About due for my week update on what is going on in Amanda's life. So I am right now in Banff and working for Banff Lodging Company I do reservations for the eight hotels they own here. I arrived in Banff on Monday, starting work on the tuesday. They didn't have staff accomodation for me until Friday so they put Brendan and I up at the Inns of Banff in this room for free until it was ready. As nice as living in a hotel room was I really needed to stop eating takeout, be able to unpack all my shit and just settle the fuck down. So you can guess how relieved I was when I finally got my staff accomodation.
Anyway on the Monday Brendan and I walked up to the Hidden Ridge hotel (also of banff lodging company) and Brendan was offered a job on the spot with maintenance. The guy didn't even look at his resume. Brendan started on Wednesday because of SIN card issues. For those of you who dont know what SIN is its Social Insurance Number. aka Tax file Number (Australia) and Social Security (USA) dont ask me what the UK equiv is I have no idea. Anyway you cant work without one I had gotten mine a few weeks before so I was fine.
That evening my work was going on a team building exercise so they took us out horseriding. The one thing I am terrified of is horses and this day was no exception. I have to admit by the end I was starting to bond with my horse Tiago. After horseriding we went out to the pub and work paid for me to get drunk. Only problem was I had to work the next day. Lucky for me I only had the flu not a hangover.
Work is interesting, Saturday was my first day alone on the phones and I actually did ok with everything. In fact I made just over $50.00 in comission which is pretty good. I lucked out though I was working the busiest night of the year in banff and all these fools tried to book last minute and all we had that was left was expensive hotel rooms. Basically comission works that if I book a same-day I get 5%. Hours are great to I work four days on 10 hours a day and yesterday was my first 10 hour shift and it really just flies by doing the extra hours. It doesnt get dark here till 11pm right now anyway so I can still go out and do stuff. Wait till winter however, I may never see the sun again!!
Another perk of my work is all the discounts and stuff we get. Like we can use the canoes/kayaks down at Bow river for free. And we get 40% discount off food in a bunch of resturants and 30% off drinks. Brendan and I ate at one of them on Thursday and saved ourselves over $20.00 and got an awesome feed. There are corporate ski passes we can sign out and I heard that we get one free lesson with the hotels private ski instructor .. YAY. Plus we get discounts on ski rentals and all that sort of thing. I'm sure there is more but thats all I've heard at the moment. My work is great and laidback everyone is nice. Seeing mum and Sandra then leaving them made me homesick though, ok perhaps by the end we were on each others nerves but being so far away from my friends and family I feel it occasionally.
Does anyone know any good online stores in Canada? I was looking for one that might sell like non-perishable foods and ship them. Variety here is slim and expensive. Its hard to cook meals I want to cook!! Also something that sells general household items like soap and stuff.
Oh another lucky thing of my staff accom? In range of someones unsecured network :D
Monday, June 30, 2008
Roadtripping Canada
I got a job!! I am now a Canadian Employee working with Banff lodging company as a reservations sales agent for Banff Lodging company. Pay is minimal at $12.00 an hour but it comes with perks like Staff accomodation, corporate ski passes, discounts with tour companies etc. Also they let you have a weekend away every now and then in one of their hotels for free. They work 10 hour days 4 days a week so that gives me 3 days off to see the sites which I would personally prefer.
Brendan is still unemployed but the girl who hired me said that she would look into getting Brendan a position. They seem really keen for me.
Right now I am sitting in the small railroad town of Revelstoke in British Columbia. We are on our way to Vancouver to spend a week on the island. I have basically been on the road for the last week sleeping in a tent, freezing my ass off. Today was the first day we had real sunshine!. We stopped off at Drumheller home of the largest dinosaur and went through Rosedale where the world record for most bridges in the shortest amount of distance is. Then we passed through the dead town of vulcan and dressed up as Klingons.
We stayed a wet cold night in Waterton Park climbing a mountain the next day only to reach the beautiful top full of snow and ice. Still the view was amazing. On the way down it began to hail/snow and I was only wearing three layers and no waterproof jacket!!!
Who knows where I will be tomorrow but I cant wait to settle down and start working I have been on holiday for three months now and Im ready like hell to get back to work.
Brendan is still unemployed but the girl who hired me said that she would look into getting Brendan a position. They seem really keen for me.
Right now I am sitting in the small railroad town of Revelstoke in British Columbia. We are on our way to Vancouver to spend a week on the island. I have basically been on the road for the last week sleeping in a tent, freezing my ass off. Today was the first day we had real sunshine!. We stopped off at Drumheller home of the largest dinosaur and went through Rosedale where the world record for most bridges in the shortest amount of distance is. Then we passed through the dead town of vulcan and dressed up as Klingons.
We stayed a wet cold night in Waterton Park climbing a mountain the next day only to reach the beautiful top full of snow and ice. Still the view was amazing. On the way down it began to hail/snow and I was only wearing three layers and no waterproof jacket!!!
