hostel we couldn't check in until 3pm.
We quickly changed into something cooler before heading out for a wander around the city. I instantly fell in love with Chicago, and it is definitely my favourite city in America so far...

]]> Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that New York might just top it!

We had a walk to the waterfront, which is really beautiful, and also visited Sears Tower, which is the tallest building in the world, and is on the centre of the city.

While we were on Prince Edward Island, we met a girl called Erica who had lived in Chicago for a couple of years. She told us it wasn't worth paying the money to go to the top of Sears Tower, and instead we should go to the Signature Lounge for a cocktail, which is situated on the top level of the John Hancock Center, on the 96th floor. You don't need to ask which best appealed to our tastes...of course, we were going for the cocktail!
We settled on getting a picture of the Sears Tower from the outside...

We soon realised that after walking for hours we had picked a hostel not too close from the main attractions, and as we refused to spend the little money we have left on subways, we often found ourselves walking for hours just to get to one destination.
I did feel that was our best option though. Not only for the exercise, but also it gave us the chance to see the whole city.

Later on that afternoon, we were both famished and ready for a drink so we stopped for lunch/dinner at a lovely restaurant called The Green, near the waterfront and opposite Millenium Park.

As it was a hot day, we sat outside sipping white wine sangria and ate a selection of mini dishes including a cheese and fruit plate, and hummous and pitta.

We then headed back to the hostel to check in where we crashed for the night. We had been up since 4am and were absolutely shattered.

As the weather wasn't too great, we decided to finish off the sight-seeing we didn't get to do the day before.

We visited The Bean, which gives a magnificent reflection of the city. I did take a picture, but not sure it really came out the way i intended. Anyway, here it is...

We also visited Grant Park and Millenium Park, which is where all the summer activities and music festivals take place. We walked along the Magnificent Mile which is Chicago's main shopping area.
After dinner we headed back towards Grant Park to go for a few drinks. Our original plan was to go to a free salsa dancing class in the park, but we found ourselves sipping cocktails at this great bar where one of the local bands was performing a free gig. I can't remember what they were called but they were actually pretty good. We then went over to Millenium Park to watch a free jazz concert. We ordered a couple of drinks and sat down to watch the orchestra, only to find they weren't all that good and it didn't sound like jazz at all. It soon started raining and as the concert was outside, we took that as our cue to leave. We took refuge in a nearby bar, before starting the hour long walk back to our hotel.

The following day, having done all our sight-seeing, and both feeling the sore heads from the night before, we went to Ohio Beach for the day. We hadn't anticipated it would take an hour and a half to walk there, but it was worth it when we finally arrived. It was so nice to relax, and our feet were definitely in need of a good rest! The beach is overlooked by high rise offices. It must be torture for the employees to look out on to that everyday!

Saturday August 1st:

We are officially in our final month or travelling. Only 23 days left. I know i keep saying it, but I cannot get over how quickly almost three quarters of a year have gone.
Anyway, our plan was to have another beach day, but the weather made sure that that couldn't happen, so instead we did a bit of shopping and went to the cinema. I know I said I was going to save my shopping until New York, but I found myself stumbling across Abercrombie & Fitch again, and my weakness overcame me. I bought a pair of shorts and sandals, which were more necessity buys than anything else. My other flip flops were falling apart and I reasoned I needed a good pair of sturdy flats for NYC! I also bought a bikini from French Connection, which had such a good reduction, it would've been rude to turn down.

That evening, we went to the John Hancock Centre to Signature Lounge, on the 96th floor. It took over an hour to get there and when we arrived there was a huge queue for the bar. We should've anticipated it was Saturday night and it would be packed. Anyway, we finally got into the bar at around 10ish, and headed straight for the ladies restrooms as Erica had told us that is where the best views are. And she wasn't wrong.

It was absolutely magnificent. The view allows you to see the entire city of Chicago, along with three other neighbouring cities. It was phenomenal. We took a few pictures and sat down at the bar for a drink. I had a pear Margarita and it set me back $16! Definitely worth it for the view, although we could only afford the one!

We had originally planned to then go to Navy Pier for the firework show, but with us not arriving at Signature Lounge until 10pm we realised we didn't have time. It actually worked out pretty perfectly though as we could see the firework display from the bar.
After our very tasty but expensive cocktail, we walked back to the hostel and climbed straight into bed as we had to be up at 4am to catch our flight to Washington DC.

A waterfall of wine

2009-07-29T09:33:11Z

"It was a four and a half hour flight from Vancouver to Toronto. Pretty long to say we were travelling within the same country! Sarah's Auntie Valerie Â was there to meet us at the airport. Sarah's family are big wine drinkers (not that i'm complaining!) so that evening consisted of drinking lots of white wine, while Sarah and I told her Auntie and Uncle all about our travels. As much as we love travelling, every new person we meet asks us where we have been so we find ourselves repeating ourselves on a daily basis!

