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When planning where we would visit in our travels en-route to London, destinations in Europe were not initially considered. We figured it would soon enough be on our doorstep waiting for us to explore at a later date. However, after we visited the travel agent and found out that our cheapest option was an airfare offered by Austrian Airlines, it seemed rude not to include a stopover in the airlines homeland.

After a grueling eight-hour flight (surprisingly the hardest leg in our journey thus far) we descended through the clouds to reveal Austria below us. The landscape, very much reminded me of a fairytale setting with perfectly defined woods and lovingly tended and perfectly green fields giving way to perfect little towns huddled up closely to breathtaking churches, in pride of place in the very centre of town.

After the hustle and bustle of the American airports we had spent so much time in over the previous week, Vienna airport was surprisingly easy to negotiate and as an added bonus for Aaron, with his newly acquired i-Pad, it even offered free wi-fi. Another culture shock came when we took the taxi to the hotel, where the driver was very amicable carrying our bags both to the car and then into the hotel at the other end with no expectation of tip. The hotel was also very accommodating to us poor jet-lagged souls, checking us in several hours before the official check in time, without us having made prior arrangements for them to do so.

After New York, our room seemed to be of palatial proportions, so much so that I think the bathroom in Vienna was only marginally smaller than our entire room in New York. The hotel was lovely and boarded onto a massive pedestrian square which had loads of beautiful buildings, cafes, bars and gorgeous shops to explore. I was in heaven.

Our wonderfully obliging hotel

Day one was spent largely in a state of slumber, as we caught up on the sleep which had alluded us while flying. I forced myself awake before dinner-time in a bid to change my body clock onto local time asap. After I had bullied Aaron from his rather deep sleep, we enjoyed a lovely authentic Italian meal at a place not far from the hotel. When the bill arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find it substantially cheaper than we had anticipated. Having spent a fortune on our accommodation when booking from New Zealand we were happy to find the cheap to eat and drink trend continued for our entire stay.

After a slightly broken sleep, where jet-lag made a mockery of local time our second day was exploring the plaza and shopping areas around our hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was a festival going on for the local cathedral the Stephansdom. Near to the church there were little street vendors selling really yummy food (pretzels and bratwurst anyone), as well as street performers and a gorgeous steam operated carousel.

The Stephansdom (and Austrian scaffolding!)

Pretzels, Bratwurst and Bier

We spent a great deal of time walking in and around Stephansplatz (the square onto which the cathedral opens) during our time in Vienna, stopping fairly frequently for coffee, which was good and strong, at one of the many outdoor cafe areas. We also may have met our friendly bar tender who was impressed with my ordering a half yard glass of beer and who later photo-bombed a picture of us. We did return to this bar the following night, this time for both dinner and drinks.

Photo bombing moment

Enjoying a decent coffee in the sunshine

By the third day thanks to my stubborness with fooling my body into local time, I was feeling good and ready to explore the museums dotted around the city. Most of which were located ridiculously close to our hotel seeing we were staying in what is know as the Museum Quarter. First up we looked through the Albertina, which was once a Palace and now mostly an art museum. We had missed the Andy Warhol exhibit by two days much to my disappointment but it was good to have a nosy nonetheless. After the Albertina we grabbed a coffee and a strudel from one of the local cafes. Here is where we ran into our only translation mishap, with a waitress who could speak English embarrassingly enough, where instead of ordering the cherry strudel we ended up asking for the milk curd one instead. Apparently it was as tasty as it sounds - I wasn't brave enough to try it, electing to buy a third strudel in the correct flavour. After this Aaron succumbed to his jetlag so I wandered around and even managed to order a bratwurst from a street vendor using a combination of butchered German (me), well spoken English (the vendor) and over the top improvised sign language (me again).

The scene of our ordering disaster

Our fourth day saw us do the zoo and MOTAT Vienna style with a trip to the world's oldest zoo (which originated as the back garden of the Schoenbrunn palace) followed by a visit to the Viennese Museum of Technology. The walk to the zoo was beautiful and the newer parts of the zoo were really well done, the older enclosures which were clearly part of the original zoo, made me sad for the animals in them. For the record, the giraffes, Giant panda and hippos all drew the short straw for the original caged enclosures. The technology museum was also loads of fun and quite impressive. Unfortunately by the time we got to the level with all the fun cars and motorbikes we were a little museumed out so didn't spend as much time as we would have liked here.

