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Published: September 15th 2010
14th September (again!)
Well we’re in Hawaii, Aloha!!
We had a 4.5 hour flight then stoped in Christmas island for one hour but didnt get off the plane, then another 3.5 hours until we arrived in Honolulu. It was a long flight but I slept a bit so it was really fine. It wasn’t the big fancy planes im used to travelling in, it was 3 seats each side and one aisle down the middle and imagine you had to share tv’s that come out of the ceiling and wait for the movie to come on, I thought every plane had individual tv’s, anyway im just joking the flight was fine. We arrived and we were hit with the heat, its so strange coming from such cold weather. We then got the shuttle bus straight to our hostel ($9 per person, drops you right at the door, can take alot of time though, took us an hour and 15minutes we were last of the bus!). We’re stayin for two nights in Waikiki beachside hostel, in a semi-private room, its fine for now. Oh I ment to say, I have no signal on my aussie sim card, Im goin to by a USA sim card, ste still has signal so you can text his phone or use the internet to connect me, it will just be for a few days untill we get sorted!
So my first impressions of Hawaii, well its not like I thought. I thought it would be a unique little island out on its own, but instead its very Americanised. I know its part of the USA, but I didnt realise just how much it would show. But saying that we are in Waikiki beach which is the main tourist area. If we can gather the energy I’d like to go to another island and see the real Hawaii, we’ll have to do a bit of research into that. So as I sat outside in the cheesecake factory (oh my god, ill get onto that later) I watched the hundreds of different types of people walk by, there are so many people from all corners of the world, but mostly Asians and Americans i’d say. It looks like Hawaii attracts people who have so much money they dont know what to do, so they come here and shop on the main street which hosts channel, tiffany, Louis vutton, Prada, Oakley and that’s just to name a few. Me and ste fit in so well, haha! There are people of ALL shapes and sizes, some fat people, some skinny people, some people who are fat on top and skinny on bottom, or skinny on the top and fat on the bottom. Some people look like 12 year olds with there perfect wrinkle free skin as they stay under there umbrella (mostly the Asians), other’s have spent so much time in the sun it looks like they’ve been stretched like those super stretch dolls, and suddenly let go so they skin is all wrinkled up and brown. And then among this broad spectrum of people is Mary poppins, thats me, practically perfect in every way, not an inch or stitch out of line, haha!!
We’ve only had one day here, its been spent eating ridiculously good food in the cheesecake factory and washing it down with a Reese peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake, don’t act like your not impressed, it was spectacular! We had a walk along the beach and palm tree’s which is gorgeous. We then had a nap cause we only slept for a few hours on the plane. I woke up and asked ste, what do you do on sun holidays? I cant rememeber how to just chill out! So we got up and enjoyed some cocktails while listening to some nice men sing with a guitar, now it feels like Hawaii!! Night night everyone, love Audrey xxx
15th September 2010
Aloha people! Day 2 in Hawaii paradise and now im getting the swing of it!! We had a long lie in and caught up on our sleep. Then we got our swimmers on and hit the beach! The weather is perfect, its really hot but there’s a gorgeous breeze! We did a bit of swimming in the Ocean, bit of sunbathing, cool down with a bit of swimming and then sunbath again, and as a result we have lovely patchy skin, that first day tan is always dreadful! Its so so nice to chill out on a beach, I could not be happier!! We also booked a hotel for the next 6days so we’ll be moving tomorrow! Yepiee!! Tonight we had s stroll around and after sampling a few cocktails in a few bar’s we had a gorgeous dinner (I forgot how good the food is in America). We then heard music pumping out of this bar, so we went in for one....haha and arrived home at 5.00am! It was a southern USA bar with lots of country music and guys with cow boy boots and hats. It was really different but the music was great. They had a free blackjack table, I had no intentions on counting numbers for the night but the man convinced me to come over and there we sat for hours!! I thought I was good at the game, and then I realised it was in his best interest to have a good looking girl like me sitting at his table, haha, when a better looking girl came over I start losing and she start winning, haha, only jokin!! We had a great laugh with him and the others sittin around the table. One guy was from Hawaii, he was buying us shots, and before he left he showed us his badge, he was actually a police, ha!! Me and some of the other girls there got Jack Daniels t-shirts and shorts to cut up and wear (a bit of free promotion!), we had some fun with them. Then we had a dance or talent competition, anyway ste came second and won us a $50 bar tab!!! I had a little bit to many drinks to relax so I just ran in a circle, didnt even drop one dance move, I was ragin! Anyway we ran out of money (we wern’t expecting a big night of drinkin), so just before we left, that police guy bought us a drink and then we won the bar tab!! It was a great night, but oh did I pay for it in the morning!!!