]]> We have treated Canada as a time to try and spend as little money as we can so we can save what little money we have left for New York. So far we are doing quite well!

A couple days after we arrived Sarah's cousin Alison and her husband Matt invited us all round to theirs for a BBQ. It was a gorgeous day so we were able to sit out on the deck and drink more wine! It was nice to meet all of Sarah's family, and again, everyone was interested to hear all about our travels so that took up most of the afternoon!

Sarah's auntie had taken a couple of days off work to show us around, so she took us to the Niagara Falls, which was spectacular. We had a walk around the perimeter to take some photos before getting on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, all decked out in our very sexy ponchos! The Maid of the Mist is only $15 and definitely worth it, although prepare to get very wet! The boat pretty much takes you under the waterfall so you can imagine how soaked we all got just from the spray of it! Good fun though and managed to get a few good pictures without wrecking our cameras.

NIAGARA FALLS

NIAGARA FALLS: FROM THE MAID OF THE MIST

We then went for a nice lunch accompanied by a glass of white wine sangria, before heading back to the car in search of the wineries. Our original plan was to then go to Niagara on the Lake and have a walk round it, but it started to rain and Valerie got a bit lost, so we found ourselves at a nice little winery. We actually ended up going to four, tasting their finest wines in each one! One of the wineries we visited was owned by Wayne Getsky, and another was owned by the only lady to have ever won the "Grape King" award! She specialised in Ice wine, and as she was waiting on her deliveries she didn't have much else in stock. I tried the cranberry flavour whilst Sarah had the raspberry.

WINERIES

The next day Valerie took us downtown Toronto, where we did a tour of the city on an open top bus. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't too great so I was pretty cold by the time we got off! We saw the CN Tower, which is a must see attraction when visiting Toronto and i'm ashamed to say i didn't go up it! It is the tallest structure in the world and i am sure the views will be spectacular.

CN TOWER

We were also shown the hotel where "Three men and a little Lady/Baby" were filmed, which was Sarah's highlight of the day! We stopped off at the Old City Hall, which overlooks a lovely lake which turns into an ice-skating rink in winter.....

ME AND SARAH OUTSIDE OLD CITY HALL

We then grabbed some lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. We stumbled upon Abercrombie and Fitch, and once again i couldn't resist..... So i treated myself to a couple of nice tops!

As Valerie was back at work after her two days off, we spent the next few days with Sarah's cousin Alison and her husband Matt. They have two children, Madison and Owen. As Alison was working, Matt picked us up in the afternoon (not before we had a few hours to top up our tans) and took us on a drive along around all the rough areas in Brampton where he used to work. He's a cop and used to work in street crime so he could pick out all the crack addicts and prostitutes....... It was actually really interesting! We then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sipping vodka and grapefruit juice in their back garden.

As Matt had the rest of the week off work, the following day he took us downtown and met is friend Dave for lunch, which again, turned into another drinking session! It's a struggle to keep up with this family! We then went to Matt's police division to meet some of his colleagues before heading back to the house to see Alison and drink more wine!

The next day Matt took us to really nice town nearby called Missisauga, and we went for lunch at a lovely cafe in Streetsville. A couple of Matt's colleagues joined us, and sure enough, the afternoon consisted of eating and drinking. Since we have been away i have been making a conscious effort to increase my tolerance level intake of seafood as it is really good for you, so i ordered the white fish and salad, which was delicious! I can't order it too often though as it always seems to be one of the most expensive meals on the menu. Anyway, Sarah and I spent much of the afternoon drinking wine, with the plan being that Alison would join us after she had finished work at 3. Unfortunately, Alison got a call just as she left the office from Owen's day care saying he had stuck a bead up his nose and they couldn't get it out. So instead of a relaxing Friday evening for Matt and Alison, they spent most of it in A&E. Luckily, all was well in the end and the doctor managed to get the bead out of Owen's nose!

That same evening we had plans to go out for a meal with Sarah's other cousin Andrew and his girlfriend Marlene. They have a two month old little boy called Jackson. Andrew came to pick us up from Matt and Alison's, and after Valerie had arrived at their house to look after Jackson, the four of us went for a meal and a few drinks.
We got in at about 11, and for the first time since we had been away, Sarah and I slept in separate rooms! It was quite a novelty!
The following morning we got up early to go for breakfast with Andrew and Marlene before they gave us a lift back to Alison and Matt's. The plan was to go shopping for the day, but I was feeling quite ill so i stayed behind in bed. I would like to think it was just a stomach bug, but i think i was just exhausted from all the alcohol i had drunk that week. I clearly couldn't keep up with Sarah's family!

That evening, feeling much better, Sarah and I went out with Alison and her friend Brooke. We went out in Missisauga and to a nice bar called Jam, before heading to a club called Ten. The music was brilliant, but unfortunately, the clientele definitely was not. We soon left after we got tired of 60 year old men chatting us up! It wasn't very pleasant!

