This article is intended for Norwegians who’d like to repeat my vacation last year, either in whole or in part. It contains information on travel, booking and other travel tips when going on vacation to either Las Vegas (Nevada), Orlando (Florida), or both.

Nå som jeg har reist til USA selv, tenkte jeg å dele noen tips basert på mine egne erfaringer både i planleggingen og under selve reisen. Jeg ser på dette som en mulighet for å korte ned på tid folk trenger å bruke på planlegging i forkant av en ferietur til USA.

April er allerede godt i gang, og da er det faktisk en passende tid å begynne planleggingen og ikke minst bestille reisen. Er man tidlig ute, kan man slippe mye av ventetider og samtidig finne noen gode kupp på reiser. Selv begynte jeg planleggingen i midten av mars, og gjennomførte bestillingen i begynnelsen av april.

For å unngå overraskelser underveis, vil jeg anbefale å lese kjapt gjennom hele denne artikkelen før du reiser for å unngå overraskelser.

Dette er del 1 av 2 i en kort artikkelserie rundt dette temaet.

Før du begynner

Hvor mye vil dette koste?

Det er kanskje her vi bør begynne; hvor stort budsjett du må minimum beregne.

Selve flyreisen fra ditt hjemsted (utenfor Oslo) til Las Vegas vil koste rundt 9000-9500 kr per person, mens flyreisen fra ditt hjemsted til Orlando vil koste rundt 7500-8000 kr (jeg bor i Ålesund, så dette er prisene jeg har funnet), da med billigste reiserute. Hvis du skal reise til 2 destinasjoner i USA, vil jeg anbefale å benytte deg av innenlandsreiser i USA, ettersom dette vil bli billigere (fra Orlando til Las Vegas tur-retur kostet meg i underkant av 2000 kr), men det kan også hende at en skreddersydd reiserute bestilt hos et reisebyrå. Prisene vil variere etter nøyaktig reiserute (og dermed også hvilke fly og flyselskap du reiser med) og bestillingstidspunkt. Jeg vil anbefale å sitte sent oppe en natt (eller stå ekstremt tidlig opp) når du gjennomfører selve bestillingen; det kan faktisk i mange tilfeller bli billigere pris midt på natten enn på dagtid (ettermiddag), ettersom de billigste billettene legges ut for salg på denne tiden (de går fort unna, så det gjelder altså å være rask).

For hoteller i både Las Vegas og Orlando betaler du gjerne etter hotellstandarden, men siden en ferie i USA ikke er dagligkost for oss vanlige folk, vil jeg anbefale å gå for det lille ekstra. Pris for sentralt plasserte 4-stjernes hotell ligger gjerne på rundt 400-700 kr natten, mens 5-stjernes hotell koster gjerne 1000-1200 kr natten (både i Las Vegas og Orlando). Som oftest betaler du for selve rommet, og ikke hvor mange som skal bo på rommet, så her blir det bare hvor mange rom dere eventuelt vil trenge (for privatlivets skyld).

Så for å ta et eksempel, vil en hel ukes opphold for 2 personer på et firestjerners hotell i Las Vegas koste rundt 22 000  kr (beregnet 18500 for flyreise med start i Trondheim,  3500 for 7 netter på hotell – 500 kr natten i gjennomsnitt) på det billigste. Billetter til show, attraksjoner og gambling kommer i tillegg. Jeg kommer tilbake til disse emnene senere i artikkelen.

Organisering

Eksempel: dokumentmappe i papp

Helt til først vil jeg anbefale at du skaffer en dokumentmappe av enkel type. Det trenger ikke være en veldig fancy mappe, den trenger ikke noen inndelinger eller ringer, og trenger ikke romme mer enn 20-30 A4-ark på det aller meste.

Denne bruker du da til å samle all mulig dokumentasjon i forbindelse med reisen din; ESTA-skjema, utskrift av reisebekreftelser, utskrift av kart/veibeskrivelser, tynne brosjyrer eller liste over interessante severdigheter, osv. Reisebekreftelsene inneholder da informasjon (og referansenumre) for fly, hotell, evt. leiebil og/eller annen transport, og evt. annen informasjon du skulle trenge.

En slik dokumentmappe kan koste rundt 20-30 kroner der du finner kontor- og skolemateriell.

For enda bedre orden, arranger disse i rekkefølge over når du kommer til å trenge dem. Etter hvert som du bruker en bekreftelse eller behovet for bekreftelsen har passert (dvs. allerede sjekket inn eller hentet), legger du disse arkene bakerst i bunken, slik at den neste du kommer til å trenge alltid ligger fremst.

Jeg vet dette høres veldig petimeter-aktig ut, men slik type planlegging sparer mye tid når selve reisen er kommet i gang. Denne mappen legger du da lett tilgjengelig i håndbagasjen din (som er en ryggsekk eller liten koffert).

I håndbagasjen legger du da også en laptop (hvis du skal ha med deg dette), reiseadapter, ekstra batterier (til de tingene du måtte ha med deg i håndbagasjen), blader, bøker og evt. små dataspill til å korte ned reisen på.

Eksempel: liten dokumentmappe

Jeg vil også anbefale å anskaffe en liten dokumentmappe (A5-/A6-størrelse) som du kan ha i hånden. En slik mappe passer godt til å ha pass og boardingkort i, samt informasjon om den flyreisen du er på. Den jeg hadde med meg hadde også plass til en liten notatblokk, der jeg skrev ned flightnumre, klokkeslett, avstand, hvor lenge hver flyreise varte, og transport/hotell etter endt reise slik at jeg hadde dette lett for hånden uten at jeg trengte å plukke frem den store mappen til stadigheter. Denne lille mappen hadde også plass til en penn, og en liten lomme der jeg la passet mitt under reisen.

Da jeg skulle reise inn til USA, måtte jeg også fylle ut et lite skjema til passkontrollen og et lite skjema til fortolling, og begge disse passet veldig fint i denne mappen (for å unngå at de ble brettet eller krøllet).

