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So then where were we.......
I believe it's been over two weeks since my last entry due to either lack of internet access/time/hangovers(mostly) or most recently due to being in the wilderness, haven't had a phone signal for over a week either. So going to write in this entry about each place we've been to and then follow that up with a general humourous(hopefully) take on America and let loose all the funny goings on.
So after leaving the haven of beautiful people that is Quebec city we made our way to Montreal. Still in french candian territory basically it's divided into two parts divided by a massive river. There's a few skyscrapers but the most interesting buildings are those that were built for the world expo they hosted in the 70's however the designers didn't do a very good job so they all look either really s*** or delapadated the same goes for the F1 track which has resulted in them losing the canadian grand prix. Also the home of cirque de solei which was actually in town but gave that a miss due to my hatred of the circus. Hotel was wicked big flat screen and spa and all that. 1st night got taken to a bit of a fancy restaurantand than went the complete opposite direction and ended up in a student bar(montreal has a famous and very popular uni). $1 beers and $2 shots so I imagine you can figure out what happened, very good night everyone was wasted so many good laughs and embarrasing moments. Had a bit of a lads night the 2nd night went to a greek restaurant and then onto a........members only club shall we say.
Left Montreal for Toronto where we had 3 nights-I love Toronto it's like New York but 10 times better. In fact many movies you've seen which are set in New York are actually filmed in Toronto as it's similar and cheaper, the latest hulk film is an example.Back in english speaking territory and full of wonder haha. Lots of big ass skyscrapers but much more cleaner and open which makes it better than New York in my eyes. It's also home to the CN tower which is the biggest freestanding structure in the world which we went up right to the top level which was just amazing, it's that high up you can actually see New York which is god knows how many hours away. Bright and sunny day too so got loads of cool photo's. Had a glass floor which you could lie on which was a bit freaky but did it and got a few photo's nontheless. At the bottom of the CN tower there's the Rogers centre which you may know as the skydome. 1st arena ever built with a retractable roof home of the blue jays and held every major musical act and sporting event there is. Got a full on tour, got plenty of photo's and got to go on the turf which was awesome. Had an organised bar crawl with the whole tour group which was very very very messy everyone including myself was hammered drunk but such a funny funny night. We got driven around on a yellow school bus too which was very cool. The hotel was a brand new Hilton and it was amazing big ass pool and amazing rooms-the beds were state of the art where you could adjust the softness and s***. Overall loved Toronto, would move there at the drop of a hat if the opportunity arose.
Went onto Cleveland after that for one night. Even though it was only a week in Canada it felt like forever so going back to the states felt like flying into New York all over again. Went to the rock n roll hall of fame which was like going to mecca for myself. Had all the outfits and guitars and documentaries for all the big rock stars starting out with rhythm and blues through to the Beatles era through To current day. Highlights were definately the U2, Aerosmith, Bowie and Rolling stones sections. Was mad to see a section dedicated to Joy Division too, had the original lyric sheet for love will tear us apart and highway to hell by AC/DC. Had two floors dedicated to Bruce Springsteen to which was very cool. Cleveland was bizarre there's hardly any accomodation for residents so downtown is very quiet at night and at the weekend, we were there on mothers day and it was dead so just had a meal and went back to the hotel and drank some of the special 50% proof southern comfort we bought at the border. What we did see of Cleveland looked cool but the people were very rough-saw one woman through a brick at a moving car.
After that we moved onto Chicago-America's second city and I was really surprised it was completely different to what i was expecting-it's so cool. It's built on lake Michigan which is one of the craziest things i've ever seen you can't see the other side it's literally like looking into the ocean. It's famous for it's amazing architecture so it's a beautiful place, ton's of ace skyscrapers like the Sears tower and Hancock building which we went to top of and had a beer in the bar on the top floor which was pimp got loads of cool pics. Did a ferry cruise down the river which runs through Chicago looking at all the skyscrapers and stuff then went to the national history museum which was amazing-they have the mst complete skeleton of a t-rex there which was mad to see. It was an amazingly hot and sunny day so walked down the front where they have a harbour and a beach in the middle of the city!!!!! Got something similar to central park too which was cool. Went out both nights and had a real laugh the 2nd night the cubs were playing at home so town was really busy got chatting to this cool american girl and her mate who were both really sound and had a good laugh with them. Had proper Chicago pizza pie too with is mental two slices and you're full it's that heavy.It's much cooler than the gangster films and stuff make out it's full of Irish and Italians too as well as English due to them discovering it so plenty of cooll bars and stuff. Nearly saw Bruce Springsteen outside the four seasons,were waiting with a crowd fr ages outside to get a glimpse but apparenty he escaped out a side entrance,saw a lot of the E street band getting into limo's though saw not all bad. They filmed both of the latest Batman films there too and saw a lot of the stuff like the 3 tiered highways and stuff they use in the film which was really surreal to see,stood at the bottom of the ramp he drives up on the bike at the end of the dark night-looks exactly the same , very cool.