16th September
Oh dear, today we had to pack up our rucksacks (which is a tough job), and move to the hotel, thank god it was just around the corner. That walk was a struggle, my stomach was upside down and I had drink sweating out of me. We finally made it, the hotel upgraded us to a bigger room with a kitchenette!! The room is huge, its so nice and I was so happy to see a decent size bed, I fell on it and slept for a while and felt sorry for myself. Its amazing what you get used to, its so great to have a big room to ourselves and there’s a swimming pool and the best thing about a room s we have our own tv and clean towels!!!When I pulled myself out of bed, we sat by the beach and watched the sunset, it was gorgeous, so so romantic! Now I know what Hawaii is all about, its a very romantic place. Along all the streets are poles with fire on the top, its a nice touch! We then watched a hula show and 3 people playing a bit of music, they had a stage set up on the beach. We ended up in a 50minute line for the cheesecake factory, it was definitely worth it though, that place is amazing!
17th September
I cant believe how quick our time is going by. Once I relaxed and got into the Hawaiian swing of things I have loved it here. The sky’s are so blue, then when the sun is going down its orange, the sea is every shade of blue, everyone were’s flowery clothes, and most people were flowers in there hair or around there neck! People say aloha, and you can hear the sound of the ukulele most places you go. Its exactly like what you see in TV, its beautiful. We decided not to go to another island, instead we would continue to relax, but we did book a few tours. Today we just spent time on the beach, 2 -3 hours is our max, neither of us are really into sunbathing so there’s a huge lack of motivation to stay on the beach once you run out of music to listen to or books to read. We caught the sun setting again, it happens around 6.30pm, had some dinner and enjoyed a cocktail. Another lovely day spent in Hawaii!
18th September
Aloha! We’re still having a great time, totally chilled out and relaxed here, its so gorgeous! Tonight we went to a luau, for those of you who weren’t at my 21st birthday party and need an explanation, a luau is a Hawaiian feast with lots of music and dancing. It was brilliant!! The trip we took was with Germaine’s luau, I’d definitely recommend it. They collected us at 4.30pm and took us to the west side of the island to a small beach. So to set the scene, in the middle of nowhere there’s a big stage and lots of tables around the stage, and then all along the side is the beach and sea, so you pick a table to sit at, kick of your flipflop’s (or slippers as the Hawaiian’s call them), and walk around in the sand, its such a nice atmosphere. And then when the sun set at 6.30pm the entire sky and sea fills up with the most amazing colours of blue, orange, yellow, red, its really so pretty now I know why the hawaiin clothes and flowers are so colourful! The table we picked had 4 Australian women sitting at it, they looked like 4 mammy’s that had been let loose for a weekend, they were stone mad and so so much fun! They decided cause we weren’t on our honeymoon, they were gona pretend we were because we might aswell be, haha, that was only the start of it! That’s a question by the way that followed us everywhere, “are you on your honeymoon?”, makes me think, god were really lucky to be here its such a special place people save it for there honeymoon, here we are just passing though, all because when we were sitting in trail finders 2 years ago while looking at a map I pointed at Hawaii and said sure will we stop there for a week! I never underestimate how lucky we are!
So anyway our ticket included dinner, the show and 3 free drinks each, but the women at our table weren’t drinkin (I was shocked I thought they were all drunk), so they gave us there tickets, it was great we didnt pay for a drink for the night! The pig was cooked underground, so we watched them taking it out, it a luau ritual, it was disgust to watch but tasted so good! There was a buffet for dinner with pork, beef, chicken, fish, salads, pasta, rice and deserts, oh it was delicious!!! After dinner they did the show, the hula girls were brilliant, the men were good to but it just didnt look as good as the girls, even though originally the hula was done by the men only. They did all different types of dancing, they even did the haka! There costumes were amazing, they had big feather skirts and head pieces and real grass skirts, I really really enjoyed the show! Then they asked did anyone want to learn the hula and shake it, that was like a personal invitation, of course I do!!So they got all the girls on the stage and thought us the dance, it was good fun! My 4 fun friends at the table kept chanting my name when I was on stage - mortified!! I was so embarrassed, the Americans have no shame at all, but was all just a bit of fun. The bus dropped us back to the hotel and there was a block party on (they close of the main street and there’s loads stalls, and food and music), typical the one night we have something planned and that’s when the block party was on. But we still had time to have a look around and enjoy it before heading to bed.
