Solo Travel – Page 11 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 25 – Miami

September 8, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

Miami.
Where everyone drives nice cars and looks like they came out of the TV series nip/tuck.
I love Miami.

The weather changes it’s mind every 2 hours and it’s humid as fuck but it’s still wonderful.
The Uber drivers are the nicest so far and the clubs are playing the latest music the loudest.
I didn’t bump into any celebrities while in Miami but then I didn’t venture very far from my hotel unless it was to the beach or pool.

We arrived on Saturday in the afternoon and even then, the sky was clouding over.
I signed up for an optional activity to do a Speed boat tour around the Miami Harbour but as soon as we got into the boat it started thunder and lightening so they had to cancel 😯Florida has very tropical weather. By most afternoons there’s like a storm brewing which is really annoying.
We had to stick around the shops for a bit longer waiting for it to pass but by 2pm we were back on the bus and heading for our hotel. croy_3_l The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Croydon was so nice and cute! It was situated right across from the beach and like a block away from the alcohol store haha.

As we had lots of time to get ready, my room mate and I went and got alcohol and then went back to our room to prep.
She’s like me in the way she loves make-up, needs over an hour and a half to get ready and needs to wait for her tan to dry.Once we were ready it was time to head out for dinner.On the way there, as it rained it ruined half of us girls hair.
We were seated outside under the shelter but the humidity made the whole dinner really uncomfortable. It sounds like I’m being such a girl (which I am) but there’s nothing worse then spending time dolling yourself up and then feeling like you look like crap for the rest of the night.
Guys think we do it for them or something, honestly we do it to make ourselves feel beautiful, confident, decent, whatever.
It’s more so for us and then if a good looking guy appreciates it too than that’s a bonus.

So we sat in the humidity sweating off our faces over our buffet dinner and $35 Mojito jugs.

When it was time to leave, our bus driver Ricky took us to this bar but he had to drop us like 4 blocks away. As about 70% of the Contiki at the moment is girls, that’s a lot of heel walking!
Myself and 3 other girls got to the bar eventually but ended up Ubering back to our hotel to re-do our hair/ make up and also drink our own bottle store bought drinks.
It was a win for us really. Better than spending $14 on 1 drink from the bar trying to pass time until our bigger club later that night.

We met everyone at this club called Mansion later that night. It’s good to see these higher end type clubs compared to what we have back home. Plus on Contiki sometimes your tour manager (like ours) can get you in front of line.
It was a cool club, but just like Las Vegas the drinks were around $18 each. There were hundreds of pretty girls and seedy guys just hanging around. *sigh*
All of us broke bitches on Contiki found it wasn’t really our scene.
I think we left around 1am and took an Uber back to our hotel where I fell into bed and looked forward to my sleep in!

😴
Xx

Day 24 – Orlando #2

September 6, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On Friday Morning we were up early to get ready for a day at Universal Studios!
We had to be on the bus by 8am to get to the park around opening time.
Quite a few of us rushed to the park so we could get to the front of the line before anyone else.

Overall, the wait times we had for that day weren’t too bad for a Friday
I think the longest we had to wait was about 25 minutes for a ride. But then again, we saw some that had like 45 minute wait times so didn’t bother to go on them.

I ended up going on all the rides with 6 others people. Emma, Brent, Marisa, Robert, Mitch and Scott.
Me, Emma, Robert and Brent were really keen on all the rides but Marisa and Scott were being a bit of a scaredy cat 😜
Mitch however was just too hungover to go on half the rides haha.

We started off at Harry Potter world, and anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a Harry Potter fan at all. I wasn’t a fan of the books and have only seen a bit of the first movie.
However, the setup that they have at Orlando universal is so cool!
We took a train to Harry Potter world from ‘Kings Cross Station’The train ride was really fun and so were the rides at Harry Potter World. I think they only had about 5 rides overall but the whole set up is quite well-doneThey were also selling this ‘butterbeer’ drink which tasted really yum! It doesn’t taste like beer, it’s more of a butterscotch and caramel drink with froth on top.

