After
leaving Nicaragua we headed back in North America and touched down in Miami.
Originally we had planned on continuing our journey through Central America up
through Guatemala, Honduras and Belize before coming home but changed out plans
and decided to spend the last bit of our trip in Florida checking out Miami,
the everglades and hitting up a few amusement parks.
We landed
in Miami and our friend Aly (who we met in Laos) picked us up and we headed
down to South Beach. Aly lives in Miami but we decided to stay in a downtown
hostel for the first couple nights so we could be right on the beach and do
some partying for a couple days without having to worry about driving around.
The first few days in Miami we just checked out the city and hung out on the
beach. Brit and I weren’t used to the prices so everything seemed insanely
expensive to us, I guess that’s what happens after spending nearly a year in
poorer/cheaper countries. Our hostel was pretty packed because a lot of people
were there on vacation. We had the pleasure of staying in a dorm room with some
of the biggest bullshitters I’ve ever met. One guy claiming they took down a
group of armed robbers with machine guns single handedly and saving the bus of
people he was with…I’m not quite sure how he expected us to believe his crap
but he was very serious when telling his make believe stories.
Like I said,
we went out clubbing and beaching for the most of the time we were staying
downtown Miami but were finding staying down there and eating/drinking on South
Beach was quickly draining our bank accounts so after a couple days we packed
up and headed to Aly’s place where she was kind enough to let us stay.
While we
were staying with her she acted as our tour guide around the area. One day we
headed out to the everglades and got to ride on a fanboat in the swamps, see
gators and snakes, eat gator & frog meat (both are gross) and even got to
hold some gators. The following day we went out to the Florida Keys, which for
those of you that don’t know are a string of islands off the end of Florida. We
spent the day out there and since I got Brit a crappy birthday present (trip to
a bat cave in Nepal) I treated her to a scuba dive while we were out there! Aly
joined us with the dive and we had a pretty great time. Saw lots of stuff
including the biggest and most colorful lobsters I’ve ever seen. Also, the boat
ride to get to the dive site was insane because we went through canals with
multi-million dollar houses on each side, got to see a side of life I’ll never
have!
We spent
about a week or so in Miami and could have spent more time, going further south
and checking out more of the Keys but we had our flights back home booked and had
to keep moving. We said our goodbyes to Aly and thanked her for letting us stay
and showing us around. Wouldn’t have been as nearly as good a stay if it wasn’t
for her! After our goodbyes we jumped on a bus that took us up to Orlando or
more exactly Kissimmee where we’d be staying for a few days so we could hit up
Disneyworld and Universal Studios!
The hotel
we were booked into didn’t have a shuttle bus to the parks so we ended up
having to sneak on nearby shuttles for other hotels. We only got busted a
couple times but Brit was good at smooth talking the bus driver into letting us
on. Disneyworld was awesome as expected. I had no idea how much bigger it was
than Disneyland. It had 4 parks, 2 water parks, countless resorts/hotels and a
huge downtown Disney area. It took a lot of time just to get from park to park, exhausting.
We hit up pretty much everything the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot,
Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney and Blizzard beach. We didn’t have time for
the other water park though Typhoon Lagoon. Out of all of the parks I really
liked the Everest ride and safari at the Animal Kingdom. Also, all the classic
Disney rides at the Magic Kingdom were great.
One funny
moment we had was on the day we were trying to get to Blizzard Beach. We started
the day at another park and halfway through caught the bus to the water park,
but we were so tired from days of theme parks that we fell asleep on the bus
and missed our stop and ended up riding on the bus for like an hour while
sleeping. Eventually, we woke up and got to the park. Once there they had one
of the tallest steepest water slides I’ve ever seen and I was a bit intimidated
to go on it. Brit was making fun of me saying “it’s just a slide why would you
be scared?” So we headed up and up and once we got there Brit saw how intense
it actually was and almost had a meltdown from being so freaked out. The guy up
there said she had to go and pretty much forced her down haha! Serves her right
for giving me a hard time.
In addition
to Disney we hit up Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We went to
Islands of Adventure early and inside it was like a ghost town. We thought we
got in before the park was actually opened but people assured us it was and we
got to ride a bunch of the rides instantly with no waits. For like half the day
we didn’t know where all the people were at cause the longest line was about 5
minutes. Later, we made it to the other side of the park and found everyone was
at the new Harry Potter land and in line for those rides. We went from 5 minute
lines to about 2 hour lineups! It was worth it though, especially because while
in line I got to drink the Butterbeer which was the most delicious thing I’ve
ever had. Probably drank about 4 of them and spent a million dollars since they’re
so expensive.