We made the most of the good weather the following day and sunbathed for a few hours in Alison and Matt's garden. A couple of Valerie and Paul's friend had invited us round for a roast dinner, which we went to that evening. It was the first roast dinner i had had since being away, and it was just delicious. Sylvia is originally from Newcastle, so we even had Yorkshire Puddings to go with it. I was very happy!

I had a really great time in Toronto and was great to meet Sarah's family. In terms of what there is to do in Toronto, I don't think there is as much to offer as places like Vancouver. Obviously, Niagara Falls is spectacular and definitely a must see when in Toronto.

Falling in love with Vancouver

2009-07-28T11:02:24Z

"Our friend Lindsay was there to greet is when we landed at Vancouver airport. We met Lindsay in Byron Bay in Australia, and she had invited us to stay with her mum, brother and her when we visited Vancouver...... So there we were.

]]> When we arrived at the house in North Vancouver, Lindsay's mum, Vera, had made us a delicious breakfast of fruit salad and yogurt and eggs benedict, although i don't like eggs so I just had the English muffin.
After breakfast Lindsay took us to Vancouver Aquarium as a baby beluga whale had just been born. We were lucky that her friend works there so instead of paying $20 to get in, we were able to walk in for free. It was good fun but I always think it is much better to see these kind of animals in the wild.
We then went to Grouse Mountain which gives you a beautiful view of Vancouver city. We got a cable car up to the top of the mountain, which would normally cost $50 but as Lindsay works there, we were able to go for free. Lindsay had saved us a lot of money by the end of the day! We watched a Lumberjack show which was really good fun...... Sarah and I felt the need to have our picture taken with them at the end of the show.....

Me and Sarah with the Lumberjacks!

And then we took a skyride up to the top of the peak of the mountain where people would go skiing in the winter. The views of Vancouver from the top were breathtaking.

View of Vancouver from skyride

It had been a pretty long day so we headed back home, where we were welcomed with delicious BBQ'd chicken, with rice and salad for dinner.
That evening we went over to Lindsay's friend, Kristin's house for a couple of drinks before heading downtown to a country and western bar, which was surprisingly pretty awesome! Lindsay had asked us beforehand if we liked country and western music, to which we both replied we weren't really sure..... It turns out we really do!

Me, Sarah and Lindsay out downtown

As Sarah and I had been up since 4.45 that morning, we were pretty shattered by 1.30, and as Lindsay had work to go to at 7am, we made our way back home.

The following day, as Lindsay was at work, we met up with a guy called James, who we met in Thailand in Koh Tao and is also from Vancouver. when we first decided to go to Vancouver, we had planned to stay with James, but then we met Lindsay! He took us to a few nice parks, and to a few tourist haunts downtown, before taking us to gorgeous area called Granville Island, which had live bands playing, and has a nice food market, along with good bars and restaurants. It is also down by the harbour, so depending on where you choose to sit, there are some lovely views.
We sat down fir a while and and fish and chips and ice cream for lunch!

After Lindsay finished work she came to meet us and James had this 'great' idea to hire a boat for an hour. We were not too sure at first as to be honest we couldn't afford it, but when James said he'd pay we went along with it! It cost $70 an hour to hire a speed boat but that didn't include insurance and fuel. We had an hour on the boat, which was pretty horrific as James had never driven a boat before and the sea was so choppy, there were times when I thought we were going to capsize. Luckily, we didn't and we all got back in one piece, although Lindsay and I were particularly wet! On top of fuel and insurance, it cost James $110! I can't honestly say i thought it was worth it but he seemed to enjoy it!

Me, Sarah and Lindsay on the boat

That evening, we had a quiet night with a chinese, and watched 'The Bacherolette', another trashy reality TV show Sarah and I have got into since arriving in America and Canada!

It was an early start the next morning as we were heading to Whistler for the day which is about a 2 hour drive from Vancouver. The 2010 winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, with many of the events being at Whistler. It is a fabulous ski resort, very exclusive, with dozens of 5* hotels. We were lucky in that Lindsay's mum has a timeshare at one of the hotels in Whistler village so we were able to park in the hotel grounds and use their swimming pool.
We arrived at about 10.30, and had a wonder around the village to take photo's. It really is a stunning place, and definitely worth a visit for the day if you're anywhere near Vancouver.

WHISTLER

By lunchtime, we found a perfect restaurant, which just so happened to be advertising Bellini Tuesdays. This meant we could have a double Bellini for just $5! The four of us divulged ourselves in that and had a lovely meal to go with it.

Bellini's

After burning off our meal by walking to the lake we then spent the rest of the afternoon sunbathing round the hotel pool.
The drive to and from Whistler has some really beautiful spots so we stopped off at some of those for photo opportunities.

Mountain views.

Canada Day!

