Spain!!!!

I forgot to mention (or maybe I did) that the same time I went to Paris, we also we to Madrid, Spain!! Spain was much warmer than Paris, much sunnier and in my opinion, getting around was a lot easier to navigate through this city too. One disappointing thing about our trip to Spain was that our first day spent running around the airport. It's a long, crazy story and some day I'll share the story on here. But for the whole day that we had to roam throughout the city, we enjoyed the sites. Since it was a nice, sunny day, we took the metro to Retiro Park and strolled through the park until we saw the Palacio de Cristal! Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations and we didn't get to go inside. *womp womp* We also got to see the actual Royal Place of Madrid which was pretty neat as well. After all that walking (and getting lost) we headed over to the Puerto de Sol for Tapas and sangrias! There's another back story having to deal with getting tapas, but that too, is for another time. The next time I travel to Madrid and other cities of Spain, I totally plan on enjoying more of the sites, eat more of the food (leaving unwanted guest in the US) and just enjoy life.

Come Fly with Me, Lets Fly, Lets Fly Away!

*sigh* I love that song. Especially, Michael Buble's version of it. Anyways, good evening everyone! Guess where I got to go a couple of weeks ago?? *drum roll please* Paris!!!! *And the crowd goes wild* It was my first European trip since I was a toddler and I had an amazing time. I will admit it was cold , but I couldn't help but enjoy being in this beautiful city. When we got lost trying to find our apartment where we were staying, my best friend turned to me and was said, "We're walking around in Paris." Then it dawned on me....yea, we were really walking around in Paris. I have seen photos in magazines, scenes from movies and pictures from other travelers, and wishing that someday, I too, will visit Paris. I did. And it was awesome. Our first tourist stop was Notre Dame Catherdal. They were having prayer, so we had to be completely quiet. We were traveling on a budget, so we took the Metro everywhere and I'm actually kind of glad for it. When we were walking past the Arc de Triomphe and saw the circle of chaos (that's my nickname for it), I couldn't imagine riding in a taxi and riding through that mass of cars. And here I thought the people in my town couldn't drive. Sheesh. My only regret I can say, is that we didn't get to eat a lot of authentic Parisian food. Trying to accommodate a picky vegetarian....*sigh* never again. I did grab a delicious crepe from a street vendor, but other than that....nothing. I think one thing I did enjoy was the architectural work on all the buildings, especially the Lourvre museum. I just couldn't help but stare at the buildings and amount of work that it took to design and construct the buildings. Amazing. And the one thing we really wanted to see out of anything else.....The Eiffel Tower. What a sight. I knew it was huge, but it looked like a iron giant in the distant. And like a big kid that I am, I literally squealed when it started to sparkle. The next night, we walked down the stairs to get a closer view of it and my camera battery died, but thank goodness for my cellphone. I will admit, we did not take the elevator to the top, but with it being foggy we probably wouldn't see anything anyways. Actually, we didn't get to see as much of the city as we really wanted to, but I guess that means we'll have to plan another trip to visit again. ;D

What Happens in Vegas, I will share with you!

*taps mic* Is this thing on??? Good evening all!!! I haven't post anything in a long time because of work. I mean I have been working a lot these past couple of months and I'm glad it slowed a little bit before the storm a.k.a holiday shopping. Anyhoo, back in September I finally got the chance to go to a city I always wanted to visit....VEGAS BABY!!!!! First, I would like to say that it was just a day trip, so I have no problem sharing my experience there. There was no time to doing anything "risque", but next time...most definitely. Flying to Vegas was pretty uneventful until we started flying over the Graaand Canyon.

I was totally blown away by the mountain scenery; absolutely amazing! Soon after that we landed in Vegas! :D Since it was only a day trip, we decided to take a tour through all the hotels and casinos on the Strip. This was my best friends third time going to Vegas, so she knew some attractions to see while we were walking around. Luckily for us we were able to catch a shuttle ride to and from the airport for just $12! (I can't remember the real price, but it was cheap)

The first hotel we visited was the Venetian hotel and I fell deeply in love with the extravagance of this hotel!! There was gold and replica's of paintings everywhere!!

And of course there was the very famous Gondola ride. We didn't take ride because we were on a budget and the cost to take trip in one of the boats was pretty pricey.

After the Venetian, we walked on one of the connector bridges, that connect all the hotels together, and headed to the Wynn hotel.

On the way there, we saw this awesome waterfall and I had to take a picture next to it!

Every hotel, there were really high priced stores like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and a whole lot of the stores that we didn't even bother walking into. But they were nice to look at as we passed by.

These flower balls were made out of real flowers and I was just totally fascinated by them. We pretty hungry, so we walked over to the Fashion Mall (Or something like that) to get something from the Food Court. This mall looked like an UFO. Neat.

While walking through the mall, we saw the biggest Forever21 ever and I wished that was a shopping trip soo much, but sadly it wasn't. After that, Treasure Island and the Mirage!

Instead of walking, they provided a little tram that went from Treasure island to the Mirage. Which was nice, because it was getting outside and our feet were starting to hurt.

After the Mirage, we went into Caesars! Holy moly, that place was large and amazing!! I thought the Venetian was over the top, but the Caesar hotel was beyond that! Connected to Caesars was a shopping called the Forum, which lead into the hotel. Now that I think back on it, it got kind of confusing trying to figure out where you were, but I enjoyed the scenery as we walked around in circles.

