The final days....

Dear everyone,

I am sorry I let you down with the final part of our trip. However I am impressed that you all actually read this! So thank you.

Well we are back in Perth and trying very hard not to get depressed and/or start on a WA bashing campaign. Actually we are happy to be home, if anything, Perth weather rocks.

So here is just the low down on our final week or so overseas.

Goodbye Whistler

Unfortunately our stay in Whistler had to come to an end.

We loved every minute of it and I definitely would have loved another few days. It was so relaxing (even with whiplash) and beautiful. And the food in Whistler is awesome!

The last few days were action packed. On the second last night we signed up for a night time snowmobile tour up Blackcomb mountain and I haven't been that scared for a long long time. Those things are hard to control, it was snowing like crazy and we were on tracks that boarded massive cliffs. My adrenaline quota was definitely used up that night. On the way down the mountain (Troy drove and I held on for dear life) I was feeling pretty hardcore until we past the skeleton track for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Those crazy mofos go down this tunnel at about 150kms an hour! That promptly brought me back down to earth. We then went to our favourite restaurant in Whistler, Sushi Village, for sushi and a couple of giant Kirins to calm my shot nerves. Troy of course loved every minute of it. It was fun, freaking scary, but still fun.

We spent the last day on the slopes Troy got some fresh powder at the very top of the mountain. We also rode on the Peak to Peak Gondola. Which is a world record breaking gondola that links Blackcomb and Whistler mountains and this thing is REALLY high and you know the deal with gondolas, they look like they are hanging by a thread. Corina and Kristie, you would have died.

Sushi Village = yum

Troy, aka powder hound

View from Peak to Peak

Last day in Whistler

Then it was time to leave, we had a night in Vancouver before leaving for Las Vegas. We wish now we had just taken off straight away because the weather was terrible and after being in beautiful Whistler Van is pretty average. Nice, but a little boring (a bit like Perth!?).

Vegas Baby
Americans don't know what a bogan is, but after visiting Vegas I am now of the opinion that they need to adopt it into their vocabulary immediately.

Not that I didn't like Vegas. It is loud, tacky and pretty damn hilarious. A major highlight for me was the Bellagio water fountain show. Incredible. Another highlight was the burlesque show we went to. We wanted to get tickets to the adults only Circ de Soleil, however we went to this same day ticket booth to grab cheap tickets and they had sold out. So instead we brought tickets to this burlesque show at the Flamingo for cheap cheap.

The Flamingo casino is like stepping into 1989. The show was basically hot chicks dancing around in their undies in front of a room of OLD couples (?). It was pretty funny, except as you can imagine these ladies were extremely fit and after they appeared on stage I had a number of regrets;

a) That I had eaten a monster steak with macaroni cheese for dinner.

b) That I had been drinking beer for about three weeks straight and,

c) That at that particular moment I was downing yet another Budweiser.

Once the show was over I felt like going to the hotel gym and exercising for at least four hours. But instead we went to Planet Hollywood casino and Troy played roulette while I drowned my sorrows in another Bud (and not the carb free variety either).

Food in Vegas is good if you are looking to spend up, but finding something healthy... NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Check out this brunch, can you feel your arteries hardening or what? (And no, I didn't wash it down with a beer...)

Lots of fun, but after three days you are good to go. They still smoke inside the casinos and you had to walk through the casino to get to our hotel room. So everyday we smelt like we had smoked a packet of ciggies by 10am. The worst thing is they spray this rank deodoriser to try and 'cover' the smell. People, it isn’t working!

Watch out Vegas!

Here's an idea. Eat a massive steak and maccaroni cheese then head directly to a show containing hot chicks in their knickers. Awesome for self esteem!

Getting into the spirit with a 1/2 yard Long Island Ice Tea while waiting for burlesque show at the Flamingo Casino aka the year 1989.

Look a Vegas bride!

Bellagio fountain show. Fully sick.

LA - rain rain go away

LA was a washout. And I am talking four days of torrential rain. Not much fun to be honest.

Highlight being the LA Lakers game at the Staples Centre. That was the coolest. Celebrities at the basketball:

1) The awesome Dustin Hoffman himself.

2) Jack Nicholson

3) Adam Sandler

4) Troy reckons he saw Jessica Alba on screen, however it may have been wishful thinking.

 See Dustin Hoffman?

The rest of the time was spent pretty much standing in the rain looking at deserted LA landmarks. Note to self; don't travel to places in Winter that are all about SUMMER.

And no, I didn't get discovered, but I am blaming the weather :)

Thanks for listening folks. Cannot wait to catch up with all of you xx

Stay tuned, may add a few bits and pieces over the next few days.

