Tag: travelling

Observations of the USA

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After 16 days through the states, I’m pretty much an expert now. Ha! No, I don’t think I could ever be, but the experience of driving the coast has opened my eyes to some ridiculous, funny, stupid and different observations of this country.

  • McDonald’s is legitimately everywhere. We’d be driving through a small town (comparable to Yallingup for example) and there will be a McDonalds, Taco Bell and Starbucks on offer. If not more!
  • Car pool lanes. These are bloody genius! If you have two or more passengers, you can drive in the furtherest left hand lane, which is always quieter.
  • All the food and beverages are sweeter or are cinnamon flavoured. Soy milk is sweeter, tonic water is sweeter, chewing gum tastes like cinnamon. It’s ridiculous.
  • Most people we met were super friendly, but always think they’re right. They want you to have the best trip, so you need to cancel that hotel you have in Pismo beach immediately and book in at Morro Bay.
  • The catch phrase is “SO good”.
    – That donut was SO good
    – Her hair looks SO good
    – That bar is SO good
  • Speaking of bars, every single one has at least one TV showing any game of sport. Even the classy bars will have it on, and then you hit Buffalo Wild Wings where they show at least 10 different types of games on 50 screens around the restaurant.
  • Pick up trucks are no joke. To me they resemble monster trucks, and scare the life out of me on the road.
  • Customer service is insane! As the staff work off tips they always go above and beyond to make sure you have the best experience. So, even though at times you know they’re faking it, it’s a nice change to the grumpy hipsters back home.
  • Having said that, tipping SUCKS. American companies need to sort their shiz out, pay their staff the correct wage so that the customer doesn’t have to.
  • On top of that, please just include the taxes in the price tag of any item. I don’t want to have my $5 note ready, to have someone tell me “Oh, that’ll be $6.20 thank you”.

Rant over. This country, like all others has positives and negatives. I loved the trip, and wouldn’t have done it any differently at all. I just find these little differences fascinating, and thought you might too!

Big American love,
Hanbel.
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It’s the Final Countdown

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Andrew and I have had a countdown going for quite some time now. This is the trouble with planning so far ahead, you plan really early and start a countdown 25 weeks ahead. This morning, however, we got to write the words “0 days”…

It’s here!!

Having said that, I still can’t find myself feeling overly excited. The past couple of weeks have been so busy, full of last minute tasks, moving out of our beautiful rental, packing and storing, final catch ups with friends and family.

IMG_0206Part of me wishes that we’d never leave this place

Not to mention this small, little, insignificant event we had on Thursday;

Andrew’s sister’s wedding!

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I was lucky enough to be not only included in the wedding, but to be a bridesmaid. We spent two days getting nails, hair and make up done, eating delicious food, drinking Veuve and laughing together. It was a beautiful ceremony, full of love and tears (the groom set me off, I blame him entirely!) and family bonding.

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We also got to stick around long enough to celebrate my Dad’s 60th birthday. We spent an afternoon drinking wine and beer in the sunshine, surrounded by family and partners. Dad had two cakes placed in front of him (one of them being a Princess cake!) and he looked like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. It was the sweetest thing to watch.

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So, despite the small stresses and very busy days trying to organise our lives and keep our folks happy, we’ve enjoyed our last couple of weeks in Perth immensely. And I know as soon as we’re all packed, bikes taken apart and are en route to the airport, those butterflies are going to be fluttering pretty hard.

On a different note, we recently watched the movie “Chef” [it’s fantastic, please watch it immediately] through which I discovered this super fun app called “One Second Everyday”. I started using it exactly one month out from our big adventure, so please let me share with you our final month in Perth:

I’m going to miss Perth and my people far more than I’d like to think about right now, just know that I love you all and this decision to move has nothing to do with wanting to be apart from you. We’re just so ready for an adventure.

I’ll catch you guys on the flipside, thank you for reading and speak to you from LA!

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Peace out,
Hanbel.
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