I think we were in Caesars for almost 2 or 3 hours..whew! Next is the Bellagio (which as the awesome water show at night) and the Cosmopolitan hotel! I loved the Cosmopolitan for one reason only....

This stuff!!! There was strands of crystal all through the casino and I loved it!

Let me fast forward to my other favorite hotels, because we did so much and I took so many pictures, I would typing for hours!! The Paris hotel was my second favorite hotel, right after the Venetian. They had an Eiffel Tower right in the middle of the casino!

Then New York New York was freaking amazeballs! It was like you were in a mini version of New York city.

As it got darker, the city came to life. There were street performers everywhere!! Whether they were in costumes of random characters (Spongebob, Sonic the Hedgehog and Transformers) guys dancing in the street and musicians of all types (there was a guy playing the bagpipes). Our last show of the night was the water fountain show at the Bellagio.

I definitely can't wait to go back because there is still so much to see and do and I can't wait to experience it all!

New Orleans: Mardi Gras

Good evening folks!!! I know I said I was going to New Orleans for my birthday and blah, blah, blah!! Well, last month me and my bestie finally got our chance to party in the Big Easy for Mardi Gras!!!!!! Let me tell you, I was beyond excited for this trip!! Even before Princess and the Frog came out, I always wanted to visit New Orleans and I finally got my chance!! First, I must start off by saying, we missed our first flight in the morning and had to take the next flight. *womp womp* Which kinda sucked because we were going to spend that time walking around the French Quarter and looking at all the shops. Anyhoo, we finally get on our flight (we definitely weren't going to miss that one) and an hour and a half later, New Orleans!!!

I'm not sure how it is all year round in New Orleans, especially the French Quarter, but there were people everywhere!!!

Thanks to some very helpful party people that we met at the airport, we ate lunch at a VERY popular seafood restaurant in the French Quarters called Deanie's!! The place was packed with people, but yet the wait was only 45 minutes.

This was soo good!! It was fried shrimp, oysters, fish and soft shell crab!! I didn't get my Po' Boy sandwich this time, but next trip, it is on!! After that we head to the hotel to check-in and put on some more clothes. Brrr!! That was one of the downfalls of this trip...the weather. It didn't rain thank goodness, but it would of been soo awesome if it would have been a tad bit warmer. Moving along,the one thing we really enjoyed were all the different parades, that were held by different organizations or Krewes. One Krewe we definitely loved, was the Krewe of Tucks. And that is because they threw the most beads and other random objects than any other parade that we saw.

If you ever go to one of these parades, NEVER LOOK DOWN!! I say this because, there are numerous amounts of objects being thrown out into the crowd and if you look away, you will be knocked in the head by a strand of beads!

Don't worry, I left with a lot more beads than that!! And I didn't have to show one boob! :D Another thing that sucked, after that parade was over, we decided to wait for the next one...which took almost 2 hours to come!! And it was cold and it was windy!! Let's just say after all the parades that we saw this year, next year we decided 2 parades will be enough. Finally, Krewe Proteus and Krewe of Orpheus comes down the block!

These parades were loooonng and stuff was being thrown everywhere!! They threw beads, rolls of toilet paper, plungers (not really ones), coins, spears (again, not real ones) and even bags that all the stuff came in!!

Also, during many of these parades, were high school marching bands. They all did a really great job and you can see in many of the students faces that they were proud to be in participating in the parade.

One last thing that sucked, my camera battery died after this last parade. *womp, womp, womp* So, I took it back to the room to get charged, which meant no pictures of Cafe du Monde, the super famous cafe that serves the even more famous, beignets. We also went to the Harrah's casino, where I won money!!! Yaaay!!! Then we marched down to Bourbon St. to get some drinks and watch all the tomfoolery. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed about Bourbon St, but I think it was because I was tired from watching parades all day and it the temperature was continuing to drop. There were plenty of drunk people and some flashing, but most people were just walking around or standing around. *shrugs* I blame extreme sleepiness. After that, we decided to call it quits and head back to the room. I was soo tired, I barely had enough energy to take any of my clothes off before crashing into bed and not waking up til early the next morning. Lucky for us, our hotel served breakfast, which is always a plus in my book. After that, it was time for one more parade before we head home. Krewe of Zulu!!! Everyone always looks forward to the Zulu parade, because they give out the only thing that no one else does. Coconuts. That's right. Coconuts. No one knows why they do, but getting a coconut earns you bragging rights for many years to come.

If you want to get a good view of the Zulu parade, make sure you get up early to get a good spot. That parade gets very crowded and if you short like me, it makes things pretty difficult to see.

Of course I took waaaaay more pictures than this (around 100) but I would uploading for hours!! After that, we check out, walked up the street, ran down a taxi (literally) and was on our way back to the airport. Let me tell you, I truly did enjoy myself down there except for a couple of things, but I already cannot wait to go back next year. I just now know what to do for next year: 1. Staying for a couple of days instead of trying to cram everything into one long day. 2. Booking our hotel waaay ahead of time. We originally wanted to stay at the Double Tree, which is right on Canal St., but unfortunately for us, it got booked up really quickly, so we had to get the La Quinta, which was around the block. It was a nice hotel, but we decided we're staying at Harrah's next year. And that is because it's closer to the French Quarter and if it rains, we're still entertained by the casino and the night club downstairs. 3.Plan better for the weather. I didn't bring too much of a variety of clothes to wear and the super cold weather threw me for a loop! I'm glad I brought my coat! 4. Definitely more sightseeing! 5. Another battery for my camera! Can't wait til next year!!