Everyone but Mum had agreed to come. We booked the tour at 11 so we would have enough time to catch a ferry across to Sausalito and eat breakfast first. Mum would catch a later ferry, and meet us in town afterwards. The cafe near where we were meeting our tour guide, Taste of Rome, had a fairly decent review on Yelp so we decided we would have a walk around Sausalito, then have breakfast at the cafe until it was time for our tour. As a bonus, the cafe had free wifi which Amy, Pauline and I happily used on our iphones. I can’t remember much about the cafe other than it was packed, had a lot of cyclists, and had an extremely bossy guy running the show. I got yelled at for standing in the wrong spot to be served, apparently the “line” was on the other side of the room. Well sorry buddy, but maybe make the signage a bit clearer?

We finished our breakfast and headed over to the carpark to wait the final  few minutes until the tour started. Amy, Fiona and Aunty Sue sat down on a park bench while being the bogan that I am, sat down on the wooden walkway where I was lucky enough to get two splinters buried deep into my hand and finger (it took me 2 days until I remembered to ask Amy for her tweezers so I could get them out – must remember to take tweezers with me on holidays from now on). Eventually our tour guide arrived, unpacked all the segways, and our tour began.

First up we got training on how to use the Segways. They were laid down on the ground, and to pick them up we merely had to put our foot on the platform, then press down so the handlebars rose up and we caught them. Aunty Sue was first up for training, and she immediately pushed her foot down a bit too fast and was almost overwhelmed by the speed of the handlebars coming to greet her. Typically, we all giggled. After turning on the segway, we then needed to move the handlebars to the centre until the light went green. The lights on the segway showed if the handlebars were too far forward, or to one side etc. Only when it is completely balanced (i.e. green light) are you able to step on. First you put one foot on the platform (the segway will beep to let you know it’s activated the stabilisation system) then you step up with the other foot. Once on, it’s amazing how stable it truly feels!

After hopping on, the guide got you to move forwards and backwards, practising directing the segway. We all bunny hopped to begin with – as soon as it started moving we tended to lean back, thus stopping it. We did this a couple of times until we got used to the motion, and became smooth. We then had to do a “cowboy maneouver”, basically leaning forward and backwards quickly so you look like you’re riding a horse. It was only when we did this that it actually clicked in our minds how the Segway worked, and we were instantly experts. The guide also got us to turn in circles on the spot using the handlebars to ensure we would be able to steer.

Stopping was easy; if you were traveling forward you merely needed to lean backwards with your feet to slow down and eventually stop. To perform an emergency stop, we had to squat, or pretend we were sitting down on a chair. Our feet would lean back thus quickly stopping the Segway (albeit smoothly). We all practiced stopping and then our steering by going in and out of some cones the guide had set up. Finally, we were ready to go.

We traveled down the waterfront past the marina, looking at all the unique houseboats along the way. There were several impressive ones hand built, and a couple where our guide explained the tenants came ashore once a month for suppliers, then went straight back to their boats. Complete hermits.

We also visited a building which housed a complete working model of the San Francisco bay – The Bay Model Visitor Centre. A gigantic pool inside replicated the bay, including islands and bridges, and amazingly even the tides! The Mythbuster team had even visited there when recording their Alcatraz special, using the tides to determine whether it was possible the 3 men from Alcatraz could have escaped by a raft built from raincoats. We enjoyed the break from the sun (the tops of my hands were extremely sunburnt) while looking around the model, before jumping back on the Segways to head back to the starting point.

Just before we had reached the Bay Model Aunty Sue had managed to get a flat tyre on her Segway, so swapped with the guide. While unfortunately he could control our top speed on the machines, he couldn’t control how fast we went around corners. As such, Aunty Sue sped around a particular corner and almost lost control of the Segway, ending up in the garden next to the footpath. Unfortunately I’d missed recording the event on video, but we managed to get the aftermath. She was fine (hadn’t fallen over), and even managed to have a laugh at herself. Apart from breaking off a branch from a small tree, there was no other damage. She jumped straight back on, and we finished our tour.

The Segway Tour had definitely been one of the highlights for me. It had taken a little bit of convincing on my part to get anyone to do it with me, but afterwards they all agreed that it had been a lot of fun. We happily walked back into town to meet Mum, where we had some pizza for lunch at a pub, or at least something that resembled a pub to me. It was great tasting pizza, and we sat outside overlooking the bay. Very relaxing, and an incredibly beautiful sight.