Who knows where I will be tomorrow but I cant wait to settle down and start working I have been on holiday for three months now and Im ready like hell to get back to work.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Vancouver Island
My week in Vancouver Island has been interesting so far. I think being in close proximity with my sister and mother is starting to wear on our patience. The tent is a six-man tent which in real terms means four people can fit uncomfortably in it as long as they don’t move. We aren’t all miniscule Japanese you know… To add to that showers cost money so we have pretty much been forgoing that and just becoming one with nature. Do like the aboriginals. What has kept me sane is the fact that everywhere here seems to offer free wireless internet. Most people know give me a computer and WWW and I’ll be happy for days! Isn’t it strange that internet is free but showers cost money? What in the world are we coming to…
The trip over to the island was a nightmare we got to the Ferry at around 4pm. 4pm on a FRIDAY. We were told that we were placed on the 9pm ferry. So for five hours we waited in a car park, people were playing hockey or walking their dogs. Once we got on the ferry (an hour late) it took us 1.5 to get to the island so we arrived around 11:30pm no idea where we were and no idea where to sleep. I was frustrated from a night of no sleep so I was no help and just dozed in the back seat. They found a campsite (which was to be our home for the next four nights) and decided to set up tent in the middle of the night and work out the details the next day.
Day 1 was chilled, we spent the day walking around Nanimo and reading books. The local library was having a massive book sale and we scored about 15 books for $1.50. One such find was the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A Salvatore. I delved into it and am now onto the third book, will be done in time for mum to take them home!
On Sunday we drove for two hours to Long Beach and did a short walk. It was nice but the drive was to long I think overall we spent about three hours just getting there.
Monday was spent seeing Chemainus famous for its murals painted along business walls etc. At one point I fell over and grazed my knee and everyone laughed. We then went on to Duncan which is another town famous for its totem poles everywhere. After that we went to Lake Cowichan where we had lunch and walked the largest floating boardwalk on the island. Then home once more and mum made chicken madras.
Tuesday we packed up our tent and headed out for Campbell River where we settled into a new campsite. We took a famous walk of thiers the Ripple Rock which turned out to be nice, but wet as it started raining the whole way. All my clothes got soaked…the walk was nice 8.5km round trip and the view of the bay was decant. We almost missed the view since the walk abruptly ended at a cliffface and we were lost as to where we were supposed to go – the answer was up …
On the way back we came across all these giant radioactive slugs hundreds of them jetblack. They were about the size of a small sausage and 10x as gross. I was scared to touch them in case they were actually leeches and latched on to my fingers. What if they were really brain suckers from out of space sent to Campbell river to take over the small town and infect all the incoming tourists to infiltrate the world!
Wednesday Day 2 in Campbell river we drove out to Strathcona Park, B.Cs oldest park. I picked Upper Myra Falls walk which was pretty about 3km one way. The falls were nice nothing exciting. We did see the lower falls which I enjoyed more and climbed all over the rocks to get the most awesome photos despite the signs saying how dangerous they were. After Myra we did a 1.5km Loop trail “Karst Creek” which was supposed to only be one way since the bridge was out but the creek under the bridge was dry anyway and Brendan and I decided to climb down the river. At one point I stood on this log and it nearly rolled out from under me. That would have been painful..
After that walk we stopped at Lupin Falls which was a 0.6km loop walk to a pretty waterfall. I always thought that Darwin had nice waterfalls but I swear every turnoff in Canada there is a new waterfall!!!
Thursday we drove straight to Victoria capitol of BC. We booked ourselves in a hostel and then Mum, Brendan and I went to see Prince Caspian: Chronicles of Narnia. It was an AWESOME movie. Omg Ben Barnes was very sexy. I’ve always had a thing for Prince Caspian, only thing that was weird was his accent I didn’t feel like it fit. I can’t wait for Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Friday we caught the ferry back to Vancouver and spent the afternoon shopping at Metropolis and then onto the Richmond night markets which was a bit overhyped in my opinion. A lot of cute asian stuff and Nintendo Heaven! Really overpriced though so I didn’t actually buy anything but I saw all these plush I wanted so bad..
Saturday mum left back home and Sandra, Brendan and I drove to Sparwood. Then we are onto Banff where I start work on Tuesday, the company has accommodation for me on Tuesday and have put me up in a hotel for Sunday & Monday night. They also want me to come along to a staff horseriding session on Monday which I am a little freaked about since Horses are my one major fear…
Here are some photos of my Vancouver Island trip
The trip over to the island was a nightmare we got to the Ferry at around 4pm. 4pm on a FRIDAY. We were told that we were placed on the 9pm ferry. So for five hours we waited in a car park, people were playing hockey or walking their dogs. Once we got on the ferry (an hour late) it took us 1.5 to get to the island so we arrived around 11:30pm no idea where we were and no idea where to sleep. I was frustrated from a night of no sleep so I was no help and just dozed in the back seat. They found a campsite (which was to be our home for the next four nights) and decided to set up tent in the middle of the night and work out the details the next day.
Day 1 was chilled, we spent the day walking around Nanimo and reading books. The local library was having a massive book sale and we scored about 15 books for $1.50. One such find was the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A Salvatore. I delved into it and am now onto the third book, will be done in time for mum to take them home!
On Sunday we drove for two hours to Long Beach and did a short walk. It was nice but the drive was to long I think overall we spent about three hours just getting there.
Monday was spent seeing Chemainus famous for its murals painted along business walls etc. At one point I fell over and grazed my knee and everyone laughed. We then went on to Duncan which is another town famous for its totem poles everywhere. After that we went to Lake Cowichan where we had lunch and walked the largest floating boardwalk on the island. Then home once more and mum made chicken madras.
