Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Saturday 24th December - Orlando to St Pete's
Another early start and it was a frantic dash to the bus stop having called the bus company as soon as I got up and found out we had 20 minutes to pack up and get to the stop. 2 buses later and we were at the Orlando Amtrak station, home of a mere 4 train rides each day. Riding the Amtrak was like stepping back in time about 50 years and overall an enjoyable albeit yet again odd experience given you're in the richest country in the world. You check in your baggae and everyone is made to wait at virtually the same place on the 100 yard long platform. The train arrives and after some more waiting as the passengers depart down off the train, assisted by a yellow foot stool, conjured up by the guard, you're able to alight, again one at a time. The seats are big with over twice as much leg room as an economy plane seat giving it a luxurious feel. The train arrived at Tampa almost 30 minutes early given they allow so much time for journeys due to all the delays that often
The Don by Night
A nice place to spend xmas ensue. Damn again as we missed our chance to use the restaurant car and it was starting to look like another day without a proper meal. Having arrived at Tampa station and before transferring for a short ride on the bus to St Petersburg, we were made to que up in a barred sheep-pen for the best part of 30 minutes to collect our checked baggage. How bizarre! Germans would be mortified to see the lack of efficiency employed by the US railroads. Third world countries would be delighted to know they offer a comparable rail service to the mighty US of A. Having been dropped off in the middle of nowhere by the bus we were subjected to a $40 taxi ride to our hotel, The Loews Don Cesar in St Pete Beach. 5 whole stars worth. The taxi driver proceeded to tell us how lucky we were to stay at the Don, a fair comment and was yet another person to tell us how "folks round here don't go travelling, we just make anuff to get on by". I'm yet to figure out where everyone hides all their tip money they fleece you for, especially as the cost
of living is so cheap for a developed country. "The Don" as it's affectionately known, I'm told is regarded as the best hotel in Florida. Built in 1928, it claims to have been frequented by Al Capone and many other luminaries. With a $300 a night rack rate it was a steal for us at 50 bucks a night with our staff discount from Dirty Dennis of the Orlando Loews. What drove him to do that for 2 complete strangers I'll never know. The Don was certainly luxurious and we'd hit the jackpot for christmas for 2 poor backpackers.
Xmas Day 2011 - St Pete's
Yet another day in the 80s and I had a feeling this might be a quiet one. A late start was followed by some reading at the pool and a conversation with a 60 odd year old Floridian and his self proclaimed Hill Billy wife from Alabama. She was convinced of the classic myth that all English people are related to the Queen and felt compelled to curtsey Stacie as she left for a lie down. The man proceeded to tell us how he didn't really like England as it was grey and wet and we have none of our own culinary dishes and how he was so lucky to live in Florida as it was paradise.
Monday 26th Dec - St Pete's
Another gorgeous day in the sun to laze around and relax. The morning was spent playing around on the internet and speaking to car rental companies who wanted to fleece you an extra 200 bucks for dropping the car off in Miami. We ended up using Avis who were the only ones who didn't charge for this and they're total price was still some 30 less than Greyhound's lovely 9 hour road trip. We discovered an amazing new fast food joint in Chick 'a' fil who sold some amazing chicken at affordable prices! An evening walk down to Pas A Gril, a quaint little fishing village a mile down the road was capped off with a dried up burrito from the supermarket.
Tuesday 27th Dec - St Pete's
Our 1st rainy day in Florida and there would be no lounging around by the pool today. Instead we slept in and fizzled the day away with trivial exercises such as uploading holiday photo's to the internet at our new favourite internet cafe. Followed up with a return visit to Chick a fil and a long walk down the beach in a minor hoolee. Our last day and night in luxury would turn out to be a quiet one.
Wednesday 28th Dec - St Pete's to Miami
An early start to pick up the rental car and Stacie successfully managed to exit us from the 5 star hotel at the bargain basement price of $255 for 4 nights. The drive to Miami was fairly boring at 250 miles across what is the completely flat florida. A car burning on the side of the highway that looked ready to blow up managed to raise the pulse for a few seconds but it wasn't until arriving on the outskirts of Miami that the fun would start again - dodging the mental and incredibly bad american drivers. They drive up your bumper and proceed to weave in and out of the traffic as if they're playing a video game. You wouldn't need to see the statistics to know they have a lot of accidents. We arrived at the hotel/motel on the edge of the airport, the runway inn, to find a complete dump and probably the worst of our stay so far (bar global village in Toronto). I took solace in knowing that American Airlines, our carrier of choice tomorrow through their alliance with BA, would house their cabin crew here in between flights. Suffice to stay I came across and terminated my 1st cockroach of the trip during the night in our bathroom. We managed to make it down to Ocean Drive, South Beach, for a quick look and it was exactly as you'd imagine - full of life and very latin.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.131s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0541s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb