Unfortunately both of our United flights connecting us from Vegas to Buffalo to get to Niagara were delayed, so we were pretty shattered by the time we got to Buffalo at midday. So much for not wasting a day on travel – by the time we located a taxi and drove to our hotel in Niagara, we were ready to drop!
Vegas Day 4
Today was pretty cruisy – our plan was to check out of the hotel, spend some time in the spa salon, go out to the North outlet mall, and then head out to the airport.
Most of it went pretty smoothly. After a tasty breakfast of bacon, potato and red onion omelette accompanied by a polenta cake with a glob of Gorgonzola cheese, we checked out (no unsurprising additions to the bill), then headed up to the spa salon. K was having a mani-pedi and I had a 25 min massage.
The masseur couldn’t believe that my back was as bad as I said it was. The guy at the mall the other day obviously did his job very well, as barely anything went ‘ping’!
Nicely relaxed, we decided we should explore the other side of the casino – the gaming tables rather than the machines. Since the only game I vaguely know anything about is blackjack, we chose that one. It was much more fun than the machines, and voila, I spent my $20 allocated gambling money in about five minutes! At least I won one hand… (Need a bit of practice, obviously!)
Next stop was the M&M World shop over the road. Woah! Four floors of anything you can think of emblazoned with m&ms!
Helpfully, that was right next to the bus stop to take us out to the outlet mall, which was about 20 mins away. The mall was outdoors rather than enclosed, but didn’t have much more than the other one had. We stopped in at Levi’s, but they didn’t have anything in our sizes again (why is it that the website has heaps, but the stores don’t????) so we kept wandering. I embraced my inner cowgirl and bought a checked cotton shirt from Columbia, and some Jack Skellington pyjama pants from the Disney shop, as well as a cute pressie for my godson.
Heading back, we were dithering about dinner, and I remembered I’d heard good reviews of a place I’d seen en route, Maggianos Little Italy. We jumped off the bus and wandered in, just in time to have a happy hour cocktail. They did gluten free pasta so I had the lobster carbonara (very tasty, but also very salty) and K had the chicken tortellini which looked yum! These guys pride themselves on generous portions, and I can attest to that! They offered to box the leftovers up, but I thought the people on the plane probably wouldn’t appreciate leftover lobster aromas!
The taxi we took to the airport was driven by an ex-boxer and weightlifter, who told us in no uncertain terms what his thoughts about people bringing kids to Vegas were! He also told the story about punching the guy who was wanting to take his daughter out… A definite character! I have his card if anyone wants a taxi driver in Vegas…
The airport has very interesting vending machines. This one has lots of electronic gadgets!
Now we’re about to board our connecting flights to Niagara. See you all on the other side!
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Location:E Patrick Ln,Paradise,United States
Filed under USA
Vegas day 3 – Grand Canyon!
Today was the highly anticipated Grand Canyon tour. After being woken up at 1 and 2 am by a housekeeping lady who was convinced we had checked out and that she was supposed to get our room ready for its next occupants, we dragged ourselves out of bed just before 6 to prepare for the 6.30am pickup.
Feeling slightly fragile after last night’s efforts at helping M and S drink bubbles, it took me a pepto bismol at the Boulder City airport to get me feeling well enough to think about flying… Especially when I saw the itty bitty teeny weeny plane! Smallest thing I’ve flown in since I wa a kid is the Fokker 50, which is positively spacious and huge compared to this! We fit in 17 people in very cramped quarters, and it felt like a flying minibus with the huuuuuge windows (hard to try to ignore when you have a fear of heights on a plane that small! Give me an aisle seat in a 777 any day!)
So I white knuckled it for a good 20 mins, and had my eyes closed for the whole first 10 mins of flight. Thankfully it was a pretty smooth ride until we banked to land at the terminal at the top of the canyon, but at least it was all over then! Amazing views when I could force myself to look out though. Wow.
Next trick was the helicopter ride to the bottom of the Canyon. I was pretty apprehensive about this, but it turned out a lot less scary than the plane flight, except for the moment of tipping over the ridge and heading down. Again – wow. The scenery is just jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
The Colorado River was pretty fast-moving, so we didn’t go too far before turning back, but it was so nice to have a few moments of quiet and peace before heading back to the helicopters which were buzzing around like flies all over the canyon. Our guide told us how much the river has dropped in the last 12 years, which is pretty scary since from what I remember, a good 7 states rely on it for their water supply. Yikes!