Tuesday we packed up our tent and headed out for Campbell River where we settled into a new campsite. We took a famous walk of thiers the Ripple Rock which turned out to be nice, but wet as it started raining the whole way. All my clothes got soaked…the walk was nice 8.5km round trip and the view of the bay was decant. We almost missed the view since the walk abruptly ended at a cliffface and we were lost as to where we were supposed to go – the answer was up …
On the way back we came across all these giant radioactive slugs hundreds of them jetblack. They were about the size of a small sausage and 10x as gross. I was scared to touch them in case they were actually leeches and latched on to my fingers. What if they were really brain suckers from out of space sent to Campbell river to take over the small town and infect all the incoming tourists to infiltrate the world!
Wednesday Day 2 in Campbell river we drove out to Strathcona Park, B.Cs oldest park. I picked Upper Myra Falls walk which was pretty about 3km one way. The falls were nice nothing exciting. We did see the lower falls which I enjoyed more and climbed all over the rocks to get the most awesome photos despite the signs saying how dangerous they were. After Myra we did a 1.5km Loop trail “Karst Creek” which was supposed to only be one way since the bridge was out but the creek under the bridge was dry anyway and Brendan and I decided to climb down the river. At one point I stood on this log and it nearly rolled out from under me. That would have been painful..
After that walk we stopped at Lupin Falls which was a 0.6km loop walk to a pretty waterfall. I always thought that Darwin had nice waterfalls but I swear every turnoff in Canada there is a new waterfall!!!
Thursday we drove straight to Victoria capitol of BC. We booked ourselves in a hostel and then Mum, Brendan and I went to see Prince Caspian: Chronicles of Narnia. It was an AWESOME movie. Omg Ben Barnes was very sexy. I’ve always had a thing for Prince Caspian, only thing that was weird was his accent I didn’t feel like it fit. I can’t wait for Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Friday we caught the ferry back to Vancouver and spent the afternoon shopping at Metropolis and then onto the Richmond night markets which was a bit overhyped in my opinion. A lot of cute asian stuff and Nintendo Heaven! Really overpriced though so I didn’t actually buy anything but I saw all these plush I wanted so bad..
Saturday mum left back home and Sandra, Brendan and I drove to Sparwood. Then we are onto Banff where I start work on Tuesday, the company has accommodation for me on Tuesday and have put me up in a hotel for Sunday & Monday night. They also want me to come along to a staff horseriding session on Monday which I am a little freaked about since Horses are my one major fear…
Here are some photos of my Vancouver Island trip
Friday, May 30, 2008
New York, New YORK!!!
So I'm sitting here in the beautiful? College point, Queens NEW YORK CITY. I'm stealing some random persons internet so I'm facing an open window enjoying a beautiful! day. I think its about 65F
I've been in new york for about a week now. We drove from Florida through the east coast stopping at Pedro's "South of the Border" and washington DC. I really wanted to see all the monuments in Washington even if America's history doesn't interest me to much just the fact that I was seeing all the things I've seen in movies :D Like Abraham lincoln and the capitol. I was excited though and something about Abrahams monument just felt really inspiring I forgot that it featured in planet of the apes for a few seconds! This was a great man who did a lot of good for a country in trouble.
I was sitting in this same spot when I realised the red carpet premier for Sex & the City was on. Stupid me for the first time I am actually at the location of a red carpet premier and I'm sitting at home on the internet. I LOVE sex & the city and there was even a signing at 3pm I missed...
Anyway I did the whole NYC tourist thing with Brendan, I've actually done it all before even climbed the statue of liberty. This is the third time I've been here that I can remember, just Brendan is a newbie and last time I was here was nine years ago so I'm more then keen to see it all again. I love this place.
Yesterday was pretty funny we were left alone in the city for the first time so we started off the day exploring Times Square and Rockerfella center. First we went to Toys R Us the worlds biggest toy store. It even has a ferris wheel in side. I got to go in a life sized barbie house, and OMG the legos!! Next we walked up to see Nintendo world where I went a little crazy and wanted to buy out the whole store, but thats just me. In the end I got a Nintendo World NY key chain laser light and Weaville Pokemon (my favourite pokemon) Brendan got a nintendo world coffee travel cup thing so he can use it in Canada. I was surprised at how few plush there were and how many I already had! Except of course the giant mario and yoshi I wanted really badly... one day perhaps. We realised we had to rush to get to our cruise around the island but then figured we wouldnt make it so we took a leisurely stroll back down times square and checked out the M&M stores and some other stuff. It all looks so cool.
We decided to catch the next cruise and made it in time but the lady gave us the wrong tickets for the 75 minute cruise instead of the 3 hr cruise we had paid for and we ended up in the wrong place and then missing the 2:30 cruise and the next one wasnt until 4:30pm. So we grabbed a taxi to take us to empire state building but there was to much traffic and we jumped out after a block. We raced to the empire state building and after buying our tickets and waiting in line we got to the top about 3:40pm. We rushed around the top taking pictures and seeing the sites, I have been up there once before at night. We then raced for the elevators and got to the ground at 4pm. We grabbed another taxi and told him to step on it to the pier for the cruise. He got stuck in traffic two blocks away and we only had 10 minutes so we jumped out and ran the last two blocks reaching the cruise out of breath with two minutes to spare.