Jeg fikk denne gratis hos Morris da jeg allikevel kjøpte meg noen reiseartikler (blant annet en sammenleggbar ryggsekk). Jeg så umiddelbart ikke nytten av den, men jeg etter hvert som reisen foregikk, merket jeg at jeg nesten ikke kunne ha klart stresset uten. Jeg vil anslå at hvis jeg ikke hadde fått den gratis, ville denne koste rundt 100-130 kr hos Morris, men jeg vil tro at de fleste som selger kofferter, lommebøker, ryggsekker og liknende også har noe slikt på lager.

Til slutt vil jeg også anbefale å ha både en sammenleggbar ryggsekk og en sammenleggbar bag i bagasjen. Ryggsekken kommer godt med til å bære en vannflaske eller to, håndduk, kamera, kart/brosjyrer og småting du kjøper når du er ute og går på dagtid. Den sammenleggbare bagen vil komme til nytte hvis du kjøper mange nok suvenirer til at du ikke får plass til dem ellers i bagasjen. Du må i så fall sikkert beregne å betale ekstra for å sjekke inn tilleggsbagasjen på returreisen, men det er tross alt ferietid, så dette er noe du nesten bare må regne med. Når du da pakker for returreisen vil jeg anbefale å legge kun myke ting (som f.eks. skitne klær i egen plastpose, bamser) i denne sammenleggbare bagen for å unngå skade på nyinnkjøpte ting (som ting i hard plast).

Pass og visum

For oss nordmenn  finnes det noe som heter “Visa Waiver program“. Dette vil si at du ikke trenger å søke om visum når du reiser som turist til USA (opphold i under 3 måneder). Dette krever da at du har et maskinlesbart pass. Har du skaffet eller fornyet pass de siste tre årene, har du garantert dette. Hvis du allerede har et pass, finn frem passet ditt og sjekk utløpsdatoen. Hvis det er under 1 år til utløpsdatoen når du reiser, vil jeg anbefale at du fornyer passet ditt allerede nå. Jeg fornyet mitt pass i mars i fjor, og da var ventetiden godt under en uke, så det lønner seg å være tidlig ute.

Søknadsskjema for pass får du ved å kontakte ditt nærmeste politi- eller lensmannskontor (hvis de ikke har muligheten til å utstede pass selv, vil de kunne opplyse hvor du kan gjøre dette). Det enkleste er da å ringe 02800 for å finne ut hvor du gjør dette. Mer informasjon om pass.

Når du ikke trenger visum til USA, må du likevel søke om en elektronisk reiseautorisasjon (ESTA – Electronic System for Travel Authorization), men dette gjør du først etter at du har bestilt fly og hotell, ettersom du bør legge inn informasjon om dette i søknadsskjemaet. Jeg kommer tilbake til dette senere i artikkelen.

På informasjonssidene til “Visa Waiver Program” står det riktignok at innreise godkjennes først når du er i grensekontrollen, men dette er da på lik linje som om du skulle ha fått godkjent visum på forhånd. Hvis du har papirene i orden, vil ikke dette være noe problem.

Selv om de fleste nordmenn ikke trenger å søke visum,  finnes det unntak. Hvis du har et gyldig pass (men eldre enn tre år), har tidligere blitt nektet visum til eller kastet ut av USA, har kriminelt rulleblad (uansett land), skal være i USA i lenger enn 3 måneder (90 dager), eller reiser inn til USA med privatfly eller -båt (altså noe annet enn vanlige rutefly eller -båter), da trenger du søke om visum (eller i det minste kontakte den amerikanske ambassaden for mer informasjon). Merk også at hvis du er aktiv i USA-fiendtlig politikk eller journalistikk, kan du også risikere å ikke slippe gjennom grensekontrollen. Faller du innenfor noen av disse kategoriene, vil jeg anbefale at du kontakter ambassaden om dette i god tid før avreise (og kanskje helst før du bestiller reisen).

Helse og forsikring

Vi som vanlige nordmenn har absolutt ingen dekning når det gjelder lege og sykehus når vi reiser til USA, og dermed trenger du reiseforsikring i tillegg. Dette vil da gjelde ved akutte behov hvis noe skulle skje mens du er ute og reiser.

Jeg hadde selv ikke behov for reiseforsikringen, så jeg kan ikke gi noen erfaringer med det amerikanske helsevesenet, men det var greit å ha den nødvendige tryggheten i bakhånd dersom noe skulle skje.

Hvis du har forsikring gjennom din arbeidsgiver, sjekk forsikringsavtalen din om denne inkluderer reiseforsikring, og evt. hvor mye denne dekker. Hvis du kommer til å betale flyreisen din (eller annen transport til/fra USA, minimum halvparten av reisekostnaden) med et kredittkort som ikke er fra banken din (re:membercard, Gebyrfri.no eller liknende), kan det hende du får dekt reiseforsikring gjennom dette kredittkortet. Sjekk eventuelt med kredittkortselskapet ditt.

Ellers skal det gå fint an å kjøpe reiseforsikring enten frittstående eller som fordelskunde hos de fleste forsikringsselskapene, men du bør absolutt ha dette klart i god tid før du reiser.

Bestilling

Hvis du bare skal til ett sted i USA, vil jeg anbefale å finne en leverandør som lar deg bestille både fly og hotell som en totalpakke. Jeg har hittil hatt god erfaring med Travellink (bare på fly til/fra Orlando i fjor, og både fly og hotell til Oslo tidligere i år), men Expedia er også en mye brukt leverandør.

Hvis du skal til to destinasjoner i USA, vil jeg anbefale å først bestille fly tur/retur til den av destinasjonene du planlegger å dra til sist (med varighet på hele USA-oppholdet), og deretter bestille fly tur/retur fra sluttdestinasjonen til den destinasjonen du vil begynne med. Flyreiser internt i USA kan nemlig bli billigere enn å bestille flyreisene enkeltvis. Det blir mange flyreiser på en gang, men det kan utrolig nok bli et billigere alternativ. Du må da kanskje regne med en overnatting på flyplassen etter den første delen av reisen.

Alternativt med mer enn én destinasjon i USA, kan du kontakte reisebyrået og be om pristilbud på en spesifikk reiserute, og eventuelt bestille hotell separat (for å få akkurat de hotellene du vil ha).

