Quebec City (Thurday, Fri, Sat leave Sun)

We arived in Quebec in the afternoon of thurday the 4th, on the train. We didnt get seated next to eachother on this train, and I was moved about three times before they could find me a free seat! A nice train ride through the country though. It was nice to be reaching a hotel rather than a hostel for once, as the bellman greated us and opened the doors for us and there were elevators to reach your rooms! The last places we have stayed in Canada were up at least 3 flights of stairs, which of course we had to get all of our luggage up (and back down, which is not as easy as it sounds).

The hotel is lovely and this time I get the double bed! There is a pool, gym, sauna and outdoor spa. The winter carnival activities are about a 2 minute walk down the road (we couldnt be in a better spot) and one of the roads the hotel is on is a hot sport for resuarants and bars. woo! So you can almost forget how feazing it is here!

We have met up with Steph and Alices parents, Wendy and Nigel who are so kindly going to let us stay at their house for most of a week when we leave for New Brunswick. They arrived on Friday night, and so all saturday we spent exploring the carnival and the city. The carnival includes all sorts of activities and located all around the city, however the man area is the place up the road. It has ice scupltures and carvings, tubing, sleigh rides and other activities. There is also this giant ice castle across from the grounds which you can walk through and gets all lit up at night. Tonight we are heading to a parade, held for the winter carnival. Its about a half hours drive out of the city and its going to be cold.

So freazing watching the parade! The vibe is cool though, as every body dances and sings to keep warm, so nearly everyone is involved in some way. When we got back, Steph and I had an outdoor spa. Such a refreshing thing to do when it is negative degrees outside, and all the other people are wearing beanies! Off to new brusnwick early in the morning, au revoir Quebec!

xxx

Montreal (tues, wed, thurs)

Caught a train ride to Montreal, from Toronto on Tuesday, which is part of French Canada. The start of out stay here was tarnished slightly by a not so lovely taxi ride (the gentleman decided to take us half way round the city, proclaiming he didnt know where we needed to go, when we finially got there he says oh! Saint piErre! However we had written the address down for him to over come any language barriers...).

The Hostel here is great! Its an alternative hostel, there is no TV and everyone is encouraged to cook healthy meals and drink nice tea! The communial kitchen is lovely, but our room is sweet as well. I dont know how but Steph got the double bed! We are staying in Old Montreal, which is just beautiful. All the buildings have so much old character and its so nice to go walking down them, as their all covered in snow.

We were able to explore the city on foot quite well above ground, but below ground there is a network of underground malls and shops connected to the subways. This was obviously easier to reach by the underground! It was insane how much shopping you could do underground, and how dissorientated this made you when you finally reached ground level.

Had to leave pretty early on Thursday, but Steph and Al mannaged to fit in an iceskating trip! (I was uploading blogs). Then off to our next stop: Quebec City!

Toronto (sat, sun, mon)

We made it to Toronto! And its freezing!! It was sitting on about minus 12 when we arived and was so dark but only about 6 pm. So all we did was grab some dinner and warm up before heading to bed. We are at the gloabl villiage backpackers, which is quite nice, dispite the hike up the stairs. We have a room to ourselves, which includes Stephs younger sister, Alice. We met up in the Toronto airport and she will be with us untill we leave New Brusnwick.

On sunday we managed to have a walk about town. We visited the CN Tower, which is apparently the tallest building, but i doubt it considering Dubai is breaking every record atm! You get to wlak out over this glass floor though, which is pretty awesome. We then stayed warm by walking around the shops! And then caught the underground to the Royal Ontario Museum. It was huge, we were mesmerised! We didnt get to see it all and we rushed some parts, it was so extensive. They had this amazing geology section, It was stunning. It also included a jewellery display aswell (mostly from the same lady) which included all these amazing vintage peices from Cartier, Bvlgari, Harry Winston etc. So increadible!

On Monday we headed out to Niagara Falls (over an hours bus ride away) with a tour group. It was impressive and the view was lovely, however it would have been nice to be able to ride the 'maid of the mist'. We couldnt because the river was mostly frozen on top, even with the fall still flowing! The mist creates rainbows over the river and the falls themselves are breathtaking up close, but it was too cold to stand around looking at them for very long. The next stop on our tour was Niagara on the Lake, which was this special little town which had tried to preserve its old character. Its situated where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, hence the name. All the buldings are old and there are no fast food places or neon signs at all. Instead (like all tourist destinations) you will find quiant coffee shops, fudge and lolly shops and authentic souvenir shops. It was such a pretty little town with the snow falling! Our next stop was wine tasting, i didnt even realise it was included in our tour! Best suprise ever! They took us to a winery called 20Bees, also home of the Dan Akroyd wine (who knew!). Apperntly he has a very good taste for wine. 2OBees also makes Canadas famour style of wine: Icewine. The grapes are picked when frozen, which contain far less juice but is more concertrated. The amount used for one bottle of icewine is equivelant to 30 normal bottles! The result is a very sweet desert wine, which we got to sample. The tour was great, with a funny guide and good stops. It was also great to get out and see the Canadian countryside!