The cruise was great "Circle Line Cruises" and took us around the island with a guide explaining what everything is. If you have my facebook you can see my pictures. After the cruise it was now 7:30pm we caught a train to uptown as Brendan was sure the resturant I wanted to take him to Jekyll and Hyde was there. Uptown scared the crap out of me, it was nearing nighttime everything was closed and it looked like lots of dodgy people walking around. Brendan wanted to take all these weird side streets in the end I got upset and told him we would just go home. So we were catching the train back to downtown to catch the train home to Queens when it clicked to me that the resturant was in Downtown in the first place and Brendan had been back to front with locations. So with the help of a random woman walking the streets we finally found the resturant at 10pm and starving because we had basically skipped lunch thinking we were eating at 5pm. We were the only ones there at first. The resturant has entertainment every half an hour or so and its interactive so we got picked on since we were all that was there, after a half hour a few other people showed up and it was all good.
After the resturant we tried to get two taxis to take us home but neither of them knew where college point was and neither did I so in the end we just took the train home which was free for us anyway since we still had out metcards. We finally got home about midnight since we started at 8am and walked miles and miles I was exhausted!!
I fly to Canada on Saturday and spending a week with my mum and sister maybe more if we decide, I have been unemployed nearly three months now so I'm ready to go back to work plus the savings are dwindling rapidly. Especially since Brendan just brought a brand new laptop.
Anyway im going to read some entries dont know when I will post again hopefully sooner then later right :D
I've been in new york for about a week now. We drove from Florida through the east coast stopping at Pedro's "South of the Border" and washington DC. I really wanted to see all the monuments in Washington even if America's history doesn't interest me to much just the fact that I was seeing all the things I've seen in movies :D Like Abraham lincoln and the capitol. I was excited though and something about Abrahams monument just felt really inspiring I forgot that it featured in planet of the apes for a few seconds! This was a great man who did a lot of good for a country in trouble.
I was sitting in this same spot when I realised the red carpet premier for Sex & the City was on. Stupid me for the first time I am actually at the location of a red carpet premier and I'm sitting at home on the internet. I LOVE sex & the city and there was even a signing at 3pm I missed...
Anyway I did the whole NYC tourist thing with Brendan, I've actually done it all before even climbed the statue of liberty. This is the third time I've been here that I can remember, just Brendan is a newbie and last time I was here was nine years ago so I'm more then keen to see it all again. I love this place.
Yesterday was pretty funny we were left alone in the city for the first time so we started off the day exploring Times Square and Rockerfella center. First we went to Toys R Us the worlds biggest toy store. It even has a ferris wheel in side. I got to go in a life sized barbie house, and OMG the legos!! Next we walked up to see Nintendo world where I went a little crazy and wanted to buy out the whole store, but thats just me. In the end I got a Nintendo World NY key chain laser light and Weaville Pokemon (my favourite pokemon) Brendan got a nintendo world coffee travel cup thing so he can use it in Canada. I was surprised at how few plush there were and how many I already had! Except of course the giant mario and yoshi I wanted really badly... one day perhaps. We realised we had to rush to get to our cruise around the island but then figured we wouldnt make it so we took a leisurely stroll back down times square and checked out the M&M stores and some other stuff. It all looks so cool.
We decided to catch the next cruise and made it in time but the lady gave us the wrong tickets for the 75 minute cruise instead of the 3 hr cruise we had paid for and we ended up in the wrong place and then missing the 2:30 cruise and the next one wasnt until 4:30pm. So we grabbed a taxi to take us to empire state building but there was to much traffic and we jumped out after a block. We raced to the empire state building and after buying our tickets and waiting in line we got to the top about 3:40pm. We rushed around the top taking pictures and seeing the sites, I have been up there once before at night. We then raced for the elevators and got to the ground at 4pm. We grabbed another taxi and told him to step on it to the pier for the cruise. He got stuck in traffic two blocks away and we only had 10 minutes so we jumped out and ran the last two blocks reaching the cruise out of breath with two minutes to spare.
The cruise was great "Circle Line Cruises" and took us around the island with a guide explaining what everything is. If you have my facebook you can see my pictures. After the cruise it was now 7:30pm we caught a train to uptown as Brendan was sure the resturant I wanted to take him to Jekyll and Hyde was there. Uptown scared the crap out of me, it was nearing nighttime everything was closed and it looked like lots of dodgy people walking around. Brendan wanted to take all these weird side streets in the end I got upset and told him we would just go home. So we were catching the train back to downtown to catch the train home to Queens when it clicked to me that the resturant was in Downtown in the first place and Brendan had been back to front with locations. So with the help of a random woman walking the streets we finally found the resturant at 10pm and starving because we had basically skipped lunch thinking we were eating at 5pm. We were the only ones there at first. The resturant has entertainment every half an hour or so and its interactive so we got picked on since we were all that was there, after a half hour a few other people showed up and it was all good.
After the resturant we tried to get two taxis to take us home but neither of them knew where college point was and neither did I so in the end we just took the train home which was free for us anyway since we still had out metcards. We finally got home about midnight since we started at 8am and walked miles and miles I was exhausted!!
I fly to Canada on Saturday and spending a week with my mum and sister maybe more if we decide, I have been unemployed nearly three months now so I'm ready to go back to work plus the savings are dwindling rapidly. Especially since Brendan just brought a brand new laptop.
