Travel Planning Take 2

It didn't take long for me to realise that simply deciding "this shall be my route" is not all there is to planning an epic train journey.  Reality is beginning to set in (and not just the reality that I'll be doing all this solo, and will have a huge suitcase to lug behind me the whole time).  I'm going to have to think of a definite plan (there I was thinking I could just say "hey, this city looks nice, let's jump off here"), the time frames involved, and see just what exactly I can afford.  This means making the dreaded journey onto my online bank account - always a depressing venture!


Rather than face all the "grown up" aspects of my adventure, however, I've just been planning the route more thoroughly.  Much more fun that way!


Turns out I can't have the specific journey I want, so I've started over.  Still trying to get from Indianapolis to Orlando, but then carry on from Orlando and fly out from somewhere else.  I had a lot of fun on the Amtrak website and their interactive route atlas.  I thought the site wasn't as easy to maneuver as I'd have liked, but it was acceptable.


I can have 12 segments of travel, within a 30 day period, for $649.00 (approximately £420).  A segment of travel counts as when I get on, then off, a train.  So if I have to change trains as part of my journey from A to B, then that will count as multiple segments.  For example, if I am travelling from Orlando, Florida to Charlotte, North Carolina, I will have to change at Cary, North Carolina.  This will then be two of my segments.


My latest (ideal, but probably still unrealistic) route is as follows -


*Finish at camp*

Indy (Indiana) - Cincinnati (Ohio)

Cincinnati (Ohio) - Charleston (West Virginia)

Charleston (West Virginia) - Charlottesville (Virginia)

Charlottesville (Virginia) - Richmond (Virginia)

Richmond (Virginia) - Savannah (Georgia)

Savannah (Georgia) - Orlando (Florida)

*Go to Star Wars convention*

Orlando (Florida) - Cary (North Carolina)

Cary (North Carolina) - Charlotte (North Carolina)

Charlotte (North Carolina) - Birmingham (Alabama)

Birmingham (Alabama) - New Orleans (Louisiana)

New Orleans (Louisiana) - Memphis (Tennessee)

*Fly home to the UK*

If I stick with this route, (which is not wholly likely given the time frame I have), I will have the opportunity to visit seven new states.  Not quite as good as my original plan of eleven, but still a significant number!

So there you have it, the fruits of the last couple of hours of my life!  Is there anything you suggest I do if I make it to those cities?  Or places you recommend I go instead?  Birmingham, for example, is just on there as it was a big city in Alabama on the train route!

All the best,

Charli

My Bucket List

While reading a "Bucket List" post on TheHoliDaze.com,  I realised that is something I need to do.  It's all well and good knowing there are many things I want to do in life, and sure I have an entire board on Pinterest dedicated to it, but still it's so...ethereal.

Many years ago my friends and I made our Bucket Lists from tea-stained canvas, but we were quite young and rather drunk at the time.  I seem to remember having just come out of a long term relationship too.  Overall, this sort of...affected...what we wrote down.  Besides, that was so many years ago (4 years, I think?), my list has changed in some ways.

So, without any further ado, I present you with my Bucket List (which I reserve the right to come back and change whenever I please!) -

1. Set foot on every continent
2. Visit every state in America
3. See the Northern Lights
4. See the Taj Mahal
5. Visit Tunisia and go on a Star Wars tour
6. Visit Ethiopia
7. Volunteer in Africa
8. Have a travel article of mine published, either online or on paper
9. Write a book and have it published
10. Take a drive directed entirely by a spinning arrow, or perhaps by rolling dice
11. Hula dance in Hawaii
12. Do Tai Chi in China
13. Buy a sari in India
14. Celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans
15. Release a floating lantern
16. Eat pasta in Italy
17. Ride a gondola in Venice
18. Ride in a hot air balloon
19. Holiday on a house boat
20. Make a "fort" from blankets - sleep in it
21. Attend a masquerade
22. Visit Charlotte, North Carolina - take a photo outside a sign with the place name on it
23. Meditate in Tibet
24. Visit New Zealand
25. Teach English as a foreign language

I don't want much...just adventure in the great wide somewhere....