Then it was back up the hill on the chopper and off on a bus to Eagle and Guano points. Again, amazing scenery, and the way the rocks just drop off is just breathtaking. The helicopters buzzing around disturbed the peace a bit, but as we’d seen, it really is an awesome way to see it!
Guano Point was also a lunch stop, with lunch included in the tour. The chicken or shredded beef, boiled veggies and mash weren’t terribly inspiring, but we were pretty desperate by now after having our brekky so early!
After heading back to the terminal, the wind had started picking up, so the pilot warned us that the trip back wouldn’t be quite as smooth as the one over. The warning was needed – I barely opened my eyes the whole trip, and never actually unclenched my hands from hanging onto the chair for dear life! The final descent into Boulder City was pretty scarily steep, but like before, at least it was the end!
Back to the hotel for a nap, then we headed out to go see the Penn & Teller magic show at the Rio hotel. The maps here are really misleading – it looked not far down the road, but as we were supposed to pick the tickets up more than an hour before the show, we were a bit stressed out at getting there on time, and we walked for aaaages! But eventually we got there, and although we didn’t have time for dinner beforehand, we survived!
The show was fantastic. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’d seen their tv show “Bullshit” a couple of times, but this was different – they would do tricks, seemingly explain it and then take it off in a completely different direction, completely confounding the audience. Wow!
After we finished, we raced out so we’d be able to get pictures with the guys for R back home. I’d also got him a present from the souvenir shop, so we got that signed as well.
Then it was most certainly time for dinner! We stopped in a cafe at the Rio and I had clam chowder and stuffed potato skins (experimenting with food culture, right?) which were tasty, but I think I prefer wedges with the potato still in there. I played $1 on the poker machine at the bar where we were sitting – the first gambling we’ve done at all since we got here!
Since we’d developed sore feet from the mad run down Flamingo rd to get to the Rio in time, we decided to splurge and get a taxi back. Phew! We also thought we’d continue our big night of gambling (woah) and so spent another $3 on the pokies. Last of the big spenders here! If they were actually different it would be more interesting, but basically on the pokies you’ve just got a million varieties of the fruit line up game, and poker and blackjack. Not really that interesting, so I don’t really get how people can sit there for hours. Maybe it’s more interesting when it’s on a table with real people!
Location:Trop Wash,Paradise,United States
Filed under USA
Vegas day 2
So Day 2, Sunday, started off with a loooooong sleep in. Nice!
After breakfast at Chin Chin (a Chinese food and sushi bar – of course the buffet breakfast included such breakfast treats as BBQ pork which you can see on my plate, as well as more usual fare of bacon, hash browns and eggs, both Cantonese and Mainland style!) we decided to head out to the Premium Outlet mall in south Vegas.
We started at the Nike outlet, as we both knew we needed some sneakers. I got two pairs and K one, as she has limited luggage space since she’ll have another two months of travel after I go home!
I managed to “accidentally” buy another two pairs of shoes (black with leopard print wedges, and some cheetah print wedges – love me some animal wedges, especially on sale!) so I certainly have enough shoes to last me this trip!
We tried some clothing stores, but didn’t find a lot of interesting stuff. Might try the North branch on Tuesday, as we need to kill some time between checking out and heading to the airport later that night.
After wending out way back to the NYNY via the Luxor (who can resist taking a photo with the Caucasian sphinx in the background?? Not I!) we headed down to the pool to relax for a bit.
The sun was starting to drop, which had a similar effect on the temperature by the time the lifeguards closed the pool at 5ish. Good timing for us though, since we were meeting Stef and M at 7 for after dinner drinks, and we needed to shower etc, have dinner and then find our way to the MGM.
We ended up going to Gonzales Y Gonzales again for dinner, as we knew it was fresh, they understood GF, and it would be quick! We both had the steak nachos which I’d had the night before, but they weren’t as good I think – although they came in a bigger serve, they didn’t have the fresh green chilis on top, and it tasted more like homemade nachos than the beautiful dish we’d had the night before. We still managed to try another margarita each, and I had a sangria as well, just for experimentation’s sake, I promise! All in the name of science (and yeah, it was tasty!)
Only running half an hour late, we power walked over to the MGM and met M and S. They were in town for the Bon Jovi concert the night before, and M had organised a sumptuous penthouse (loft) for them that night, so we went up and helped them feel at home, by drinking bubbly, helping to demolish the chocolate-dipped strawberries and oohing and aahing over the floor to ceiling windows, the huge walk-in shower (again, floor to ceiling windows over the Strip – good thing it’s high up!!) the telephone in the powder room (it has a mute button) and the remote controlled everything – blinds, lights, sound etc… Woah.