With it being Canada Day, Lindsay and her Mum had the day off work, so to celebrate we took a trip to the liquor store, sunbathed in the garden and drank Margarita's all afternoon! We then went to a BBQ in west Vancouver to a family friend of Lindsay and her Mum's. I have never been to a house like theirs. We arrived, and as we walked down into their back garden the first thing i could see was the ocean. You could literally jump into the sea from their back garden, it was incredible. The interior of the house was just as impressive too! Lots of Lindsay's old school friends were there so we met many of them and had a really nice evening. One lady there was originally from Scotland and she was hilarious. Despite her having lived in Vancouver longer than she actually ever lived in Scotland her strong scottish accent hadn't altered at all. She took great pleasure in taking the piss out of me and Sarah all night!
At 10.30 there was a great firework show out on one of the boats at sea. We had a perfect view of it sitting in the back garden. It was a great night, with great food, and was lovely to meet some of Lindsay's friends and family.

CANADA DAY BBQ

Lindsay had work again the following afternoon so we went downtown to do some shopping, or rather, buying presents for my family on Prince Edward Island. I had originally bought all the kids a Hollywood t-shirt each, but someone stole them when I was in San Francisco. They didn't want to steal my camera or purse, just some kids t-shirts! Anyway, I found some nice Vancouver t-shirts to replace them. We went for a nice lunch before Lindsay had to go to work, then as it was our last day, Sarah and I went in search of a florist to buy Vera some flowers to say Thank you.
We met Vera after she had finished work and we all went back to the house together.
I really loved Vancouver, and could've easily stayed longer. There's so many things to do, and with all the mountains, the scenery is stunning. It reminded me a lot of New Zealand. Hopefully I will be back there in the not too distant future. It would be great to go back in winter and do some skiing.

Alcatraz and wine bars via The Golden Gate

2009-07-24T11:26:36Z

"Once we had checked into our room we couldn't wait to get out, so we went across the road to a bar called The Barn Owl, and had a couple of drinks with free cheese and biscuits.
It is quite difficult getting used to hostels again. There were 6 of us on our room, Sarah and I, and then 4 french people I think. Luckily, the two beds Sarah and I had were in a seperate section to the other beds, so we had a bit more space each than we would normally have in a hostel.

]]> On our first morning in San Francisco, we got up early and planned our sightseeing for the day. We decided that in the interest of saving money and getting some exercise we were going to walk all over San Fransico, so we headed off towards the Golden Gate Park and Bridge.
We got lost pretty quickly and when we asked someone how to get to the Golden Gate Park they said it was too far to walk and we would have to get a bus. We did that and spent an hour or two looking around the park.
We went up the tower which had a 360 dgeree view over San Francisco, so we took some pictures, and then went to the japanese tea gardens. However, we had to pay $5 to get in, and having already seen a tonne of Pagoda's in south east asia we reasoned we did not need to part with our money.

Golden Gate Park

View of San Francisco from the top of the tower

We walked through the park towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It didn't look too far on the map, but in reality, it took almost 2 hours to walk there. When we arrived it was really cloudy and foggy, meaning we couldn't even see the top of the bridge. As a result, our pictures of the bridge are pretty disappointing. This is the best one I have......

Golden Gate Bridge

We then caught a bus to Lombard street and went to find Mrs Doubtfire's house. After taking a few pictures we walked up some of the steepest hills i have ever known to find the "crooked street", which is the most crooked street in the world, and we took some pictures of that. Hills are impossible to avoid when walking in San Francisco, but it was good exercise so we didn't mind!

Mrs Doubtfire's house

View of San Francisco from the top of the crooked street
The crooked street

By this pont, it was late afternoon and we were pretty shattered, so we decided to walk back to the hostel - which was about 15 blocks away up long steep hills! However, as we got near to the hostel, we got side tracked by Union Square, and as it was a gorgeous day, we spent the rest of the afternoon drinking champagne in the sun and eating Foccacia bread with a balsamic dip. We felt we had earned it after the 8 hours of walking we had done!
We also heard that day that Michael Jackson had died, and as if on cue, Michael Jackson's greatest hits blasted out from one of the nearby stores.

June 26th:

It was another early start for our trip to Alcatraz. We walked down to the Pier to catch the boat that would take us across. When we arrived we walked inside the Prison where there was an audio tour. It lasted about an hour and was so fascinating. The voices on the tour included four of the prison officers and four of the inmates. They took you round all of the cells, explaining the different blocks, including the isolation room, where inmates sometimes had to spend over two weeks. It was pretty eerie. The guy in my ear told me to walk into the isolation room, so I did, and then all I could hear were metal gates slamming shut.... It was pretty scary, I walked back out! The inmates had it pretty rough in there, some cells didn't even have beds.
The audio guide also explained how some of the inmates tried to escape, including the big escape attempt in the 1960's, where three of the officers were killed. I was hoping it would tell us which cell was Al Capone's, but it didn't.