Love E, S and A
xxx

Dinner and an outing (fri night)

After Rodeo drive we were starving! so we headed to a place we had been meaning to check out (mostly as it is where Vanessa Hudgens had held a birthday party before, woo). The place was georgeous, all mood lighting and pretty light decorations. We wanted to take some pics for you but it was too fancy! (We took some of the bathroom though so have a look!) The menu was awesome, the idea being to get a few different dishes and share them between you. Steph and I had some tofu, chicken, vegie salad and cod. Yeah I ate some fish! it was all so delicious and it was just the best to get some food which wasnt microwave or from a diner.

We had some cocktails and some sake at the bar afterwards, which I had never tried. It was pretty good and we felt pretty fancy! There was an actor from the American Office sitting at the bar aswell! woo the only celebrity I saw, and he is a fat, balding middle aged man! Go L.A.!

We went on the hostel pub crawl afterwards which was nice. The people there are so friendly and cool. The trouble was that the music around here is lame, and we miss the clubs in Radelaide, especially JIVE! It was a good way to finish our trip with the L.A. gang and say our goodbyes :( but its always easier to leave than stay!

Universal Studios and Rodeo Drive (fri)

For our last full day in L.A. we hit up Universal Studios and in the evening walked down Rodeo Drive. The studios was pretty fun, although not as big or as good as Dinseyland, but we expected that. The tour through all the sets was awesome fun and its great to get an idea of how many movies and TV shows are actually made there. While we went through they were filming parts of Desperate Housewives and also Ghoswhisperer (or what ever it is called!) not that we got to see any one. The locations you drive through are all set up in sections, like the western area and the frenchy one, the English and New York sets and the Mexican street. And they are all set outside. The Mexican street is all set to start raining everywhere strait away and can also make a 'flash flood',all of which was demonstrated. The Mexican street is actually where the OC filmed most of their TJ trip woo! And one of the villa thingos in the frenchy or european like streets is where Tourtuga from Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. Wicked!

So the tour was the most exciting thing to do there, the other bits and pieces were some rides, side shows and themed cantinas and cafes (the Flinstone's BBQ anyone?). There was Itchy and Scratchy Land (the Simpsons) which was so deatailed and included this amazing virtual rollercopaster where you dont even leave the building but instead have this massive screen in front of you. The chairs rock and water sprays your face, and when a giant maggie tries to eat you, you can also smell baby powder. The Shrek film is the same idea except in 3d (or what they call 4D including the seats moving and water/wind effects). It was an amazing experience involves the auience so much more in watching the film. We also got to see the 'waterworld'production, which is a stage play but the set is mostly water and then fake rigging and towers etc surrounding it. That was amazing, except that the actors splashed us before it started with water pistold and big buckets of water!

Rodeo drive we didnt visit for long as the shops were starting to close, but it was such a lovely street. In comparisson to Hollywood the place was paridise! However we didnt see any one famous :( Except Taylor Lautner had been into the same coffee shop we went to earlier that day! Ha ha there were so many stories like that, but it was still nice to have a look at all the really nice shops (and all the really expensive cars parked outside!).

Love E and S

Disneyland! wed.

Yay! we went to Disneyland on Wednesay for the whole day and it was great. Its like walking onto a disney movie set, every one that works there is in old school costumes and everything is clean and perfect. We got there pretty early in the morning so we managed to avoid alot of the lines for the good rides. There were quite a few good rides, but then there are also the tour like rides which mosly take you through the story of whichever one you are on. However the Snow White story finished as she took a bite into the apple with a painting saying they all lived happily ever after (im sorry but how, when we havent even seen a picture of the prince??). The rest were cool though. I got to finally see the Pirates of the Caribbean tour, oh my, which i have been waiting to do for half my life. Was so good! mostly as i just love the story! And they had added the modern story to it, which was nice but i do like the original, but it was cool to see the jhonny depp Sprarrow and Davey Jones and the story relating to that.

One of the best was Space mountain, an indoor rollercoaster in compete darkness, appart from lights which look like stars, it was so much fun. There was also the buzz lightyear ride, which was a cross between a ride and a video game (you get lazer guns and aim at targets and you get a score and its super fun), which we went on to many times for people our age! Mostly as they send you the pictures on your email, and we knew where the cameras were.

