Badlands National Park to Mt. Rushmore

24/06/16
We departed from Sioux Falls in South Dakota to Badlands National Park, situated in the south west of the state. This is place is beautiful. We drove around and stopped off at many different places to look at the amazing scenery and take some photos. The park protects 244,000 acres of land, where once ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse and saber-tooth cat once roamed. These days it's home to mainly bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dog and ferrets. We also stopped for lunch here. Despite the hottest part of the day was 27 degrees celsius, which for us brits, was unheard of.. we still managed to walk around and see some amazing sights.

25/06/16
Following our short but sweet visit to the Badlands we made our way into Keystone, population only 337. A very small town to say the least, but super cute. Our hotel was actually situated just around the corner from Mount Rushmore, which was pretty cool. The place had a very country, rodeo feel to it. This day we got to see Mount Rushmore in the morning which was incredible. The sculptures on the mountain were actually much smaller than I had imagined it to look like, but still impressive to say the least. The group then went to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer State Park however I had a very short visit here as I was ill. I had the most awful lower back pains and unfortunately had to visit a emergency doctors :( A drip, some antibiotics and many tears later I got to leave with a lovely cheque for my insurance company. However I am on the mend which is the main thing! Damnit though. Here are some photos of Mount Rushmore!

Found this cute guy in the woods below Mount Rushmore

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Sioux Falls, South Dakota

23/06/16
The group arrived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The river and the waterfalls were so pretty. It reminded me of home, where my boyfriend and I would try and find pretty places to explore like the Falls. We only stopped here for a short while before heading on to a Pawn Shop, which sounded questionable when we first heard we were going to a shop of this name hahaha. We don't have these shops in England to my knowledge..

The Pawn Shop

Essentially a shop which sells second hand goods and there isn't a fixed price on some stuff I believe you can somewhat barter for stuff. We had a tour of the whole place, which was very impressive and showy offy! They had a gift shop, a music room full of so many amazing guitars, they had a gun room and a gun range where you can practice shooting targets. It was kinda scary how many guns they had for sale, and how relatively cheap they are. Some were like 200 dollars, which is pretty affordable. The classes to learn how to shoot were cheap too, like 20 dollars for half an hour. That is scary. There was also fancy VIP areas and a stage as the venue holds a lot of gigs. Next week Panic! At The Disco have a gig there which is pretty cool. I was happy to leave the guns behind and get out of there to be honest hahaha.

Myself and Nicola had an early night so we could be up early and off to visit our first national park, Badlands!

<3

Chicago, Illinois

20/06/16
We arrived in Chicago and it was a quick turn around for dinner. We had a pizza party in Grand Park, located right next to our hotel. We had about 10 of the deep pan Chicago pizzas, which were unreal but so filling, only managed to have one slice! We then departed to go and watch the Chicago Cubs baseball game, which was played against St. Louis Cardinals who won 3-2 against the Cubs. Despite the end score it was an amazing experience at my first ever baseball game.. even if I didn't really know what was going on!

21/06/16
Our second and final day in Chicago. We move on pretty quick from place to place! Today we decided to do some sight seeing. Firstly we went and visited the Bean, also known as the dome. This was designed so you are able to see the Chicago skyline as it's coated with a mirror. We then went into the main shopping area, had lunch at the Cheesecake factory and may have or may not have visited a tattoo parlour (sorry parents, i know you are reading this :)). We went out for a last night out with our pals whose tour ended in Chicago. It was a super fun night but so sad to leave these people who will be friends for life.

The Bean

22/06/16
Back on the road. On route to Wisconsin we stopped off at Milwaukee for lunch. Although we didn't get to walk around Milwaukee for long or see much, I saw this sign on a wall and it made me smile. I also saw a vets and there was a little cat sleeping in the window which made me happy hahaha I miss my cats. Anyway, the group then visited a local brewery called Millers. It was pretty interesting to walk around and see how they make their beer, even if most of the group were hungover. We arrived in Madison, Wisconsin after a long day of travelling and got an early night before heading off for another travel day into the next state, South Dakota.