Alcatraz prison from the outside
Prison cell
Isolation cell
Alcatraz Island

We arrived back in the city mid afternoon, so we walked to Pier 39 to look round the shops, and go for lunch and a couple drinks. I found this really cool Left hand store, where everything was designed for left handed people. Even the staff had to be left handed to work there. As a left handed person myself, I felt a great appreciation for it.....

Lefty's, the left hand store

We went to this nice wine bar, and got chatting to a couple next to us who lived in LA. I asked what she was drinking as it looked really good, and she told me it was Sangria. Literally, two minutes later the waiter came to us with two glasses of Sangria, explaining they were from a group of guys sat on the table at the other side of us. We said thank you, and they said they had overheard me saying how good the Sangria looked so they bought us one.......... I ask you, would that ever happen in England?? I think not!

After a nice glass of cold Sangria, we still hadn't decided which wine we fancied so we opted for the wine tasting and had three kinds of the Sauvignon Blanc. Very nice, and true to form, our favourite was the most expensive one!

We had dinner and a cocktail then began the long walk back to the hostel. We had planned to have a night out, only when we arrived back we were both feeling a little tired. I planned to relax for 10 minutes before I got in the shower..... two and a half hours later at 9.30pm we both woke up! By that time, we couldn't be bothered to get ready so we had another night in.

The following day was our last day in San Francisco before flying to Vancouver. As we had done all the sight seeing we had planned to do, we decided to go to the cinema as there are about 20 films we want to watch! I don't know if some of them are out in the UK yet. We went to see My Sister's Keeper with Cameron Diaz, which is an excellent film but very sad. I don't think there was a dry eye in the cinema!

On the Road to Frisco

2009-07-22T12:53:14Z

"After saying our goodbye's to Scarlett, Sarah and I headed on our way to San Luis Obispo. This is about a 3 hour drive from Hollywood and is part way between Hollywood and San Francisco. The drive also takes you on the Pacific Coast Highway, one of the main reasons Sarah and I wanted to hire a car for this leg of the trip. There are some stunning viewing points.

]]> We were staying at the San Luis Bay Inn; the third and final of the timeshare hotels Sarah's parents booked for us.
It was pretty late when we left Hollywood, and after three and a half hours of driving on a slight hangover, we were both shattered by the time we arrived at the hotel. We checked into our lovely apartment, ordered take away and settled in front of the TV for the night.
San Luis Obispo is a very quiet place and with no car it would be almost impossible to get around. We were booked into the hotel for just four nights in order for us to break our drive to San Francisco up a little bit.

We spent most of the few days doing a spot of sunbathing by the pool, and getting much needed hair cuts! After the disaster haircut I got in Australia I was very dubious, but as it so desperately needed doing I had no choice! I opted for just a trim as I thought it would be impossible for her to go wrong, and to be fair, she wasn,t too bad..... I didn't leave the salon with tears in my eyes, unlike in Australia!

When we were in Newport Harbour, staying with Jay, we met his room mate Bryan and his girlfriend Bianca. They both now live in San Luis Obispo so they invited us round for dinner one evening, which was nice. We just had chicken and salad but it was delicious and so nice to have some home cooked food!

After four quiet nights there we set off on our way to San Francisco. Bryan had informed us that the route we had taken from Hollywood wasn't actually the official Pacific Coast Highway, which we didn't realise, we had just been following the GPS! Anyway, he gave us the right directions and although it added another couple of hours on our trip to San Francisco it was definitely worth it.

We took it steady and stopped off at a few different places, including Ragged Point, and a nice little spot where we got amazing views of Elephant Seals.
Six and a half hours later we arrived in San Francisco just in time to drop the car off at 4pm, although it did take us half an hour to find the car park! We walked back to our hostel, and didn't realise how much of a work out it would be! The hills in that city are practically vertical!

Hollywood or bust

2009-07-20T09:20:00Z

We arrived in Hollywood after a 10 hour drive from the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford the Beverly Wiltshire, so we had to settle for our first hostel in a few weeks! It was a big shock to the system after those nice hotels in the OC and Vegas! Luckily, Sarah and I were just in a shared room for one night, then we moved to a 3 bed private room the next morning as Scarlett was joining us.

]]> As we had missed Scarlett's birthday earlier in the month, we bought a bottle of wine and champagne to celebrate her arrival and spent the afternoon on our balcony sipping our drinks and catching up on over six months of gossip!

That evening we visited the Standard Hotel on Sunset Blvd, where the LA episodes of Sex and the City were filmed. We ran around and screamed a little bit, took pictures, and then were kindly asked to p**s off!

We went to a lovely Mexican restaurant just opposite the Standard Hotel, had some good food and a few glasses of wine, before Sarah and I had a go on the very same rodeo bull that Miranda from Sex and the City rode on in one of the episodes!

Somehow, both of us managed to stay on the bull...... I was wearing a short dress so you can imagine how I looked!!