Anyway im going to read some entries dont know when I will post again hopefully sooner then later right :D
Monday, May 19, 2008
My life atm
Last week Brendan and I spent 7 days on a caribbean cruise. The ship left from Port Canaveral it was called Mariner of the Seas by Royal Caribbean. It was a beautiful ship and all the staff were amazing. I had a great time, the prices were decant since it was the cheaper time of the year. I don't know why since spring weather is the best weather. Summer is just way to hot.
Man I am a crap writer lately...
Last night went out to the Daytona Beach rum festival since its my last weekend in Florida. Brendan got super drunk with all you can drink for $15.00 It was $20.00 but I sweet talked the transvestite at the door and got $5 knocked off. When we got home he tried to sleep on the floor it was pretty funny.
During the day we went to the beach and Ems boyfriend tried to teach us how to surf but I was more interested in the boogie board. I was catching some good waves and riding them to the shore. Perhaps to close because I scraped my knee from getting to shallow. It was fun though we spent about four hours on the beach. My abs are killing me though and my legs, fighting through the waves you dont realise what a workout your giving yourself no wonder surfers are in such good shape.
On Tuesday we are going to drive to New York for 10 days stopping off in Washington DC to see the whitehouse. Something to look forward to anyway :D
Man I am a crap writer lately...
Last night went out to the Daytona Beach rum festival since its my last weekend in Florida. Brendan got super drunk with all you can drink for $15.00 It was $20.00 but I sweet talked the transvestite at the door and got $5 knocked off. When we got home he tried to sleep on the floor it was pretty funny.
During the day we went to the beach and Ems boyfriend tried to teach us how to surf but I was more interested in the boogie board. I was catching some good waves and riding them to the shore. Perhaps to close because I scraped my knee from getting to shallow. It was fun though we spent about four hours on the beach. My abs are killing me though and my legs, fighting through the waves you dont realise what a workout your giving yourself no wonder surfers are in such good shape.
On Tuesday we are going to drive to New York for 10 days stopping off in Washington DC to see the whitehouse. Something to look forward to anyway :D
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Lets begin with Epcot
Did I mention I did Disney on the weekend? Oh...yeaaa.
The memory is starting to fade of what we did exactly so I better write it down before it fades completely.
Believe it or not I've been to disneyworld once before about 17 years ago. I went my late Nonno (grandfather) and sisters. So I had vague memories of a few things, like "Its a Small World" and the "Indiana Jones Extreme Stunt show" and I know Mum and I were the only ones who went on "Space Mountain"
What I didn't remember was the hideous amount of people.
So, Epcot. I did the following things
Spaceship Earth
This was the ride inside the Epcot ball. It was pretty cruisy and nice we just trundled along in little carts which told us about how communication had formed through time. If you check out my Facebook videos there is a short video of Brendan and I in our future together. The photo of me was hilarious.
Ellen's Energy Adventure
I believe this was the last ride we did for the day, and we were so drunk from going round the worlds. It went for about 37 minutes and was so boring. My Aunty actually fell asleep during it. We had gone to do it earlier but it was closed because somebody had jumped out mid show - I could see why.
Mission: SPACE
A cool little ride where it simulated being in a real space shuttle. It was pretty weird how it felt the pressure on your skin. Apparently the year before a 3 year old boy had died in the ride, so you can see how it was a little bit intense.
Test Track
A ride which simulated different conditions how they test cars. At one point they speed you up really crazy round a track. We were also drunk for this ride, pretty funny.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
This was cute we sat in little clam shell boats and went around in a ride where Nemo was hiding from everyone.
Soarin'™
One of the best rides in the park we actually raced for this one because it was most popular. It simulates hang glider affects where you float over the United States. I can't wait to see a lot more of the USA now.
"Honey, I Shrunk The Audience"
A 3D show where we got shrunk :( Pretty funny.
ImageWorks - The Kodak "What If" Labs
A little kiddy ride about Imagination.
Turtle Talk with Crush
This was a little kids show but it was cute. Had some funny bits and I like crush :D
Around the Worlds
This was my favourite part of the whole day. We started around 1pm and finished about 5pm. We basically just went from world to world drinking a native drink in each one and having some food.
Canada - Brendan and Lenny got moosehead beer. Im not a bear drinker so I skipped Canada.
United Kingdom - We had fish & chips here and a duck kept trying to steal our food.
France - I had a grey goose lemonade slushy, Emily had some champagne and I think Brendan and Lenny had more beer
Morocco - Em & I had some moroccon wine whilst the boys got into the beer. We brought a combination plate which had lamb, chicken, cous cous, tabouli and some dipping sauce. It was goood
Japan - We were going to get some sushi but all to full so we just got some saki. I couldn't drink all of mine it made me sick, so Brendan and Em finished mine off.
America - We completely skipped this one - whats the point?
Italy - I think we skipped this one to. I come from an Italian family so I'm pretty used to Italian food.
Germany - I had a sweet white wine and Brendan and Lenny had more beer. They also got some bratwurst sausage thing which I had a bite of, not bad.
China - Into the plum wine which tasted like cough medicine but not to badly. We got some egg rolls.
Norway - No alcohol (for once) but Bianca and I got stuck into fruit tarts which were soooo good.
Mexico - A couple of frozen margeritas and we were drunk and set!
