Country livin'

NASHHHVILLLLEEEEEEEE! So, here we go. Its awesome here. Our hostel is about a 20 minute walk away from 'downtown', which is where all the ho' downin' occurs. On our first day we just walked there and looked through all the crazy memorabilia shops..took some comedy photos with a carbon fibre Elvis statue and got some lunch in a bar (its the only place to have lunch in Nashville- they seem to have got it right!) There was a band a playin and we celebrated not being tired and ravaged by bugs. The bassist in the band was amazing, someone mentioned something about him being in a film about Elvis, everyone here is trying to make it, in the fame sense..y'know, the old chestnut about every waiter being a budding young star.. well our waitress was a sullen old cowboy boot who didn't deserve the tip that we HAD to give- compulsory tipping defies the point, i think i even made some kind of old lady comment to Han about how she'd get a surprise if she waitressed with that attitude in England.
Seriously, Hannah and i might as well have gone on a tour to Napa Valley, were such oldies. Our favourite phrase is 'one of my pet hates is........' needless to say, if someone had given me a quarter every time either of us had said that we'd be flying to NYC...
Anyway, the second day we decided we must see the Country Music Hall of Fame, (i was secretly hoping for a big busted shrine to DP, nothing of the sort occurred however..) A very nice lady in the ticket booth said she could tell we were English because we were so polite.. (in truth she could tell we were English because when she asked for our zip code, we said we were from England) but anyway, she was nice. The hall of Fame is 3 floors of memorabilia, cowboy boots, fringed shirts and even Elvis's Golden Cadillac (complete with 40 coats of opaque crushed diamond and fish scale paint). It was coooool! i learnt quite a lot about the Hank Williams Clan, there was an extensive display on him, and Han got all elbow bargey excited at the Taylor swift things, small girls HAD NO RIGHT TO STAND IN FRONT JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE SMALLER! (joking, she was nothing like that) they had some of Dolly's stuff and many people enjoyed our little country dance at the interactive Dolly station...We had a good day.
Today we went to Elliston Place, Lonely Planet says its nice, but in fact, its just a row of shops. Most of the streets of most of the places we've been are deserted, but i think its just because noone walks anywhere. well, you know what they say about mad dogs and Englishwomen. We went to an old fashioned 'soda shop' and got the traditional meat n'3 which, we discovered to our dismay, was as close to a school dinner that I've got to in 13 years..but not necessarily nasty. Were all for trying things, so we got some mac'n'cheese, which was disappointingly out of a packet, and some fried okra and turnip greens (quite bitter) and coleslaw, han had crab cakes and i had baked ham. it was all fine, the piece de resistance was the Vanilla Soda we shared, some kind of weird ice cream soda combo that was, obviously, delicious!
Then we got a coffee at this old Frat house called Cafe Coco which was full of those funny triangle flags that you see in college dorms in movies. It was good coffee too for a change. We are bracing ourselves for a longggggggggggggggg greyhound journey to Washington DC tomorrow evening, and then, tea at the Whitehouse!

Love you all, see you sooooooon!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Asheville- yogurt weaving capital of the U.S

So, i havent writtten for a while and im so hot and sweaty this is going to be a short one...Theres a heatwave in the US atm and were not talking weston-super-mare beach weather, were talking 105 at 5pm in the afternoon. Asheville, North Carolina originally made its way into our itinerary after someone told us James Franco (actor) does a creative writing course there. after lonely planet had confirmed it was a nice place to go we went there. We stayed at a really cool hostel that had a suit of armour and a vegetable patch and even hooks in the bedrooms so you could hang things up..which is a rarity over here. On our first day we went for brunch at a place called Sunny Point and i ate GRITS for the first time. apparently a southern delicacy they are in fact just a corn based porridge that is a bit, well, gritty...but nice, with cheese and sausage...and this thing called a biscuit that is in fact just a scone...MMMMMMMMM. SO thats one thing off the list...we basically didnt do anything the whole time we were in asheville because it was so hot...someone told us there was a great 'drumming circle' we could go and join in (someone would probably lend us a drum..) DO I LOOK LIKE ID LIKE TO JOIN A DRUMMING CIRCLE?! obviously i do, but i dont.
We got the bus into town on our second day, and id just like to say, i cant wait to get back to the uk- there are so many weirdos in america. Its like, i use the bus in Manchester probably 2 times a day 5 days a week and have only ever encountered Crazy Bus lady 10 times (the name says it all) and also there was this one weird bearded man who went on about when he was a student in the 70s...but thats it. Han and i havent got on a bus, greyhound or other, without some weirdo bobbing around. GODDDDDDDDDD.
anyway, we went into a weaving cafe where baby yoga was probably compusory and using non biodegradable coffee stirrers was illegal. we had a nice cup of coffee and looked around the town, which is an artists central, then got back on the bus and hid at our hostel for the rest of our time there...We did go out for drinks one night, met another nutter at the bar with his young ukranian wife (he had a massive white beard and i thought he might have been Dumbledore in disguise)...Han had gone to the toilet and he asked me if i believed in crop circles or deja vu, which in my opinion are entirely different, so i said not really, and then he told me that i should because they were real and then started harping on for the entire rest of our drinks which was quite annoying, because it meant we had to get another one after to carry on our OWN conversation. ANd then as we paid the bar tender gave us one 'on him' and we had to drink that so as not to be rude, so i blame my sore head the next day on ashevilles reputation for being the 'politest place in the states' or something.....
anyway, it was nice, but were in Nashville now and im quite happy being in counrty music heaven, at least the nutjobs here have good taste in music...