The following day, the three of us, along with two girls we met on the Kiwi Bus, spent the day at Santa Monica beach. We were actually trying to find Manhattan Beach, but after driving round for an hour and a half, we gave up, and headed for the closest beach in Santa Monica.

The weather was really nice but nowhere near as hot as Vegas.
That evening, we went to a club called Hyde. A lot of the clubs in LA are guestlist only..... Luckily, we had Scarlett on hand who knows a few journalists and PR people in LA, who were able to put our names on the list. We all had a really good night, only, all the clubs in LA close at 2am, so we didn't have too long there.

We had another day at the beach the following day, topped off by spending happy hour (4-8pm) at a 2-4-1 Margarita bar on Sunset Blvd.

We had the most amazing strawberry margaritas, before opting for an early night. I would definitely recommend going there if visiting Hollywood. The drinks are fantastic, with a really good atmosphere and great service.

As it was mine and Sarah's last full day in Hollywood, we decided to go shopping. We had a look round the Beverly Centre, where I bought a really nice yellow dress for the evening's night out!

For some reason, I thought I had a lot of money, so I reasoned $85 was a bargain...I then checked my balance and found I definitely did not have a lot of money, meaning, the impending phone call to Dad came sooner than I thought!

We then went to a place called The Grove, which is a gorgeous village with lots of shops, restaurants, and was also playing host to the Farmers' Market. It is amazing, it looks like something from a film set! We had a lovely Italian meal for lunch, accompanied with a bottle of wine...A perfect way to spend the day in Hollywood!

That evening, we had our last night out at a club called Foxtails. It is a brilliant club with great music, however, we managed to annoy the barmaid with our lack of tipping!

First of all we asked how much a glass of wine is, which was $11, then asked how much a bottle was... $300! Suffice to say, we opted for just a glass!

She poured our drinks and handed it to us in a plastic wine glass, and when we recieved our change from a $20 bill, she said to me: "I know you guys are new to this place but in America it is custom to tip the waitress!" I was left speechless...... How rude! We each gave her a dollar tip (I refused to give her any more) which she wasn't happy with so she told the other bar maids not to serve us! I really don't understand why I should tip somebody who simply does their job as a barmaid!

Luckily, we met some guys who had a table full of vodka, so we drank that for free all night and had no reason to go back to the bar!

The following day, Sarah and I were driving to San Luis Obispo for a few nights to the third and last hotel booked as part of Sarah's parents timeshares. San Luis Obispo is about a three hour drive from LA and is between LA and San Francisco.

Before heading off there, me, Sarah and Scarlett went to do a bit of sight seeing and Hollywood souvenir shopping. We walked along Hollywood Blvd to see the avenue of the stars and the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are filmed, and then headed to the viewing point of the Hollywood sign. We also went to the Beverly Wiltshire where Pretty Woman was filmed!

I had a really great time in LA and would definitely go back. A lot of people beforehand told me I would be disappointed with LA, but I wasn't at all!

Having said that, it won't be everybody's cup of tea! I am so glad we had a car as it would've been so difficult to get around without one. It is definitely worth the hire fee!

Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon

2009-07-09T14:57:13Z

After a fabulous, fun-packed week in Vegas we picked up a hire car and headed to the Grand Canyon.

Our original idea before we came away travelling was to hire a convertible for this little leg of the trip, but when it came down to it, we couldn't afford it. Instead we settled for a Ford Escape, which was really nice and spacious - lots of room for our huge suitcases so we were happy.

]]> On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped off at Hoover Dam, which is about an hour outside of Vegas. It is a pretty magnificent place and definitely worth a stop off on the way to the Grand Canyon. Here are a couple of my best pictures from Hoover Dam...

It was then another four-hour drive to the Grand Canyon. I had forgotten how much I missed driving, and it is surprisingly easy getting used to driving on the right side of the road.

Half way to the canyon a warning light in the car told us the engine oil needed changing. We called up the rental place who told us it was fine for the next 400 miles.

As we were driving all the way to San Francisco, we would obviously be doing a lot more than 400 miles, so we were told to take it back to them on our way back from the Grand Canyon to LA. It wasn't too much of a problem as we had to drive back to Vegas anyway to pick up my contact lenses that I had been waiting for all week, and typically, arrived two hours after we left Polo Towers!

When we arrived at the Grand Canyon we checked into the Bright Angel Lodge, which is one of only two hotels that are actually on the Canyon.

We had a short walk around the south rim, and took some pretty amazing pictures. I think the Grand Canyon is definitely something you have to see for yourself to really appreciate its true magnificence. I don't think my pictures really did it justice, but here are some of my best ones...

That evening, we had a nice dinner, before a very early night. We had decided we would use our time at the Grand Canyon to take it easy and detox before we went to LA. Even if we had wanted to go out, it would have been impossible. There really is nothing to do at the canyon once you've seen it and taken pictures. In hindsight, we should've booked just one night there.