<3

Canada: Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto

12/06/16
Quebec City, Quebec

Early start for our epic road trip across the Canadian border! It was a long drive to the border, but before we got there we had a little stop at Walmart, which sells everything from make up and clothing to food and homewear. We ended up getting a massive pizza for 5 dollars. The portion sizes here are just crazy and it's way cheaper than the UK so everything seems like a bargain. We arrived in Quebec City in Canada after a long day of travelling and headed our into the city for some food and drink.

13/06/16
We had a sweet tour guide who showed us around the city and told us about all of the history. Quebec City was founded by a French explorer in 1608, hence the language here is French. The city is really pretty and old fashioned, built upon cliffs which look upon the St. Laurence River. The river was used for shipping and importing/exporting goods, which dominated the economic industry. Quebec City also have such harsh winters here that some houses are fully covered in snow, making it impossible to leave your house for months sometimes. In Canada they have a food dish called Poutine which is basically chips covered in cheese and gravy. I had this for lunch and felt right at home!

St. Laurence River

14/06/16
Montreal, Quebec
Next up was Montreal, another mainly french speaking city. This place created a lot of laughs. The city itself was beautiful and rather European looking we thought, very quaint. Quite similar to Quebec City but had more of a city vibe to it, compared to Quebec City's old fashioned feel. A group of us hired out bikes and rode around the city. Well, attempted to. We kinda got lost, one of us rode into a tree, and then actually fell off the bike later in the day. It was a good time that's for sure. We also got to see the city's sky line which was really pretty.

Sorbet stop

15/06/16
Toronto, Ontario
My favourite city so far. We stayed in right in the centre of the city for three nights, in the area based on New York's time square. As you can see from the photo it's similar, just a much smaller, much calmer version.  We visited the CN Tower, which is the biggest tower in North America, to view the sky line of the city, which was amazing! We also went to one of the 7 wonders of the world, Niagara Falls which was an incredible experience. We went on a boat tour of the three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls: Horseshoe Falls, American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. The falls are located in between the border of American and Canada, and you can actually walk across a bridge to cross the border however you need your passport! All the mist from the waterfall absolutely soaked the boat and we all came out (even in our ponchos) sopping wet haha. It was funny though!

View from the CN Tower

The bridge that connects America to Canada

Whilst we were in Toronto, we visited a well known graffiti alleyway. We mainly went to get cool photos haha, but also to look at the amazing art work obviously, and question how people are able to draw so well! It was crazy. Here are a few of my favourite pieces.

<3

NYC to Boston

08/06/16

After an early morning start we flew smoothly from Iceland into New York JFK, sadly greeted by torrential rain. We got our cab to the hostel, which was located on Amsterdam Avenue, not far from Times Square. We were slightly apprehensive due to the fact the security officer in the JFK airport told us that we were staying in the 'hood' of the city, and that we should not wear nice clothes or jewellery and keep our phones in our bags. However when we arrived it seemed a pretty safe neighbourhood and the hostel was pretty good. On the evening we headed into Times Square for a bite to eat, TGI Fridays.. so adventurous, then had a wander around the shops. The metro system is SO confusing. With us being from the North, we are already dumb when it comes to underground public transport, but this system was much more confusing than the London tube. After much confusion and help from friendly locals we made it there and back safely.

Time Square

09/06/16

Next day was day 2 of NYC and we were up early for a full day of site seeing. As we were only in NYC for 2 nights we made sure we were gonna cram as much as we could into this day. First we went to Fifth Avenue, which is the main shopping street of the city, about 2 miles long full of shops. We went into about 5 MAC and Sephora stores, and died at all the make up and how cheap it was compared to the UK. Located further down this street was the Empire State building, which from the bottom wasn't too impressive but as we were on a tight budget we didn't decide to go up it unfortunately. We then headed on the metro (again with thanks to a friendly local who saw us in need) to South Ferry, where the Statue of Liberty is located. We saw the hun from across the Hudson River.  Next we walked to the 9/11 memorial, which had an eerie feel to it. We felt it was right to pay our respects to all the people who lost their lives in the tragedy. We went to Central Park, which is a huge park in the city which has loads of nice walks, fields for sport and a zoo. We stumbled upon a baseball tournament so chilled on the grass watching and comparing it to our fave school p.e lesson - rounders. Next up we headed on the metro back to Times Square for one last wander around. We were out and about for 12 hours but it was so so good and I can't wait to go back in the future and explore further.

