Around the world in one day

Saturday March 9th I went to Epcot. As I always wake up early I was there before they opened and the lines were quite short, I also got to move to an even shorter line once I found out that because my hotel room key was my ticket I could go to a different entrance.

Epcot is divided into two parts, Future World and World Showcase, World Showcase opens about two hours after Future World so there is plenty of time to check out all the rides in Future World before having a wander around the Showcase. There was also a flower festival at Epcot while I was there so there was lots of characters made out of topiary everywhere. It's impressive to see what some people are able to make.

There were quite a few rides in Future World and they were all good, some of my favourites were: Spaceship Earth, the Chevrolet Test Track - which was also a little scary as it went quite fast and had some sudden stops, Journey into imagination with Figment, Mission Space - I really liked that you could choose two different intensities on this ride, and Captain EO - a really old 3D movie and it was really silly but also a little fun. I also wish I had gone on "Soaring" but the lines were so long and I didn't even think of getting a Fast Pass.

For those of you that doesn't know what the Epcot World Showcase is - it's a Showcase of different countries around the world. Each country has their own little area and you can buy food and merchandise from that country and the buildings are made in the countries own style and the people that work there are from the respective countries and their uniform is a kind of national costume of their country. A few of the countries has rides or movies but not all of them.

Once the World Showcase opened I went in a clockwise direction. When walking that way Mexico is the first country. They have a little boat tour showing the sights of Mexico which also stars the three Caballeros.

The next stop is Norway. I have to say they did a good job with the buildings -  making them look Norwegian. Norway also had a ride, Maelstrom, I didn't like the commentator on the ride, just because the Norwegian accent was so thick, but some Norwegians does talk that way when speaking English and I guess it's fun for people that are not Norwegian, wouldn't feel very Norwegian with a thick American or British accent.

After Norway there is China, Germany and Italy before America had their own little area. Then came Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. It was really fun to walk around and see everyone's area, with the buildings and everything.

Most countries looked the way I know them to look or the way I imagined them to look, except for Canada, which has a big focus on native Canadians and lumber. I also saw the 360 circle vision film in Canada. It was interesting but since you had to stand the whole time it was very tiring, and I don't really get why it was 360, I couldn't be bothered to turn around after a couple of minutes and it would have been just as good  if it was just a big widescreen or something.

I read on a website that Epcot was bigger than Magic Kingdom and that you need more than a day to get around it, maybe you do with kids, but I actually left long before it was closing. I did want to see the fireworks in the evening but I had gotten sunburnt and needed to relax so I went back to the hotel. I did feel like I had seen everything I really wanted to see though.

It's coming...

The rest of my posts about Disney World are coming, things are just a little crazy right now. When I got back from America I only spent one day with my dad before going up to Trondheim to visit a friend and tomorrow I am going down to see my mum. I will try to post the rest of the America posts before next Sunday. I can't believe it's only a week until I move back to the UK!

The Silver Linings Playbook

The Silver Linings Playbook
By: Matthew Quick

Outer back cover: Meet Pat. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him - the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent time in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat's now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he's being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he's being haunted by Kenny G!

When I saw the trailer for this movie I really wanted to watch it, I didn't even know it was based on a book. I still haven't gotten around to watch the film, but when I saw the book at JFK airport I just had to buy it!

I love the way you get into Pat's head, see the way he thinks and feels about people, it's really funny, even if his thoughts seem really childlike at times. Pat also seems really aware of other peoples feeling, he always looks for the silver lining and he's just really lovable.

There is A LOT about American football in the book which wasn't interesting to me, especially as I had no idea what they were talking about, the only thing that was interesting about the football was how Pat's father's personality changed depending on how his team did in the games.

One thing I don't like about the book is that it retells the plots of classic books, like The Bell Jar, The Great Gatsby and more. I know they are old books, but I almost feel like this book should come with a spoiler warning about those books, not everyone has read them just because they're old. However it also made me want to read them even more.

In all I enjoyed the book.