We caught the ferry home, then got on a cable car to the park where part of Full House was filmed. We had a look around, then made our way to the corner of the park to look at the Painted Ladies – six Victorian/Edwardian homes in a row. We stopped for a photo opportunity of the group, where I informed them it was time to take a “unique” group photo, like jumping all at once (similar to the Toyota ads). I videotaped it, while Amy took photos. After they’d been made to jump twice, Amy requested another photo much to their dismay. After they all groaned, Madonna counted them in where they all jumped for the last time. Well, sort of. Mum just made a sort of lazy kick in the air with one leg, Mat didn’t move at all, and Aunty Sue just made a star sort of formation with her arms.

However, Pauline had saved her biggest jump for last, putting in so much effort that (in her words) she tried so hard to get her legs right up behind her that she didn’t have time to get her legs back down properly. Instead, she fell on her butt then rolled onto her back with her legs in the air. All of it caught on video. It was hilarious!! We all burst out laughing (Amy and I had tears), then finally checked she was ok. She confirmed that she was, and we spent the next couple of minutes reviewing her fall on the video camera, laughing hysterically when we saw it in fast forward. We decided then and there that we would need to make a Benny Hill special of our holiday, purely so we could watch her fall over to the Benny Hill show theme music. Slapstick comedy gold.

After we finished laughing, we split into two groups as everyone decided to go back to the hotel except for Mat, Amy and I. We were on a mission to find another bar that Amy had heard about, however this one involved catching a train out of town. First stop though was to a nearby chemist so I could buy some throat lozengers (I had a killer of a sore throat) and some lip balm.

After the chemist, we went down to the Powell St station, where instead of buying 2 x $5.50 tickets I bought one $11 ticket. We checked if that could permit both of us downstairs, but unfortunately it wouldn’t, so I had to cough up another $5.50. We caught the train to the station, then using Google Maps headed towards the bar. Earlier, because I hadn’t been feeling so well I was tossing up not coming, but I was so glad I had changed my mind.

The Forbidden Lounge Tiki Bar at Alameda is a hawaiian style bar complete with bamboo huts and waterfalls. We sat at the bar, and for our first cocktails I chose a chamborlada (effectively just a pína colada with a black raspberry chambord twist) while Mat had a banana mamacow. I forget what Amy had (possibly a Zombie??), but it came in an awesome tiki mug that was hers to keep. I had a taste of the drink (it was excellent), so made sure I chose that as my second drink so I got to take a tiki mug home too. We also decided to get the secret cocktail volcano, a drink designed for 4 people with a mixture only limited to the maker’s imagination.

The drink was amazing. It tasted superb, and came in a gigantic bowl with a raised bit in the middle filled with cubes lit on fire to make the volcano effect. It was designed for four people, but the three of us gave ourselves the challenge to finish  the drink before the cubes went out. We succeeded with plenty of time to spare.

We had also noticed a lot of $1 stuck to the roof of the bar. we asked the mixologist what the story was, and apparently it was tradition that all the men in the armed forces would write their names on the money and attach it to the roof so that when they came home from war they had drinking money. We asked for a pen, then wrote on our own $1 note, and Mat added it to the collection on the roof. It said:

Newsflash: Aussies get sunburnt on segways! Crikey!

We finished our drinks and headed outside to start the long drunken journey back to the hotel. Mat almost wet himself with excitement when he saw a 4wd parked outside the bar. It was a Ford ute lifted so high and with massive tyres that the bonnet was over our heads! Mat is quite partial to large 4wds (having just sold his own back at home) so excitedly raced around the truck looking underneath at all the modifications, while exclaiming loudly how much he loved it.

After Mat had video taped the truck we kept walking until we happened upon a bus stop. As we waited for the bus, it dawned on us that once again we had found ourselves in a scary looking neighborhood in the dead of night. Thankfully the first bus that came along was heading to San Francisco so we weren’t waiting for too long. The bus arrived in the city, and we stumbled outside from the transit centre to get onto a cable car. On the ride home we joked around with the driver who confirmed there was a bell ringing competition the following day (Aunty Sue had told us about it earlier). He let Amy have a go of ringing the bell, before entertaining us with his own tune, after which we cheered and clapped. His timing had been perfect, as at the conclusion of his song we found we had arrived back at the hotel. We thanked him, then headed upstairs where our big comfortable king sized beds eagerly awaited our arrival. It had been yet another fantastic day in America.