Headed off to Madison for a night after Chicago and stopped at the Miller beer brewery on the way in Milwaukee which was ace,l got 3 free beers at the end in the bar. They had a massive thunder storm when we there so just stayed in after tea and watched that for a bit and rechardged the waning batteries.
After Madison the trip took on a real change of pace, got into cowboy country so everythings much more chilled out and realxed. In Chicago 13 of the group left and we got 11 new people so the whole dynamic of the goup has changed for the better in my eyes. We got to Sioux falls where the Sioux native American tribe originates and stayed in a Ramada hotel which had a water park in the middle of it so everyone hit that and the bar within it that night and it got very messy everyone was wasted, water parks and booze do not mix the bus was very quiet the next day but it was such a good night, everyone got introduced to vodka and pineapple juice drinks which are far too easy to drink resulting in major hangovers the next day.
Left Sioux falls and eventually arrived in Yellowstone-the home of mount Rushmore. We've taken plenty of pics so you see what all these areas look like but basically we've been in the mountains for over a week. If you've seen dances with Wolves or Last of the Mohicans which were both filmed in this territory you get an idea of what it looks like, masses of land without a human in site. All the towns are tiny and are all based on towns from cowboy films and the wild west. Mount Rushmore was very cool t see, a lot smaller than you think but still very impressive. What was more amazing though was the crazyhorse monument which I imagine none of you have heard about. Basically the Native Americans were pissed off that the white man came and invaded their lands and then carved the faces of 4 white dudes into one of their sacred mountains so they decided to build one after their own hero-crazyhorse who fought in the battle of little bighorn. However they've taken it one step further and are gooing to build a fully 3D monument of crazyhorse riding his horse pointing his arm out over his land. One guy started it 70 years ago and they've only completed the face and now 7 of his 10 children are working on it-thats it. They refuse to take money from the government for pride reasons which is good but also a shame as I doubt it'll be finished in my lifetime and maybe not even my childrens its on that grand a scale and only has 16 people working on it at any one time. To give you an impression of how big it's going to be the four faces on mount rushmore would fit into crazyhorses head with room to spare.
From there we moved onto Cody-the home of Buffalo Bill which again was a quiet type of wild west town so just chilled and had a group meal and a beer or two. However the morning after we went white water rafting which was bad ass. Really good fun, I was sat at the front as one of the lead rowers so got absolutely drenched and the water was freezing-I forgot to mention the hills were covered in snow so you can imagine how cold the water was. Really good laugh though.
Moved onto Yellowstone national park after that for two nights which is full of wildlife-saw tons of buffalo,elk,deer and grizzly bears. The cool thing about Yellowstone is it's formed on top of a super volcano-the 2nd or 3rd biggest in the world which hasn't erupted for 650,000 years but is due to erupt soon-if it did the fallout would reach as far as california and possibly even New York it's that big. The magma is only 3km under the ground too which is scarily close compared to other volcano's which have magma like 30km under the ground. It's a beautiful place, all rolling hills and waterfalls and all that s*** however the cool thing is because its on a volcano there's tons of hot springs about which stink to high heaven but it's really cool to see, the ground is so hot in most of these areas if you stepped on it you would be incinerated instantly so we had to walk over it on the raised wooden walkways. Has tons of geizers there too and is actually home to old faithful which you would probably have heard of-the tallest geizer in north America-we got to see it erupt too.
Spent a lot of time there but moved into Utah and salt lake city last night-the home of the mormans. Pretty cool place but we were both knackered so gave the nightlife a miss for one night it was really quiet apparently and no one was out given it was Wednesday so didn't miss anything. Just been to Bryce canyon-walked to the bottom but forgot we would have to walk back up which was horrendous, got so tired and because we're 6600 feet above sea level I got really dizzy but all good fun and truth be told I was grateful for the exercise it seems all we've done since Chicago is sit on this bloody bus,everyones got killer back ache and is just a bit sick of it. If we're not on the bus we're eating-mostly at highway rest stops where they only serve fast food so needless to say both of us have put some weight on-I now possess the ass of a black woman haha. Just pulling into our hotel so i'll have to sign off, going to the grand canyon tomorrow and then Saturday and sunday in Vegas- I cannot wait to get back to civilisation again and more so the city of sin that is vegas, I have a feeling it's going to be eventful. Just watched the film 21 on the bus which has given me false hope that i'm going to walk away with thousands of dollars from playing black jack haha. I'll put the pics up and the other blog entry soon as I can. Until then much love, hope your all OK, thinking of you all. See ya!!!!
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