Welcome to Sin City!!!!
We touched down in Las Vegas airport, already noticing that we were somewhere new by all the poker machines scattered around the airport terminal; the gambling starts early here folks!
We headed to our hotel (The Luxor - pyramid shaped hotel) and checked in. Sadly the lifts to our rooms were broken and full of maintenance staff so we ended up waiting over 40 minutes just to go upstairs to our room... however our rooms (when we finally got to them) were quite spacious and awesome. We headed straight down stairs for a celebratory bottle of champagne (so what if it was 4pm!) and ended up being put on the VIP list for the LAX night club that night.
After talking about coming to Vegas to celebrate our 25th birthdays many years ago it was amazing to actually be there with our champagne :)
We went and got ready for the night and headed down to LAX night club ready to celebrate some more! We learnt how dangerous free pour is in America, when you get given a drink with no particular measurement of alcohol...it just keeps coming! Emma and I found ourselves in the centre of a "Jersey shore turnpike" circle somehow... was very interesting hahaha.
Emma and I woke the next morning and heading down to starbucks for some breakfast, bagel and coffee in hand (horrible, horrible coffee!!) we went for a walk up the strip, towards New York, New York. Stopping in the casino for a quick gamble (whilst in Vegas!). I won a lovely $20 in the casino which was delightfully exciting before Emma and I headed back to meet the girls for some shopping (today we were celebrating our joined birthdays!)
We hopped on the bus towards the outlets and ended up stopping in at an outdoor plaza for some lunch and shopping at Victorias secret, Abercrombie and Fitch and other stores! We had a delicious lunch (and margarita of course!) and bought tickets to see Cirque du Soliel. We were tossing up on what kind of shows we should see in Vegas and decided on Zumanity as it appeared to cover all of them and was the cheaper option (our bank accounts hurt!) Stephanie was on the phone for a while trying to book us into a helicopter flight over the grand Canyon, but because it was the Easter weekend it proved to be quite difficult. Bless her though, because she did it, for two days time! :)
That night we got ready with a cocktail (duh!) and headed into New York, New York for some NY style burgers and the show!
Zumanity was a great show, it was the adults only version of Cirque du Soliel so it had everything we wanted in a vegas show...
- burlesque
- cirque du soliel
- male strippers
- comedy show
- drag show
...Boom! covered them all in one night :) And it was really awesome!!!
The night finished with a walk down the strip which was beautiful with all the shiny and bright lights :) Vegas truly is something different! Ohh I also forgot to mention that we climbed all over the statues in front of the Luxor hotel. You know us, if there is a statue, it must be climbed!!
The following day we decided to do a bit more shopping at the other outlets, however we got a bit lost along the way, and weren't sure where the buses were taking us, as we seemed to enter the desert more... and the buses stopped coming to let us on...all the while Emmah and Steph were doing some serious pee dances and were ready to jump on the closest bus to anywhere just to use a bathroom.
Luckily for them and their bladders we made it to the outlets. To be honest the outlets weren't that great and we didn't spend much time there before heading back to the strip and our hotel.
Emma dragged me to the gym to do evil squat jumps (EVIL!) before getting all tizzies up to go to the Bellagio for dinner. What a fancy ass place! Seriously is a beautiful casino. Our dinner consisted of sitting overlooking the water fountain display out the front.
The next day was our helicopter ride out over the Grand canyon. Emmah, Steph and I took our limo to the helicopter (yep, limo because that is how we roll!) and got placed in our groups for the helicopter. Luckily we got given the window seats/front seats in the helicopter with a highly amusing pilot. The views over the canyon were SPECTACULAR. It is incredible, and there are hardly words that can describe it! I won't even try to, because I would not do it justice! I will post some photos below for you to see though.
Poor Em didn't get to see much of it though, as she was too busy trying to hold her breakfast in... helicopters in windy canyon tunnels aren't for everything it seems...
We headed back to the hotel ready to move onto our next hotel for our Contiki tour (hotel was on the other end of the strip).
Love B xox
We hopped off the train at LAX with our dreams and our cardigans... I may be confusing myself with Miley Cyrus right about now, but I do believe a cardigan was worn at the time, and I was dreaming....so it seems like an appropriate thing. I was also ready for a party in the USA, so it works doubly!
As I have now progressed in my travels quite a bit, I am going to try and break this down a little to make it easier to read, and so as I can avoid bombarding you with too much information all at once. Not that I am suggesting, of course, that you are too slow to be able to keep up... just that I don't want you to get bored....yep, let's go with that one!
So after hopping off the plane, we proceeded to go through customs where we were asked a million and one questions about our intentions to stay in the states. It was almost like being grilled by a father over our intentions for his daughter. I am assuming anyway... I am not a guy and have not been grilled about my intentions for someone's daughter.
We arrived at the hostel (USA hostels) which I will start off by giving a review of AWESOME. Each bed had it's own little privacy screen with a lamp and power points. Even the lockers had power points so you could charge your camera (or phone...or laptop) and keep it locked away whilst you explore the city.
Being highly jet lagged thanks to the flight, it was more of a struggle to stay awake. We asked the lovely lady at the hostel where we might go to have a massage (start the holiday off correctly!). She suggested going into "little thailand" not too far from the hostel.
We made our way down to Hollywood Boulevard (our hostel was right there) and headed to the metro station and headed into little Thailand. We stopped in to a little thai restaurant and got some amazingly delicious and cheap food. At this point we thought "yes, food is cheap in the US, we could dine and a lot and it would be cheap!" We eventually came to know that you then have to add tax to the price..and then tip, as nothing is the price it says it is!
