Bloggy friends are the bestest friends

Whoops. It appears that I've been slacking off on blogging about my trip to the US. You know, the one I went on in JANUARY... #fail

Previously, HOGWARTS.

The day after the great Hogwarts expedition of 2013, Lor and I headed out to meet Emmy at a Starbucks somewhere near downtown Orlando. The three of us had absolutely no idea what to do that day - we spent some time abusing the free wifi at Starbucks looking up non-theme park related things to do in Orlando, but didn't come to any decisions. In the end, our lack of decisiveness was getting ridiculous, and time was rapidly ticking past. There was only one solution - send a text message to Gina:

Me: Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaa. We don't know what to do today...
Gina: *immediately sends four responses each filled with well thought out suggestions even though it's barely 7am*

ACTUAL BEST.

Anyway, we ended up going to Downtown Disney. We wandered around some of the Disney themed shops, then bought some fudge because OBVIOUSLY. Somewhere along the way, we stumbled across a shop that sold nothing but dinosaur related stuff. It's possible that I Kermit flailed when I discovered that they had plastic velociraptors. And so it came to pass that Clever Girl joined our intrepid trio:

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

We wandered through the Lego shop:

And then an enormous Disney Store, which included all kinds of complete insanity. We took advantage of the free wifi to tweet/Facebook a bunch of pictures:

Pregnant looking Ariel

Ho suspension Tink

Apparently in his spare time, Voldemort dresses up as Cinderella

After a while, we decided we were hungry, and that we should eat at the Rainforest Cafe because of reasons that now escape me. We ended up sitting at the bar on ridiculously high stools that had animal tails, which was kind of weird. On the plus side, RASPBERRY DAIQUIRI:

Yup. Lunch at the Rainforest Cafe requires booze.

After lunch, we wandered around some more, and then stumbled across a movie theatre. By a happy coincidence, a screening of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was about to start. I'm pretty sure my realisation of that went something like this:

Me: OHMIGOD JEREMY RENNER CAN WE PLEASE GO AND SEE JEREMY RENNER PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE??????
Emmy: I guess so?
Lor: Eh. Why not?
Me: YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY OHMIGOD I HAVE TO EMAIL KIM SHE'LL BE SO JEALOUS.

Yup. That pretty much happened.

I can't speak for the others, but I thought the movie was awesome. And not just because of Jeremy Renner. Sooner or later, I'll rewatch it and probably do a Movie Monday post on it. Because of reasons.

After the movie, we still had an hour or two to spare before we had to be at Alice's for dinner, so we headed back to the hotel, watched the previous day's installment of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and then sat watching Maury for an hour because that's what happens when you ask me to find something to watch on American television.

We ended up leaving a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle later than we'd planned because.......well, we needed to know, dammit!

Yeah. That.

And of course then when we finally did get on the road and heading Alice's, there turned out to be a massive car accident on the freeway and instead of taking us like 20 minutes to get there, it took us the better part of an hour. Poor Alice, meanwhile, was slaving over a hot stove making us an incredible dinner as we texted her from the car, promising that we WERE in fact on our way.

Eventually, we got there and had an amazing evening of good food, good company, a little cider, and so much giggling that Alice's neighbours probably thought we were bonkers. I also turned up with a bag of dirty laundry - literally - and was all "OH HAI, BLOGGY FRIEND. Thanks for cooking me dinner! Can I use your washing machine?" Yup. That happened. 

Several hours later, our stomachs hurt from laughing and it was getting stupidly late, so Lor and I headed back to the hotel with a couple of "Whoops, we ignored the GPS and are now going totally the wrong way" detours because we were too busy giggling about everything that had happened that day.

Next up, Disneyworld and everything that happened. 

K xx

Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home

Previously: manatees, tacky souvenirs and why you shouldn't drink while taking cold and flu tablets.

When Wizarding World of Harry Potter first opened back in 2010, Sara was in Australia. And we spent a rather terrifying amount of time wishing that we could go and generally moping about the fact that we lived far away from Florida. Somewhere along the way, we started joking that we should meet there in between our 30th birthdays because AWESOME. And then with me going on the study tour in January, we were able to actually make it happen. And OH MY GOD, IT WAS FREAKING SPECTACULAR. 

