Contiki Grand Northern

---

---

We had 2 bus loads of mainly Aussies and Kiwis on the Grand Northern tour. 24 days to get through 21 states and 2 Canadian provinces. Didn’t matter where we went, we always took the party with us. Even on the bus, first thing every morning when the day song was played there was dancing and singing in the aisle, no matter how tired or hung-over everyone was. We saw a few pretty impressive sites as well. Here’s what I can remember…

New York - I had one full day to explore this massive city. Headed out on my own with no map and no plan, but the city was so familiar from seeing it on so many tv shows and movies. Some of the places I stumbled across… Central Park, 5th avenue, Empire State, Rockerfella Center, Trump Tower, Times Square, Broadway, Hells Kitchen, Brooklyn Bridge, Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Wall St, Grand Central Station. And some classic New York experiences… a yelling match between a large African American policewoman and a cab driver over a trivial incident escalating into the policewoman threatening to pull her gun, hotdogs and pretzels from a street vendor, and all the characters on the subway.

New England - First stop Newport, summer home to the ultra-rich from the early 1900s. They all tried to outdo each other building their summer ‘cottages’, turning them into palaces that wouldn’t look out of place as residence for French royalty. Then onto Boston, a significant city in American history (something about the declaration of independence), now home to some of the worlds top universities. I found myself in the middle of the English army getting ready for a battle with the Americans, surrounded by musket and cannon fire in a tent city surrounded by modern skyscrapers. The nightlife was also a good kick off to the contiki party, as you’d expect in a city with so many students. With no measured drinks, a good tip for the bartender guaranteed a good strong drink and a night that would have been good to remember.

French Canada - Over the border to Canada was like jumping the Atlantic to France. Quebec city was celebrating its 400th birthday in style, setting up for a massive Celine Dion concert. We headed for the clubs instead and partied in style. Quebec has retained its city walls and many of the old buildings within. They also have some modern touches including a revolving restaurant and the worlds largest screen. There are other places in the world that claim to have the biggest screen, but they don’t come close this 600m giant. That’s no misprint. It’s over half a km wide. Then Montreal, another French style city with more bars and our introduction to beer pong. Also home to a fun jet boat experience, where the aim is to go under rather than over the rapids, ensuring a good soaking for all on board.

Toronto - You guessed it, more bars. This city feels a lot like New York. In fact many movies supposedly set in New York are actually filmed in Toronto. Went to the top of the CN Tower. Its signs still claim that it is the worlds tallest but it lost that title back in April. Standing on a glass floor over 400m above the ground though the record of worlds tallest doesn’t really matter. I tested it’s unbreakable claim with a running jump onto the glass… the other people already standing on it were not impressed. My first baseball game at the Rogers Center was more exciting than I had expected. The home team the Blue Jays absolutely thumped the Yankees (the team everyone loves to hate), much to the pleasure of the crowd. Don’t know that I’m a big fan of the game, but they do such a good job with the entertainment surrounding the game. Also experienced my first yellow school bus, taking us on a pub crawl through Toronto.

Niagra Falls - Ok, the falls themselves don’t compare to Victoria or Iguazu, but the whole experience of Niagra is one to remember. American tackiness at its best, a whole city that is more like a theme park. Also got to experience the falls up close on the Maid of the Mist, and floodlit by night under a rain of fireworks. Then got to watch the falls again for a couple more hours the next day from the bus as we lined up on the bridge for the border crossing back into the US.

Cleaveland - Cleaveland rocks? Well not quite, they just paid a lot of money to build the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame there. One of the better museums I’ve been to, but not much else to the city. We were there on the weekend and the city was deserted. But that doesn’t matter on contiki. Stocked up with duty free from the border, our hotel room parties kicked on well past quiet hour. Oh, and an amusing experience getting chased by police in a golf buggy after climbing a fence to check out the ballpark. I was running for exercise, not to try and outrun the golf buggy… really.

Chicago - Checked out the impressive architecture on an architectural boat cruise through the city, saved a few bucks by viewing the city from the women’s restrooms at the top of the Hancock building instead of paying for the observation deck, spent ages captivated by the many views of the bean (a giant reflective bean shaped sculpture perfectly positioned for interesting reflections of the city skyline), oh, and of course more drinking. That was the end of the first half of contiki, with a sad goodbye to half the family, but a welcome injection of energy from our new contikians.