The following morning we went on a helicopter ride over the canyon, which was amazing! We were able to see so much more than just looking at it from the rim. I was sat in the front with the driver. I have never been in a helicopter before, but I really enjoyed it, especially when your view is the Grand Canyon. Hopefully my pictures will do it some kind of justice...

We arrived back from the helicopter ride much early than we anticipated, meaning we had about eight hours to kill before sunset. I have never been so bored in all my life!

By this point we had taken hundreds of pictures of the canyon, and as amazing and spectacular as it is, we really didn't need any more pictures, and felt we had seen enough of it!

We definitely caught up on our sleep while we were there as there was nothing else to do!

Early the next morning we left the lodge and headed back to Vegas. We took the rental car back and got upgraded to a Jeep Cherokee.

It was much bigger than our Ford Escape but so much nicer to look at and to drive! We finally got out of Vegas and on to LA at around 4.30pm. We thought about stopping at a motel for the night, but as it was only a 4-5 hour drive to LA we decided it would be best to just get there, and we finally arrived just after 9pm.

We had each done about five hours driving so we were pretty shattered. It was also our first hostel we had been in for a few weeks, and after the gorgeous hotels Sarah's parents had booked for us, it was quite a shock to the system!

Our friend Scarlett from university was meeting us for a few days the following day so we checked into just a dorm room for the night and moved into a three-bed private room the following day when Scarlett arrived.

Las Vegas, Las Vegas and more Las Vegas!

2009-07-09T14:57:13Z

After a 40 minute flight we arrived in Vegas to possibly one of the coolest airports on the planet. The first thing staring us in the face when we stepped off the plane was a mini casino, and then we had to get a subway to where we picked up our luggage!

]]> We stepped out of the airport to dozens of black limos, I only wished one of those had been for us.

Unfortunately, they weren't and we settled for a shuttle bus to our hotel, Polo Towers, which is on the strip by the MGM Grand. Polo Towers is another one of Sarah's parents timeshares, and we were so grateful for more 5* luxury for the week.

Our room balcony overlooked the Bellagio, Planet Hollywood, and New York New York. Eager to get out and explore the strip we dumped our suitcases and headed out. The first thing that struck me was the amount of people walking down the street with beers and yard long margaritas!

Feeling pretty hungry and ready for an afternoon glass of wine we found a place that offered 2-4-1 meals. The food was pretty good but the service was pretty terrible. We later looked at the small print on the menu and they included an 18% gratuity in the price of your meal, hence, why they had no reason to be polite!

We didn't go back there again. One thing that has come to annoy me about Americans is everybody expects a tip...even taxi drivers!

We had a walk down to the far end of he strip by the Venetian, and had a look around in there. All the major hotels in Vegas are amazing.

The Venetian has a canal running through it where you can ride on the gondolas. It looked a bit too romantic for me and Sarah so we decided against it and instead headed upstairs to find where the nightclub and bars were. We had found out that Audrina from The Hills was hosting her brothers birthday party in Tao, at the Venetian that night, and as huge Hills fans, there was no other place to go so we got ourselves on the guestlist.

However, although we had a good night, we were a little disappointed. Even though we were on the guestlist we still had to queue for half an hour and when we did finally get in there the place was so huge and packed, we could barely move and had no idea where to go. Suffice to say, we didn't see Audrina from The Hills! And to top it off, a round of drinks for just the two of us was $24!!

There was a gorgeous rooftop pool at our hotel so we pretty much spent the week sunbathing and topping up our tans. We did do a bit of shopping but for two backpackers coming to the end of their travels, the price tags were a little out of our price range.

The night after a not so brilliant night in Tao we went to a club called Body English, which is in the Hard Rock Hotel. This was a much better night. We had met one of the guys who worked on the door the night before so when we arrived he took us to the front of the queue and got straight in.

As soon as we walked in, some Canadian guys who had a table asked if we wanted to sit down with them...of course, we did and then drank free vodka all night. They had bought 4 bottles of Vodka at $500 each!

They said they needed help drinking it, so of course, we obliged!

We woke up the next morning still slightly drunk. Unfortunately, we couldn't sleep it off as our hotel shuttle was picking us up at 9am to take us to the supermarket.

Drunk shopping is never a good idea, we somehow managed to spend $116, which included a big bottle of vodka which we reasoned would save us money in the long run!

We had a couple of nights in after that to recuperate and decided to check out some of the rides Vegas has to offer, so we headed to the Stratosphere.

We could almost see if from our hotel so we thought it would only take half an hour to walk..... two hours later we arrived! Las Vegas strip is much longer than it looks! The Stratosphere is basically a huge tower which overlooks the whole of Vegas, and on it are three rides. We went on two as the third was closed due to high winds. The first was called The Big Shot, which shoots passengers up 160 feet at 45 mph until they are 1,081 feet above the Strip. We bought our picture of this one as we looked hilarious on it! The second was called X-Scream, which propels you 27 feet over the edge of the Tower, and about 866 feet above the ground.

