USA – Page 7 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 28 – St Augustine

September 10, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

We headed off to St Augustine on Tuesday morning.
We had a pretty big day as we stopped off for 5 hours at the NASA space centre in Florida.

There’s actually quite a lot to do at the Space Center that I didn’t even end up seeing everything. I went with Marisa and a few others and did the bus tour.

To be honest the bus tour was so boring. I would not recommend it.
We went around to where they launch the space rockets which was all good to see but the guy on the bus had the type of voice that just made you want to go to sleep. And I think a few people from our tour actually did. Maybe I just associate buses with sleeping now because that’s all I seem to do on them.

The bus tour took nearly 2 hours but we stopped at this place where you could eat and they had all the info about the launches etc…

The above picture is the actual control room where they re-inacted on TV screens what was happening when they launched the space shuttle that went to the moon.

I also got to touch a piece of the moon!
It just felt like rock though so don’t get too excited haha.

After we’d explored lots, we went on a space shuttle simulator. You basically get strapped in and it gives you the feeling of actually being in the space shuttle as it launches.
It’s not the nicest experience when you’re ‘in space’. It’s like you loose gravity but makes you feel sick a little bit haha.
It was still cool to experience though.

By 3pm we had to be back at the bus to head to St Augustine.
It seemed like the shitty weather was following us because when we got to St Augustine it was pouring down with rain.
They must get used to their flooding, because back home it’d make front page news whereas here it was literally just water everywhere we went and no one seemed to care.

St Augustine is located in the northeast part of Florida so they have a very tropical climate as well. We were visiting in their wet season (May – October) so it was pretty much a given that it’d rain.
The Bermuda High pumps in hot and unstable tropical air from the Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico, which helps create the daily thundershowers that they get all the time in the summer months. Apparently intense but very brief downpours are common in mid-summer in the city.

St. Augustine was actually the first city in America in 1565. Therefore making it the oldest city in the United States.

When we got to our hotel we had a few hours to get ready until we all set off to an optional dinner our tour Manager recommended.

It was at this place called BBQ ‘something’ (Man I should have really found out the name for this blog) and it was so good!
Our food took ages to come out as there was quite a few of us, but when it did it was really yummy.
I’m loving the crispy type chicken they have here with this creamy gravy they put on top. I had something very similar back in Dallas so it reminded me of that. (The Dallas one was still better though)
They had this random jalapeño bread with it as well which wasn’t that great. And I wasn’t a big fan of their Kumara here haha. But the rest was still good!

After dinner we all went to this bar down the road and had $3 drinks all night. Safe to say I probably had too much to drink and didn’t end up getting home until 6am. The Contiki life aye!
I didn’t even bother going to sleep, I just packed my bag, got changed and went and had breakfast before boarding the bus at 8am haha.

St Augustine, even though I felt there wasn’t tooooo much to do still seemed like a nice little town to visit.
I can’t really judge half of these places I’ve been going to lately because we’re there for such a short period of time and with the weather being shit I’ve been really slack at exploring anything past eating out and the nightlife.

Day 27 – Daytona Beach

September 10, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

We left Miami at about 8.30am on Monday morning to head off to Daytona Beach.
I didn’t actually really sleep on the bus for some reason this time.
It was one of our shorter bus journeys so I just looked out the window the whole time haha.

To be honest, my night in Daytona was very boring. More so because I had a ‘rest’ night.
When we arrived in Daytona a few people on the tour did an optional Daytona Speedway Tour before the hotel but I didn’t do it.

The rest of us headed off to the hotel and checked in with all our bags.
The hotel we stayed at was pretty basic but it had a pool and it was right on the beach. You could tell it’d be used for Spring break parties as well haha.

I decided to do my washing at the hotel. When I put my washing in the machine I realised I didn’t grab any washing powder off our tour manager and he was out so I used one of the washing machine dispensers for a packet but it didn’t give me any powder 😑
I decided to just wash my clothes without any washing powder and now they smell average.