Mid-West - First stop was the Miller brewry in Milwaukee for a free sample or seven. Then on to Madison for a much needed laundry party, followed by dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, an aussie themed restaurant. The staff were quite intimidated having over 50 real aussies turn up... their fake aussie accents quickly hidden. We had fun teaching the waitresses about the 'real' australia. Next up was Sioux Falls. Not much to see, but no reason to leave our hotel, with an indoor water park complete with waterslide, pirate ship, pool volleyball and spas right in the middle of all the rooms. We were warned about a visit to the hospital on the previous tour after 3 people tried to go down the slide together, but after a few drinks that just sounds like a challenge and before the night was over we managed a train of 10 people down the slide at once. The bruises were not felt until the next day. Oh, and Bus B won the volleyball. Most bus stops on our long drives were at Wal-Marts (a highlight of the trip) or fast food strips, but out in the emptiness of the mid-west some of the small towns come up with inventive ways to get people to stop, including the corn palace (a building decorated in corn), the giant apple, and Wall Drug, the phenomenon that started the whole roadside billboard craze now has thousands of billboards worldwide just for this one store in the middle of nowhere. Attractions inside include an animatronic T-Rex, piano playing gorilla and so many souvenirs you need a map to find your way around.

The Wild West - Deadwood has pretty much remained unchanged since its early days with its main street of gambling and booze. Only now the gunfights are staged. Had some fun getting dressed up in cowboy gear for a photo shoot with a pretty maiden, much to the envy of all the other guys on the bus. Down the road was Keystone, right next door to Mt Rushmore (the big heads in the hill). A little further down the road is Crazy Horse, the American Indians response to Rushmore. It’s the same type of deal, but much, much bigger. It’s a long way from being completed but the mountain is slowly being sculpted into Crazy Horse riding his horse into battle. Next stop in the wild west was Cody (the town founded by Buffalo Bill) for a night at the rodeo, with us all kitted out in our new cowboy/girl outfits from Wal-Mart. Also a smelly morning of white water rafting on a river fed from a sulphur spring.

Yellowstone - Bears, Buffalo, Elk, Wolves, and endless hot springs, geysers, steam vents, waterfalls and colourful pools. We had hardly made it into the park before we had to stop for a heard of bison stampeding down the road. All up we had 3 days driving and walking through the park and not a dull moment. Even got some snow - quite a shock after the 40 degree days we had gotten used to.

Saltlake - Entering the heartland of the Church of the Latter Day Saints we were wary of being converted by Mormons. I braved a tour of the temple and experienced some pretty slick sales techniques but came out unscathed. I did however learn the truth about how American Indians are descended from the Israelites but had their skin turned red and their culture taken from them because they turned from God, and how Jesus returned to America. Let me know what time suits you and I’ll come and share with you the joyous teachings of the Book of Mormon. Actually, just expect a knock on your door... Next morning I ascended into the heavens above Salt Lake in a hot air balloon, a much more spiritual experience than the temple.

The Canyons - Kanab was our base for the exploration of 3 spectacular national parks. We were greeted with a big cowboy cook-up at a western backlot with huge slabs of buffalo meat and the best baked beans ever. Bus B put Bus A in their places with our singing of the day song, but that was to kick off some serious rivalry which culminated in a soccer match and boat races the next day. Luckily we had our tour leader Todd to anchor our boat race team. I’ve never seen anyone down a beer so quickly. Anyway, back to the canyons… The Grand Canyon is of course the best know, and for good reason. The scale of this place is spectacular. But the nearby Bryce and Zion are just as impressive for their beauty. Climbing down into the grand canyon requires a special permit because of the dangers involved, but our choice of poses for photos on the cliff edges at the top of the canyons weren’t much safer.

Vegas - Vegas sets some pretty high expectations but this place actually exceeds all its hype. 40 hours, no sleep, 16 casinos, $0 won on the tables, 80cm Margaritas to carry around all night, 3 rides 300m above the strip, ‘O’ the Cirque du Soleil show, 2 hours in a helicopter for lunch at the bottom of the grand canyon, a 5 block long overhead tv screen, 5 story clubs with $30-$2000 cover charge, 1 Elvis wedding = one hell of a weekend. The amount of money in this place is nuts. They are spending $9billion (with a B) on the latest casino. And a walk down the strip is like a trip round the world - Rome, Venice, Paris, New York, the pyramids, castles, pirate ships… think of a theme and there’s probably a casino for it. And in contrast to the glitz and glamour of the casinos, you get all the sleaze on the streets, endless prostitutes and boozed up visitors looking for a good time 24x7. Definitely a place to revisit… when my bank balance recovers.

Disneyland - The perfect way to end the trip, a day at Disneyland with my new family of contikians. We were all lucky to win ‘dream fastpasses’ which meant we could skip the lines on all the rides and also got us access into the other Disney park, California Adventureland.
A sad goodbye, but unforgettable memories…

---