Selv har jeg erfart at Travellink har generelt lave priser, men hvis du er ute etter absolutt billigste alternativ, kan du bruke et verktøy som Finn.no Reise for å finne det billigste alternativet.

Bestille hotell i Las Vegas

De fleste hoteller på The Strip (som er den mest kjente gaten med de fleste av casinoene i Las Vegas) er relativt billige for sine standarder, så jeg vil anbefale å gå for luksus i nærheten av de showene du ønsker å få med deg.

Selv valgte jeg The Venetian, ettersom jeg er stor fan av Blue Man Group, og de har da et fast show gående på hotellområdet til The Venetian. Som fan av Blue Man Group går det også an å velge Palazzo, som er søsterhotellet til The Venetian, og som ligger like ved siden av, og det er også gangvei mellom disse to hotellene, og de er også sammenkoblet via kjøpesenteret Grand Canal Shoppes. Disse to hotellene er i skrivende stund også hjem for Madame Tussaud’s i Las Vegas, Wayne Brady, David Spade, Joan Rivers og Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular (en Las Vegas-versjon av den kjente musikalen The Phantom of the Opera). Det viste seg også at som hotellgjest hos The Venetian eller Palazzo hadde jeg også rabatter på alle disse showene (det vil da gå fint å reservere billett(er) ved å ringe fra hotellrommet tidligere på dagen).

Jeg vil anbefale at du sjekker turistsidene for Las Vegas for å finne ut hvilke show og aktiviteter som interesserer deg, og velge det hotellet som er nærmest de fleste av showene/aktivitetene du vil ha med deg.

Legg altså merke til adressene eller kartplasseringene til disse aktivitetene slik at du kan finne de igjen når du går i gang med selve bestillingen.

Bestilling av hotell gjøres enklest og billig hos Travellink, Hotels.com (Expedia er forresten nesten det samme som Hotels.com, begge er kjente merkenavn innenfor Expedia-kjeden) eller ved å finne den aller billigste tjenesten gjennom Finn.no Reise. Etter å ha valgt reisemål og dato, velg å kun vise 4- og 5-stjernes hoteller, og vis deretter resultatene på kart. Grunnen til valget av hotellstjerner er rett og slett et kvalitetsspørsmål. Jeg tenker som så at når man først reiser til Las Vegas, kan man like godt velge seg litt luksus. Med dagens valutakurs koster et firestjerneshotell rundt 400-700 kr per natt, mens et femstjernes hotell ligger på rundt tusenlappen for natten.

Bestille hotell i Orlando

Orlando er mest kjent for sine temaparker, der Walt Disney World kanskje er den mest kjente, med Universal Studios Florida hakk i hæl. Sistnevnte vil da også få selskap med en temapark for Harry Potter som en del av sitt tilbud i løpet av våren 2010. Hvis du er fan av temaparker, er det absolutt verdt å ta turen innom både Disney World og Universal i løpet av oppholdet.

Disney World omfatter 4 parker; Magic Kingdom (med fokus på Disney-magien), Hollywood Studios (med fokus på film, TV og animasjon, også bak kamera), Epcot (med fokus på vitenskap, og inkluderer også World Showcase, der flere land presenterer av sin kultur) og Animal Kingdom (en ren dyrepark). Universal Studios omfatter da Universal Studios (med fokus på film, både foran og bak kamera), Islands of Adventure (med fokus på tegneseriefigurer som Hulken og Spider-Man, eventyrfilmer, Jurassic Park, verdenen til den amerikanske barnebokforfatteren Dr. Seuss, og nå også Harry Potter), Wet’n Wild Water Park (med fokus på forskjellige vannopplevelser), og CityWalk (som er en lang gate med restauranter, barer og nattklubber med forskjellige tema, og har også show med Blue Man Group og en stor kino).

Både Disney og Universal har flere hoteller på sine områder, med fordeler i forbindelse med tilknyttede parker. Disse kan da utforskes hos Walt Disney World Resorts og Universal Orlando Resort.

De som bor på et av hotellene hos Universal har forresten også inkludert tilgang til Express-køene på de fleste av attraksjonene (du får da kortere ventetid på disse attraksjonene; maks et kvarters venting, sammenliknet med opp mot 45-60 minutter venting uten Express-kort), men tilgang til Universal Express kan også kjøpes separat inne på parkområdet. Ettersom hvert av disse resort-hotellene gjerne har hver sin stil, vil jeg anbefale å gå etter den stilen som passer for deg og ikke minst hva lommeboken kan strekke til.

Med de fleste av disse resort-hotellene får du også bestilt hotellpakker, som gjerne inkluderer billetter til de tilknyttede parkene, men dette er noe du får velge selv. Med dagens dollarkurs går det faktisk greit å bestille hotell direkte fra den resort-siden du ønsker å tilbringe mest tid hos, men de beste tilbudene finner du gjerne hos Travellink, Hotels.com/Expedia eller gjennom Finn.no Reise. Husk da på at her får du kun hotelloppholdet (og evt. også flyreise). Inngangsbillett til parkene kommer i tillegg.

Bestille transport

Jeg har ikke sertifikat selv, så jeg har ingen erfaring med leiebil-tilbudet i USA.

Hvis du ønsker å bruke leiebil, vil jeg anbefale at du besøker hjemmesiden til den flyplassen du lander på sist (dvs. i den byen du skal oppholde deg i) og sjekker hvilke leiebilfirmaer som er tilgjengelig der. Deretter blir det å ta kontakt med det firmaet som er mest kjent (gjerne et du allerede har tilgang på i nærheten av ditt eget bosted, slik at du kjenner litt til merkenavnet fra før). Dette gir lettest tilgang til leiebil i det øyeblikket du lander.

I Las Vegas er transport lett å komme over, både når det gjelder Airport Shuttle (minibuss til/fra flyplassen), limousine og taxi. Spesielt drosjene er gjerne linet opp utenfor hotellene på The Strip slik at det går raskt å få tak i dette. Jeg kommer litt tilbake til dette senere i artikkelen.