It was great to catch up with S, and to meet M. Hope to see them next year!
With the renovations and a new bar in the MGM, we got a bit tangled getting back to our hotel, but we managed eventually, a few stumbles aside.
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Filed under USA
Vegas, baby!
So after going slightly mad over 30-something too many hours of travel (three planes are too many) I finally got to Vegas and met K at the airport.
After the hair-raising turbulence in the itty bit plane from LAX, combined with the two British tourists’ lengthy discussion of beer and prostitiutes (their preferred pastime in the city of sin, as they informed the whole plane) I was a bit taken aback by the vast tracts of slot machines at the airport, as soon as you disembark from the plane. I’d realised that gambling was the raison d’être, but not that it was part of the airport too!
Nevertheless, I avoided making eye contact with the flashing lights,a and found my bag, and K before heading to our hotel. The taxis here all seem to have a very generic DVD playing, with what sounds like a voiceover from a motivational speaker telling the passengers the sights they shouldn’t miss.
The hotel has pretty nice rooms and comfy beds (oh how I wanted to collapse into one, but not yet) and even though outs was one of the cheaper room types, we did have a (distant) view of the pool and part of the roller coaster which surrounds the hotel.oh, and of course the car park next door.
First up we needed s e food, as I’d not had proper lunch yet, so we went for a wander through the restaurant section of the casino downstairs. As the name of the hotel (new York, New York) suggests, the restaurants are ny themed, with pizza places, steak restaurants, burger joints (including one which had a Gluten free menu, but actually didn’t do gluten free bread or buns; the gluten free menu was of burgers without buns!) we eventually settled down at a Mexican place which was great – including large margaritas!
We also stopped by Ben & Jerry’s to pick up so e icecream to take up to our room, eliciting envious looks from all those around us on the lift!
After scoffing the icecream, it was time to head off to the Treasure Island casino to see Mystere, the Cirque du Soleil show we’d booked. Wow, it was amazing! I’d never seen Cirque du Soleil live before, and I’m a complete convert! This particular show was a showcase of different physical acrobatic skills, the very best being a pair of guys who were doing a strength/agility demonstration, with one of them balancing the other on his hands etc while both moved into different positions. Amazing – a real mix of acrobatics, strength and amazing technique. The other fantastic sections were the pole climbers, the suspended banner dancer and of course the trapeze artists. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone!
Instead of taking a taxi, we decided to walk back to the hotel along the Strip. It seems that half of Nevada had the same idea, so there were huge crowds, but it was a pretty carnival atmosphere, only slightly muted by the tens of people on every corner handing out strip club and escort cards, slapping them lasciviously against each other to attract attention. Ugh!
There’s also a LOT of luxury here – we wandered into a mall with basically Prada, Tiffany’s Jimmy Choo and all the horrendously expensive brands in the magazines. Fun!
Tomorrow is a quiet(ish) day of mooching around a bit to recover from the long haul. We’ll certainly sleep well tonight!
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Filed under USA
Transit, wonderful transit…
I think I’ve mentioned before that transit isn’t one of my favourite things. I’ve lost count, but I think I’ve been travelling for about 27 hours so far, and due to being over-cautious about this last connection, I’ve spent two hours in LAX, with another three to go before heading to Vegas.
I’ve decided on something in my long connections this trip:
I love lounge access. I’ve been able to use the Virgin lounge in Perth and Melbourne, and also the Delta Lounge here in LAX because of my Velocity status, and it’s good. Gooooood. The food isn’t palatial (apart from the automatic pancake machine in Mel, which had me cursing my gluten free-ness!) but they have something awesome. Showers. With a sore neck and shoulders from trying to sleep on the plane, I feel so much more human after a quick dunk under hot water. The wifi is very useful as well, although the wifi here in Delta is as slow as a wet week. Hopefully this will post eventually!
The other thing which makes transit bearable is having wonderful mates who live in these transit cities who will be incredibly generous and drive out to the airport to have breakfast with you! Miz L, here’s lookin’ at you!
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Location:World Way,Los Angeles,United States
Filed under USA
And she’s off!
So this school hols I’m making a quick dash to the USA. My friend K has her long service leave next term, and we wanted to organise so we could do some travel together at some point. Since she’s also making her way through South America and the UK, we put our heads together to work out how we could work it, and 10 days in the US was it!