The first ride we went on was The Dragon Challenge which is a roller coaster that overlaps each other. It’s quite cool because as you’re queuing up for this ride they’ve put Harry Potter things to look at, including the Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. Also the hike to the ride features the flying car featured in the second film, as well as Hagrid’s hut.

The second one we went on was called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey which is a new attraction inside a replica of Hogwarts Castle.
When you walk in, it’s like a tour of the castle and it’s grounds and you get to interact with various characters and props from the Potterseries, including a speech from Dumbledore, and directions from Harry, Hermione and Ron, before boarding a ‘magic bench’

The Magic Bench takes you around the castle by using a simulator flight. If you can imagine it, you’re strapped into this ride and it moves around while realistic animation versions of the Whomping Willow, a horde of dementors, giant spiders, the Hungarian Horntail Dragon, and a Quidditch match appear in front of you. It’s so realistic it can actually be a bit scary haha!

So basically if you love Harry Potter you’ll love Universal.
They have heaps of Gift Shops around the park selling shirts and wands, hats and gowns and broomsticks.

When we finally left Harry Potter world, we went back to the main park and went on the Jurassic park ride which we all got wet on!The other people in the group all went on a couple of the other water rides but I skipped out on them because I didn’t want to look like shit for all my Univeral Photos. Hahaha. #fancytraveler
I was going to go back at the end of the day to do them but didn’t end up having time.

I really wanted to go on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It (pictured above) but by the time we got there it started thundering and lightening so the park had to close the ride.

I feel like I went on most of the rides overall so I’m happy about that. I’d defiantly go again as well! All of us went on the mummy ride like 4 times haha. Mainly because it was so much fun and also because the line was short when the storm came.

I saw the Simpson themed area of the park which was really cool as well. Scott got one of those large donuts and some of the others bought Duff beer.By about 4.30pm the storm had begun and it just absolutely poured down!
We all bought ponchos so we wouldn’t get our clothes soaked.
But by 5.30pm we were back on the Coach, soaked and on our way back to the hotel, so I’m not sure how well those Poncho’s actually worked.When I got back, I quickly did my hair (as it’d gone all curly and frizzy from the rain haha) And then met Marisa downstairs so we could Uber to the Mall.

We went to the Mall of Mallesia (I think it was called).
I wanted to go so I could find something to wear in Miami and we were both going to get our nails done.

When we got there, we were starving and wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory as everyone talks about it being amazing.
It was pretty amazing alright, because the line was like out the door. It was such a big restaurant but it was full and so many people were waiting that we didn’t bother to hang around. We said we’d try and go if there was one in New York City though.Instead for dinner, we went up to the food court and had these wraps. They weren’t too bad but the service was so shit.
We went in search of a nail bar or something but they didn’t bloody have one!
This wasn’t turning into be the greatest shopping trip 😯
Instead I bought some nail polish so I could do my nail polish at the hotel.
It’s great coz OPI is like $9 here, cheap!

I also couldn’t find anything to wear so I’m going to have to re-wear the dress I wore in Las Vegas for Miami. I did however buy a black skirt so I could always team that up with one of my overly worn tops from this trip.

When it was time to leave (the mall shut) we ordered an Uber and he didn’t even come! I rung him twice to tell him exactly where we were standing at the mall (since it was so big) and he obviously couldn’t find us so he cancelled the ride and I got charged $5. Grrr.

Then the second Uber we ordered cancelled as well until we finally had this lovely guy Anthony come and get us. It was an interesting ride home with him. He was an ‘actor’ and we all talked about the meaning of happiness and goals in life haha! Very deep and meaningful for an Uber ride.