The walk to the zoo through the Palace gardens

The closest we came to spotting the Giant Panda
Vienna MOTAT

Aaron with the bike he suspects he was named after - the AJS

All in all, Vienna was lovely. I whiled away the hours just wandering around the central square. We didn't explore nearly as much as we should. We discovered a lovely marketplace in the bottom of a swanky mall and had our faith restored in the service industry. After the whirlwind adventures we had crammed into the US leg of a trip, Vienna was a nice little holiday at a completely different pace. It was a beautiful way to introduce us to Europe and it meant by the time we made it to London, a mere two hour flight away and a one hour time-difference, we had already conquered our jetlag and were ready to conquer the next stage of our adventures.

I Want to Wake Up in the City that Never Sleeps...

New York is a city that gets under your skin. While undoubtedly my hunger to spend longer and to see more of the city is borne largely of not having enough time there, with the lowly kiwi dollar and our ever dwindling bank account only allowing us enough budget to stay for two nights, I have a feeling that no amount of time is long enough in New York City. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why New York has this quality, the streets are crowded, the people impatient, the coffee awful (despite fuelling the majority of the city’s population) yet despite all this there is a pervasive feeling of excitement and hope throughout the city as if this is the place where the American Dream becomes reality.

We arrived in New York early evening and managed to make our way to our hotel which was located right in the centre of it all at Times Square. Times Square is exactly how it looks in movies and on TV with amazing digital advertising watching over all the people who are looking back and them. Despite a very real bomb square about a week prior to us arriving in New York, there were people everywhere and it seemed very much business as usual. There was also a high police presence throughout the square but this did not seem unusual with officers indulging tourists who wanted to take photos of or with them.

Getting amongst the lights and the people of Times Square

The next day started with a rather yummy (and pricey) breakfast in a lovely cafe/bar near to the hotel where the food was amazing, but the service was rather hit and miss. Our waitress was lovely, but in my quest to find a reasonable coffee I was both bitterly disappointed in both the service and the beverage. In an attempt to recreate a flat white in an American friendly version I ordered a latte with a double shot. We got served a double espresso, so when I told the barista that no, I had ordered a latte with a double shot, he rolled his eyes and ungraciously took the coffee back to remake. Next time the coffee was bought over he handed us two single shot lattes. When again I pointed out that the order was still wrong he winked at Aaron, said enjoy the free coffee and walked away. He completely ignored me when I said "excuse me, that means my coffee is still wrong". It was very tempting to not leave a tip at this establishment as I had never come across someone (who undoubtedly relies on tips to make ends meet) who was so obviously rude to the person who would be deciding on the tip. Needless to say, we were not overly generous with our tip here.

Following on from the breakfast debacle and armed with a list of advice from my step-mum who had been a one time New York local, we set out on the subway, heading south to catch the Staten Island Ferry to get a glimpse of Lady Liberty herself. It seems the entire tourist population of the city also had the same idea, but despite this we were able to secure prime standing positions both there and back. Following on from the trip on the ferry we made our way through the downtown business district to have a look at Wall Street and grab the bull by his balls (its supposed to be good luck), and view Ground Zero. Ground Zero, did not have the haunting quality about it that I was expecting as, almost 10 years on they have begun construction on a 9/11 memorial. While ultimately this is a great thing, honouring those who died that awful day, the construction had the unfortunate side effect of making Ground Zero look like just another building site.

Statue of Liberty as viewed from the Staten Island Ferry

Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange

Getting Lucky

After we had finished exploring the financial district we then jumped onto a subway uptown to go visit the Empire State Building (or the Entire State Building as I had thought it was called when I was a kid). Sadly we got a very authentic New York experience with the subway car we boarded having a rather strong smell of urine, and more disturbingly no readily identifiable source. After purchasing tickets and finding our way through the maze of cordoning ribbons we then were subjected to security checks (to be expected) and finally made it into the first elevator crammed in like sardines, then had to negotiate the maze of the 80th floor to get around to the correct lift for the viewing platform on the 86th floor. Despite being an overcast day the view was amazing. The scale of central park is breathtaking and we could make out landmarks where we had been and where we still wanted to go.

Taking in the view from the top of the world

Following on from the Empire State Building, we wandered through Macy's. Two blocks and eight stories of upscale department store with no less than 4 Starbucks stores inside, I was in heaven. Unfortunately our dwindling funds did not allow for a shopping spree and we left the store empty handed and exhausted. That night after having a bit of a lie down in the hotel room we went for dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe where we opted for a seat at the bar over a half hour wait for a table. We ended up sitting next to an Australian guy and some American girl who were very clearly on their first date. It seemed to be going well until she left prior to her (already ordered) dessert arriving. Following on from dinner we went and sat on the bleacher steps in Times Square and just soaked up the atmosphere.