What's on your bucket list?

Happy 4th July!

...For yesterday, of course, I do know it's now the 5th!

This was the third 4th July that I've spent in America, but it was a first for the other two international counsellors.  I had a vague idea of what to expect, especially since it seems very similar to our Bonfire Night, but they didn't!  Then again, my first 4th July was spent frantically cleaning toilets at Disney World, and my second was spent on a boat (tied up at the dock), watching the reflections of fireworks bouncing off the huge bridge that was blocking the fireworks themselves...

Our original plan was to go to downtown Indianapolis in the evening and have a picnic at the park.  We'd take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a Frisbee, maybe even a "soccer" ball and hang out until the fireworks started.

As increasingly appears to be the case...this didn't quite happen.  We didn't leave camp until 9.45pm (fireworks were due to start at 10pm), and went racing downtown, with 5 people stuffed into a 4 person car.  We ended up pulling up at a car park and stood out on the sidewalk to watch the show.  The firework show was synchronised to music on a local radio show, which our American friend played on her phone for us.  

It wasn't quite as planned, but it was still good fun.  All the people who lived nearby came out of their houses to watch the show, so we stood with a lot of other people, including highly excited little children.  This gave the entire experience a sweet, community feel.  Plus, everything is more fun with wriggling, giggling children around!  (I know, I know, I have to say that, I'm a camp counsellor...!  Doesn't make it any less true though).

The fireworks were spectacular.  A lot of time and effort had clearly been put into them, and I'm very glad that they weren't cancelled.  There's a burn ban in effect in our area at the moment, due to how dry it's been. A lot of the smaller shows had to be cancelled, and it's currently an arrest-able offense to set off fireworks.  Since I'm from damp old England, this is quite a new concept to me!  But then I look outside at the brown, dead grass and I realise...it probably wouldn't take much to set the entire field alight.

All too soon the fireworks were over and we hopped back in the car.  It took a long time to get back to camp, fighting the traffic the whole way, but it was worth it.  We sang and danced along with the radio the whole time!  I think we surprised the friend of the American counsellor, but that's what camp does to a person - life suddenly becomes a musical!  A crazy, happy, bouncy musical.  And I wouldn't have it any other way!

So I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July, wherever you might have been!

PS.  Watch this space for tales of how me and the other English counsellor spent the day exploring downtown Indy on 4th July.  It's a fabulous story, filled with adventure and an exceptional ability to get hopelessly lost, wherever we go....

Travel Theme : Art

Today I found myself tweeting with Amtrak, the train and bus service that I'm seriously considering using on my Big American Train Journey.  While searching through the people they follow on Twitter, I found this blog -  http://wheresmybackpack.com/.


As well as being an enlightening and interesting blog, it also suggests travel themes for each week. This seems like a fabulous idea to me, budding travel writer that I am (as of yesterday...).  So here I am, jumping on board with this week's Travel Theme - Art.
This then got me thinking...what do I consider to be art?


I'm the daughter of a photographer, so to me a photograph is art.  To other people I suppose it is specifically a drawing, or a sculpture.  I also consider certain types of graffiti to be artistic, but to many that is vandalism.  I suppose art can be a great many things, and for me it is simply something beautiful that makes me smile.  Nothing more, and nothing less.  Beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places.  Sometimes all you have to do is be willing to see it.

Trip Planning

Once my contract is done at camp, I get a 30 day "grace period" as part of my visa.  This is 30 days in which I can travel before I have to leave America.  Once these 30 days are up, I have to leave the country.  I can't work during this time though.

The other English counsellor has a trip planned with a travel agency - it sounds really cool but also more expensive than I can afford.

I hope to see a lot of America, but only if I have the money to do so!  I might end up spending the month on my friends' farm in Iowa...we shall see.