DOLLY 4EVA xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Insult to injury...

So....Charleston, South Carolina...
After what turned out to be a 24 not 21 hour bus journey, complete with 3 changes of buses and a 5 hour layover in a bus terminal not even out of Florida (complete with weird ticket doling out guy who started hitting on us because i said he had harry potter glasses) we arrived in Charleston. This is the place that the Civil War of America started, there is a Port Moultrie, which Hannah practically wee'ed herself over, and its meant to be a beautiful place where Americans holiday themselves.
If any of you watch the news ever you will see that there is currently a heatwave in america and our 40 degree highs of Las VEgas are being beasted by the impressive 108 degrees F that we are having to cope with...
Anyway, the journey was CRAP, and we arrived to our nice hostel in an old colonial house to find a CRAZY CAT LADY in our dorm. SHE HAD A CAT. I HATE CATS. well, it was a kitten, which was even more retarded than a normal cat, it didnt have any pavlovian reflexes yet-i.e. foot=>kick. anyway, we napped and then got up and went to this cool local bar, it was my kind of local, next door. we had some drinks and sat in a hammock and watched a folky type band 'jam'... i got majorly eaten, probably because i was sat on an ants nest or something, because when i say we were in a hammock, the combined weight of me and han meant we were sat on the floor with a kind of mesh blanket underneath us.. anyway, i got bit on the ass. not cool.
We headed home and went to bed, the cat was safely locked in its basket, luckily for it..the next morning, hannah wakes me with wailing cries 'IVE BEEEEN RAVAGED BY BUGS'. now i think, ok, i got bit on the ass, maybe shes now got a matching one. No, she has literally been ravaged, there are trails of bites all down both of her legs. poor thing, i joke no more about it.
So we got some benadryl and went to try and explore, down king street which is the main shopping street.,..unsuccessful exploring really because with both of our itchy legs and the heat combined we just couldnt cope. So having purchased some dinner and an iced coffee in a gourmet food shop we struggle home, to our alcoholic lemonade and eggplant thing that was pretty nice. We went to bed super early, after listening to the Woes of this girl who we have named Shakras seeing as she is somewhat of an earth lover. boy issues. also she had just auditioned for American Idol, but sadly didnt get through. anyway, after a lot of talking about auras and alignment and being in 'different spaces' (hannah's boyfriend would say she was a yoghurt weaver, an expression which i love. think 'eat, love, prey') we went to bed with fingers crossed for less inflamation tomorrow.
This has not occured. its still there! hannahs legs are impressivly lumpy, although my ass-bite has been reduced. Today, has been as much of a fail as yesterday, we made it to see 'Rainbow Row' which is a row of colourful colonial houses. we agree weve seen better in bristol, and head back to the pharmacy to see if anything will sort what hannah has named 'niknak' legs (google them, theyre a type of deformed, fluoro orange crisp..) shes now dosed up on antihistamines. we retreated and ate noodles and are leaving tomorrow.
Not the most successful visit. Please can more of you cross your fingers for us, it didnt seem to work last time. come on slackers, its not as if were swanning around and youre at work all day!