When we got back to the hotel, we went to the supermarket so I could get nail clippers and some vitamins for my sickness.
Marisa also got some Lucky charms (the cereal) to have in the morning and we went back to her room to do our nails. (Well I did my nails anyways) and we sat on her bed and ate our slices of cheesecake that we did end up getting from the cheesecake factory before we left.
They were so good but I couldn’t finish mine! 😦I was knackered and was in bed by about 12am (so yes another late one) but I’m on the bus now heading to Miami and I’m trying to have lots of naps.
That’s the good thing about being on the coach, if you have a late night the night before you can always sleep and prepare your body for the coming night.

I know I’m sick but I’m not missing out on partying in Miami! I haven’t drunken in 2 days and it feels weird now.

Day 18 – Memphis

August 31, 2015June 10, 2016Sarah1 Comment

So for this day – I actually wrote a whole blog on my phone and when I exited out of it, it didn’t get saved!!!

You know when you’re so angry you’re like “F*** this!!” and leave it. Well that’s what I’ve done with Day 18.

I will however do a quick re-cap of my first day in Memphis…

That whole Saturday it was pretty much a driving day with a stop off at Little Rock Nine school.
If you’d never heard of ‘Little Rock Nine’ like I hadn’t, it’s a reference to a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 by a lady called Daisy Bates.
The high school was originally an all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas but when these nine students came along, it became the Little Rock Crisis because of their skin color.
In 1896 there was a law passed by the U.S. Supreme Court which stated that there could be schools just for white children and schools just for black children. However, the schools for black children were not as good and people thought this was unfair.

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When the Little Rock Nine turned up to school on the first day (Thanks to Daisy – an American civil rights activist) they got yelled at by other white students and blocked from entering the school by soldiers that the Arkansas governor Orval Faubus hired.
The students obviously hated it and returned home that day in tears.
This is when President Dwight Eisenhower stepped in. He sent the US Army to the school to protect the colored students so they could finally go to school and learn like everyone else.

They did get to study there eventually, but not without being bullied and called names by all the other students. Only 8 of the 9 students made it till the end of the year which I find very brave. I don’t think I could have done it.
However, after that first year the Governor closed all the public high schools in Little Rock as he thought it was better to have no schools at all than have mixed race schools in his town. Many people blamed the Little Rock Nine for this and the racism got even worse.
Obviously that was a very significant moment in history and even though things aren’t perfect today, we have come a long way.

Not all is bad for the Little Rock Nine though, one of the students ended up working for President Jimmy Carter as Assistant Secretary of Labor, Melba Beals became a reporter for NBC news, Thelma earned her master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling and Jefferson Thomas became an accountant for the United States Department of Defense.Once we’d spent a few hours at the Little Rock Center we headed to Memphis to our hotel.
When I got off the bus, I grabbed my bags from under the coach and also my box of alcohol I’d bought in Dallas.
However, as soon as I went to go inside the hotel, the box came apart from underneath and all the bottles smashed to the ground *Sigh* not a good start to Memphis.

As I’m writing this entry nearly a year later (took me awhile to get over this post being deleted obviously) I can’t really remember quite what I did that night.I know we all went out to dinner at this place called Kooky Canuck and it was terrible. I think Contiki usually takes their tour there when they’re in Memphis but it was really horrible. I think we went there because they do a ‘Big Burger Challenge’ where you can sign up to eat a massive burger and fries in a certain amount of time.
They did however have really big alcoholic beverages I enjoyed.After dinner, we walked to Beale Street which is known in Memphis as the heart of all Blues music and entertainment. It’s made up of three blocks of nightclubs, restaurants and shops in the heart of downtown Memphis.It’s one of the coolest places to go if you’re ever in Memphis.We all went to one club but we were literally the only people there (Maybe it was too early)
Myself and another girl Marisa ended up leaving the group to go and explore some other clubs as everyone wanted to stay
I remember we had such a fun night. We were taking Jello Shots and having drinks everywhere we went.
I think I went to sleep really late now that I think of it because I only had a few hours sleep until I had to wake up!