Downtown Disney

When Anne and I woke up on Friday snow had settled on the ground in New York so we were careful when driving. Anne was kind enough to drive me to the airport for my flight down to Orlando, it was really sad to say goodbye, but at the same time I was glad to finally be going to the heat and sunshine, I just wish Anne could have come with me.

After I got settled in at my hotel I headed to Downtown Disney, I just wandered around window shopping and looking for a birthday gift for my dad's wife, which I finally managed to find.

I liked all the different stores they had, although I think it's a bit annoying that they don't have a normal grocery store so you can buy some proper food. You have to either bring your own or live on junk food while you're there. I guess it's easier if you have your own car though, that way you can just drive to a grocery store. Anne had offered to give me the rest of the food we had in New York, but I didn't take it as I figured they must have some proper food.... Nope!

Since it was late by the time I arrived I didn't spend too long in Downtown Disney. It was mostly just souvenir stores and restaurants there and I guess it's the only place to go out for a few drinks in the evening if you want to do that. They have an all year Christmas store there that kind of made me wish I had gone closer to Christmas so I could do some shopping there.

Broadway Hotel & Hostel

With a name like Broadway I though it would be pricey, but that is where Anne and I stayed while we explored New York and Washington DC and it was quite cheap.

Broadway Hotel & Hostel is located really close to Central park, as well as a subway station, so it was nice and easy to get places. Anne said that they advertise free parking on their page, but you basically just have to be lucky enough to find an available spot outside, they don't have anything reserved for their guests or anything.

On their web page, and when we arrived, they said that the WiFi is only available in the hotel lobby, we were lucky though and got a room on the second floor right above the lobby so we managed to connect from out room.

We had to go out into the hallway to use the bathroom as it was a shared one, but it was a proper bathroom, not those stalls you get in most hostels, and there seemed to be several down the hallway so we didn't get loads of people knocking on the door trying to get in while we were in there. They could have gotten some pegs and maybe a shelf to put stuff on in the bathroom though, as it was I had to put everything on the toilet seat while I was having a shower. I also think the shower was on a timer as the water would go cold after a while. Good think I don't spend a long time in the shower anyway.

The room was quite cold, it felt like the window was open even when it was closed, luckily the beds had nice thick duvets as well as blankets so I didn't wake up at night because I was cold.


There was a sink and mirror in the room, but because of the placement you couldn't really get enough light to use the mirror to put make-up on or anything.

Lunch at the White House

Anne had rented a car for our trip to New York, on Thursday we took the car and went to Washington DC for the day. It was actually beginning to snow in New York when we left in the morning, luckily in DC it was a nice and clear sky. Parking in DC however proved difficult. All the street parking and meters that we saw had a 2 hour limit, in the end we had to park in a parking garage. It was actually really strange, we drove down the ramp to the garage when the attendant there made a gesture, we stopped the car so we could ask him what he wanted but then he just turned around and continued talking on the phone. As we were in the garage searching for a sport to park the attendant came down and started telling Anne off because she had driven down.... Excuse me, but he should have made another gesture telling us to wait once he had our attention on the ramp earlier. Luckily it turned out fine though, he parked the car for us (why I don't know), and we could explore DC.

As we headed towards Washington Monument we walked past an art gallery, a WWI memorial and I also got a good picture of the White House from a distance. I'm glad I managed to get the picture of the White House as it turned out later that we couldn't go up close to it, maybe Anne and I just came from the wrong side, or maybe there was something happening but there were barriers up and police telling us to turn around so we couldn't get any closer.

Washington Monument was closed, they are still repairing it from the Earthquake in 2011, I think they're almost done though as the scaffolding was only at the bottom now. I don't think I would have gone up it even if it was possible though, not after the Bunker Hill monument! 

From Washington Monument we headed down to Lincoln Memorial. I like that all the monuments are so close in DC. Lincoln Memorial was really cool, on the side of the wall inside is the Gettysburg Address, I've only ever heard the line "Fourscore and seven years ago..." so it was kind of cool to be able to read the whole thing, not that I'll remember any of it mind you. Of course the Lincoln statue is the coolest thing in the memorial, another thing I have only ever seen on TV and wanted to see with my own eyes. 