As I have recently been to Chicago  I find myself desperately wanting to travel some more.  Thus I have begun planning my "ideal" 30 day trip.  I don't know how much of it is possible, but with a month still to go, a girl can dream!

Now there's a big Star Wars convention in Florida on August 23rd, which I would love to go to (I'm a big Star Wars geek).  Also, I have several friends currently working at Walt Disney World, Florida.  On top of all of this, I have friends living in Florida who have offered me a place to stay.  All this added together, and Florida is looking very appealing.

The issue with this is...I've been to Florida. I worked at Disney for 3 months in 2009.  It's my dream to visit every state in America, so Florida doesn't fit the criteria of "someplace new".  This poses a slight problem...

I'd already been toying with the idea of travelling America on the train, similar to how I travelled around Europe a few years ago.  I've emailed Amtrak (train company) asking what my options are in terms of my specific plans.  It seems like a good way to see a lot of the countryside, with more freedom than travelling by plane.  Plus it has a certain air of nostalgic romanticism about it.

The final day I'm needed at camp is August 7th, so I have from the 8th until the 22nd to get to Florida.  I could spend 2 weeks meandering my way across America from Indianapolis to Orlando...

I could, potentially, go to: Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa (stop by to see my friends), Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia then Florida!

Well, maybe not all that in 2 weeks...that's a little unrealistic...but I could.  Of that list I've been to Indiana (obviously), Wisconsin and Iowa, so that would be 11 new states, eleven!  I could jump off the train in a city in each state, then jump back on again and keep going!

How cool would that be?!


So that, my dear readers, is the ideal.

I don't know how I'd fit all that in to the time I have, how I'd afford it all, or even if it's possible...but it would be so so cool if I could.

I'm going to go dream my travel filled dreams!

Chicago Road Trip!

At my camp there are three international counsellors - me, another English girl and a girl from New Zealand. Obviously, we all stayed at camp for the two week break.  We've also been joined by a handful of Americans who drop in and out.


One of the Americans very kindly offered to drive us to Chicago for the weekend.  It was only 3 hours (ish) away, so not a massive undertaking.  We set off in the evening on Friday 29th June after booking ourselves into the IHSP hostel in Damen.


The drive was kind of boring, with the most interesting thing to see being a wind farm!  We have wind turbines in the UK, but nothing of that magnitude (that I've seen).  There were literally hundreds of them, stretching off for miles.

We arrived in Damen (a suburb, which was later recommended by a friend who used to live in Chicago!) sometime in the evening.  We drove around a lot.  The biggest issue with the hostel, from our perspective, was that there was nowhere to park outside the main building for us to check in.  We literally pulled up at a Tow Zone and had to dump the car with our hazards on.  That was once we found the building...!  Despite these minor problems, the hostel was actually really nice.  We were in a different building, a couple of blocks away (again, no parking - we parked on a residential street somewhere) and had a 4 person, private room (i.e. not a dorm).  The beds looked like Ikea bunks, but were in good condition with nice smelling bedding.  The entire building was quite nice - apparently it's a relatively new hostel.  They offered free pancakes at the main building from 8am-11am.


Once we got ourselves settled and showered, we headed out into Damen to find food.  This turned into a problem, since it was 10pm and we had someone with us who was under 21.  A lot of places wouldn't let us in, even for food, without ID.  We finally ended up eating pizza someplace, which was nice, but the whole situation was frustrating.


We then decided to head back to the main hostel building, which had a rooftop terrace.  We hung out up there (we had it to ourselves) for at least an hour.  There was an outdoor gig nearby, so we could hear the music from the roof, could see the lights from all the buildings downtown, and watched fireworks from all directions.  Overall, an excellent way to end the night!