Macy's for as far as the eye could see

Our final day in New York was really a half day seeing we had to be at the airport early afternoon for our flight to Vienna. On the list of recommendations we had received from my step-mum was a military museum on an aircraft carrier moored in the Hudson. Because I had let Aaron read the recommendations our morning was decided (I had rather had my heart set on stepping into Central Park and also exploring 5th Avenue). However despite the weather being miserable the museum was really cool. It not only had the aircraft carrier (complete with a whole lot of aircraft) but they also had a Concorde and decommissioned submarine on display. Aaron was like a kid at Christmas. I was like a silly teenager when we explored the submarine which was called the USS Growler (it took supreme effort not to laugh at this). All too soon though, we had to leave the museum and leave New York behind us.

Kid at Christmas

The USS Growler

However, the city stole my heart and we will be back. Hopefully next time we will be cashed up traveling on the pound, and poor Aaron won't be so successful in keeping me away from the shops on 5th Avenue.

Theme Park Mania!

Like most kids I had always dreamed of going to Disneyland so there was no question about whether this would be included in our itinerary for LA. We had 4 nights staying in Anaheim resort which I had also taken to mean we had 4 days to enjoy the theme parks, the sun and maybe even see some of Hollywood. Closer inspection of our flight times, however effectively cut our stay down by a day when I realised we needed to check in at the airport at 4:50am and not in the afternoon as I had assumed.

It was in LA (or more specifically in Anaheim) that Aaron and I really had to come to terms with the limitations of the traditional American diet. Breakfast was thoughtfully included with our accommodations yet I was soon to discover we would struggle to find anything to eat. Waffles with syrup were a menu staple, as were full on sugary donuts, bread that was laced with sugar and sugary cereals. Even the oats I opted for one morning tasted suspiciously sweet despite my not adding any sugar. Eating outside of the resort was no better. Options consisted of mostly family geared fast food places such as Denny's (or which there were three within walking distance of our hotel) where I discovered that the least salty option on their menu were their salted fries. (Hint when eating in Anaheim don't make the mistake of looking at the nutritional information of food)

Mmmm tasty - an example of the culinary delights found in the theme parks

Because our first full day in Anaheim was a Thursday we decided we would start with Disneyland in the hopes of avoiding the inevitable queues that would come with a weekend visit. With no clue what time the park opened and in my enthusiasm to finally visit this amazing place of my childhood fantasies I dragged Aaron along to the park (a reasonably walking distance away) at about 9am. We arrived to find the place busy and were able to buy tickets but the park didn't officially open until 10am. My enthusiasm did pay off in the end with only a small amount of people ahead of us and a massive queue waiting behind us by the time the park officially opened. At 10am the gates (and by gates I mean a rope across the end of Downtown Disney shops) were open and excitable people surged forward hoping to be amongst the first on each of the rides for the day.

Our first point of call was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in which we pretty much walked straight on. The ride was really well done and one of the few where I was not left with the feeling of "oh its over already?". Next up was Splash Mountain where again the wait was minimal but because we had been given "1st Visit" badges upon our arrival we were seated in the front of the log, and my been the smaller of the two of us I got prime position. Splash Mountain was lots of fun but luckily it was a warm sunny day as it took a good few hours for me to dry out afterward.

The results of Splash Mountain

Other hightlights of the day included Space Mountain (which was closed due to technical difficulties on our first attempt to ride, much to my chargin), the teacups which were way more fun than I was expecting, and ToonTown which I felt we could have spent way more time in taking advantage of the numerous photo ops around the place.

Space Mountain the first time round

The teacups are such a simple and unadulterated joy

Indulging our silly sides in Toontown

Disappointments of the day included being jealous of all the little girls who had princess dresses and pretty princess makeup on (I decided this was a trend best left to those under the age of eight), the Gold Rush ride being shut all day, the Matterhorn being all too short despite the promise held by the queue, and the Indiana Jones ride breaking down after we were so close to the front of a 45 minute line. They managed to get Indiana Jones up and running after about 10 minutes so this was not a complete disaster, and thankfully the ride was worth the wait.

Like most people who have visited Disneyland for the first time as an adult I was glad we did the park prior to any other theme parks, as the rides while fun tend to take a back seat to the marketing machine that is Disney. The following day we braved the LA public transport system, which was surprisingly easy to navigate and made our way to Knott's Berry Farm where all sorts of towering and scary looking rides loomed over the fence. It was with nervous anticipation that I approached the park, thinking I could NEVER do half the coasters in there. Especially the rather insane looking Xcelerator as glimpsed over the fence.