For Amy’s version of events you can see her blog post here.

No related posts.

First we went and waited for a cable car, but it looked so incredibly packed we decided to walk. After about 3 – 4 blocks, we entered into what we thought was just a normal shopping centre. Wrong. It was so impressive inside, it looked like somewhere designed for people only with wages in excess of $100,000. We looked at the price for some breakfast in a small cafe downstairs, but instead opted to walk back towards the hotel and look for places that had some appealing pancakes. We came across Lori’s diner, an interesting looking 50′s diner only a short walk from the hotel. We apologised to Aunty Sue for making her walk a fair distance (she was fine with it) and headed inside.

Mat ordered the country breakfast (two pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns and toast) while I opted for just the standard pancakes with maple syrup. While we waited for our food, we had a look around the inside of the cafe. Partial bodies of cars hung from the walls, along with a plane and other 50′s memorabilia. We were in a booth that had it’s own cool little juke box which reminded me of the old Johnny Rocket’s cafe we’d had at the Sunshine Plaza in the good ol’days. I couldn’t resist, promptly popping in a few quarters and choosing some songs. The service was quite speedy (although impersonal – it didn’t look like he was happy to serve us), and the food was very fulfilling. It took us a while to figure out how much money each of us owed including tax and tip, but finally worked it out and handed the money over. Next to the counter was a pokies machine that each person got to try their luck when paying for their meal. If they hit the jackpot their meal was free. While we’d been eating a man had won the jackpot, and unfortunately they were resetting the machine when we were getting ready to leave, so we were unable to try it ourselves.

One of the cars on the wall at Lori's diner

After breakfast, Mat and I had just enough time to go to AT & T and get a 3g prepaid sim card for my iphone before it was time to meet with the others. We all piled in the car except for Aunty Sue and Fiona, who chose to stay back at the hotel. We headed out of the city towards Muir Woods, getting fantastic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. I was shocked to see Alcatraz for the first time. It’s really quite close to the city! For some reason I had it in my head that it was further out, but it didn’t seem that way at all.

We arrived at Muir Woods, and after paying our entry fees headed in. What a stunning nature reserve. The landscape was full of gigantic redwood trees, bubbling brooks and wildlife. We saw a couple of deer, and a gorgeous little animal that after much debate we decided was a chipmunk (after googling this, I found that indeed, it was a chipmunk).

I had taken the opportunity to take my camera tripod with me this day, but unfortunately it also meant that I had to carry it around as well as the video camera. Mat refused to be my bag bitch, so I was lumped with it all. I cursed, but at the end of the day I’m glad I took it because it meant that I actually had some steady video. I was also really lucky to get some great footage with of the chipmunk. I had bent over and held the video camera at my feet pointing at the chipmunk, with the LCD screen swivelled up so I could see what I was looking at. Thank goodness for technology.

A redwood tree at Muir woods

At one point we all stopped to take some photos of the group on a bridge in the park. While we all posed, a small crowd started building up at either edge of the bridge. We were quite amazed that all the americans politely waited until we were finished before walking past. You don’t get that back at home! Australian’s are notorious for walking through people’s pictures (we walked through our fair share of photos while we were in America), and in fact you’ll find in my video footage of Mat walking through my video. At the time he was actually making a joke about walking in front, and told me later that he had intended to do it while I was filming. Whatever, I vote he was just being Australian *grin*

We finished walking the track then piled back into the car. On the way back towards San Francisco we stopped off at various places to get some beautiful scenic shots of the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of the lookouts were extremely windy I almost felt like I was going to be blown over! Once again I congratulated myself on the decision to bring the tripod because there was no way I would have gotten a steady shot without it. The wind brought with a deep chill as well, so needless to say we weren’t out of the car taking pictures for long!

We also drove the famous Lombard St, the most crooked street in the world. Correction – Pauline drove it and the rest of us looked out the windows gawking at how steep the road was, and all the brave people climbing the stairs on either side. The hill is so steep they made a winding road on it in an attempt to battle the incline (and saving brakes in the process). It’s paved in brick, and you can see where many people have scratched their cars along the walls on their way down. Thankfully we didn’t (due to Pauline’s amazing driving even with all of us being loud in the back). Unfortunately the video I recorded doesn’t really do the street justice, you can’t tell just how steep it truly is! When you watch the video I’ve made, try to look at the angle the pedestrians are standing on, and you can try to imagine what it felt like.