Issues arose
Bianca got pissed off because we were all getting drunk at Disneyworld. I think she mainly got pissed off because she was to young to get drunk (only 13) I told her to snap out of it because it was a trip for Brendan and I and not her. My auntys kids are spoilt brats sometimes.
Lenny and Emily had a massive fight on the way out. My uncle brought up what horrible kids she has and Em was going on about how he has been using her for the last nine months. They kept trying to bring me into it but I was not interested in a drunk argument when both of them wasn't listening to the other one.
We got lost trying to find the hotel unfourtanately. This led to more tension because Lenny was just laughing at us and no help whatsoever. The fight continued back at the hotel so Bianca, Brendan and I went inside and played Scattergories. The hotel was really nice, it was a vacation villa with four bedrooms, full kitchen and living room facilities, a pool and games room. Heaps cheaper then a hotel all up cost about $350.00 for the three nights with five of us staying there. So we paid about 80 bucks each. you can view the villa here
We got to bed about Midnight. Tomorrow is magic kingdom...
The memory is starting to fade of what we did exactly so I better write it down before it fades completely.
Believe it or not I've been to disneyworld once before about 17 years ago. I went my late Nonno (grandfather) and sisters. So I had vague memories of a few things, like "Its a Small World" and the "Indiana Jones Extreme Stunt show" and I know Mum and I were the only ones who went on "Space Mountain"
What I didn't remember was the hideous amount of people.
So, Epcot. I did the following things
Spaceship Earth
This was the ride inside the Epcot ball. It was pretty cruisy and nice we just trundled along in little carts which told us about how communication had formed through time. If you check out my Facebook videos there is a short video of Brendan and I in our future together. The photo of me was hilarious.
Ellen's Energy Adventure
I believe this was the last ride we did for the day, and we were so drunk from going round the worlds. It went for about 37 minutes and was so boring. My Aunty actually fell asleep during it. We had gone to do it earlier but it was closed because somebody had jumped out mid show - I could see why.
Mission: SPACE
A cool little ride where it simulated being in a real space shuttle. It was pretty weird how it felt the pressure on your skin. Apparently the year before a 3 year old boy had died in the ride, so you can see how it was a little bit intense.
Test Track
A ride which simulated different conditions how they test cars. At one point they speed you up really crazy round a track. We were also drunk for this ride, pretty funny.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
This was cute we sat in little clam shell boats and went around in a ride where Nemo was hiding from everyone.
Soarin'™
One of the best rides in the park we actually raced for this one because it was most popular. It simulates hang glider affects where you float over the United States. I can't wait to see a lot more of the USA now.
"Honey, I Shrunk The Audience"
A 3D show where we got shrunk :( Pretty funny.
ImageWorks - The Kodak "What If" Labs
A little kiddy ride about Imagination.
Turtle Talk with Crush
This was a little kids show but it was cute. Had some funny bits and I like crush :D
Around the Worlds
This was my favourite part of the whole day. We started around 1pm and finished about 5pm. We basically just went from world to world drinking a native drink in each one and having some food.
Canada - Brendan and Lenny got moosehead beer. Im not a bear drinker so I skipped Canada.
United Kingdom - We had fish & chips here and a duck kept trying to steal our food.
France - I had a grey goose lemonade slushy, Emily had some champagne and I think Brendan and Lenny had more beer
Morocco - Em & I had some moroccon wine whilst the boys got into the beer. We brought a combination plate which had lamb, chicken, cous cous, tabouli and some dipping sauce. It was goood
Japan - We were going to get some sushi but all to full so we just got some saki. I couldn't drink all of mine it made me sick, so Brendan and Em finished mine off.
America - We completely skipped this one - whats the point?
Italy - I think we skipped this one to. I come from an Italian family so I'm pretty used to Italian food.
Germany - I had a sweet white wine and Brendan and Lenny had more beer. They also got some bratwurst sausage thing which I had a bite of, not bad.
China - Into the plum wine which tasted like cough medicine but not to badly. We got some egg rolls.
Norway - No alcohol (for once) but Bianca and I got stuck into fruit tarts which were soooo good.
Mexico - A couple of frozen margeritas and we were drunk and set!
Issues arose
Bianca got pissed off because we were all getting drunk at Disneyworld. I think she mainly got pissed off because she was to young to get drunk (only 13) I told her to snap out of it because it was a trip for Brendan and I and not her. My auntys kids are spoilt brats sometimes.
Lenny and Emily had a massive fight on the way out. My uncle brought up what horrible kids she has and Em was going on about how he has been using her for the last nine months. They kept trying to bring me into it but I was not interested in a drunk argument when both of them wasn't listening to the other one.
We got lost trying to find the hotel unfourtanately. This led to more tension because Lenny was just laughing at us and no help whatsoever. The fight continued back at the hotel so Bianca, Brendan and I went inside and played Scattergories. The hotel was really nice, it was a vacation villa with four bedrooms, full kitchen and living room facilities, a pool and games room. Heaps cheaper then a hotel all up cost about $350.00 for the three nights with five of us staying there. So we paid about 80 bucks each. you can view the villa here
We got to bed about Midnight. Tomorrow is magic kingdom...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Universal Studios
It all began with a 6am wakeup call. My aunty's house is about an hour away from Universal so we wanted to get up and get ready and be there by 9am when it opened so there wasn't long lines. I was unfourtanately getting over a really bad flu and was still coughing and sneezy. Basically feeling like total shit.