The view of Knott's Berry Farm as we approached from the bus-stop. The Xcelerator track is in the back

Now I had thought the queues at Disney had been pretty good but the only wait we encountered the whole day at Knott's was for our first ride where we went on the wooden roller coaster Ghost Rider (my logic was that because there were no loops or corkscrews this would be a relatively tame way to ease into the more extreme coasters). The wait for this was just over half an hour and it soon became evident that the reason for this was because compared to the other rides the cars are very small and there was only a single coaster which took about 2-3 mins to complete the track. The ride was definitely worth the wait and definitely nowhere near as tame as I thought it might be. Next up was the Pony Express which was good easy fun - a very short circuit which you hurtle around strapped onto what essentially is a carousel horse each.

Waiting in the short queue for the Pony Express - that is an actual car for the coaster in the background

Highlights of the day included the Boomerang which Aaron somehow convinced me would be fine. This roller coaster starts by towing the car backwards to the starting point of the track which starts so you are almost vertical. You then go screaming down the track through a loop and a corkscrew and up the other side. You then get flung through the track again backwards. Pumped with adrenalin following this ride I was able to conquer both the Xcelerator (0-80 miles per hour in less than 3 seconds (once you remembered to breathe this was actually one of the easier coasters of the day as the ride was so smooth) and the Silver Bullet.

The first section of the Xcelerator track

The Silver Bullet is a suspended roller coaster and turned out to be one of my favourites of the day. So much so that the second time round we made sure we were sitting right up front which gave the illusion of flying - Aaron was not so keen on this one. Actually the theme of many the official ride pictures from the day were shots of me grinning or giggling hysterically while Aaron looked like he may have just messed his pants on more than one of the rides.

A section of the Silver Bullet track

A trip to California would not be complete without a trip to the beach, thus our third day's activities were decided. After ruling out some of the more iconic options such as Venice beach due to LA's bus system being much the same as Auckland's (ie: unreliable and few and far between) and the distance from Anaheim we decided to venture to Newport beach seeing we were already in the Orange County area. Just beyond the Disney/Anaheim resort area lie the poorer areas of the OC. We could tell we were getting close to Newport Harbour as used car lots began to give way to Lamborghini showrooms and copious amounts of various fast food joints (such as Denny's and Taco Bell) gave way to copious amounts of Starbucks cafes.

Newport Beach was typical of the American West Coast beach as often portrayed in movies and on Baywatch. There was the giant sandy beach with blue ocean and ideal surf. There was the long pier jutting out in the ocean. There were the lifegaurds on duty complete with lifeguard stands and 4x4s for cruising up and down the beach.

On Newport Pier looking North

The seaside town was also really beautiful with quaint holiday homes jostling for position up and down the beachfront. While we were there we made like the locals (and the majority of tourists) by hiring a couple of bikes and cycling the beach front to the end of the peninsula. I was more than a little pleased when I was offered the girly pink bike complete with basket.

The view cycling South along the beachfront

Aaron, the bikes and Newport Harbour in the background

As we returned from our leisurely bike ride we noticed the fantastic clear blue day had started to close in. Upon returning the bikes we were advised that this was likely the start of "June Gloom" which happens each year. So if you are planning a sun-filled LA holiday it may be best to avoid going in June.

After three full-on fun and sun filled days and with a shuttle booked to take us to the airport at 3:45am you would think that we had squeezed every drop of adventure out of the city as we could. We even managed to wake up without issue at the required time despite failure of the alarm and check out of the resort with no issue with grand plans of using the time it took to get to the airport (about 45 mins at that time of the morning) to catch up on some of our missing sleep. However as we were waiting in the reception for our shuttle to pick us up, a limo pulled into the driveway. Turns out there had been a prom earlier in the evening and the guy we had booked the shuttle through also runs a limo service. Seeing the limo had already been in use the driver had obviously thought that it would be a good opportunity to make some extra money in the way of tips by using it to transport us to the airport. So there we were dressed down in our comfiest in-flight clothes, all sleep deprived and bedraggled heading for one of the local budget airline check in desks in a limousine. Sadly for the driver, he may have been better off just bringing his normal van as the cost of the ride did not leave much over for us to afford a generous tip.

Our taxi awaits.....