Central park

10/06/16

Another early morning meeting the tour company, Contiki, at a nearby hotel for the start of our tour around North America/Canada. Off we went to Boston in Massachusetts stopping in Rhode Island for lunch and also visited Yale University. We were excited to be in an actual hotel room with our own double beds, which was SO nice after staying in hostels! First night in Boston, we went out for dinner at this restaurant called Dicks Last Resort, where basically the staff are paid to be 'dicks'.. so they are purposely rude and throw napkins and stuff at you, shout in your face... make you feel on edge the whole time you're eating basically! But it was super fun, however I don't think I'll be going back there for a quiet one for some time! On day 2 of Boston, we did a bit of shopping (2 hours in Victoria Secret) and ate a lot of food (food portions aren't okay for the beach bod). Whilst in Boston we visited Harvard University. Boston is home to approx 60 Universities. We had a tour of the campus with one of the students and learnt more about the University's history. I bought a jumper from their campus shop so I can pretend I studied there ;)

Harvard campus

Next up we are heading into Canada for a week and then back into the US for the rest of our tour

<3

Reykjavik, Iceland

06.06.16

After saying our many emotional goodbyes myself and Nicola headed for Manchester airport. Our flight to Reykjavik left Manchester at 1.30pm and landed in Iceland time (an hour behind) at 2.45pm. Because we are super organised we have not planned any transport to or from the airport to our hostel for any of our trips hahaha, so we went and paid 2,500 Icelandic krona (not knowing if this was a lot or not - again, uneducated and slightly unprepared) to get to our hostel. After a dodgy hour mini bus ride we made it to our hostel called KEX hostel, which from the outside looked very very sketchy. However, when we actually got inside we were pleasantly surprised with how cool the layout and the furniture was, and how nice and friendly people seemed! KEX is known as the 'hipster' hostel in Reykjavik, and we could see why considering every other person was dressed really edgy and different.. and then there was us who could only add ripped jeans into the equation. 

We got into our room, a 16 bed dorm, and were sad to see how our beds were not next to each other and that we would be sharing a bunkbed with a random. Luckily, the girl who was sleeping above Nicola, was super nice and we got chatting with her. Her name is Lauren, 21 years old and from Chicago. We decided to head out for dinner with her to learn more about the American dream. After finding an Italian restaurant we ordered Hawaiin pizzas each (so adventurous) which cost 2,900 krona. We though yeah that must be cheap!? After paying and then actually checking the conversion we realised we had just spent £16 on a very average pizza (with no drink may I add), which we liked to call the 'basic bitch pizza'. 

07.06.16

After an early night, we got up and went in search for some cheap food. We went into a supermarket right next to our hostel, and being two blonde girls took about half an hour to actually work out how much money we had and what our options were. We settled for half a loaf of bread and some plastic cheese, and headed for the sea which looks upon some stunning mountains. After chilling there we headed back to meet Lauren, who had picked up a rented car, and we road tripped an hour to the Blue Lagoon for a dip in the hot spring! The hot springs were UNREAL. The water was so warm, hotter than a bath. I got a smoothie, Nicola and Lauren got a cider and we chilled for about 2 hours in the water! I asked a chinese man to take a photo of us, and his whole crew decided they wanted a photo with us too shouting 'beautiful' whilst posing. Then they decided they wanted a photo of just us 3 on their phone which was kinda weird, but we were all down for it as they were nice and somewhat cute haha.

We headed back to the hostel and said goodbye to Lauren as she sets of on her camping and hiking trip in the Icelandic mountains.We didn't want to spend anymore money as Iceland is kinda expensive to eat and drink so we went into the hostel kitchen and raided the 'free food' shelves and ended up with pasta, cheese and bread. Decent. Going to get an early night tonight as we are up at 6am tomorrow morning for our flight to New York! Can't wait! 

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