British Columbia, yah

Our stay in Vancouver was very brief and it started with a Canucks ice hockey match at General Motors stadium. It was a whole lot of fun, even sitting as far back as you can possibly go. We drank overpriced beer and crappy fast food and then went back to the hotel. Our hotel was the best yet, a little boutique place in downtown Vancouver. The day was spent just walking around and shopping for snowboarding gear for Troy.

It is such a nice, clean city and the people are so friendly compared to NYC. Surrounded by water and mountains the views are unbeatable and the city is pumped for the upcoming Winter Olympics. But man, there are so many homeless people and beggars in Vancouver. We were only there for two nights and one full day and we came across so many. It is really weird because it isn't exactly a grimy, dingy place. I think where we stayed was easy walking distance from the 'bad' side of town so we may have been in the worst of it I don't know.

We then caught the bus to Whistler where we have been for the past few days. It is such a cool snow town and we are having a ball.

Troy is a pretty experienced snow boarder, I am not. So I took a lesson on our first day here and boy did I get banged up. I woke up the next day sore as hell and not in a good 'I did a huge workout' way. It was more lik an 'ouch my coccyx hurts when I sneeze' way. I smacked my head so bad I gave myself a dose of whiplash, all I can say is lucky I was wearing a helmet.

But I blame all my stacks on our Japanese instructor, I couldn't understand her very bad English so I was just having a crack rather than learning technique. So yesterday I hired a hot snowboard instructor called Troy (eh eh eh) to help me master the toe side of my board. And I picked it up very quickly with only a few minor stacks (mind you, even a soft fall hurts my poor coccyx bone in a major way). So I am feeling pretty good about that and having a day off so Troy can do his thing. I will get back to it tomorrow and hopefully some of my sore spots will have healed...

Bye for now, loving the snow but I have to say I am looking forward to some nice hot beach weather.

x
 

Hotel room view

Troy waiting to hit the slopes.

My hot snowboard instructor! Just a random photo I like of Troy.

Me getting ready to fall on my head... I mean, snowboard.

Helmet is not attractive but very necessary in my case.

What, no, I didn't just crash into that barrier....

I'm back!

A cold has had me out of action the past few days and I daren't go near the blog in fear I might just whinge for a few pages. I know you have no interest in hearing about the symptoms of a common cold. But I am feeling much better so here's an update.

So a bit of run down of our last days in NYC, Gill took us to Soho for a bit of shopping (awesome) then to an Australian bar near her house called 'The Sunburnt Cow' it was fun, I think, can't really remember...

Then it was New Years Eve, Troy and I went to the Museum of Modern Art. It was cool, we saw a couple of Andy Warhols, some Picasso, some Monet and two Van Gough. Not being art buffs meant we sped through the floors pretty quickly because us hacks were just looking for the big names. Some of them are so familiar so it was weird seeing the real thing, all I kept thinking was how much are those things worth and what would happen if I grabbed it?

Then we wandered to Central Park and it was covered in snow. Troy wanted to go ice skating but the queue was huge (there are so many queues in NYC and it is freezing right now, am I bovered?) Saw many an Aussie, the strong $ has us taking over.

Troy: Let's go ice skating! Loz: Um...no!

Then we spent New Years at Gill's apartment which was fun except I was coming down with a killer cold so I was a party pooper. Then on the last day I spend a majority of it in bed, before Gilly and I went on a lady date to see this:

http://www.raceonbroadway.com/

James Spader was in it, so I was a little star struck. It was good, but Brooke and Richelle wouldn't be surprised to hear Gill and I found a few things wrong with it... ha ha.

So that was the end of New York. A huge shout out to Gill and Luke for taking us out and about, we are going to miss them! What a fabulous city and we didn't even get to scratch the surface. Then we got up unbelievably early and came to the most miserable place on earth, Montreal....kidding!

Well NYC is a hard act to follow and when we arrived it had been snowing for days and it continued to snow non-stop for the first two days we were here. Plus I spent two days in bed sleeping off my cold. So not the highlight of our trip so far, but a few good moments:
1) A steak at The Keg. This meal was worth freezing for.

2) The Notre Dame Basilica. An incredible church.

3) Catching up on sleep so we are right and ready for Vancouver and WHISTLER!

It has some beautiful places, but it is hard to tell when they are under 30cm of snow. Plus it is dead, all the smart people have clearly vacated until Summer, which is when this city shines apparently.

But you live and learn, and I will never again whinge about the cold in Australia.