On our last night in Vegas, we had a night at the Bellagio. Every evening there is an incredible fountain show outside the hotel which can be seen every 15 minutes.

It is played to music and is phenomenal to watch.

We then headed for the casino in the Bellagio and decided to play roulette. As we didn't have too much money to gamble, Sarah and I thought it would be safer to play together, so we each put in $10. Unfortunately, that money went pretty quickly, so we thought we'd try our luck again with another $20 between us. Luck was on our side this time and we came away with $104! I could've so easy carried on betting, but Sarah was there to keep the game sensible so we decided to cash it in while we were ahead.

In hindsight though, I feel we could've won a little more...... maybe that's the gambler in me talking!

To make the night even better, we went to the Bellagio's club, Bank, which is by far the best club I have ever been to. All I can think is the guys on the door must've taken a shine to us as they escorted us to the front of the queue, then explained to us that a big client of theirs was coming that night and did we want a reserved table with free vodka all night, courtesy of this guy!

We didn't meet the client but i will be forever grateful. We had our own waitress pouring us our drinks all night (and she wasn't shy with the measures either!), we didn't spend a cent, and we were up by about $40 each! I vaguely remembering stumbling out of the club...

My week is Vegas was amazing, and I would go back in a heartbeat. It especially works to your advantage if you are young and single! I can imagine it is very expensive if you are a bloke or in a couple...... Thank God we were neither!

I have decided I have to have my hen do there...All I need to do now is find the lucky guy who wants to pay for me and my friends to go!

Venice Beach, Orange County - Newport Harbour, Capistrano, Laguna Beach

2009-07-09T14:57:13Z

I cannot believe I am writing this with only two months left of my travels... The past six months have just been a whirlwind!

We arrived at LAX airport in Los Angeles after a 12 hour flight from New Zealand. Again, some child was screaming and keeping me awake all night so I was pretty shattered by the time we landed.

]]> We booked ourselves into a hostel for a couple nights in Venice Beach. As money is getting a little bit tight now we had paid for the cheapest room, expecting an eight-bed dorm with no en-suite bathroom.

However, to our delight, the manager of the hostel was a huge Manchester United fan and when she heard we were northerners living not too far from Manchester she upgraded us to a four-bed dorm with an en-suite.

Los Angeles is 19 hours behind New Zealand, so as you can imagine, we were pretty jetlagged. As it was only the middle of the afternoon when we arrived we forced ourselves to stay awake and had a wander along Venice Beach. It is a gorgeous place, with lovely restaurants, bars and cafes, but it is also home to a lot of strange, obscure people!

We went for dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the ocean where I had the most amazing philly cheese steak baguette..... I look forward to seeing if the ones in Philadelphia are actually as good!

I think I dropped asleep at around 9pm that evening and slept for 13 hours!

The next day we walked into Santa Monica and had a shopping day. Santa Monica is such a gorgeous place, with great shops, restaurants and cafes, and as a result, I spent way too much money, especially when we stumbled across Abercrombie and Fitch!

That shop is one thing England seriously lacks!

We just spent a couple of nights staying in Venice Beach before a friend of ours, Jay, picked us up and took us to his place in Newport Harbour, Orange County. We met Jay while we were tubing in Laos.

He grew up in San Diego but now lives in this lovely apartment overlooking the beach in Newport. The day we arrived it was his room mate, Bryan's, birthday so there was a big house party at the apartment, which was really good fun and great meeting all their friends.

The next day, Jay had to go to San Diego to work and Bryan was going away for the weekend so Sarah and I had the place to ourselves.

We went to Jay's local bar just for a drink but ended up staying there most of the night as we bumped into some guys who wouldn't let us buy any drinks..... Of course, we said thankyou, and kindly obliged!

American men are so generous when it comes to things like that - I feel English men could definitely do with taking a leaf out of the American's book!

The following day we were heading to nearby Capistrano Beach as Sarah's parents had booked us one of their timeshare hotels...our first bit of luxury for over 5 months!

We were very excited, and when we arrived we were not at all disappointed. The hotel was a 5* resort, and our apartment room was fabulous. We had a lounge, bug bedroom, huge bathroom with jacuzzi bath (which i took full advantage of), kitchen, balcony with a BBQ, and a dining area. It felt like heaven after all the hostels we had been in throughout Australia and New Zealand.

We were there for a week and basically just spent that time saving money and relaxing. We went into Laguna one day which was really good. It is a very wealthy place, the houses there are phenomenal. I will definitely move there if I ever win the lottery! We didn't have a car at this point so it was very difficult getting around.

Everything is so spread out you either have to walk for two hours to get anywhere, or use the bus service, which isn't really too good!
We had a great week there though, and had I not been getting a flight to Las Vegas,

I think I would've chained myself to the bed and refused to leave that gorgeous hotel!