Inside the Limo

Arriving at the airpot

So all in all, LA was fun-filled and jam-packed (much like its breakfast donuts!) Next time I would like to spend some time actually within the vicinity of LA and to check out Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Also if I go back to Disney I am so buying the Minnie Mouse ears and wearing them with pride for the whole time I'm there.

Vegas Baby!

There are not enough words to accurately describe Vegas to someone who has never visited. It is both exactly the same and nothing like how it appears on TV. Vegas is like a Disneyland for grown-ups with new places to explore opening up with every turn you take. The scale of the place is insane - just looking through a single casino can have you clocking up the recommended daily 10,000 steps.

Arriving in Vegas was a bit of an adventure in itself. After a fairly easy flight from New Zealand into LA, where we managed to negotiate all the security checks and maze of terminals that comprise LAX to find the correct gate, we discovered our flight had been delayed by an hour. (After further experiences flying with this airline we would later discover we were pretty lucky with a delay of only one hour by that time of day). Once the flight did eventually get underway we assumed we were on the home stretch, only to have this illusion almost completely shattered when upon our final approach the pilot had to pull up and circle again due to high winds. The second approach thankfully was successful.

One of the first lessons we learned upon arrival at our hotel/casino is that anyone offering help or advice is invariably looking for money in one form or another. The second lesson is that all hotels in Vegas are laid out so you come across the gaming floor before you reach any other place within them- the check in desk for example.

Unfortunately for Aaron and I lessons One and Two were learned the hard way and almost immediately upon arrival in Vegas. After having finally made it to our hotel and displaying all the classic signs of being rather green tourists (bags verging on the upper weight limits allowed by airlines, stunned possum expressions and no clue where the check in desk was located) a pushy sales team descended upon us under the guise of helping us get checked in. They also suggested seeing a show while we were in town and said they could organise free tickets. A 20 minute spiel and $40US later we found ourselves signed up for some time-share presentation that we were obliged to attend in order to get our $40 back as well as the promised show tickets, we were still not checked in to the hotel.

After the dramas of checking in (where the hotel had stuffed up our booking and booked the wrong dates) we realised the time difference was working in our favour and we were feeling wide awake enough to do some exploring of the Sin City nightlife. We started the night out by catching the free monorail to Mandalay Bay where we played the 1c pokies and got "free" drinks (cost $1US in tips each time, and because our tips were stingy we didn't get a lot of drinks our way). After giving up on the pokies where we had broken about even we started exploring our way back from Mandalay Bay via the Luxor. Fairly sober we came upon "Fat Tuesdays" a chain of Magarita bars found across Sin City where you can buy alcoholic slushies by the yard glass, which is exactly what we did. The thing that struck me most at this point was that we were able to take our giant drinks and wander freely around Vegas and the casinos while drinking them. By the time we finally made it back through to our hotel (Excalibur) we had almost finished the drinks and I had gone from almost sober to rather drunk.

Purchasing the drinks at Fat Tuesdays


Enjoying the drinks in the Luxor

The following morning we had to haul our sorry hungover selves out of bed in order to attend the "short timeshare presentation" which turned out to be 3 hours of a one-on-one hard sell of some awful new resort in the far South of Las Vegas Boulevard (a half hour drive from the Strip). Our sales person was genuinely surprised and upset when we declined the offer. However they did feed us and by the time the ordeal was over my hangover had started to subside. We used the rest of the afternoon to take advantage of the fine weather and to explore The Strip to the North. Lunch at the Diablo Cantina was great and we had a very helpful wait-person. The only waiter we had in our entire stay in the US who I did not begrudge leaving a tip for. Because of the scale of the casinos we only made it as far north as Caesar's Palace which was incredible, with at least 3 different casino areas and an indoor mall that was created to look like an outdoor plaza.
That night we went to see Chris Angel in his Cirque du Soleil supported show at the Luxor. The show was enjoyable but I was not convinced the payoff was worth it.

Outside our hotel

Character encountered along The Strip (outside M&Ms World)


Inside Caesar's Palace

The following morning we were able to squeeze in a ride on the New York New York roller coaster, which although pricey at $14US each was worth it. We got to sit right in the front seat which to me at that point a relative roller coaster virgin (only ever have ridden the Rainbows End roller coaster) was rather daunting. However, I loved every minute of it and spent the whole time giggling uncontrollably. The resulting photo (which at $20US we didn't buy) was somewhat similar of the photos to come in the following two days on rides at both Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm.

So overall Vegas was fun, full-on, exhausting and overall had a pervasive feeling of suspended reality.

Outside New York New York after having just completed the roller coaster