After Lombard St we drove back to the hotel, where we had a brief rest. We then all met downstairs again, and set off for dinner. The decision had been made to go to a particular Sicilian restaurant about 15 – 20mins walk away. Unfortunately for us that also meant walking through China Town, where we smelled some of the most disgusting smells ever. Think of rotting seafood, then add some dead carcass, maybe some mould, and then triple it. That’s how bad it was. There was one street corner where we waited for the lights to change so we could cross the street, and everyone was gagging or holding their nose. It was terrible. I guess you could tell we were tourists.

Thankfully we arrived at our destination, Trattoria Volare, with our noses intact. It was a beautiful little restaurant with an authentic interior, it definitely made you feel at ease. It was also nice and warm too, compared to the temperature outside (which was rapidly cooling). We all ordered various entrees to share around, along with some mains. I had the calamari entree, and given that I didn’t like much of the other stuff our group had ordered, I was only too happy to keep the calamari to myself and not share (I did offer once, but that was the only invite they were getting). I think I had the gnocci for my main. I can’t remember what it was called exactly, but I know I really enjoyed whatever it was and finished the meal in its entirety. Although I probably shouldn’t have, I’d eaten so much!

A handkerchief covered the controversial parts of David at Trattoria Volare

After dinner we walked around for a little bit. We saw the church where Marilyn Munroe married Joe DiMaggio, which looked absolutely beautiful at night. Religion makes Mat a little bit uncomfortable, so he questioned why we were visiting a church (he hasn’t yet understood my family has a habit of visiting old churches and monastries), but I gave him a look and he quickly shut up.

Dark was fast approaching, so we waited for the next cable car to show up. We rode it back to our hotel, and after sitting down with hot chocolates and tea/coffee, chatted for a while. Fiona updated Aunty Sue’s facebook to indicate she was hanging out at a male strip club in San Francisco (which made us all giggle since Aunty Sue kept coming up with better and better updates for Fiona to write). Eventually though it was time for bed, so we all retired for the evening. Tomorrow was going to be one of the highlights of the whole trip for me – we were due to visit Alcatraz.

For Amy’s versions of events, you can see her blog post here.

No related posts.

We got up, showered and double checked our bags for the 50th time. Dad arrived right on time at 6am to pick us up, as he was kindly driving us to the airport (saving us about $50 in shuttle costs in the process). We had dropped Turbo off at the dog kennel the day before, so the house felt very empty. After double and triple checking the house was locked up, we packed the bags in the car and we were off! For a few minutes at least. Thankfully we hadn’t driven very far when Mat realised he’d left his (only) jacket back at home, so we turned around so he could collect it. We all teased him about being the one to forget something, then headed off again (I later discovered on the plane that I had forgotten the pashmina my mother had given me, but purposely neglected to tell Mat this for several days).

My dad's flatmate, my dad and Mat - just before we left for the airport

An hour and a half later we arrived at the airport, and bid my dad and his flatmate farewell, before walking inside. We thought check in only opened 3 hours before the flight, and we were there 3.5 hours early but thankfully it was already open. We checked our bags in (flashing my passport for the first time – big moment for me), and looked for something to eat for breakfast. Mat saw a coffee club downstairs, so we decided we’d get customs over and done with and find something to eat in the departure lounge. This meant finally crossing the line – getting to go through the big yellow “Passengers only” door frame. Mat didn’t see what was so exciting about it, but after I’d dropped off members of my family numerous times for their holidays it was fantastic to finally be the one crossing the line. I was a little disappointed there wasn’t anyone to see us off (and more importantly, be the one that wasn’t crossing the line) but excitement soon took over again.

Customs was actually a lot easier than I expected. The staff were friendly, and it only took us 5 minutes to get through. In my excitement I didn’t realise “liquids” included toiletries, and that we had to take them out and send them through the x-rays by themselves. Thus our bags were taken aside and searched, and when the customs officer realised what had look abnormal in the scan she took out the toiletries (which we’d correctly put in a see-through zip locked bag) and sent them through again separately from the bag. She laughed and said she could tell we were novices, and cheerfully wished us a fantastic holiday. Not the “hardcore serious” customs officer I’d expected to encounter.