I Orlando også Airport Shuttle lett å få tak i når du lander, spesielt med Disney, som har egne busser til sine hoteller. Hvis du bor på andre hoteller enn Disney og vil unngå køer til skranke, kan jeg anbefale å forhåndsbestille og betale transporten fra flyplassen til hotellet ditt (og retur) hos Mears Transportation. Der kan du også forhåndsbestille transport til andre temaparker (etter at du har lagt inn transport fra/til flyplass). Med transport til/fra flyplass angir du når du lander og når du letter (og/eller når du vil bli hentet), mens med transport til temapark (Attraction Transportation) får du egentlig bare ut en verdikupong uten spesifisert dato/tid, og her ringer du bare til kundesenteret deres dagen før du skal reise til temaparken for å avtale tidspunkt (avreise fra hotellet, men du kan også avtale retur senest 3 timer før avreise fra temaparken). Etter at transporten er bestilt og forhåndsbetalt, er det bare å ta med seg bekreftelsen og plukke opp billettene ved en selvbetjeningskiosk (enten ved bruk av strekkode eller å taste inn bekreftelseskoden) når du lander i Orlando. Hvis du går til informasjonssiden for Airport Transportation hos Mears og velger den transportmåten du reiser fra flyplassen med (Luxury Sedan (som rett og slett er en liten limousine), Shuttle eller Taxi), deretter klikker ordet “here” i tekstlinjen “Click here to see how easy it is to use our service at Orlando International Airport” og til sist velger flyselskap, vil du få opp beskrivelse med video hvordan du kommer fra gaten du lander ved, gjennom bagasjehentingen og til der du finner din transport (og evt. der du finner kundesenteret med selvbetjeningskioskene). Har du vanskeligheter med å huske denne ruten utenat, kan du godt skrive ut denne beskrivelsen og legge den i dokumentmappen sammen med bekreftelsene på fly- og hotellbestillinger. Hos Mears kan du forresten redigere tidsavtaler, flyinformasjon og evt. legge til flere transporteringer (andre parker, venner/kjente, osv) opptil 24 timer før den første transporten. Du må bare betale (eller få refundert) mellomlegget på endringene du gjør.

Visumfritt til USA

Det som gjenstår nå, er å fylle ut reiseautorisasjonen du skal ha med deg for å reise visumfritt til USA.

Finn frem flybekreftelsene dine, hotellbekreftelsen på første destinasjon og passet ditt (hvis du har bestilt nytt pass, vent til du har mottatt det nye passet) før du går til hjemmesiden for ESTA. Velg evt. språk (men engelsk skal gå greit nok), bla ned på siden og velg knappen “Apply” (eller “Søk”, hvis du har valgt norsk). Den neste siden inneholder grunnleggende nok det jeg allerede har nevnt av informasjon om visumfri innreise tidligere i denne artikkelen, men du kan godt lese gjennom dette en ekstra gang. Marker at du har lest og godtar vilkårene og gå videre (“Next” eller “Neste”).

Samtlige felt i dette søknadsskjemaet har forklaringer ved å klikke på spørsmålstegnet ved feltet, men kort oppsummert, skal navn og fødselsdato fylles ut på nøyaktig samme måte som det står trykt i passet ditt. Bare felt som har en rød stjerne ved seg er påkrevd, men hvis du har informasjonen tilgjengelig vil jeg anbefale å også fylle ut de feltene som ikke er påkrevd, mest for å gjøre søknaden så fullstendig som mulig. Under reiseinformasjon, fyll her ut den siste byen du reiser fra når du reiser inn til USA (altså den byen på reiseruten som tar deg direkte inn i USA; hvis reiseruten er Trondheim-Oslo-Philadelphia-Orlando, er det “Oslo” du skal fylle ut her), samt informasjon om flight (selskap og nummer – nummeret trenger bare bestå av selve nummeret i flightnummeret, ettersom de første bokstavene faktisk angir flyselskapet; flyinformasjonen gjelder da for Oslo-Philadelphia i eksempelet jeg nevnte tidligere). Under informasjon om oppholdet, skal du her oppgi det hotellet du skal bo på aller først, gjerne med full adresse (dette kan du vanligvis finne på hotellets hjemmeside). De fleste av oss kan faktisk svare nei på samtlige spørsmål videre nedover (A-G), men jeg vil anbefale at du likevel leser nøye gjennom disse spørsmålene og svarer 100% ærlig på dem. Helt til sist er det en avkrysningsboks som bekrefter at du godtar og forstår vilkårene i søknaden. Hvis du fyller ut dette skjemaet for noen andre enn deg selv (hvis de du evt. reiser med ikke har mulighet til å fylle ut dette skjemaet selv), må du altså krysse av i den andre boksen også. Velg neste-knappen for å begynne innsendingen.

Vanligvis vil det ta kort tid til søknaden er godkjent (for min del ble den godkjent i det øyeblikket jeg hadde sendt den inn). Skriv ut sluttbekreftelsen og legg denne i den “store” dokumentmappen.

Hvis du skal reise sammen med noen, gjenta denne prosessen for hver av de du reiser med. De samme opplysningene må du vanligvis også fylle ut på det lille skjemaet du får utdelt under flyreisen inn til USA, så her er det egentlig bare å gjenta det du allerede har svart. Hvis jeg husker riktig, var dette skjemaet trykt på et grønt ark (og i størrelse på et stort bokmerke). Dette skjemaet skal da leveres inn til passkontrollen, mens det blå skjemaet du også får utdelt skal fylles ut og leveres til tollvakten du passerer ved innreise.

Før avreise

Organisering

Nå som alt er bestilt, vil jeg anbefale å samle alle bekreftelser du har fått på e-post i en egen e-postmappe i det e-postprogrammet ditt, og vente med å skrive ut de aller fleste bekreftelsene til rundt en måned før avreise. Dette er fordi flyreisene kan endre seg (om så bare noen minutter) i løpet av månedene frem mot avreisetiden.