LOve you all xxxx

Miami Heat

So, we have been in south beach for 3 whole days, we added an extra one on the end because we couldnt face the idea of the 21 hour bus journey that we will be making tomorrow (wish us luck). Miami is super cool, C.S.I and other bad crime dramas, where i get all my American Info from, really doesnt do it justice. Were staying in an area with the largest collection of art deco buildings in the world..though dont quote me on that, i think its what the guidebook says. People rollerblade around in bikinis. its that sort of place. We have mainly been at the beach and eating as many vegetables as possible, a difficult task here in the south i tell you! Yesterday we went to the museam of erotic art because it was hot and we wanted to do something that involved air conditioning that wasnt in the hostel. It was pretty amazing...and embarrassing when we found ourselves walking down the street afterwards with our EROTIC MUSEUM ENTRY stickers still on. fail.
Its really weird here, weatherwise, without fail every afternoon theres a massive thunderstorm with lightning and everything. the beach gets evacuated, i guess because crispy electrocuted surfers probably wouldnt do too much for the tourism industry.
ANyway, we went sunbathing all morning as someone gave us a beach umbrella, and this evening we are going for a nice cuban meal to prepare ourselves for this bus journey.. will stay away from the cocktails this time.

Anyway, wish us luck please, see you on the other side, in sugar-sweet charleston
xxxxx

Welcome to Miami

Well, its certainly been a while. sorry about that but internet has been awkward to acquire to say the least. We have been to New Orleans and Orlando since i last wrote so ill try and fill you all in from what i can remember.

New Orleans was amazing. It was so humid though it was basically impossible to look nice at all because you were sweating so much. everywhere, all the time. The guidebook warned of the dangers of Post-Katrina new orleans but we didnt really have any problems. You can tell areas are dodgey, but only in the same way as any other city has 'unsavoury' areas. We mainly just wandered around looking at the beautiful french colonial style buildings of the French Quarter, sampling the delights of the creole influenced cuisine- Crispy crawfish, gumbo and jambalaya. yummm. also we had coffee in the oldest coffee house in the city and i may have bought some to bring home. not a wise move considering the size of the can.
One night we went to see Rebirth Brass Band which is a favourite of mine- ive seen them at a couple of festivals- but they have a weekly slot at this cool little club and seeing as in the entire 4 weeks weve been here we havent been out, we thought we'd maximise on this opportunity. turns out not to be such a wise move when you have to check out of your hostel by ten am.
Our bus to Orlando wasnt smooth to say the least- firstly they didnt have any room so we had to come back the next morning- which was inconvienient to say the least- and secondly, when we did get on we had a crazy bus driver who introduced herself like this 'Hello. i am mama, not big mama, small mama, fat mama, thin mama. just mama. i am your mama, you ARE my babies. we will leave now'..scary. anyway, she was so obsessed with being punctual that she threw a little girl off the bus because her dad wasnt back yet from the break...after that, she was 'not so cool mama', to us at least.

Orlando. Well people generally come here for only 1 reason, and that certainly isnt to appreciate the fine city. just as well because its not fine. its like the ass of florida. Thats probably not fair, there are 2 reasons and its mostly an either/or situation- Universal or Disney! We picked Universal, and more specifically their Islands of Adventure. now dont judge us, but this had a lot to do with the Harry Potter experience that is the newest installation to the park. It was incredible. they have made a Hogsmeade and a Hogwarts and you can drink butterbeer and have your photo taken with the driver of the Hogwarts express..you can send postcards by Owls and buy Bertie Botts every flavour beans. The ride itself was pretty cool, you wander through the castle before you get on and they have taking and moving portraits and 3d harry, ron and hermione telling you all about the adventure youre about to go on. We were like little kids! Theyve also got Dr Seuss Land, jurassic park (very cool) and several Marvel Comic rides though just as we were about to embark on the Incredible Hulk Mega Coaster the skies opened and there was a massive thunder and lightening storm. apparently they dont send guests up when theres a chance of lightning strike- which i think could be an added fun risk to the ride. Anyway, instead we bought tickets for the new HARRY POTTER MOVIE (are you sensing a theme yet?) yes, we got a bit carried away, and the only showing was at 11.20pm so by the time we had laughed and cried and clapped our way through it was 2am and the sugarrush of a day was all a bit too much. as was our 8am wakeup. but anyway, ive never been in a cinema where the excitement was so palpable, there were whoops and oohs and aahs and basically a standing ovation at the end. cool. So anyway, we were meant to get up early and get an early bus to miami but couldnt face it, and it was just as well seeing as there was no local bus and it would have been impossible for us to make it on time. things (especially lie-ins) work out for the best! Anyway, weve just got into Miami and are at quite a nice hostel which make a change from the dive we were in in Orlando..Were setting ourselves up for a couple of days on the beach to get rid of our tourist tans!