We aimed to get up at 8.30 the next morning, go get pancakes and then head downtown.  Sadly, this did not work out.  This was partly my fault, since I was in charge of the alarm!  I didn't notice that my alarm was set for "Wednesday, Thursday, Friday" (it's a second hand phone and the alarm hadn't been used since it was given to me).  I woke up at 9.30am and eventually hauled everyone else out of bed.  They then decided they needed showers, which took a while as apparently everyone else in the hostel also needed showers at 9.30am!  We reached the main hostel building for approx. 10.30am, by which time all the pancakes were gone.  We gave it up as a bad job and went on a hunt for cheap brunch.


The hostel provided us with a list of Cheap Eats, which included brunch.  The first place we tried had increased their price, and we decided it was no longer worth it.  The decision was made to try the other suggestion for breakfast.  Thus began an hour (or more) long trek around Damen.  We got so lost it wasn't even funny!  At one point we stood at a stop sign, trying to figure out where to go (the American's smart-phone wasn't being very smart), when me and the Kiwi spotted a cafe in the distance.  We made a couple of tired comments about it looking like there was food over there, before being dragged off down another street.  Half an hour later we find ourselves stood outside that same cafe.  That's where we ended up having lunch.  Seriously.  Half an hour later.


I don't know if something got into my shoe or what, but by this point my foot hurt and I wanted to change into flip-flops.  The sky was also a seriously ominous black in the distance.  We agreed to go back to the hostel to get our waterproof coats.


The hostel was a lot further than we thought, and by the time we got there it was so dark the streetlights had come back on!  The wind was fierce, and a few drops of rain were plopping down onto us.  We almost ran into the building, and by the time we walked the 50 steps up to our room (it was a lot of stairs, so we counted them!), it was pouring it down outside.  Good timing!

We waited for about half an hour, hoping that the rain would let up, before we decided that we wouldn't melt and should just go anyway.  Grabbing our raincoats and our sunglasses ("optimistic but realistic", Kiwi), we ventured back outside.


The rain wasn't too terrible, and we jumped onto a bus fairly quickly.  The bus took us to a pretty "sketch" part of town, where we could get a train into downtown.  We found out later there was a train station quite near to us and the entire bus journey was a waste, but so it goes!  We discovered we could not buy an "all day" train ticket at the station.  We could buy one...but had to go to a nearby supermarket to do so...!  This was very odd, but we wanted the $5 all day ticket and complied.  Tickets in hand, we finally boarded the train and so our downtown adventure began!


Our destination was Millennium Park, and we enjoyed walking around there.  We got to see what we think was a Quinceañera - a Latin American celebration of a girl's 15th birthday, which is the transition from childhood to womanhood.  Our American friend explained that to us, as all I knew was that there was a teenage girl in a bright pink, huge dress!  Her and various other people in pink clothing were having their photos taken around "The Bean" and other places in Millennium Park.

As it was much too hot for little English Roses like me, we did take a brief stop to dip our toes in some cool water - as did many other people!

We had a leisurely stroll along the BP Bridge and the surrounding area, then stopped for lunch at Panera Bread.  While we ate we discussed our options, and decided on a Plan of Action.  Next stop would be the Buckingham Fountain - one of the largest fountains in the world.


It was pretty spectacular!  Absolutely huge, and really quite ornate.  I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it.  I loved it!  I also discovered that I'm definitely the daughter of a photographer...but not because of any particular photographic skills of my own (all the photos in this post were taken by me though).  We wanted a photo taking of all of us, and I pointed to a nearby couple and said "ask them to take it".  Turns out the man was a photographer, and was very willing to help us out.

No, that's not us in the photo!


The fountain was at the edge of Lake Michigan, and we could see Navy Pier in the distance.  Navy Pier didn't seem too far away and sounded cool, so we set off in that direction.  I don't think we were even halfway there before we were exhausted!  It had been a long, hot day and we rapidly lost interest.  We're not very hardcore tourists - we didn't even see Sears Tower!  Mostly because it was closed...

(Note: I had zoomed in significantly to take this photo - we were much further away than this!)


We started to feel a little hungry, and my friend remembered she'd heard of a great pizza place that she thought was nearby.  We agreed that Chicago-style Pizza was a necessity, so we set off on the hunt for this pizza place.