The next
day was Universal which was also good, Brit and I both liked the Simpsons land
they had there and indulged ourselves with one of the giant turkey legs they
sell. Brit had never had one of those before. One of the nights (it could have
been after Universal), we headed out for dinner at Medieval Times. Again, Brit
had never been so she got to enjoy the experience for the first time and as
luck would have it our knight won! Way better than the previous time I had gone
and my knight lost first fight…
After our
time at all the theme parks we rented a car (which turned into a huge ordeal)
and headed out to Tampa for our last stop of the trip. Brit had surprised me
for our anniversary with tickets to the Red Sox vs. the Rays in Tampa so we
were heading out to see that. We’d also be flying back home from Tampa. In
Tampa we ended up doing some more theme parking with a trip to Busch Gardens
which was quite intense. They had a bunch of crazy roller coasters that had me
very close to puking. Also there was a bunch of wild animals which I am always
into seeing. We ended up going to two baseball games because we were just
hanging out one night and decided to buy the cheapest tickets we could to that
night’s game. We ended up right at the very top of the seats, the players were
like ants down below. Thankfully, Brit got us great seats right on the third
base line for the game the following night. Both games were super fun and we
got to see Boston win the night Brit got me tickets.
That was
pretty much the end of our time in Florida. We just caught our flight home from
Tampa and landed back safe and sound at home. I think I made it through without
a single bout of diarrhea too! My body must have known it was almost back home.
It was kind of a strange end to the trip because for nearly a year we’d been
traveling around these poor countries living between 10-20 dollars a day, and
then landed in Florida where it costs that much for 1 meal took a bit of
readjusting. It felt like our trip was over when we still had a couple weeks
left just because we were back in familiar territory.
Well...it
only took me nearly 3 extra years to finish but I finally completed what I
started back when Brit and I left on that adventure. I wish I’d kept up with
this more and didn’t have to go back in time with these posts. Feels somewhat
silly since everyone I know has heard these stories and is definitely getting
sick of them by now and can’t stand seeing my pictures anymore. Like I said
before though, this is really just a thing I started for my own benefit, it’s
nice to have it all written down so I can come back and relive these moments.
Plus, if anyone actually read this I hoped that they could at least enjoy some
of the stories or photos I put up on here. I feel like I should say something
reflective or meaningful to wrap this all up...so at the risk of sounding
extremely cheesy I’ll say a little something about what this trip meant to me.
When the
whole idea for taking a trip came up Brit and I had just planned on taking a 1
maybe 2 month trip somewhere once I finished school. I had a lifelong dream of
doing a safari in Africa and for some crazy reason she really wanted to see
India (which I had zero desire to ever see). So we started looking at flights
to those places and decided we should try to do both. A friend of Brit’s had
just got back from Southeast Asia and really hyped it up to us so we figured “eh
why not maybe make a stop there too?” Then our flight had a layover in China
and we said “may as well stay there for a bit.” From there this trip just kept
growing and growing and we had our eyes set on traveling for an entire year. Quite
a few people very close to me actually tried to stop us from going and thought
it was a terrible idea. It was a bit of a bummer to not receive encouragement
with it but I’m glad we actually went through with it as I’m not sure it’s an opportunity
I’ll have again in my life. While we actually came up a couple months short of
our goal, I’m still beyond happy that this was something we decided to do.
To me
traveling was never a high priority on my life’s list. Aside from a couple
trips to the States and Mexico I’d never been anywhere nor had any desire to go
to any places outside of doing a safari one day. Places around the world weren’t
something that I often thought about and some of the places we ended up going
were places I never even knew existed. After going to all these places though I
can’t think of a single place that I regret going or wouldn’t go back to if I
had the opportunity. As cliché as it is to say, traveling really does change
you. Before seeing the world or thinking about how other people live on the
other side of the planet was something that pretty much never crossed my mind,
now it’s something I can't stop thinking about. I’m always jumping at the
opportunities to share my travel stories or talk to people about places they’ve
been. Now I just want to see everywhere I can before I die.
A close
friend of mine asked me once during a somewhat heated debate “What’s so great
about traveling? You’re just going to see another temple or another beach!” I
can’t remember what I said at the time, it probably wasn’t a very good response
though considering I can’t even remember it…Thinking back on it now though I
don’t even think I could give a convincing answer. That’s because each person
gets something different out of traveling. The places I liked most were
different from the places Brit liked and for very different reasons. I think to
really answer that question a person just needs to go somewhere new and
challenge themselves personally. It makes me a bit sad to hear when friends and
family tell me they have little or no desire to travel, they are closing themselves
off to so much. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the world is a whole lot
bigger and interesting than your city, your job, and your small group of
friends and it isn’t until you go out and see some new things that you’ll
actually be able to appreciate what else is out there.
Alright,
that’s enough sounding cheesy, pompous and arrogant all at the same time…but I
hope that any of you reading this who had no desire to travel at least consider
going to a new place sometime in your life. To close this all up I’ll just say
that this trip meant a lot to both me and Brit and I’m sure we’ll reminisce
about some of the times we’ve shared for the rest of our lives. It was definitely
something I was grateful I had the chance to do and hope to keep seeing more
places before my time is up!
Thanks
again for reading,
Dan
Ps. Brit
took this photo and I felt waaaay to lame to write the quote out itself, but I
agree with it.