We had our breakfast, collected our refund for our video camera, tripod, camera bag and batteries from the TRS desk, then wandered around to look at all the duty free stores. We were going to be meeting some friends in Las Vegas who had moved to the UK for a 2 years, and they’d asked us to pick up some Silver label Bundaberg Rum for them to bring over (as they hadn’t been able to find anywhere to buy it over there). We purchased the rum along with a beaded neck pillow for the flight (recommendation from our chiro). Amazingly we’d managed to waste a lot of time, and was shocked to find there was only 1/2 hour before boarding time, so we walked to the gate and sat down. We spent the last half hour video taping ourselves and staring out the window. Eventually, it was time to board.

I won’t go through the specifics of our thirteen hour flight because it would get pretty boring. But here’s my main thoughts:

1. Thumbs up V-Australia for comfy seats – I didn’t feel squashed at all
2. Thumbs up V-Australia for a great entertainment system – when I was bored I watched movies, played some games, or video taped our progress on the map.
3. Thumbs up V-Australia for the food (sensing a thumbs up theme here?) I really enjoyed what we had, only complaint would be the waffles were a little bit dry, but it’s airplane food, not a 5 star restaurant. Mat taunted me with his delicious spinach fritata, it tasted so good.
4. Mat really struggled to get any sleep on this flight. However I managed to nap a little bit here and there, thanks to my noise cancelling headphones and the V-Australia eye mask.
5. We were lucky enough not to have anyone sitting in the third seat in our row, so were able to stretch out a bit.
6. When they handed out the customs form there were a few questions that made me nervous, like the date of our Visa Waiver. When I applied it said we weren’t required to bring it to the airport with us, and I wasn’t sure of the exact date we’d applied (I later found out they didn’t need this info from us anyway, so I’d been stressing out for nothing).
7. Flying from Australia to America takes AGES!!

As we were coming down to land it was like being in a movie. We could make out the freeways and cars, and giggled about them being on the wrong side of the road. We saw a black and white police car, and laughed because it was like out of the movies. We saw american vehicles, and laughed. Yes, we had the giggles out of excitement.

After we disembarked and collected our luggage we headed through customs. I kept reminding myself not to make any bad jokes,  and after getting our fingerprints scanned we made it through. We walked outside the terminal where a man immediately introduced himself to us and offered to help us find our destination. We told him we were looking for the entrance back to the Terminal so we could check in for our next flight, and he pointed out the way for us. The official way in which he spoke made me think he was an actual employee of the airport so I was quite impressed with the service, until I realised that he actually wasn’t a staff member. This was around the same time he asked for a tip for helping us out. Before I knew it Mat had given him US$20 (!!!) and we were off walking again. At that point I told Mat he was officially banned from handing out any more money to people on the street.

A nice view of LAX airport, better than what we saw when we arrived (Photo credit: marcus_and_sue)

We got to the elevators the guy had pointed us to and found it was just more carpark. We realised there was another elevator at the far end of the carpark, so walked over there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the parking area was a highlight of the day for Mat, as he found 4wd after 4wd. Each time he tried to inconspicuously look them over and drool, while I kept walking on. He really enjoyed the trucks that he saw all over America, given they have much more relaxed rules on what is a roadworthy vehicle. His “monster truck” back home (that he’d sold to help fund our holiday – amongst other reasons) would have been a baby in America! Finally we reached the other elevator, got to the right level and headed back into the airport.

We checked our baggage in, and headed outside to just have a look before going back into the airport and through security. The weather was quite overcast, and security were looking at us a little funny for filming the outside of the airport and some cars, so we packed up and went back inside. We went through security (one of the many times during our holiday we’d have to take our shoes off for security purposes, and Mat’s socks stunk!!) and walked towards our gate. I must say, I really found LAX to be quite a disappointment. Terminal 3 was old and tired looking and there wasn’t much to do. After coming from Brisbane International where everything is nice and new it was a bit of a letdown. We bought some coffee and snacks (confusing the starbucks people at the time with our accents) and sat down to wait for our connecting flight to San Francisco.

It turned out there was runway maintenance work going on in San Francisco, thus our flight was delayed by 2 hours. In total, we waited for 6 hours at LAX, it was a nightmare! We were bored and tired, so not in the best spirit to deal with a flight delay. Back home I would have been able to spend the time surfing the net on my iphone, but not having a working sim card meant I couldn’t do the same. Until I realised that T Mobile had a wifi hotspot, but it cost US $10 for 24 hour access. After an hour of boredom I caved in and bought a 24 hour access pass for only 5 hours. I spent the time updating twitter and facebook (with very cranky messages about the flight delay) and clearing my google reader while Mat attempted to nap on the chair next to me. It wasn’t very comfortable for him – he was sitting totally upright with nowhere to rest his head comfortably. Needless to say, he didn’t catch much sleep.