I was so dissapointed that we could find any of the disney princesses for photos, and any one who knows me will no how sad I am. We went to buy princess costumes in one of the shops but they only had kids ones, or as the lady in ye old shoppe said "those are for the younger princesses, we dont sell them to you older princesses as we dont want to confuse the younger princesses and have them taking pictures of you". I will take it as a compliment i guess that we might have pics takken of us, and i was happy that she still reffered to us as princesses :)

We still didnt even get to see every thing (like meet mickey!) but it was a fun day.

Hollywood

So we made it to L.A. at about 5 am after a flight in which we got no sleep (thanks baby in seat c opposite with a fever). So we were a bit like zombies for the day, and we couldnt sleep anywhere as our hostel rooms werent ready till 2! So we wandered around Hollywood Blvd, but the shops dont open till later (appart from starbucks) and so instead we settled for the hostels library for a nap. Dont get excited, its a room about 1m square and has one arm chair, and in my case a comfy floor...

We also took a delirious walk up to the hollywood sign, which is quite a hike, especially on no sleep! but the view was pretty awesome though, dispite the pollution. We also got to see a star laying ceremony for some director we had never heard of!

Hollywood itself is a weird place. Hollywood Blvd is pretty dirty and there are dodgy shops the way along. Some areas are nice though, with theatres and shopping malls etc, and of course there are the stars on the walk of fame. Only by looking at all the stars people know your tourists and keep asking weather you want to take a celebrity home tour. THE ANSWER IS NO!

For dinner we went to this really nice diner, a cool modern one with a cocktail bar and cupcakes. We also ordered a hot cider and when we got it the waitress tells us that this cider is mixed with whisky! Ah!

love E & S xx

Surfing

Just went for a surf! You can hire boards real easy, or get lessons if you want, and paddle out and have a surf on Waikiki beach. The water was nice despite the wether not being to warm, but there were heaps of people out there. It was such a good view from the sea as well, looking back onto the beach with all the palm trees lining the back and behind them the mountains. It was awesome!

Travel itinerary

Just so every one knows this is our travel itinerary! (all times and dates are in local times, so work it out in aussie for yourselves!)



Jan 21: Hawaii
Jan 22: Hawaii
Jan 23: Hawaii
Jan 24: Hawaii
Jan 25: Hawaii - depart from HI 11.00 pm

Jan 26: Arrive in Los Angeles 5.30 am
Jan 27: LA
Jan 28: LA
Jan 29: LA
Jan 30: LA - Depart from LA 11.30 ish am

Jan 30: Arrive in Toronto at 5.45 pm
Jan 31: Toronto
Feb 1: Toronro
Feb 2: Depart Toronto and arrive in Montreal

Feb 3: Montreal
Feb 4: Depart Montreal and arrive in Quebec

Feb 5: Quebec
Feb 6: Quebec

Feb7: depart Quebec and arrive in New Brunswick
Feb 8: New Brunswick
Feb 9: New Brunswick
Feb 10: New Brusnwick
Feb 11: Neww Brusnwick
Feb 12: depart New Brusnwick arrive in Boston

Feb 13: depart Boston, arrive in NYC

Feb 14: NYC
Feb 15: NYC
Feb 16: NYC
Feb 17: NYC
Feb 18: Depart NYC

Feb 19: London
Feb: 20: London
Feb 21: London
Feb 22: London
Feb 23: Bath
Feb 24 London
Feb 25: depart London, arrive in Paris

Feb 26: Paris
Feb 27: Paris
Feb 28: depart Paris and arrive in Hong Kong

March 1: Hong Kong
March2: Hong Kong
March 3: Hong Kong
March 4: depart for Australia!!

Bike, sail snorkle (sat.)

The tour steph and i had today involed (as implied by the title of this blog) a bike ride and a sail and snorkle. The bike ride took us up onto one of the islands big mountains with the aim to gain a good view of the island. Unfortuantely for us the smoke from one of the active volcanos from another island blocke most of the view! The ride was awesome, riding down the mountain, with a view which was still increadible. It was nice to get a bit of excercise as well (even though it was mostly a downhill ride...).

After that they carted us off in a mini van to the harbour to get on the boat. The sail out to sea was pretty choppy and it began to get quite cold, but the water was still nice! On our way out the tour guide spotted a turtle and we got all Japanese tourist on that thing, snapping away at it, not realising we were about to go swimming with them!

We feed the fishies and the turtles come along for the fishies to clean their shells so they hang around us, it was so cool. We are not ment to touch them, but Steph, being the rebel she is, did. They were so calm and sweet, but would sink down away from us into the water and down to the reef. The fish were all so close as well, but imposible to touch! They are so deceptively quick! Over all though it was a great day and the tour was a great lot of fun. Getting out to see the island was great, both up the hill and out to sea! We also made some friends from our hotel who were also on the tour, yay! were not loners any more... ones Aussie and the other is from Switzerland and were all going surfing together tomorrow :)

Paradise Cove, Fri Night

This afternoon we visited a place called Paradise Cove. The idea is that you get to experience a genuine Luau (pronounce like: loo -ow, Alex :p) while also learning more about the culture. I find its more like a cross between a theme park and a themed bar, but its fun all the same!