Mobiltelefon

Bruk av en norsk mobiltelefon er spesielt dyrt i USA, så jeg vil anbefale å leie enten en mobiltelefon eller et SIM-kort til hver av de som reiser. Jeg fant ut at selskaper som Cellhire passer til nettopp dette formålet. Her leier du da en mobiltelefon eller SIM-kort for en begrenset periode. Prisen for leie av SIM-kort er $9 per uke eller $29 for en måned, med oppstartspris på $19.99 (OBS! Du må ha en telefon uten operatørlås for å kunne bruke SIM-kortet). Leie av en enkel mobiltelefon er $19 per uke eller $69 per måned, også her med en startpris på $19.99. Samtaleprisene ligger på omtrent det samme som mobilsamtaler i Norge og fra Norge til utlandet, så det er absolutt verdt prisen hvis du vet du kommer til å ha telefonkontakt med de der hjemme. Det er verdt å merke seg at dette kan bare leveres innenfor USA, men det omgår du ved å bare levere til det første hotellet du skal bo på.

Som kunde utenfor USA må du også kontakte salgsavdelingen (gjerne på e-post) for å avtale når telefonen eller SIM-kortet skal leveres, og for å godkjenne kredittkortet du skal betale. Ettersom jeg hadde et internasjonalt kredittkort (dvs. ikke fra en amerikansk bank) måtte jeg scanne inn passet (bare den siden med bilde og personlia) og kredittkortet (forside og bakside) og sende dette inn på faks (det gikk også fint å sende det innskannede bildet som vedlegg på e-post). Det som også er verdt å merke seg, er at som internasjonal kunde tar de et depositum på $525, og dette trekkes i en av ukene før avreise. Dette vil bli refundert etter at utstyret er returnert, med leieavgifter og samtaleavgifter trukket fra. I pakken med mobiltelefonen eller SIM-kortet følger det også med en ferdig frankert og adressert returkonvolutt som du putter utstyret i når du reiser tilbake til Norge. Denne bør da (for sikkerhetens skyld) leveres hos et servicesenter for UPS som gjerne finnes på mange internasjonale flyplasser.

Det er i praksis veldig enkelt (spesielt hvis du begynner med dette såpass tidlig som april, med tanke på avreise i begynnelsen av juli), og mye billigere enn å bruke ditt norske mobilabonnement i USA.

Forhåndsplanlegging for Las Vegas

Show blir sjelden eller aldri utsolgt før noen timer før selve showet starter, så det er ikke nødvendig med for mye planlegging her. Jeg vil anbefale å notere dager og tider showene foregår, og hvor du kan bestille disse (enten online hvis du har med deg en laptop-PC, eller telefonnumre du kan ringe, eller begge deler), slik at du bare trenger å bestille disse når du først er kommet frem på hotellet i Las Vegas.

Turistinformasjonen for Las Vegas har gjerne en oversikt over show og attraksjoner som finnes her. Du finner også kart og brosjyrer som kan lastes ned og skrives ut som hendig referanse.

Jeg vil anbefale her å lage to lister; en liste over de tingene du definitivt skal ha med deg under besøket, og en liste over de tingene du kan få med deg hvis du har tid til overs. En slik oversikt på forhånd vil spare mye tid slik at du kan få med deg så mye som mulig.

Foruten selve Las Vegas, er også landemerkene Gran Canyon og Hoover Dam noen timers kjøring unna, og det arrangeres dagsturer dit daglig (av flere selskaper). Hvis du har planer om å få med noen av disse turene må du beregne å bruke nesten en hel dag bare på denne turen (de arrangerte turene koster fra $79 per person, alt etter turlengde og komfort). Selv hadde jeg ikke tid til slike rundturer da jeg var i Las Vegas sommeren 2009, så jeg har ingen personlige erfaringer med dette.

Forhåndsplanlegging for Orlando

Som sagt tidligere, de fleste velger å dra på temaparkene hos Disney World og Universal Studios i Orlando (fastboende i Florida får gjerne også store rabatter på sesongkort her).

Det som gjerne forbindes med slike store temaparker, er køer og venting før man faktisk får slippe inn. For å korte ned på denne ventetiden, vil jeg anbefale å besøke nettsidene deres og planlegge hvilke attraksjoner du vil ha med deg, og hvor disse er plassert på kartet over parken. Legg også merke til hvilke attraksjoner som har FASTPASS (Disney) og Universal Express (Universal) slik at du gjerne kan planlegge ruten gjennom parken etter disse. På Disney Worlds nettsider kan du også merke av de attraksjonene du vil besøke direkte, og lage ditt eget kart over parken der bare disse attraksjonene er avmerket (dette blir da vanligvis en PDF-fil som du kan skrive ut).

FASTPASS er altså Disney-parkenes tiltak for å minske køer på enkelte attraksjoner; 4-5 attraksjoner i hver park (7 attraksjoner i Magic Kingdom) er i skrivende stund tilknyttet FASTPASS. Denne tjenesten reserverer din plass i køen for attraksjonen, der du da kommer tilbake til attraksjonen på et senere tidspunkt (omtrent en times tidsrom) og kan bare gå rett inn (under 5 minutter ventetid) når du returnerer i dette tidsrommet. Mens du venter kan du gå til en annen attraksjon, tilbringe tiden på et spisested og/eller ta en pust i bakken. Du kan bare ha reservert plass i en slik kø av gangen, så velg med omhu. Det kan også være at du må vente en tid før du kan bruke FASTPASS-tjenesten igjen på en annen attraksjon, men jeg merket ikke noen stor forskjell (vanligvis opptil en time). Du trenger å ha tilgjengelig inngangsbilletten din for å få hver FASTPASS-billett (som da leveres inn igjen når du returnerer til attraksjonen), så hvis det er flere som reiser med deg, må alle få utstedt FASTPASS på hver sin inngangsbillett. Denne tjenesten er gratis.

Universal Express er Universal-parkenes tiltak for de som vil forbedre opplevelsen sin. Dette er gratis for de som bor på et av de tre hotellene på parkområdet (du bare viser frem romnøkkelen din til betjeningen), og koster alt fra $19.99 for dagspass for én park, og fra $25.99 for begge parkene. Prisen kommer i tillegg til inngangsbilletten, og varierer etter dag og sesong, men vanlig pris for dagspass i midten av juli er $39.99 (1 park) eller $45.99 (2 parker). De fleste attraksjonene hos Universal har altså to køer; en for vanlige dødlige, den andre er for Express. Ventetiden på den vanlige køen kan være alt fra 45-60 minutter, mens ventetiden i Express er maksimalt 15 minutter. Hvis du altså ikke bor på et av de tre hotellene tilknyttet Universal, kan du forhåndskjøpe Express Pass på nettsidene til Universal Studios eller på en av butikkene rett innenfor inngangen til parkene.