19th September
We had a snorkelling trip planned for today, and guess what we go to swim with the dolphins!!! It was brilliant!! Our group of 10 went out in a small jet boat, we saw loads of spinner dolphins, they were jumping in the air and spinning around, they put on a great show and came right up to the boat. Then we put our snorkelling gear on and jumped into the sea and the dolphins just swam around us like we weren’t even there, it was amazing! I didn’t touch them, we wern’t aloud but thankfully none came within arms reach of me, I think I would of freaked! But there was big ones and baby ones, and the were playing bag tag. I’m not jokin, they carry a plastic bag on there fin or mouth and then another dolphins takes it off them, a couple on the boat saw them do it, cause I didn’t believe it, I thought they just got wrapped up in some rubbish, but its true! Also they’ll jump up and spin in the air and throw the plastic bag to a different part of there bodies. They seem like such happy fish! So we got back onto the boat and went to another location were there was dolphins, we jumped in about 4 different times and another time to see the turtles. The dolphins look like there slowly gliding along, but I was breathless trying to swim along with them. I have to say it was spectacular, such a great experience!
Later that night we went to a restaurant called senor frogs, it was recommended on the boat. It was so much fun, there waiters dance on the stage and people do karaoke, we had a good laugh. We also got our own blow up hats, the waiter makes them for us, ha! When I first walked into the restaurant I thought I interrupted a kids birthday party cause everyone has the hats on! The party mood rubbed of us and a couple of cocktails later we headed to a night club Zanzibar. We got talkin to a philipeno Californian girl who knows the doorman, so she got us in for free and got us passes for the vip section, ha nice girl! The nightclub was crazy, I have never been the white person in a black place before. All the boys were up dancing thinking they were chris brown and the girls were shaking there asses, then a song came I cant remember what it was, it wasn’t a rap gangsta song anyway, you could say it was a white song, me and ste were the only ones givin it socks on the dance floor, it was so crazy! Ste went to the bar at one stage and came back with the biggest blackest man ive ever seen, his name was Jerome Doherty, ha im serious he said he was Irish. He was no more irish than big mick of the blind side is Irish. We had a great night (which I am now paying for, I just cant do hangovers!!!). At 4.00am we dropped into McDonald’s just for a quick visit, would you believe it is a 24 hour McDonalds but the start serving breakfast at 3.00 am and stop serving regular unhealthy burgers and nuggets. Seriously what type of person wakes up for work at 2.30am and thinks oh i’ll go get some nice breakfast to start of my day in macdonalds at 3.00am, who does that?!?! It was the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard, oh I wasn’t happy about that, but I was asleep about 15minutes after it and forgot about it, ha.
20th September
Today was a relaxation day, like we havn’t been doing any of that, haha!! I think im getting old I just cant handle hangovers any more! So we researched into some accommodation for LA and did nothing much else. I know it might be seen as a waste of a day in Hawaii, but I think when you travel for so long, you need a day of from it, ha! So when we finally got ourselves cleaned up we went to a gorgeous Chinese restaurant and had a stroll around the lovely Waikiki streets. This place never has a quite night its amazing, its always busy with people and all the artists along the side of the road doing every type of thing you can imagine, playing the drum’s on buckets, playing the real drums, massages, photo’s with birds, cat’s guinea pigs, drawing your portrait, doing henna tattoo’s, homeless people playing the ukulele and singing and dancing (the happiest homeless people i’ve ever seen. There are a good few homeless around, but they dont beg, they sit around singing, talking, playing cards and chess, then at night they sleep on the beach or on lilo’s with a gorgeous temperature and breeze). Tricks with basket balls, standing still covered in gold, newspapers, old fireman outfit, selling shells, jewellery, hats made out of leaves, you dont even need a talent you can just put an elmo outfit on and wave at people. You really get all sorts in that street, but then you can just cross the road and stroll along the street and walk along the beach listening to the waves. While we were coming home from dinner we stopped to watch a film been recorded or a programme, I cant remember the name of it, but the whole crew were there, it was very good. I couldn’t quite make my debut cause we were only allow stay behind the camera, maybe next time!! Thats all for now, night night, Audrey xxx
21st September
It was our last day to beach-it-up!! The weather was gorgeous and the sea was a perfect temperature, so clear you could see everything, even the fish, which don’t seem to both me after a realised i’ve paid a fortune over the last 12 months to go swimming with them, big and small ones. So I relaxed while ste went and got a hair cut, lets just say its different. He looks like he’s in the military, you know that really tight look around the side but long in the top. I no there’s alot of military men on the island, but surely they have more than one hair cut? So we queued tonight for 50 minutes for dinner in the cheesecake factory, I know we sound mad but the food is so so good!! All I want is potatoes, meat, vegetables and gravy I miss my mam’s dinners! That’s what I ordered but it was a fancy version swimming in white mushroom sauce that they call gravy, I gave up on my quest! Hard to think today is our last day all ready the time is just going by so quick!