I met up with Diogenes a bit later and we did a little bit of souvenir shopping in the rain.
I bought my magnet and he bought this random mask to take back home to Australia.
We also went to Walgreen’s and bought some Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream and proceeded to turn into 2 girls sitting watching TV and eating the whole tub before dinner.
(I thought we had no freezer at the time so the only option was to eat it all)

That night we had a buffet dinner at the hotel. There was salads, bread,
sasuages and other meats.
It was so average. I kind of just picked at the salad and had a bit of the meat then left the rest. I probably wasn’t very hungry as I ate so much ice cream before – hand as well.

After dinner, a few of us went down the road to this sports type bar. I didn’t drink and we only stayed for a couple and then walked back to the hotel.
I ended up having a shower back at the hotel and hopping into bed and watching TV while writing my previous blogs.

Overall I barely saw Daytona beach, just the outside of my hotel and a couple of shops that were around us.
It was more to do with the fact the weather was really shit so I didn’t want to go out and I had a big night in Miami the night before.

My impression of Daytona was a bit dirty. To be honest I’m kinda judging it from our hotel and the area we were in. Plus the type of homeless people put me off a bit.
I’m sure on a nice day Daytona is really beautiful though. If I go back I’d rather spend it in a different area.

Day 26. Miami #2

September 8, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On the Second day of Miami I lay in bed and had a great snooze until 11am.
I was slightly worried that I was actually the only one on the whole tour who had decided to sleep in and everyone else was out exploring the highlights of Miami.
In my head I had visions of the group at the beach, shopping at DASH or eating breakfast at some yummy cafe.

When I emerged all ready for my day and went downstairs, I was mistaken as everyone else had literally just gotten up as well. We all caught up on the previous nights events and people lay their head in their hands to nurse their hangovers.

I had brunch with Paige and Marisa at the hotel restaurant. It would have been nice if I had ordered something savoury. Instead I ordered the strawberry and banana waffles and the whole time I just craved some scrambled eggs and some fried potatoes or something!

After Brunch I walked down to Walgreen’s Pharmacy to try and get myself a Ventolin Inhaler. I know in Australia you don’t need to have a prescription to get one (in NZ you do) so I assumed here would be the same.
Turns out I’d need to see a doctor to get anything to help me breathe better.
😧😧
Every year I get Bronchitis and I thought I’d skip it this year(hence why I didn’t bring anything) but here I am coughing away on the Contiki Coach every day and feeling like I have the airways the size of a straw.

After I bought some Jandals (or thongs as Aussies call them) from Walgreens I went and met up with the girls again where we went to the beach and had a swim.

We were there for about an hour before the thunder started so we decided to go back to the hotel and swim in the pool with some of the group.

When it got later in the day, I headed down the road and bought a Twix ice cream 💕 and some Doritos. I was in such a snack mood! Haha

After munching on them, I had a shower and begun to get ready for my night out. We had a Miami party cruise boat booked and then we’re heading to the club Nikki Beach afterwards.

I was prepared this time and bought my poncho. I got some laughs but I was the one laughing when everyone had to run to the bus in the rain!

When we got to the boat, we all took some photos outside and then boarded.

We all got 3 free drinks each. And they wern’t stingy on the alcohol either!
There was lots of dancing and drinking. Plus Marisa and Paige didn’t feel like drinking so they gave me their 3 free drink coupons. Woo hoo! I was loving life.

After the boat cruise, we all went to Nikki Beach.
We skipped the line and hit the dance floor. It was soo much better than Mansion.
I think there was another tour type thing there so there were heaps of people our age and I talked to other people from NZ which was cool.
By 3am my feet were killing me, I’d gotten free drinks in VIP all night from some guys that were having a party, I then Ubered home with another great Uber driver and I had an hour hang out with the concierge at the hotel.

When I got back I said to the hotel guy I was going to bed but I was hungry so he gave me the rest of his dinner he’d gotten from the restaurant as it was now closed. He even microwaved it for me haha. We chatted for ages about my travels and how I want to move to America but didn’t know how to go about it etc… He recommended working at the Hotel but I’m pretty sure I have to get sponsored for something like that.
It was a pretty all good end to my night.

When I got back to my room I ended up calling my best friend back home and sat in the bathroom talking to her for ages on Facebook messenger calling haha!

Miami, I will defiantly be back! (Maybe when I have more money)
💳💲💰