So off to Vancouver today, with an ice hockey match tonight.


x

We heart snow

Central Park in the snow, isn't it horrible ? :)  

Happy New Year everyone.

We saw her and she was beautiful

(Please appreciate this photo, Troy almost froze to death to capture it)

The Statue of Liberty is something we are all so familiar with, so while I knew we had to see her while we were here, I kinda had a feeling that I had seen it all before.

But she was all kinds of spectacular. 

We didn't do a tour, we jumped on the free Staten Island ferry which does a drive by and I was happy with that. I don't think you need to see her up close, she looks incredible standing there quietly guarding the city. I am so smitten, I now have a strong urge to buy one of those crappy plastic statues from the tourist shop.  

She was our first stop in downtown Manhattan or the financial district. It is such a beautiful part of town, very clean and full of history. We visited Wall Street, Trinity Church and the World Trade Centre site. I wasn't sure what to expect there, it now looks just like a really big construction site but when you stand there and imagine how huge those two buildings were the magnitude of what happened that day it really hits home. The tribute museum was so well done. It didn't focus on the terrorists or the hate, it was about the people and their stories. Instead of showing those awful images of which we are all so familiar, they showed the hundreds of missing person posters, artifacts found on the site, brought together quotes from those who lived it plus a wall of photos of those who were lost. It was a sad, peaceful reminder but at the same time it was hopeful. It brought to light the good things that happened in such an awful situation. Well worth the visit.

Our trip downtown was just a little cold at about -8 plus the wind chill factor (which they reckon feels about -20). All I can say is ouch. I seriously thought I had frozen my feet beyond repair at one point. You can imagine how cold it was on the Hudson...

Last night was spent with Luke and Gill who took us to drinks and dinner in the very cool West Village. It is a super swanky part of town and I very much liked the very little that I saw. We are so lucky to have Gill and Luke here, they get us out of the tourist traps and show us what it is like to live here. Plus they are just super people :)

Another fabulous day in the Big Apple.

Peace out for now.

Baggage, Best Friends and Bargains

We are in NYC people, what a place.

However our trip didn't get off to a such a good start because Cathay Pacific failed to transfer our luggage on our connecting flight. So we arrived in rainy, almost zero degree temperatures with  only the clothes we had on our backs. The punks told us it would arrive the night of the flight, but it didn't arrive until yesterday morning (Monday). Lucky for us, Gilly (my gorgeous friend who lives here) saved the day. She met with us on on the first night handing over warm jackets, taking us to Macy's to get some essentials and then back to her house to have a shower, steal some extra clothes and eat a home cooked meal.

So picture this, we had slept about 6 hours in two days, had killer jet lag and no luggage. Trust me it wasn't pretty.

But despite this little set back, we have had a blast so far. We are staying right near Times Square which is an incredible/crazy place. We have done a lot of shopping along 5th and 6th Ave so all your big names and we managed to find a few bargains. But I am not really interested in the chains, I am saving myself for Soho and Tribeca. In fact, I told Troy that I am never going into Macy's again, that place is a freaking nightmare. He loves it because he picked up a sweet leather jacket for $100.

Where we are staying is great because we are walking distance to a lot of the touristy spots you have to see like Rockerfeller, Museum of Modern Art and Grand Central. However, it means wherever we go we have to fight millions of other tourists and it is getting a bit old (plus all the jerks who hang around to rip them off). But we have done it and now we are going to explore the other neighbourhoods.

I won't take you through a piece by piece account of everything we have seen, I will say however that Grand Central Station has been my favourite so far, that place is just incredible.


A few pics... ( I haven't posted any of us when we were minus luggage, lets just say we were not at our best)

Crazy Times Square

Oh look, there's Macys! (just don't make me go in there)

Troy in the light room thingy watsit at Top of the Rock

My awesome paella at Little Brazil.

Troy at the Rockerfeller centre.

Me getting my Kate Moss on in gum boots.

 





Love to all

x

Suitcase envy much?

Exhibit A.

Troy will be travelling with this awesome Burton suitcase. It was an early Christmas present from the parentals. He is convinced the snow bunnies in Whistler are going to go mad for this..

Exhibit B.

My belongings will be in this old purple suitcase. It was cool when I bought it five years ago.... really.

I was tempted to buy myself a girl version of Troy's at Main Peak the other day. They are almost $300 so I thought maybe that could get in on the action and get it as my Christmas present from the parents. As I ummed and arrrrred over it, Troy made the following point:

'Would you prefer a new suitcase when you have one that is perfectly fine (even if it is damn ugly) or $300 to spend on clothes in NYC?'

Turns out I married the right guy. We left immediately and American dollars for Christmas it is!