22nd September
We are leaving today but not until 9pm so we checked out of our hotel early this morning and got collected by the tour bus. We did a downtown tour of Honolulu and pearl harbour. It was actually raining this morning while we drove around Honolulu which was strange because it was so so hot. The tour was good, we got to see life outside of Waikiki beach and thats what I like, we saw important monuments, but not important enough for me to take pictures of. We drove through Chinatown which looked like every other china town, I cant read the writing on the shops so how am I suppose to distinguish between towns?! We also went to the army cemetery, we were just aloud to drive through but that was amazing, there was so many green fields that had hundreds of plaques in the ground for the soldiers, some with flowers on them. It was very eyrie but beautifully kept. We met a guy on the dolphin tour, he was probably younger than ste, he was with his girlfriend. He is in the marines, he lives on base in Hawaii and he flew his girlfriend out to him for 2weeks because he’s going to Afghanistan in 2 weeks time for 6 or 7 months. I didn’t know what to say to him?? What do you say to someone who’s going to fight in a war? Good luck? I decided to go with stay safe, I thought that sounded better!!! But really I think in Ireland your a bit shielded from what’s really going on in the war, young men are leaving there girlfriends and family’s to fight for there country, I just couldn’t imagine if that was ste!! Also Jerome Doherty that we met in the nightclub a few weeks ago, he was going to fight in Afghanistan in a few weeks, and I’m sure there were many other men around us that might not even return, how do you prepare for something like that?!
Anyway i’m gone totally off the point! But that was basically Honolulu tour we also stopped off for some amazing hot dogs of the side of the street (and I wonder why Im putting on weight?!). We then went to Pearl harbour which brings me back to the whole topic of war. This was brilliant, really amazing! When we arrived there were 3 veterans signing things, by the time I left I was thinking how on earth did they survive until now? They show a video explaining what happened, and it wasn’t a clip out of pearl harbour the film, it was all old actual footage, it was very good, but very sad of course. Basically the Japanese killed loads of people then USA kill loads of more people, I know that’s not the actually story but that’s what stood out for me, just lots of fighting and death and misery! The missiles they had on display were huge!! We went out to a memorial built over the Arizona boat, it turned on its side and sunk but they never picked it up and fixed it and put it back to war (like they did with lots of the others), they also didn’t take out the remains of the people on board, they decided to leave it lie with all the passengers in it as there tomb. But you can still see the top of the boat sticking out of the water, that just shows how huge they were! The eyrie thing for me was that oil still leaking out if the boat, all of a sudden there was loads of oil in the water and it was from this boat, weird after all these years!! It was a great experience to go to pearl harbour and to stand exactly were it all happened, I took lots of pictures and memories.
After the tour we waited around for a while then went to the airport. Our flight was 5 hours to Los Angeles, we arrived at 2.00am Hawaiian time and jumped forward another 3 hours to 5.00 am to California time!! Also time to sleep as we didnt really sleep on the plane.
Hawaii was gorgeous, its not what I expected but as soon as we hit the slow down button and started to relax I can see why everyone loves it, its so beautiful and chilled out and it always has a refreshing breeze. We stayed in the Ocean Resort hotel, I would recommend it, it was close to everything, we were just off the main street so we just walked everywhere. The rooms in hotel were clean and spacious and we had our own kitchen and big balcony it was great. What we loved was the American food, I had forgotten how good is was!! It was actually cheaper for us to eat out than cook like we had been doing, we had lots of favourite restaurants; 1)The cheesecake factory - huge portions and great food!! 2) Cheeseburger in paradise- best cheeseburgers in the world! 3) Senor Frogs - great fun, the staff sing and dance on stage and there’s karaoke and just fun, something different! 4) Chang’s - lovely Chinese food and very nice restaurant. Most places were really nice but these were definitely the top 4 that we did return to!!! There was of trips and tours in Hawaii, I would of liked to move to a different islands they are all suppose to be so individual and unique, but Hawaii was our resting spot before California and we definitely did that!
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phil
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