Our plans are to meet in Vegas, see some of the sights, go for a day trip to see the Grand Canyon, then head east to Niagara Falls. A couple of days there and we’re on the move again, to NYC for a few more days, before it’s time for me to head home again and K to visit family and wend her way south.
So now I’m waiting at the Perth airport in the Virgin Lounge for the first of the three flights to get me to Vegas. It’s been a long term and I’m certainly ready to get some sleep on the plane!
I’ve packed light, but not too light this time. I have a medium sized checked suitcase, but it’s only 1/3 full (weighed 8kg all up when I checked it, eliciting an incredulous comment from the ground staff!) and so there’s lots of room for shopping!
Filed under USA
Day 7 and 8 – Prague to Berlin
Originally we were planning on leaving Prague in the morning to get back to Berlin in the late afternoon, but we decided to change the train to a later one, in order to get a bit more time in this glorious city.
We were resolved to start early, but even thought we’d checked out and left the hotel by 10am, we were quickly foiled in this attempt by accidentally buying shoes. We came across a Doc Martens shop, and both bought a pair of the same shoes (“Vanessa” if you’re interested!) I really liked a pair of animal print heels, but they weren’t quite as comfy or as practical as the heeled sandals we bought. Which shaved off half an hour from the morning’s sightseeing time.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the main museum at the end of Wenceslas Square was closed, which meant we weren’t quite as late as we might have been, getting to lunch with I. We managed to drag her away from work again, and she was going to show us a great place to get traditional Czech food, the Imperial Hotel. Unfortunately it was booked out, so we ended up heading back to Municipal House to try out the “traditional beer pub” in the basement. Gorgeous tile work and great, if a little stodgy, food. I had the goulash and D had another go at Bohemian Ribs, accompanied by Czech “rum” (potato based, apparently, and quite aromatic) and Coke. Nothing like good old Barcardi ‘n’ Coke, I promise! Have it with a drizzle of lemon juice and it’s very tasty.
We rushed out on the tram to the museum near I.’s place to see if we could get some good last minute souvenirs, but they had condensed their gift shop, and we were forced to add to our collection of Mucha postcards.
Then we said a reluctant farewell to I. and to Prague and headed back to the train station to clickety-clack our way back to Berlin.
We arrived, checked into our hotel, and crashed!
Thursday:We had big plans of doing laundry in the morning, picking up our bags from the other hotel, hitting the Trippen outlet so D could drool over more shoes, and then visit museums on Museum Island, before catching up with my aunt and cousins who’d arrived in Berlin yesterday. Unfortunately the weather conspired against us, and a heavy drizzle all morning made walking cold and miserable. We split up to make things easier – D stayed with the washing while I went over to the Holiday Inn, inadvertently not locating the tram stop which would make all this much easier, and so I walked 15 mins in the freezing drizzle to the train station. Once I’d balanced all the bags around my person, I did find the tram back, so that was a relief!
At that point it was time to meet D’s acquaintance, K. She’s been living here for a few months and is much more knowledgeable than us on useful things like navigating the public transport system! Very useful when we were trying to stay out of the rain while finding the Trippen outlet in Kreuzberg. After some trains, stopping for a coffee (which was really nice-tasting coffee even though the waiter’s reaction to my request of a chai latte was “We don’t do yoga here”!) and walking around the back streets of Kreugberg, we located it.
This place was more easy to navigate than the gallery we’d visited last week, which involved asking the assistant to check for a size/colour, she rus off down the back, checks and comes back to tell you the answer. This shop had piles of shoeboxes of similar styles, with sizes and colours all in the same pile, similar to a Shoe Show kind of place. I did find one or two that I liked, and since the prices were generally less than half price, I did allow myself to be tempted by a pair of red cross-heeled shoes. D must have tried on every pair of women’s shoes in the shop, and eventually decided on 5 pairs. She said this was her Trippen pilgrimage trip – I’m not sure I was aware of this when I signed up! I promised her a three hour stint in a bellydance costume shop to pay her back sometime in the future!
Since it was getting late, we didn’t have time for museums, so we dragged our shoes back to the hotel briefly to unload, then headed out for dinner with the family. As we were walking towards the underground station, we saw white flecks in the air. It wasn’t just drizzling anymore, it was actually snowing! Yay!
We were eating at my cousin R’s place – he shares a flat in Friedrichshain. Almost the whole family was there – my aunt and three of my cousins. They were all ecstatic to see the snow, too, apart from R who has been living here for a while now, and is a bit sick of the cold!
It was great to see them, and we had a tasty dinner, sloshed down with quite a bit of wine. Fabulous!