I begge tilfeller er det enkleste å forhåndskjøpe også parkbillettene før du reiser fra Norge. Du plukker opp billettene i en egen luke eller selvbetjeningsautomat ved inngangen når du kommer dit. Hos Universal-hotellene er det også en slik automat ved kundeskranken inne på hotellet.

Her kommer da planleggingen godt med. Lag to lister for hver park du skal besøke; en liste med de attraksjonene du absolutt skal ha med deg, og en liste med attraksjoner du gjerne vil besøke når du får tid. Er du godt trent, kan du beregne å bruke 50-60 minutter per attraksjon (det gjelder både hos Disney og Universal; beregn ca. 30-40-minutter hvis du har tilgang til Express-køene hos Universal). I tillegg til selve køtiden og selve attraksjonen, har jeg da også innberegnet matpauser, butikkpauser og tiden det tar å gå til hver attraksjon.

Samtlige parker åpner kl. 9 om morgenen. Hos Universal stenger hovedparken kl. 21, og Islands of Adventure kl. 22 om sommeren (CityWalk er åpent fra 11 på dagen til 2 om natten hver dag hele året). Hos Disney varierer stengetidene etter sesong og dag, men vanligvis stenger parkene i tidsrommet 18-21 på kvelden. Enkelte av attraksjonene hos Disney holder også lenger åpent for gjester på enkelte av hotellene (såkalt Extra Magic Hours). Faktiske åpningstider hos Disney (og stengte attraksjoner) akkurat i det tidsrommet du skal være der finner du i kalenderen. Utfra dette kan du finne ut hvor lang tid du vil trenge på hver park, og dermed forhåndskjøpe inngangsbilletter bare for det antall dager du kommer til å bruke.

Som standard gjelder billetten din kun for en park per dag, men det går også an å kjøpe tilleggspakke hvis du vil bytte park (kun innenfor samme park-eier, selvfølgelig) i løpet av dagen. Hos Disney heter dette Park Hopper, og hos Universal er dette Park-to-Park Access. Selv kjøpte jeg et 3 dagers pass hos Disney, mens inngangsbillett var bakt inn i pakken jeg hadde forhåndskjøpt hos Universal (jeg var der i en uke), og hos Disney rakk jeg å besøke Hollywood Studios, Epcot (med en liten tur innom Norge hos World Showcase) og en liten del av Magic Kingdom, og jeg anser meg selv som fullstendig utrent (les: sofagris). Selv om jeg ikke fikk med meg så mye av Magic Kingdom som jeg hadde håpt, fikk jeg allikevel en stor opplevelse på den tiden jeg hadde til rådighet.

Baggasje og reiseeffekter

Først og fremst bør du ha en stor og solid koffert; gjerne en koffert per person som reiser. Flyreiser går gjerne hardt utover den innsjekkede baggasjen din, spesielt fra bakkemannskapet på flyplassene. Hvis du skal feriere i by eller i temaparker (og bo på hotell) vil gode håndtak og gode hjul på kofferten være lykken selv. En koffert må forresten ikke være av plast, det er den utvendige slitasjen og hvor godt den beskytter innholdet som teller. Pass også på å merke baggasjen din tydelig med navn og mobilnummer, gjerne ved bruk av solide baggasjelapper som festes på håndtaket (helst i plast; disse får du gjerne kjøpt der du også får kjøpt kofferter).

Hvis du velger baggasje som du vil låse, bør du velge en lås som er TSA-vennlig (dvs. at reisemyndigheter kan åpne baggasjen uten å skade låsen; TSA = Transport Security Administration, de har blant annet ansvar for sikkerhetskontroll av både passasjerer og baggasje i USA); dette er gjerne merket med et rødt symbol (en fakkel eller en skråstilt firkant) på selve låsen.

I kofferten bør du pakke med deg solkrem (hvilken solfaktor vil variere med hudtypen fra person til person, men solfaktor 40 kommer gjerne godt med), solbriller, lette klær (shorts/skjørt, T-skjorter og badetøy for soldager), pentøy (kveldsantrekk), forskjellige sko (pene sko til kveldsantrekket, komfortable sko for lange gåturer, osv) og regnponcho eller en kompakt paraply. Det er ikke sikkert du vil få bruk for de sistnevnte, men spesielt i Orlando kan været fort skifte (du kan også få kjøpt regnponcho og paraply hvis du ferdes på temaparkene i Orlando, så det er ikke et krav å pakke med seg dette). Solkrem med solfaktor og solbriller er i det minste et krav (det gjelder også macho-menn ). Gnagsårplaster kommer også godt med.

Elektronisk utstyr som bærbar PC, digitalkamera, bærbare dataspill pakker du helst i håndbagasjen du tar med deg inn i flykabinen; mest for å sikre at disse ikke får røff behandling av bakkemannskap, men også for å ha full kontroll over hvor du har ting. Disse tingene kommer også godt med hvis du finner fine motiver å fotografere under flyreisen eller for å få tiden til å gå mens du venter på neste fly. Du vil også trenge et reiseadapter til alt du har med deg som bruker strømkabel (det holder med ett), forutsatt at laderen eller telefonen din takler strømnettet i USA.

For å finne ut dette, sjekk strømkabelen eller laderen din etter en type merkelapp som sier hva den takler av strøm (det står gjerne på samme etikett som modellnavn/-nummer, serienumre, godkjenningsmerker, osv). For nyere mobiltelefoner er dette gjerne trykt på boksen med strømpluggen. Du skal se etter “Input”, “In” eller liknende; hvis det står noe som 120-230V og 50-60Hz (eller tallområder som inkluderer 120V spenning (voltage) og 60Hz frekvens (frequency) – det er disse USA bruker for elektrisitet de fleste steder; i Norge bruker vi 230V og 50Hz), vil du bare trenge reiseadapteret i tillegg til selve laderen/kabelen. Et slikt adapter endrer nemlig bare selve strømkontakten, mens en transformator i laderen (eller midt på kabelen) som er merket på denne måten takler da de fleste strømnett direkte. Det er ikke alle ladere og strømkabler som takler dette, så sjekk alt du skal ha med deg som bruker strøm (enten via kabel eller via oppladbart batteri). Jeg vil anbefale å gå for et reiseadapter med jording, og dette koster vanligvis rundt 200 kr. Et slikt reiseadapter med flere typer plugger vil du også kunne få bruk for hvis du reiser til andre land i verden senere.