Lots of love xxx

We don't call 911.

We are in Texas. Home of gun wielders and 72oz steak. More specifically we are in San Antonio, home of the Alamo, for all of you that have ever sat through that film on new years afternoon because youre still so bloated from christmas day that you cant be bothered to stand up and find the remote youre probably sat on. Having said that, its pretty cool seeing it still standing and seeing where the women and children hid and stuff- for all of those with no clue as to what im talking about, i assume Wikipedia has a good and brief synopsis for you.
Hannah has not been too well, there was a discrete projectile vomiting session just before we left albuquerque (thus, overall, new mexico was not a success..) and a bus ride from hell afterwards. We arrived in Texas, slightly worried about getting shot by hill-billies, sweaty and shell shocked and had to get a taxi to our hotel as we had forgotten to write down the address..it was 4 blocks down the road, but anyway.
For those of you wondering how a student can afford a hotel, the answer is Hotwire. i cant remember what its called in england but basically they dont tell you the name of the hotel, you just pick your destination and the proximity of the hotel to things you want to see, and its discounted cos they want to fill rooms...Anyway, were staying in Hotel Indigo, and its at least on a par with the Luxor, it has a pool and loungers and pool towels, especially and only for the pool and we both have double beds and theres even a fridge in our room and Aveda products in the bathroom! So its the perfect place for us to recoop.
On the first day we didnt do much except watch this amazing programme called 'The first 48' which follows real life cops as they try to catch murderers in the first 48 hours after a crime is committed. its the same thing that we were watching in vegas when we terrified ourselves. blatantly we are now addicted.
The second day was better, we went on the Riverwalk which is just out the back of our hotel and is really nice. Basically just a walk along the river but kinda romantic, with lots of trees and bridges and mosaics, and further on bars and restaurants and shops selling fake guns for children of all kinds. Some of my favourite things that we saw- various religious based tee-shirts, with god slogans on, like 'Called to Duty' instead of Call of Duty, and also some fairly racist bumper stickers, something along the lines of 'if you can read this, thank god for an education, also thank the military for keeping it in english' or something anti-mexican... BUT, the most golden treasure that i would have bought if it wasnt 6 dollars was a fridge magnet in the shape of texas with a plastic gun stuck to it stating 'we dont call 911'. how responsible. i suppose when youre selling miniture shot guns for kids, messages like that dont really make much difference...
We discovered an amazing restaurant called Casa Rio which has THE BEST salsa i have ever tasted. i dont even eat salsa much but honestly, this is something to write home about. hence i am. Han and i think we have devised all the ingredients, although much bribery of the waiter would not make him tell us the recipie...
Today we went to the Mercardo, a massive mexican import market with plenty of tat and treasures in equal measures. have bought some plastic mexican bunting, very useful. but cool. (sorry mum.) we also went into this cool bakery but didnt know what anything was so couldnt optimise on it. also discussed the difficulties of buying gifts when you have to carry them around for a month. so for some of you lucky readers, i might just write down a description of what i would have bought you and you can make do with that. This afternoon we lay by the pool and tried very hard to get rid of our stupid tourist tan- think short marks, and shoe marks...very sexy. and then we went for mega mexican at our fave little riverwalk food place. Then drank premium marguritas. Thank god were feeling better!!!
Heading to New Orleans tomorrow night, much looking forward to that now were back on form.

Peace out.

Happy 4th of July....

We are not really having a happy independence from ourselves. It started out not that well at approximately 1.55pm on the 3rd and has continued to be hilarious to those who arent us, pretty much ever since.
1) we have to arrive an hour before our bus to check ourselves in as we have an 'all america discovery pass' which enables us to use the Greyhounds whenever, wherever, for 60 days. So we turned up at the station, the lovely Mitch, from our hostel dropping us off, we checked in, dumped our bags in the line with others waiting for our bus and retreated to read our books. When the time came to board we stood with our bags for an hour before eventually getting them on. we boarded the bus and..there were 2 free seats but these were half occupied by 2 large ladies who were also filling their own seats, and im not talking occupied as in with hand luggage, im talking excess BODY. NOT COOL. I guess this is a problem that is faced a lot in America, with the new 'supersize everything' culture, but at the very least supersize the seats too. So. we couldnt go. We off loaded our stuff and ranted and then walked to the trainstation where we were politely informed, thank you maa'm that the next train to Albuquerque was in the morning.