Filed under Czech Republic, germany
Day 6 – Prague
We started today with a little more indulgence – a full-body Thai oil massage. This was amazingly relaxing, and worked out a few of the kinks in our backs from travel and lots of walking. Nice.
Once we’d recovered, we set out to do some more exploring, heading out first to see if there were cheap tickets to the opera tonight (Madame Butterfly in the nosebleed seats = $20!!!) then to look at jewellery shops (I may have purchased some Swarovski jewellery for my birthday present – but it was on sale!) and wend our way slowly towards Municipal House, where we were meeting I. again for a walk up to Prague Castle.
It was raining more heavily today, so we cheated a bit and caught a tram a couple of stops, but walked through the parkland and saw the Metronome (no more Lenin statue? Awww…) There were hundreds of shoes thrown onto the power lines here – apparently there are always a few, but news of this pastime had obviously spread as there were quite literally hundreds!
The Summer Palace gates were locked, so we couldn’t explore these gardens, but the Castle itself is open 24/7, so we were able to go in and have a look at the buildings and the huge Gothic church. Flying buttresses ahoy!
One of the gift shops gave us some good plunder for souvenirs and pressies for those at home, but I won’t mention what we found, as some of them might be reading this!
Then it was time to rush back to the hotel to get ready for the Opera! We ended up taking a taxi, in case we got lost (again!) and arrived at the State Opera building feeling a little underdressed. People really dress up for it here, even in the nosebleed/backpacker seats up the top! The building really suits it though – the place is amazing! Gilt cherubs, curlicues and pillars abounded. We had a glass of bubbly beforehand (the ubiquitous Bohemia Sekt) and settled into our velvet lined wooden seats for the performance.
Madame Butterfly was a great performance – the singing was amazing, the costumes and set were fabulous, and the orchestra didn’t miss a beat. It’s a bit hard to accept the story as a modern audience – would the concubine honestly commit suicide just so her jilting lover can bring up their child with his new wife? I closed my eyes at some points to stop reading the subtitles, and it was much more enjoyable just listening to the amazing music.
Afterwards we hit the pavement again, and walked back to the hotel. It was so much closer than it felt yesterday when we were lost! We stopped into the Ultramarin restaurant attached to the hotel for a late bite to eat, and just about fell asleep on our plates.
Filed under Czech Republic
Day 5 – Prague
Birthday day!
I started the day Skyping Mum and R, and it was great to hear family voices. Birthdays are pretty big in my family, and while I’ve been away from home for my birthday in the past, R is usually with me. Poor D had to make up for everyone all at once!
We had booked a tour for 1pm, and started wandering along one of the shopping roads, heading for the meeting place. Unfortunately we managed to get pretty lost, and I’d forgotten to load the maps on my phone, and D forgot to bring the physical map. We started asking people for directions, but we’d gone so far out of our way that we weren’t in the tourist zones any more and not many people spoke English or knew where we were looking for! I rang the company, and eventually they decided to start without us.
Meanwhile, we were still lost, but managed to find some of the big landmarks accidentally, not knowing what they were – Wenceslas Square and the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square, in our search for Charles Bridge, our touchstone landmark! We also detoured via a couple of shops, but didn’t buy much, apart from a beanie with earflaps and pompoms! By 3pm we were starving, and decided we needed to reward to huge walk with an extravagant lunch.
To this end, we stopped at School, a nice restaurant with views across the river, who did a degustation menu for about $50! Yum-o! Fish, pork, sorbet, strawberries, all washed down with a few local wines. The waiter caught us talking about my birthday (“Should I have another glass of wine?”…”Of course, it is your birthday!”) and so when dessert came out, they had stuck a candle into my crème anglais and strawberries, and brought me a glass of sparkling wine to celebrate. Fabulous! I can highly recommend them.
Once we’d done with late lunch, it was almost time to meet I. for dinner! We were meeting under the Astronomical Clock, so we had at least found that today! I.’s friend L joined up for dinner too, so we were pretty raucous. I. had arranged for us to go to a wonderful vegetarian restaurant around the corner from the Old Town Square, which had fabulous food. We drank a couple of glasses of local wine, ate delicious meals (they have things like eggplant curry, Mexican salad, raw chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse, etc etc etc)
Next stop was an atmospheric underground jazz bar, with a local band with great musicality but not a lot of audience participation. After the wine with dinner we stuck to non-alcoholic drinks for this part of the evening, to ensure we could find our way back to the hotel.
Filed under Czech Republic
Two Weeks Away 