So Wednesday ended with us having dinner with Alice and Emily. Thursday started with Lor's arrival, which led to much squealing and flailing and hugging. Once we'd finished bouncing around like lunatics, we all piled into the car and drove to Universal's Islands of Adventure and promptly recommenced bouncing around like lunatics. 

Pretty much like this.

We headed straight to Wizarding World of Harry Potter, because OBVIOUSLY, and when we walked through the gate and into Hogsmeade I literally started bouncing up and down and squealing with excitement. Because it's freaking PERFECT, you guys. See?

We wandered around for a few minutes, just taking everything in, and noting that the Dragon Challenge was closed. To be honest, I was a little relieved, because Kirsti + upside down rollercoasters = NOPE. We then realised that the wait for The Forbidden Journey was only 40 minutes, so we immediately jumped in the queue. And let me just say, it was the most fun I've EVER had in a queue. Because the queue takes you through Hogwarts, and there are all kinds of props from the movie and interactions with the characters and it's just generally really freaking brilliant, okay? 

Dumbledore's office

Talking portraits

Dumbeldore's study, complete with Dumbledore

Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, complete with Golden Trio

The entrance to the Gryffindor common room

The Sorting Hat

The ride itself? Was kind of amazing. I'm an ENORMOUS wimp when it comes to roller coasters. But this? Is equal parts roller coaster and simulator. So while I was nervous when it first started, I was grinning like an idiot by the end (although I will admit, I may have uttered a small scream when Aragog spat at me...). If I remember correctly, we got straight back on and rode it again. Although given that it was almost three months ago now, I might just be making stuff up... 

Once we'd had our fill of Filch's Emporium (I MAY have purchased a Hogwarts crest Christmas decoration...), we headed over to the Flight of the Hippogriff. The wait time on that one was over an hour, and wasn't NEARLY as interesting as the queue through Hogwarts. Especially when the ride itself lasted about a minute... (In contrast, the Forbidden Journey is 5 minutes) So that was a little disappointing, but still fun. 

After that, we were all starving, so headed over to the Three Broomsticks for a spot of lunch. I ordered the Cornish pastie, and was confusingly presented with three beef empanadas. Nice try, America. But NO. Lor, Emmy and I also had butterbeer, which was insanely sweet but also incredibly delicious. Sara had pumpkin juice, which mostly just tasted of cinnamon and nutmeg. 

Stolen shamelessly from Emmy's FB page.

After lunch, we headed out to explore the rest of the park. Somehow, this turned into "Let's go to Marvel Superhero Island". We all rode the Spiderman ride a couple of times (it's pretty great), and Sara and Julia rode the Hulk rollercoaster while Emmy, Lor and I waved from the ground.

Then we wandered through the other islands, without partaking in any of the rides. It was too cold for the water ones, which was a shame because you guys know how I loves me some velociraptors. We briefly considered the rides in Toon Lagoon and Seuss Landing before deciding that it was better to spend our time back in Hogsmeade. We hit the Forbidden Journey again before going through all the shops. I think my favourite was Honeydukes, where I bought the rather obligatory chocolate frog (I have yet to eat it because IT'S SO PRETTY I DON'T WANT TO OPEN IT) and a box of peppermint toads. We didn't get to go through Ollivander's, because there was a massive queue to get in the door, but we DID go through Zonko's and Dervish and Banges, both of which were pretty freaking awesome. 

And then we headed back towards the car, with a little stop off at a shop in Seuss Landing where Lor and I bought cookies. Mine was raspberry and white chocolate, and was AMAZING. 

And thus ended our day at Universal. It was quite possibly the best pre-30th birthday present EVER. 

K xx

Forty seven plastic spoons

So I WILL eventually get around to telling you guys all about my trip in the order in which it happened. But this particular moment of the trip is too good to keep to myself until I reach the appropriate point.

Yes, Lor and I made a vlog while we were in Orlando. And it is amazing. And because Lor edited it rather than me, it's of a much higher standard than my usual vlogs (from an editing perspective, at least. The content is probably on a similar level of ridiculousness.) YOU'RE WELCOME.

Also, we didn't have a tripod, so in ADDITION to rearranging the entire hotel room to be able to sit both of us in front of the camera, we had to kludge together a solution that would allow us to actually record without the need to hold the camera. That solution? THIS:

I promise that we both have normal skin tones in real life. The hotel lighting just made us really really yellow-y orange. I'd also like to give a shout out to Youtube for once again picking the derpiest shot of me to use as the screenshot for this video. SIGH.