But it was Universal... for fucks sakes. So I dragged myself out of bed and prepared myself. We stopped off at a drug store so I could get something for my nose to stop the sniffling. I ended up getting this Zrytec D (on reccomendation) I had to show my ID. This proved more hassle then it was worth because there was no options for other countries and the cashier couldnt fill in my details properly. But he was a nice guy and we got around it with half using my Auntys Address and half using my Darwin address.
We went to Islands of Adventure first since it had some of the best rides and since we were heading in early there wouldn't be as long to wait. So first thing I got to do when I entered the gates just feeling a little better with the medicine was "The Hulk" only one of the scariest roller coasters ever. Way to jumpstart my universal adventure right... Wait times were only 5 minutes which was even better. The problem I have with rollercoasters is...well I hate them to death. I also love them to death. I love to be terrified... but as I was wrenched upwards towards my hulk doom my stomach fell. God it was an awesome ride but god I was terrified.
Then onto "The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman" only my favourite super hero of ALL time. It was 3D and you were in this little roller coaster cart and it just sort of moved around like a mini much safer ride but because of the 3D made it seem like you were going on a much faster more exciting ride. There was this one part where our cart is vertical and the ground rushes towards you I actually closed my eyes briefly at that part I freaked out! And believe it or not that was the only ride I closed my eyes on..
Because the wait times were still low we headed off to another of the popular rides "Duelling Dragons" another rollercoaster ride but with two seperate tracks fire and ice. We took the ice track and because my uncle insisted I actually sat in the very front of the coaster. The two coasters fire and ice rush around at the same time sometimes looking like they are about to directly hit, you can understand me being in the very front of the coaster how scared I was...At one point I swear I was literally rushing 200km/h straight at this wall and then straight up I felt like my feet were going to be wrenched from my body.
So on the way back from the duelling dragons we decided to hit the Jurassic park ride. A much gentler ride but still with a bit of drop and scare attempt. This ride got me wet. It was close to lunchtime now and heating up so we figured now was a good a time as any to take on the water rides. My aunty (smartly) sat them out so just the four of us went on "Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw falls"which was an excuse to get me (the lucky sap who got stuck in the front) soaking wet. Since we were already soaked from that ride we decided to do the "Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges" and everyone got soaked right down to our socks. Except of course my aunty who once again must have got the brains in the family
They even have these buttons on the walkways above and people can actually spray water at us. These bloody kids did it to us and I didnt even realise it was them till I got off the raft and saw the buttons.
About 1pm now and we decided to head over to the other park Universal Studios. On the way out though we were nearly run over by SPIDERMAN!!! and some others... Storm, Cyclops and someone else. BUT SPIDERMAN!!! So I let them go on thier little all terrain vehicles before racing to find spiderman. I saw the rest of them running around the streets getting photos but I couldn't find spiderman... until I ran into this guy with a sign. Spiderman was in this little dingy room and I had to line up with all these little kids just to see him. But like I was going to come to Universal and not get a picture with spiderman HAH. Even funnier I was still soaking wet from the rides...
Then onto universal we went! The first ride we went on was "Revenge of the Mummy" yep... another scary rollercoaster ride all in the dark. I actually screamed in this one. I think the hulk was scarier but I just felt like screaming. Waiting on line one of the attendents came up behind me and was just staring at me. I turned around and saw him and he had these freaky contacts in.. I was like "what the fuck" We then decided to go on "Disastor" which was meh. Long wait for such an anticlimatic ride. The funniest part was when we were sitting in the fake subway train and they are throwing all these disastors at us and all this water came gushing out of the subways stairs right on my side!! I was still drying up from the last water rides so I practically climbed over Aunty Em to get away from the water. Not because I was scared because I didn't want to get wet again!
We decided to go to Men In Black even though my uncle was against it. On the way I saw beatlejeuce so another guy I had to get my photo with!! Which are all up on my face book by the way http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=585873948 add me! My uncle decided to sit out of MIB because it was a "stupid kiddy ride" The line was about 25 minutes long but after about 2 minutes we were like "stuff this lets go in the singles line" which basically means you all get seperated to fill up spare seats. We figured who cares its not like you talk to each other on these rides anyway. We were in and on the ride in less then 5 minutes. Brendan and I were on the same cart anyway but he was in front of me. You got these little laser guns and had to shoot at all the aliens. One guy on my cart got 240,000 points. I got 43,000 and I think Brendan got around 70,000.
Next ride was ET. The wait for ET was so beautiful it was all dark with huge fir trees everywhere you felt like you were in the middle of a forest. The ride itself was pretty calm but nice. You were on bikes with ET on the front taking him home to save his planet! I dont know why my uncle went on that one instead of MIB...
Since time was coming to an end and I was exhausted. All that walking and my sickness I was like the walking dead. So we decided to head back and just do the last few rides. Twister which was talking about how they made the movie and then you stand in this section and they re-create a small twister. Jimmy Neutron. One of those rides you sit in the seats and the screen makes it look like your moving and the seats shake around and stuff. And Shrek 3D a bit like jimmy neutron but 3D and you dont move as much. Although there is this one scene with spiders... I can see Carmen and Heather freaking out.