We went to get a thai massage just down the road from the restaurant and got twisted into some very interesting and pretzel like positions, but damn it was good! I don't know about the rest of you, but in my opinion, if the massage doesn't hurt a little, then what is the point! I struggled to stay awake during the massage though as I was still feeling the jet lag, and being moulded into deep relaxation didn't help too much on the staying awake front.
We returned to the hostel, and found ourselves moulded to the couches outside. I had managed to get in contact earlier during the day with a friend I met travelling South America several years ago, so I caught up with her for dinner whilst the others continued to nurse the jet lag and head to bed early.
I caught up with Julie outside the hostel and we walked down sunset boulevard in search of somewhere delicious to eat. We stumbled across a Thai restaurant (I am a SUCKER for thai food, it is my favourite) and decided on there. It was so lovely to catch up with old friends over great food! I even got a lovely birthday dessert surprise from her which included happy birthday being sung with the waiters! (As it was my birthday the day before!) Julie and I have a knack for catching up with each other in other countries and I can be sure that this won't be the last one!
The following day I woke up with a terrible knot in my back. I am not sure if it was from sitting on a plane for too long, the hostel beds, or the fact that I had just turned 25 and it was all down hill for me... haha. Either way, I pushed through and we headed to the hop on, hop off bus stop after grabbing some coffee from starbucks (hey, when in America!). I can't say I am a fan of American coffee, as it seems to be either uber sweet, or uber burnt beans/burnt milk. When in America, it is best to stick to black coffee I think...
The hop on hop off bus took us around Hollywood, Beverely Hills, Rodeo Drive, Venice Beach and other sights of LA. The voice over constantly told us about all the celebrity spotting we could do if we went to a certain restaurant or coffee shop, or stalked the streets with binoculars...ok maybe not that last one, but I swear that was the insinuation.
We hopped off at Venice Beach and strolled around the sights. We stopped for some lunch on the beach front and watched the people of Venice beach walk by. It felt somewhat ironic to sit in front of muscle beach gym eating chips, whilst half naked older men lifted weights. I don't know about you, but I would be pretty self conscious lifting weights outside on a busy beach.... But they seemed to enjoy it all the same.
The bus took us down to the Marina and we had an hour stop there before the next bus came. So there was nothing to do but outside in a bar with cocktails outside an open fire place (as of course the wind was cold down by the water). We decided that our waiter deserved his tip after keeping us highly entertained by making ginger jokes towards Emmah that would come out of nowhere. Definitely liked that guy!
We missed the next bus so decided there was nothing for it, but to head into the next closest bar and have a margarita (or to use the toilets, and discovered Emmah and Steph settling in for another drink that is). As I sat down my back decided to give out on me so I became a lot less mobile from this point on for the rest of the day...doh! Turning 25 really didn't agree with me!
After getting on the bus again and desperately needing a toilet stop, we got off, bought some frozen yoghurt (as an excuse to use their bathroom and of course because it was delicious) and waited for another bus to come. Unfortunately it was absolutely freezing outside, so we ended up getting a taxi back to the hostel instead just to be in the warmth.
The hostel was throwing a pub crawl that night, so the girls readied themselves for a night out, whilst I stayed at home hoping to rest my back (there is no way I was letting it get worse before going to disneyland, i wanted roller coasters damn it!). I was woken up later in the night by giggles, and discovered that the girls were home, and that Emmah was confused and upset because she had accidentally swapped jackets with someone throughout the night. I'll be honest...it was hilarious :P
The following morning we woke up to head to Anaheim for some amazing fun at the theme parks! Our first stop was Adventure land. My back was still a little sore so I made the sad decision to take it easy on rides (as my main goal was disneyland the next day!) and we started the day on the bugs life children's ride haha. Exhilarating! The girls jumped on the cars ride (I decided against it sadly because of my back...eyes on the prize baby!) and I wandered around the park whilst they went zooming around the track.
We moved on to watching goofy direct a water fountain symphony and onto the ferris wheel. A group of people in front of us asked if they could get off the ferris wheel if they didn't like it, and the lady said they could (as the carriages moved around on this ferris wheel), and as we went up, and were flung around it was obvious that Emmah liked this plan of getting off as well. She asked the lady as we went back to the bottom, however we began going up again. I don't think i have ever heard someone say "no" so many times in hopes of a different outcome. Needless to say I have some excellent video footage of this. Never fear though, we all survived!! Hooray!! :P
The following day we headed to Disneyland, mouse ears at the ready!! My back was feeling a lot better and I was ready to face the day roller coasters and all!! We went on as many rides as we could possibly manage for the day (the space mountain one would have to be a favourite of mine! seriously insane and feels like you are shooting through the stars!). I was having a few flash backs of being at disneyland as a child which was strange and wonderful at the same time. The only thing they didn't have anymore was characters walking around the streets. Instead you had to line up to have photos taken with certain characters. Steph and I lined up to go on splash mountain as singles (as you get on faster that way) and still managed to go on a ride together which was awesome! And didn't have to line up that whole time! Woohoo :)
We had an amazing day followed up an amazing night of Margarita's and mexican food, and watching the fireworks display. It truly is the happiest place on earth :)
The following morning we left the happiness and innocence of disneyland and headed for Sin City...Vegas Baby...WATCH OUT!! :)
Love B xox