The dancers dress up in traditional hula and warrior costumes and perform dances and sing and generally entertain. We also got to play some old school 'games' such as spear throwing and hawaiian bowling (basically rolling a rock at a stick) and also do pretty things like make flower bracelets and leis and get temporary tattoos. The place is set on this gorgeous little beach cove, it is absolutely picturesque, with plam trees and huts and blue water, exactly like if someone said 'picture Hawaii'! (Accompanied of course with hot buff boys playing the ukulele and some stunning girl singing).

The dinner is a propper Luau where they slow cook this entire pig in the ground for like 8 hours. They dig it up and haul it round on a tray so you can have a nice close look at din dins, not to mention smell the damn thing a mile off. Then the pig gets cut up and served with your buffet, so you can all imagine i loaded my plate with his steaming rump. (Steph actually did try it, she is so brave!) and then the performances start.

Its mostly just singing and dancing, lots of hip shaking and the guys doing masculin things like hitting poles and stamping. The finale was the best, though. The girls wore awsome skirts and hula-ed like nothing before, and then one of the men did a fire dance with fire-poles. AMAZING. Not to mention all the guys are so tribal and hot! So despite the stage-ness of it all, it was a fun place to hang out for the first proper Hawaiian weather we have had this trip.

E & S

Pearl Harbour, Friday

So today we visited Pearl Harbour. The bus picked us up nice and early, with a burst fire hydrent causing terrible traffic conditions in a city which already has bad traffic. The bus ride wasnt to friendly on our seedy stomachs, however we made it to the harbour well enough. The harbour itself is still full of active navy ships, and the surroundings is dedicated to the navy etc. Infact this whole place is heavy on the military stuff, with whole hotels used only by those who have served. Its a huge difference from Aus (like tonight at our Hawaiian dinner all those that have served USA were asked to stand up and were applauded - never seen that before!).

But back to the tour: At the site there is a museum (which in the process of being renovated so we didnt get to see much) and a cinema for a short film on the attack of the naval base situated at Pearl Harbour in December 1941. It was moving to watch the film when you are on site, but so sad aswell, as it is imposible to distance yourself from it. From the dark of the cinema, you expect to walk out into the surging smoke from the ruins of massive U.S. navy ships. It is hard to believe that over 2000 people had died in the small harbour we were looking out over.

We then get ferried out to the USS Arizona Memorial, which sits above the USS Arizona, still lying where it was sunk, lurking below the water. In some cases parts of the ship poke above the surfuce of the water and there is oil still seeping from a part of the ship, lining the water and giving off a stench. Next to the memorial in the water is the last U.S. battleship ever built, the USS Missouri, juxtaposed against its sucken sister in the water.

Its actually quite a peaceful place though, despite the wreckage. The memorial is lovely and birght white and people seem to generally respect the site and morn those that died. I suggest to you guys you google an above shot picture of the memorial and you can see the outline of the ship, its amazing.

Aloha!

So Steph and i have made it safe and sound to Hawaii, would you beleive! The flight over was tedious but alright. So the worst part was not having the entertainment TV in front of you, and instead sharing a projection of the Michael Jackson movie. We were also lucky enough to be seated next the the family with three young kids, and we also had a lady faint on us!

Its our first day in Hawaii and to get around we use the mini bus service called trolleys - cute little things with wooden benches and all opened up. We of course had to explore what the island has to offer so our first stop was the mall! Ala Moana is a huge shopping complex with nearly 300 shops, including all the amazing fashion houses like Chanel, Dior, Mui Mui, Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton etc (litreally all of them), so we had fun meeeting the locals (ie shop assistants) and comparing the differences between the two countries. (the three photos here are from various change rooms). The people that work in the shops are the nicest people i have ever met and the shops themselves are just beatuiful. Most have amazing decor, especialy the change rooms which are usually huge and the assistants ask if we want to share change rooms (maybe because they are so big!) which is nice after all these years of feeling weird sharing change rooms with friends in Aus!

Our hotel is nice enough - only it would have been nicer if they had decided against the vomit green colour for everything perhaps. We just popped down to the nearest general store to get some snacks and went crazy buying american things! Oh the joys of being in a new country! And we are heading out tonight try the local cuisine and ah sample some cocktails and do some more exploring. So far it has been lovely here in Honolulu and were excited about getting to the beach soon!

Il keep you posted,

xx Elli (and Steph)