I know I rushed through Universal and didn't really see any of the shows or anything but I had an awesome day and im more of a ride person anyway. I fell asleep in the back of the car on the way home :D
But it was Universal... for fucks sakes. So I dragged myself out of bed and prepared myself. We stopped off at a drug store so I could get something for my nose to stop the sniffling. I ended up getting this Zrytec D (on reccomendation) I had to show my ID. This proved more hassle then it was worth because there was no options for other countries and the cashier couldnt fill in my details properly. But he was a nice guy and we got around it with half using my Auntys Address and half using my Darwin address.
We went to Islands of Adventure first since it had some of the best rides and since we were heading in early there wouldn't be as long to wait. So first thing I got to do when I entered the gates just feeling a little better with the medicine was "The Hulk" only one of the scariest roller coasters ever. Way to jumpstart my universal adventure right... Wait times were only 5 minutes which was even better. The problem I have with rollercoasters is...well I hate them to death. I also love them to death. I love to be terrified... but as I was wrenched upwards towards my hulk doom my stomach fell. God it was an awesome ride but god I was terrified.
Then onto "The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman" only my favourite super hero of ALL time. It was 3D and you were in this little roller coaster cart and it just sort of moved around like a mini much safer ride but because of the 3D made it seem like you were going on a much faster more exciting ride. There was this one part where our cart is vertical and the ground rushes towards you I actually closed my eyes briefly at that part I freaked out! And believe it or not that was the only ride I closed my eyes on..
Because the wait times were still low we headed off to another of the popular rides "Duelling Dragons" another rollercoaster ride but with two seperate tracks fire and ice. We took the ice track and because my uncle insisted I actually sat in the very front of the coaster. The two coasters fire and ice rush around at the same time sometimes looking like they are about to directly hit, you can understand me being in the very front of the coaster how scared I was...At one point I swear I was literally rushing 200km/h straight at this wall and then straight up I felt like my feet were going to be wrenched from my body.
So on the way back from the duelling dragons we decided to hit the Jurassic park ride. A much gentler ride but still with a bit of drop and scare attempt. This ride got me wet. It was close to lunchtime now and heating up so we figured now was a good a time as any to take on the water rides. My aunty (smartly) sat them out so just the four of us went on "Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw falls"which was an excuse to get me (the lucky sap who got stuck in the front) soaking wet. Since we were already soaked from that ride we decided to do the "Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges" and everyone got soaked right down to our socks. Except of course my aunty who once again must have got the brains in the family
They even have these buttons on the walkways above and people can actually spray water at us. These bloody kids did it to us and I didnt even realise it was them till I got off the raft and saw the buttons.
About 1pm now and we decided to head over to the other park Universal Studios. On the way out though we were nearly run over by SPIDERMAN!!! and some others... Storm, Cyclops and someone else. BUT SPIDERMAN!!! So I let them go on thier little all terrain vehicles before racing to find spiderman. I saw the rest of them running around the streets getting photos but I couldn't find spiderman... until I ran into this guy with a sign. Spiderman was in this little dingy room and I had to line up with all these little kids just to see him. But like I was going to come to Universal and not get a picture with spiderman HAH. Even funnier I was still soaking wet from the rides...
Then onto universal we went! The first ride we went on was "Revenge of the Mummy" yep... another scary rollercoaster ride all in the dark. I actually screamed in this one. I think the hulk was scarier but I just felt like screaming. Waiting on line one of the attendents came up behind me and was just staring at me. I turned around and saw him and he had these freaky contacts in.. I was like "what the fuck" We then decided to go on "Disastor" which was meh. Long wait for such an anticlimatic ride. The funniest part was when we were sitting in the fake subway train and they are throwing all these disastors at us and all this water came gushing out of the subways stairs right on my side!! I was still drying up from the last water rides so I practically climbed over Aunty Em to get away from the water. Not because I was scared because I didn't want to get wet again!
We decided to go to Men In Black even though my uncle was against it. On the way I saw beatlejeuce so another guy I had to get my photo with!! Which are all up on my face book by the way http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=585873948 add me! My uncle decided to sit out of MIB because it was a "stupid kiddy ride" The line was about 25 minutes long but after about 2 minutes we were like "stuff this lets go in the singles line" which basically means you all get seperated to fill up spare seats. We figured who cares its not like you talk to each other on these rides anyway. We were in and on the ride in less then 5 minutes. Brendan and I were on the same cart anyway but he was in front of me. You got these little laser guns and had to shoot at all the aliens. One guy on my cart got 240,000 points. I got 43,000 and I think Brendan got around 70,000.
Next ride was ET. The wait for ET was so beautiful it was all dark with huge fir trees everywhere you felt like you were in the middle of a forest. The ride itself was pretty calm but nice. You were on bikes with ET on the front taking him home to save his planet! I dont know why my uncle went on that one instead of MIB...
Since time was coming to an end and I was exhausted. All that walking and my sickness I was like the walking dead. So we decided to head back and just do the last few rides. Twister which was talking about how they made the movie and then you stand in this section and they re-create a small twister. Jimmy Neutron. One of those rides you sit in the seats and the screen makes it look like your moving and the seats shake around and stuff. And Shrek 3D a bit like jimmy neutron but 3D and you dont move as much. Although there is this one scene with spiders... I can see Carmen and Heather freaking out.
I know I rushed through Universal and didn't really see any of the shows or anything but I had an awesome day and im more of a ride person anyway. I fell asleep in the back of the car on the way home :D
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