Finally we flew to San Francisco. We chatted a little bit with the American woman in the same row as us (she lived just outside of the city), but other than that the flight was pretty uneventful. Thankfully it was short! After we arrived we collected our luggage we set out to find the BART train. We did a couple of loops of the airport due to bad signage, but finally I figured out where we were going just in time to get our tickets and get on the train in the station. Once on the train we watched the passing scenery get more and more compact with residential property the further we headed towards the city. We weren’t used to seeing so many houses packed together (even in Brisbane), and it gave me the feeling of being a hillbilly! Very strange indeed. Originally when planning the trip I wasn’t sure if we would catch the train, get a shuttle bus or take a taxi. In the end I was glad we used the train – it was great value for money, just as fast as the other options and so incredibly simple!

Before we knew it we had arrived at our stop. We got off the train and headed upstairs. We saw all the signs for the various exits but unfortunately none of them pointed to the street we wanted to go to. As we were deciding which exit we’d gamble on we were approached by a passer by (he looked quite normal) who quickly pointed us in the right direction. He made conversation about the city, and even walked us out to the street. He asked what hotel we were staying at, then took out a map and pointed it out to us. Handing me the map and telling me I could keep it, he then asked for a tip. I cursed myself for not realising it was the same as the guy at LAX, and that I hadn’t seen the handful of maps he was holding in his other hand. Mat was switched on at this point, quickly handed the guy a dollar, and we walked off. Surprisingly, the guy was actually pleased with receiving a dollar. I have no idea how much these guys normally get, but we used the map several times over the course of our San Francisco leg, so I guess for us $1 was good value.

Arriving at the hotel I was impressed to see the doormen out the front in their costume-like atire. They greeted us warmly, and after we assured them we would be fine carrying our luggage to the reception ourselves (call me a tight ass for not accepting the service and tipping them) they returned to their post. I was very impressed with the interior of the hotel, it was incredibly beautiful. We checked in, and I inquired as to whether my aunt had arrived at the hotel. They were unable to locate her name in the computer, however informed me that I had mail (which later turned out to be a message from my Aunt letting me know what room she was in) and handed me an envelope. Thanking her, we then went upstairs to our room.

The doorman at Sir Francis Drake Hotel (photo credit: izahorsky)

Initially I was shocked by the size of the room – it appeared to be so very small. At the end of our stay though it felt like the perfect size. We’d really only spent enough time there for short breaks and rests, and sleep at night. The main thing was the bed was comfortable and very big (a king sized bed was probably the reason for the room feeling small), so we were well rested each day. I opened the envelope to find the message from my aunt, and phoned her to let her know we’d arrived. We agreed to meet in an hour downstairs. We had enough time to both have showers before my aunt rang again to let me know the rest of the family had arrived (as they were driving south to San Francisco to meet us – they’d already been in the USA for 3 weeks at that point). We all met downstairs and exchanged hugs, then ventured out for dinner.

We wandered around nearby, watching a cable car run down the street and turn around as well as seeing a Melbourne Tram go past (they’d been donated to the city by Australia). We ended up at a place called Buckhorn Grill, where we had our first proper taste of American food. Typically we went for the most outrageous things. I know I got a Bacon Cheddar Buck, but unfortunately forget what Mat’s “buck” was called. When our food arrived we were pretty shocked – they looked massive and greasy! I guess that was the best introduction of American food we could have had really – we’d been expecting huge and greasy food so may as well deal with it straight up. We managed our way through them, but I can’t say we were exactly satisfied. We sure were full though!

Darkness had settled by the time we walked back to the hotel, and the city looked quite pretty at night. Some of the buildings were lit up beautifully! I was impressed that Mat and I had lasted the full day without sleeping, and I think it worked out to be a full 24 hours that we had been awake for. I’d had the odd nap on the plane at least, while Mat had literally had nothing. We finalised a plan for the following morning with the family, then bid everyone good night and headed to our room. The bed looked incredibly inviting, and  we both fell asleep with ease, incredibly exhausted. It had been a long, long day.

******************************************************************************************

Video summary:

No related posts.