Anne and I headed back towards the Washington Monument and had a look at the WWII memorial. I like all the stars on the wall, I think it said on a sign that there's over 4000!

This is when we tried to get close to the White House but since that failed we headed towards the Smithsonian instead. The Smithsonian is divided into several buildings/museums, we went to the Natural History one. On the way there we walked past a van selling cupcakes, I just had to try a red velvet one as I've not tried red velvet before. It was nice, but I prefer chocolate.

The Natural History Museum was really good. There was so many interesting things there, definitely worth a visit if you're ever in DC! I first heard about the Smithsonian on the TV series "Bones" and have wanted to see it since. I really wanted to find the building that they feature the exterior of on the TV series sometimes, but since I had no idea which building that is I just gave up.

I had a great day in DC and got to see everything I really wanted to. It's kind of cool because whenever I've seen DC on TV it's usually just the monuments and the White House I've never seen the city itself, so it was really cool to see that it was just a normal city like anywhere else.

Have you been to DC? What did you do and see there?

Some famous sights and a Broadway show!

Anne and I started Wednesday with a harbour cruise. We thought we would be there in plenty of time but once we got off the Subway we noticed that the park was closed so we couldn't go straight through it they way it said on our instructions. As for the rest of the instructions: "Terminal is located behind so-and-so castle"... - we are both tourists! How are we supposed to know what so-and-so castle looks like or where it is? It didn't say anything about it on the map I had. We did find the terminal in the end though, we were cutting it close so we ran the last hundred meters or so, which is fine, we probably needed the little run after all the holiday food.

The cruise was good. The weather wasn't so good though, it was really cold, I wish I had brought my fleece jacket with me from Norway. I wanted to just sit inside the boat as it was nice and warm there, but to see as much as possible and to get the best pictures, I had to stand outside. On the cruise we saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island (unfortunately both were closed), Brooklyn Bridge and of course we also got a wonderful view of New York City.

We needed to warm up after the harbour cruise so we went inside the National Museum of the American Indian. There was so much to see there, beautiful clothes and art. After we had warmed up in the museum we headed over to the Empire State building. Some guy outside it, wearing an orange jumper tried to trick us into buying tickets for over $40, luckily Anne knew that we only had to pay $25 to get up, the over $40 was to get to an ever higher floor (102nd), but we were both happy with the lookout on the 86th floor. I bet the view is great on a clear day, but I though the view was pretty great even though it was cloudy.

You can even see the statue of liberty if you look closely!

The next, and last, stop before heading to Broadway was Flat iron building, it was really cool to see it with my own eyes, I've seen it a lot on pictures and TV but it's a whole other thing to stand in front of it and see it yourself!

Before heading to Broadway we went back to the hotel and got prettied up, then we took the Subway to Times Square to hunt down a place to have dinner before our show. We ended up at a place right across the Majestic called Jekyll and Hyde, both Anne and I had never heard of it before but I wish we had! If we had know what it was all about we would have gotten there earlier to enjoy it more! It was so funny, it was kind of a show in  a scary Gothic setting, it was just loads of fun really! I will have to go there again if I go back to New York! 

The show we went to see at the Majestic, after a rather stressed dinner, was Phantom of the Opera. I saw the movie several years ago and remember I loved it, and I love the music from it. The show was absolutely amazing! We got cheap tickets so we were sat in the back, which was fine, the only annoying thing about it was the people sat in front of me, they kept moving and blocking my view. It would be nice to treat myself to better seats if I go again, but they are SO expensive!

All in all a very successful visit to NYC. It was short but I got to see everything I really wanted to see, it would have been nice to have a day extra to do some window shopping and actual shopping but at least this way we saved money. I shouldn't be shopping too much anyway since I have to pack even more for when I move back to the UK!

Have you been to a Broadway Show? Which one and what did you think?