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Hi everyone!! Yes, I'm still alive...after 2 and a half weeks I'm finally making time to update you all and what's been happening on my road trip across the States. It's been a huge couple of weeks and I've seen so much that I don't know where to start!
Kicked off my Contiki tour in LA after a few days of Disneyland, Universal Studios & sightseeing the City of Angels. 45 young people along with our tour guide Cap & driver Adrian headed down to San Diego for day trip down to Tijuana, Mexico. Lunch was a heady mixture of tequila shots poured straight into your mouth (often two or three in a row), followed by mugs of mojito & the best burritos ever. A quick shop for $8 bottles of Tequila & we were on our way back over the border into the states. I'm almost sure that Tijuana was not a real representation of Mexico as it was pretty seedy!!
San Diego was beautiful....our fun began in the Gaslamp Quarter when we went out for dinner at d*** - a restaurant where serviette wars are the norm! (Think a big pile of serviettes that you screw up into balls and throw them at whoever you want - a bit random but ended up being such a laugh). We headed onto a bar where there were $1 bourbons...yes... $1. Recipe for D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. Here in the states they have freepour drinks, so no regulation limits on how much alcohol goes into a drink. I'm sure that's why they close the bar at 2am instead of 4 or 5 like at home. Absolutely a good thing!!
Phoenix is an awesome city....we went to the best Greek restuarant and a number of bars afterwards....one bar called 'The Library' where all the waitresses wear schoolgirl uniforms and dance on the bar around poles...a little different to bars i'm used to but there's always entertainment of some sort!! I guess when waitresses here earn $2-3 an hour they need to make their tips somehow. For a country that is so prominent in the worlds media for their political status and technology etc, there are so many areas like employment and healthcare that fall so far behind what we have in Australia.
After Phoenix we headed to the Grand Canyon which was amazing!! That was the first night in 4 nights that I had had over 4 hours sleep so I was well due for a sleep and no drinking. We took an early morning helicopter flight over the Canyon which can't be described in words - so impressive. Spent the day walking around the Southern Rim before taking in the sunset at Mohave point. The canyon blew me away and it's beyond me after listening to all the legends how it came to exist at all.
Two days of rest and relaxing at the canyon was just what we needed because right after we were heading to Las Vegas baby!! What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas hey :-) We took a night tour of the strip - so many lights and things for us to do over the next two days! The casinos are amazing how they draw you in and at night it is a party goers paradise. We were in for a bit of a surprise when our brand new coach broke down in a dodgy dark area off the strip, somewhere that we had been warned not to head into on our own, and here we were parked on a dark street with no power on our coach and an axle that was in very bad condition!! While Adrian was calling for backup help, Cap said that he thought he saw an old school wedding chapel not far away and that maybe he could see if we could go in and take some photos. After 20 minutes he came back and said that we were good to go in as they had just finished a wedding. How shocked were we to find out that we were about to be allowed into the original Graceland chapel!!!! We all went into the chapel and sat down for a group photo when Elvis, complete in glittering jumpsuit came out through a door into the chapel and starting shakin his way up to aisle. He told us that we were about the have a wedding up in there...and picked out two of our friends on the tour!! Stefano, the Italian guy who spoke only a little English, and Zoe from Melbourne. We were all in hysterics as Zoe was given a bouquet and Elivis was asking them if they promised to take each other as their hunky-hunk of love, never to tread on their blue suede shoes and to love each other through richer, richer and richer. An experience none of us will ever forget!! It turns out that the bus 'breakdown', despite the shuddering of the wheels and the alarm on the dashboard was completely put on and Graceland was a surprise for us all. Something you could never experience unless you when to Vegas to get married.
The rest of the night had us heading to club MIX at the top of Mandalay Bay, where the views were so good that even the toilets were facing out through full glass windows with views of all the lights of the strip! Tried my luck at blackjack and won $180 on the first night, $30 on the next night. Alcoholic drinks are complimentary in Vegas whenever you're gambling, so after my wins, two days in Vegas cost me $20 in total!! Whenever you needed a drink, we would just go to a table and put a bet on, saved heaps!
Spent a couple of days after Vegas recovering at Yosemite, did a 3 hour hike to see some beautiful waterfalls. Played a risky game involving a big log over a river that made for some funny photos that I am yet to get hold of - let's just say I was very lucky not to come off second best as one of the guys went in. There was snow around too and it was hilarious...the water wasn't too deep or anything, just made for good fun. We had a party that night back at the lodge, the last night for some people on our tour, so we had a white t-shirt party so we can sign each others shirts with messages to remember our amazing two weeks together!! The night ended with photographs with the park rangers at 3am after everyone got a little merry!! They were more than obliging and very friendly to us, and that trend is followed my most rangers in the areas we came across.
Our tour ended in San Francisco with the best seafood!! San Fran is a gorgeous...we took a harbour cruise under the golden gate bridge and around Alcatraz island, and had dinner at Bubba Gumps Shrimp restaurant which was as good as it was expected to be!! More pubs to follow, a good bit of Irish pub hospitality, cheap drinks & burritos. I avoided a bit of a situation on my walk home and was lucky to come out of it with my handbag (including passport which I hate having to carry around...)....there are a lot of homeless people in San Francisco and we were approached by a guy who kept coming very close to me and I picked it straight away. I kept swapping my bag to the other shoulder and had to swap sides with my friend 4 times and keep walking before the guy left us alone, just grateful my gut instinct is still good.
I'm now in Indiana visiting my friend Michael, the weather is freezing...around 4 degrees! Spent an interesting day discovering more different things about America....like their love of White Chocolate Peanut Butter (what the...??) how you can buy an Ipod or rent a dvd from a vending machine and how Walmart is like a Kmart store on steriods where you can buy anything you care to mention. We are flying to New York tomorrow and can't wait!
Look forward to hearing from you all & hope you enjoy the photos.
Much love,
Belinda
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