Som jeg nevnte tidligere i artikkelen, vil jeg anbefale å kjøpe en liten sammenleggbar ryggsekk, samt en sammenleggbar bag. Ryggsekken blir praktisk å bruke når du er ute og går på dagtid, spesielt til å ha med håndduk (til å tørke svette med, du kan fint bruke en fra hotellrommet) og en eller flere vannflasker, samt kamera og småting du kjøper underveis.

Du bør også ha en skjult lomme til å ha på innsiden av klærne, der du oppbevarer pass (når du ikke reiser med fly eller er på hotelrommet), nøkkelkort til hotellrommet, større sedler og kredittkort til daglig bruk. Småmynter går vanligvis fint å ha i en mindre lommebok og/eller i et mindre bur i ryggsekken (spesielt hvis du skal i temaparker – flygende småmynt tar seg dårlig ut i en berg-og-dalbane).

Jeg vil også anbefale at du skaffer et godt digitalt kompaktkamera hvis du ikke har noe tilsvarende fra før. Selv gikk jeg til anskaffelse av et Canon Digital IXUS 870 IS i forkant av min ferie. Valget falt på dette kameraet fordi det var noe bedre og flatere enn det Canon-kameraet jeg hadde fra før, og jeg fant dette kameraet til en god pris. Canon-kameraer generelt er også veldig brukervennlige etter min erfaring, og jeg kan egentlig anbefale et hvilket som helst kamera i IXUS-serien, ettersom alle disse gir god kvalitet med en kompakt størrelse til en god pris. Prisene ligger på rundt 1500-3000 kr, alt etter hvilken butikk og hvilke spesifikasjoner du velger.

I neste del vil jeg ta for meg selve reisen.

The American trip was fun, and I’m definitely going back there some day. Both Las Vegas and Orlando were lots of fun, and I felt just one week at each location was maybe a few days or up to a week too short for everything I wanted to experience. Like I said, I’m definitely going back. Hopefully next year, if my economy allows it (maybe with a few days extra at each location, and perhaps even an extra location or two added, if possible). I’ll have to check back with my economy around springtime, I suppose.

Oh, and pictures from my vacation is up on Flickr. Just go to the Summer Vacation 2009 set to see all photos, or you can go see the photo sets just from Las Vegas, just from Orlando or even just from the Blue Man Group fan meet I attended in Orlando. In the vacation photos from Orlando, I’ve also included 9 of the photos taken by Disney’s PhotoPass service (when I visited the Walt Disney World parks), two videos from the Blue Man Group sound check (which we attended as part of the fan meet), and one video of a lightning storm in the distance the night before the fan meet (a smaller group of us fans was hanging out for a few hours on the night before). The lightning storm was nothing like anything I’ve seen before. We only get a few lightnings a year where I live, and then it’s only between sky and the ground, and always followed by thunder. Seeing lightning just strike the sky like that was an extraordinary sight, to say the least.

Speaking of that, I felt I connected mostly with Joe and his fiancé Alex, their close friends Jacob and his wife Melissa, and Mike. We all hang out the night before the fan meet (we were the entire “smaller group of fans” I mentioned earlier), and had a few drinks and a late snack. Just basic hanging out, more or less. No biggie.

When I landed in Oslo after a long flight from Philadelphia, though, I woke up with something that felt like a cold. Who knew that would last for a week or two? Maybe it was this “swine flu” thing, maybe it wasn’t. As a guy of average health, I don’t really bother to buy into the panic around swine flu created by the mass media. Frankly, those who have died or will die from swine flu, are also about the same people who would’ve died from the common flu. Period. There’s no need for the panic. The same goes for avian flu, too. Those who did contract it, basically lived in bird feces 24/7, and those who died from it, wouldn’t have survived the common flu, either. That’s my perception of the demographics on it, anyway, and if my memory serves me correctly, that’s close to the perception from health administration organizations around the world (CDC, WHO, etc) as well.

To be honest, I don’t think the demographics surrounding the flu deaths are publicized and emphasized enough in the mass media (or media in general). You’d almost think the media want a widespread panic regarding trivial things. I mean, look back at the major pandemics “predicted” by the media over the last decade or so. How many of these has actually come true? I think all of these need to do their research properly and perhaps re-read the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

So there.

And if you’ve seen my Flickr photostream, you might’ve noticed the wall of DVDs and my new working area. I had the three dark gray towers seen in the photo from before, and I bought another 10 towers (the BENNO CD tower shelf from IKEA, to be exact), each able to hold 88 DVDs. By my calculations, I now have room for 1144 regular-sized DVDs, and considering my current DVD collection now counts a little over 880 DVDs (and Blu-ray discs) of various sizes, I’m going to need it. Actually, the picture shows all my DVDs aside from a few TV show season boxes I temporarily had on another shelf. As you can see, I started filling the shelves from the right end of the wall, as I’ve yet to alphabetize them, and that’s not yet a priority. I know where most of the ones I like are, anyway (or at least the general area). The media shelf below that TV is also in the BENNO series, matching the design of the others, which will contain 1 Blu-ray player, 1 DVD player (which is also the surround sound base unit), 1 digital satellite tuner and 1 PlayStation2 (which I’ve had stored in a box for a couple of years now). Nothing is hooked up just yet, as the general area is still a bit of a mess. I’m a slow tidyer, but I know what I want it to look like.

My new working area doesn’t really need any explanation, though (the picture text really says it all).

I’ve gotten back on track with my dental treatments, and it looks like it’s going to take a while (as well as a chunk of my parents’ bank account, since they promised to cover the costs of getting my teeth up to good standard).

