Wonderland

Monday, 3 July 2017

Orlando #Day24

Driving today Panama City Beach to Orlando!

We arrived in Orlando at 6pm, very rainy-

We went to the shopping outlets across the road and also got some laundry done! We have a more exciting day ahead tomorrow at Universal Studios! :)

Sunday, 2 July 2017

Panama City Beach #Day23

Driving New Orleans to Panama City Beach.

Bags to coach at 8:45 this morning so had a little bit more of a sleep in then normal!

The drive to Panama City Beach was pretty cruizy and we arrived by 4:30pm.

We headed straight for the beach! Panama City Beach is a Spring Break hotspot and apparently voted the best beach in the world!

We couldn't get over how warm the water was!

We were staying right next to the French Quarter. The French Quarter is all Spanish architecture because the entire quarter burnt down a few times but the Spanish were in charge the time it was last built. I really loved it here, it felt like you were walking back in time!

We set off in the morning to try see as much as we could. It was 32 degrees and extremely humid!!

We saw St.Louis cathedral:

the French market:

By the river:

A few of our friends went to a really famous psychic reader and half of them loved it and half of them thought it was pretty average haha

We continued to walk around soaking up the sounds of Jazz music pumping from inside most venues.

At 2:30 we headed to our Airboat adventure in the Byue! We hoped on a shuttle busses that took us out of the city to the swamp. We had about 1 and a half on the water trying to spot alligators! It was quite hard to spot them at first until we pulled into a secluded spot. Our tour guide was joking about how it's a great place to swim and before we knew it he and another guide had dived into the water! We couldn't believe it! A smaller sized gator swam over to them and they were playing with it feeding it marshmallows and sausages! It was insane. They could do this because the alligators are extremely territorial and don't venture far from the one spot so these two alligator had formed relationships with these alligators and the alligators come out because they get food!

Albino alligator:

After the airboat tour we came back to our hotel for a pool party and drinks and headed out to Bourbon street for the night!

Friday, 30 June 2017

New Orleans #Day21

Driving Memphis to New Orleans.

Finally feeling more like myself I began to get really excited to see New Orleans!

We left Memphis at 8am and arrived in New Orleans at around 4:30pm. We had a tour guide jump on our bus to give us a quick tour and history of the town as it is illegal for our Contiki guide to give us a tour! We learnt everything from where to see the best psychic and voodo dolls, best food and of course Jazz music.

Dinner tonight was special as 13 people from our Contiki tour are leaving as another 15 new people get on the bus tomorrow morning. This is because you can choose to do just the 'Southern tour' whereas majority of people are doing the 'Grand southern tour'. So it'll be so strange to have them all leave and see new faces in the morning!

We had a quick walk down Bourban street before bed!

Thursday, 29 June 2017

Memphis #Day20

Home of Elvis!

This morning we went to the location where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

It was quite emotional seeing the exact spot:

From here we went to Graceland to see all things Elvis!

We had an audio tour which guided us from room to room of his home:

After Graceland I was feeling pretty fatigued so I had a few hours rest at the hotel room before dinner.

Desert was Smores!

After dinner we walked down the famous Beale Street listening to Blues as we went!

Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Memphis #Day19

Driving Fortworth to Memphis.

So I said on an early day that it was our longest driving day but today was our longest driving day of the trip by far!

We got on the coach at 7:45am and didn't arrive in Memphis until 7:15pm. Still sick, it made for an even longer bus ride.

We had only a couple of quick stops along the way including seeing, the boarder between Arkansas and Texas so we were in 2 states at once!

We also saw Little Rock High School. The first school to leave behind half a century of segregated education.

Memphis pyramid as Memphis is named after Memphis, Egypt. Driving over the Mississippi River.

Once we finally made it to Memphis we had 5 minutes to throw our bags in our room and power walk 15 minutes down the road to go to an all American Baseball game.