We took refuge in a microbrewery where we tried many different types of ale and then went back to the bus station to catch the 7.50 bus. An hour early obviously.

2) Bags back in the queue, bus is half an hour late. Sigh sigh huff huff. Anyway, the bus arrived, people got off, we got on. There might be a problem with it. we got off, we got on. At 10pm we set off, approximately 3 minutes down the road the bus does a massive U-turn and heads right back to the station. We get off. The mechanic turns up 45mins later. The bus is a write off but its fine, one is going to be sent for, coming from Phoenix, 3 hours away, so feel free to get on the bus and just relax. ma'am. By now it is midnight, we should have been at our HOTEL with Tempur-pedic beds and a 40inch flat screen tv 2.5 hours ago.
3 hours later and we get on the new bus, sleep terribly, if at all, and by 10am we get to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

3) We decide to treat ourselves to a taxi as it is hot and we are exhausted. There arent any.

4) We turn up at the hotel, sweating and exhausted, to find we've traveled into a new time zone and although breakfast (included) is 6-10, it is now 11am.

5) So, we have spent most of this holiday trying to catch up on sleep. We eventually did venture out to an All You Can Eat Brazilian Meat Grill and are now so full we can hardly move. Happy 4th July everyone.


Love you all

Is this hotel pager friendly?!

So we went to vegas, and it isnt true about what happens there staying there, as i am going to write about it. Han and I had 'ambiguous tummy bug' (correct medical terminology) caught in LA and so when we eventually arrived in Vegas we were a bit overwhelmed and had to hide in our room like hermits for the best part of the first morning. It is the most insane place you will ever go, it would only be madder if you were partying with Charlie Sheen. Besides the bug it was 40 degrees CENTIGRADE outside and our english skin was not coping well. The Luxor, where we stayed, is a giant glass pyramid complete with sphinx, and the beds were so comfortable it is a wonder we ever got out of them. To us mere backpackers the sight of the Ice bucket indicated true luxury. By the time we managed to extract ourselves from the room we quickly came to realise that everything in Vegas is expensive, food, internet, food, drinks, so naturally we turned to gambling...Not really but we did a bit and at one point were up $7 but soon got a bit too enthused and ended up satisfied with minus 3 dolla in the kitty. not bad for first timers, but its definately not true what they say about beginners luck.
We also checked out the other main hotel/casino complexes- which were pretty cool- we saw the water show at the bellagio and the internal canals of the Venetian. Obviously we tried to get onto the roof of Caesar's Palace too....(we didnt actually) but we spent a lot of time going on about The Hangover. I did like vegas but its a place of extremes, there are men handing out flyers for prostitutes to any man, whether or not they are with wife/gf/partner, and on our last night we moved downtown to stay nearer the bus station as our bus was EARLY and the hotel was 3* but seedy. It was that sort of 'i dont really want to touch the bed' seedy, but actually fine. Hannah checked the door was locked about 5 times after we acidentally watched 3 hours of real life crime/cop shows. didnt sleep to well. Then the next morning we basically had to fight our way onto the bus outta there and it was full of weirdos. It was a lonnng journey.
Anyway, we are alive and in Flagstaff which is an adorable town, and have just got back from the Grand Canyon. Seriously, everyone has to see it. It should be the law or something. Our guide made us walk up to the first viewing point covering our eyes, you can only see it for the first time once, and trust me, its incredible. words cannot actually describe the enormity or beauty of it so im not going to go on about it too much. We did a small hike down from the rim to the OohAhh point (actually called that) and saw some people with their cats on leads showing them the view- for CHRISTS sake what is wrong with america?! anyway, i said we should dangle them over the edge and fish for Condors, this suggestion got mixed reactions. anyway, its been an amazing day, i will show you all photos when i return. We are going to cook dinner now and tomorrow we head to Albuquerque for the 4th of July! (no real reason for picking there except we didnt want to do a 26 hour bus ride)...,
Adios amigos, sending love to you all