We should have remembered how much of an epic failure our last attempt at finding a specific food place was!  I don't know how far we walked, or for how long, but I know for sure we walked in a massive circle at least twice.  Halfway there her not-so-smart phone died, so it was even less use than before.  Nooooo!  Eventually we ended up at a different Italian place, eating a different Chicago-style Pizza!  It was a huge, thick pizza and did look quite good.  Sadly I don't like pizza, and will only eat garlic bread pizza, so I had spaghetti instead.  


They brought out this huge, and I mean huge bowl of spaghetti bolognaise.  I ate a lot, I was constantly eating the whole time, and didn't even make a dint.  It was unbelievable.  In the end I put it in a box and gave it to an old, toothless homeless woman.


After this it was time to head back to Damen, which is when we discovered that we didn't need to go on the bus - the train took us almost the whole way there!

We staggered back to our hostel, with the intention of showering and changing, then going back to the rooftop terrace.  Unfortunately by the time we all felt sufficiently clean, we were very comfy in our various beds and couldn't bear the thought of more walking.  I think we hit the hay at about 10.30pm!  Oh yes...we lived the high life in Chicago!


The next morning we actually woke up at 8.30am (well, I did, the others were harder to wake up) and were out of the hostel by 9.30.  We dropped our bags in the car, then went and got pancakes.  We had to make them ourselves, and had to share the two small griddles with other travellers, but they were very tasty!  I had two huge pancakes - yum yum yum!


We checked out, visited a couple of shops, then it was time to head back home to Indy.


The drive was just as long and hot as the drive there, but it was enjoyable singing loudly along with the radio for a few hours with my friends!  We got 80-cent slushies when we were almost home, and rolled into Camp on a major sugar rush!


I spent the rest of the evening catching up with my facebook, uploading photos, had a long, hot shower, did my laundry (oops, that's still in the dryer!), and other relaxing things.  I needed to sit down after all that sitting down!


Tomorrow we plan on going into Indianapolis in the afternoon, to visit the canal then go to Mass Ave for a free wine tasting.  I don't like wine, but I love Mass Ave, so I'm happy to go along!  The day after is then 4th July.  At the moment our plan is to take a picnic, a Frisbee and maybe a football, then hang out in a park, watch the fireworks, then abandon the under-21s and go out drinking downtown!


Going to be an amazing week I think, and I'll be sure to let you guys know how it goes!


Best wishes!

Two Week Break!

One of the pretty awesome things about my camp is that we get a two week break in the middle!  I don't think all camps do this, but I LOVE that mine does.  By the time we got to our break I was utterly exhausted, and that was exactly what I needed.

We went out in the town and went out to eat obscene amounts of food, but other than that for most of the first week I just slept.  Honestly.  I slept then crashed on the sofa and read.  Or I napped in the hammock garden.  And let me tell you...it was BLISS!

A sneak peek into some of my facebook statuses from the week -

"Definitely loving this break so far :) Had a lovely, lazy morning and now getting ready to hop in the pool for a few laps :) Work off some of the large amounts of food I ate at the All You Can Eat Buffet yesterday! Then off to relax in the hammock garden with my book and my music...and probably end up having a nap :) Just what the doctor ordered after a very chaotic, exhausting first few weeks of camp!"


"Just got back from the hammock garden.  Never felt so deliciously relaxed in my life :) Had a very lovely doze, rocking gently under the soft, green canopy of trees, with the bright blue sky peeping through, and the birds singing a beautiful lullaby..."


"Had a nice stroll around camp, and a good long natter with the other International counsellors on the Observation Deck :) Now headed over to my staff cabin to watch A Knight's Tale :) Swimming, hammocks, walking, AND Heath Ledger all in one day?! Bliss :)" 


Now doesn't all that sound beautiful?  I thought so!  I definitely need a hammock of my own...

And so ended the first part of our week, and then that weekend we headed off to the big old Windy City!