Enjoy, kids.


Lor, I miss you. Come visit me.

K xx

Technical difficulties

Contrary to appearances, I *am* still alive. (Although only just. My arrival in Orlando coincided with the arrival of the world's most arse about cold. It started with a cough and is ending with the sniffles. GO FIGURE) It just turns out that while the hotel we booked in Florida does have free wifi as promised, said wifi is only available in the lobby. And forcing yourself downstairs to write a blog post in a room full of strangers when all you want to do is sit in bed in your PJs is really freaking hard.

Anyway. I'm having a blast, hanging out with my BFF Sara, as well as my bloggy BFFs Lor, Alice and Emily. Today, we went here:

It's okay to be jealous. I would be if I hadn't just been there.

Mostly, I wanted to tell you guys that I'm still alive, and also to say an absolutely enormous thank you to the fantastic community over at 20SB for handing me not one, but TWO Bootleg Awards - Blogger I'd Most Like to Get a Drink With, and Best Female Overall. It's a huge honour, and I'm aiming to have drinks with as many of you as possible. Except I'll probably have lemonade because I have an increasing tendency to have one alcoholic drink and then feel the need to go to sleep on the table.

This need was extra strong last night at dinner. Turns out you probably shouldn't have a margarita shortly after taking cold and flu tablets AND cough syrup. Whoops??

Love you guys like whoa, and will update you properly when I can,

K xx

Plan ALL the plans!

So. My computer seems to be better, the vast majority of my data is still here (with the exception of an assignment in which I have to build a database from scratch, which is due in two weeks, and which is worth 50% of my grade for that class. ARGH.), and I'm eternally grateful to the good folks at JB Hifi.

ANYWAY. Let's get back to regularly scheduled programming!

Before I was so rudely interrupted by the Great Computer Debacle of 2012, I was going to tell you about all the buckets of awesome that I have planned for my trip to the US in January!

Things I Have Planned For My Trip To The US In January:
1. Ice hockey in Washington, DC (provided I can convince someone to go with me).
2. A behind the scenes tour of the Library of Congress. AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

Source

3. Snow! Okay, I'm going to admit, I'm pretty freaking terrified of this part. Because I'm not a huge fan of the cold. But it'll still be awesome.
4. Meeting and hanging out with Sarah.
5. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And, you know, the rest of Universal Studios. But mostly Harry Potter.

Source

6. Meeting and hanging out with Alice. Most exciting of all, I'll be there for her birthday!
7. LOR. We will have all the fun, including vlogging an episode of Buffy for Snark Squad. Because that's how we roll.
8. Meeting Gina, and planning ALL the plans.
    a) Mexipalooza - in which we eat ALL the Mexican food.
    b) Moviepalooza - in which we (hopefully) go and see Les Miserables and/or The Hobbit at the movies.  
        Failing that, we will watch Paperback Hero together. BECAUSE OF REASONS.
    c) Balloonapalooza - in which we will go hot air ballooning, and it will be awesome.
9. Buying Kat a suitcaseful of Pretzels M&Ms as a wedding present.
10. SARA!!! In case you've forgotten, Sara's my BFF/partner-in-crime from such adventures as Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico; Canberra, Tasmania, Sydney, and Central Australia; and last year's trip to New York. And she lives in England, which is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar, so I never get to see her.

11. Apparently there's an Applebee's next door to our motel in Washington. I plan to eat my body weight in mozzarella sticks.

Aaaaaaaand then there's the second list...

Things That I Inevitably End Up Doing In America:
1. Hulking out over the existence of pennies.
2. Watching the news and yelling at the television.
3. Eating too many mozzarella sticks.
4. Attempting to get into the driver's seat of a car because EVERYTHING IS BACKWARDS.
5. Taking hours to pay for anything because all the money looks the same.
6. Buying a crapton of books because ZOMG SO CHEAP!!!

So there you have it. Those are the exciting things I have planned so far. And yes, I will pretty much always turn a trip to the US into an opportunity to meet blog friends. Because bloggers are made of awesome, you guys.

K xx

PS. Don't forget to ask me questions for my 500th post!!