Oh, and to sum up my Blue Man Group attendance, I now have attended 1 rock concert (last October in Copenhagen, Denmark), 3 shows in Las Vegas (their flagship show, so to speak), and 2 shows in Orlando (one of their “minor” shows), and I still haven’t gotten enough of them! I noticed that they’re now going on a tour with the theatrical show around North America starting in late 2010, so maybe there’s a minor glimmer of hope that they’ll do the same across Europe, too. I know they already have a steady show in Berlin, but I know that show is entirely in German, which I think isn’t quite the same. But don’t think that’s going to stop me from seeing it if I ever pass through Berlin, though.

Now it’s going to be fun time all around! I’ll probably do Disney World on Thursday and Friday (I have a two-day pass with the ParkHopper option added), and Universal Studios the remainder of the days. Saturday will anyway be pretty much used for the Blue Man fan meet, but I suppose I will get a little out of that day as well.

And since I’m staying at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort hotel, I can use the express lane for a good deal of the rides at Universal. I did Shrek 4D today (which was all I had time for before the park closed for the day), and noticed that it’s still a waiting line, but it’s a much shorter waiting time in that line (I think I only stood in line for about 15 minutes).

The next flight to Orlando leaves in the morning, at 8:04am, which means I’ll have to be back at the airport by 6am. I’m still on standby for that flight as well, but at least there were 19 unused seats on that flight at 9pm, so there’s still hope. People may say bad things about United Airlines, but I’ve found them to be quite accommodating for all my delays (which was originally my own fault). They even gave me a half-off voucher for a hotel stay near the airport, and the shuttle ride between the airport to the hotel(s) are complimentary, so it’s a small cost (the hotel I picked – SpringHill Suites near the Denver Airport – was $59 for the night, I believe).

Of course, on the taxi ride from The Venetian, I was intensely watching the time pass by (and pass the latest check-in time), and right there, I wished I had made use of the Bags to Go / Airport SpeedCheck Advance service which was available at my hotel. That would’ve saved me a lot of inconvenience for today, and I would’ve been all ready to go once I arrived at the airport (leaving me only with passing the security checkpoint and going straight to the gate). But, noooooooooooooo, I just had to save $20 on doing it all myself.

But, anyway.

I loved the Blue Man Group show so much, I went ahead and saw it two more times during the next few days. If you’re a big fan of nutsy stuff, I can absolutely recommend it. But, from the comments I’ve heard from others, Blue Man Group isn’t for everybody. You’d have to enjoy subtle physical comedy as well as a certain level of audience participation to fully enjoy a Blue Man Group show. There, I said it.

Also worth noting, each show is a little bit different (in nuances), depending on the audience composition.

I also caught a show with Wayne Brady, who was doing an improv show (with a short concert at the end) right across the hall from Blue Man Group at The Venetian. And, since I selected a VIP seating, I was seated at the very front row, and got to meet Wayne after the show. I tell ya, he’s a great guy. I got me an autographed CD (I bought the CD in the lobby, he signed it afterwards) and got my picture taken with him. Sadly, only with my mobile phone camera (even though it’s quite a good one), since I forgot my digital camera back at my suite.

And on Sunday, I went over to the Rio to catch a show with Penn & Teller. It was truly a great one, even though I hoped they would do their “Liftoff To Love” act, but still. And with a meet-and-greet (autographs and picture-taking) in the lobby after the show, I got me an autographed souvenir program (from Penn and Teller, and even Mike Jones, their musical director) as well as some snaps of me with each them (except for Mike Jones, which I forgot to take a good picture of until it was too late – ah, well).

I’ll get the latest round of photos up on my Flickr account once I’m checked in and chilled out enough in Orlando.

Also, I experienced my first full Blue Man Group show last night. It was all I hoped for. Previously, I’ve only seen short clips from the shows, in addition to attending the Megastar rock tour when it was in Copenhagen in October last year. I tell ya, it’s nothing like the rock tour. If you’re near a Blue Man Group show, I can definitely recommend seeing it at least once.

I’m not sure what I’ll do today, but I might try a little blackjack downstairs. We’ll see what else comes along my path.

Now, I know MJ was a great artist and dancer, but I also feel that he indeed was quirky at best as a person. Okay, fine, he probably was a pedohile (or at the very least had an extremely childish mind – way beyond the far end of normal, that is). Plus, his head in the recent couple of decades hasn’t been completely in the game, considering the plastic surgery and modifications (as I seriously doubt anyone has a chronic disease that permanently changes the color of your skin).

But now that he has passed away, I feel it’s time to forgive him for most of his quirkyness and remember him as the great artist, composer, choreographer, dancer and music producer that he was. I’m not saying we should let every detail go, but we should at the very least tone down the bad things about him for a while.

Just let his family, friends and fans mourn his passing in peace, mmmkay?

In the recent times, we shouldn’t forget that other celebrities have passed away as well; I’m of course talking about Farah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. Although Farah Fawcett wasn’t that big in Norway, and Ed McMahon even less known (bordering on unknown), I’ve seen references to the latter in other media (cartoons, movies, TV series and such). I know that these are all big names in the U.S. (and somewhat smaller in the rest of the world as well), and their passing should also be shown the same respect as if your best friend’s brother/sister/father/mother just passed away. In this entertainment-hungry world, big celebrity names might as well be just that close (as long as you don’t act on that closeness in a stalker-ish manner, of course).

On the brighter side of things, I’m lifting off in the direction of the U.S. of A. in a little less than 10 days and 17 hours from now. The first leg of the journey starts from the Ålesund airport at 10:40am (Norway time) Sunday next week, and I’m expected to land in Las Vegas (after an overnight in Orlando) at around 11pm the following Monday.

If you’re curious about the overnight in Orlando, it’s by my own arrangement and design, considering it was cheaper to book a flight (with return flight), first from Ålesund to Orlando, and then from Orlando to Las Vegas, rather than arranging direct flight routes from Ålesund to Las Vegas to Orlando and back to Ålesund. Here’s the full flight route, in case you’re curious:
Sunday, July 12: Ålesund, Norway – Oslo, Norway – Philadelphia, PA – Orlando, FL (total time: about 16 hours)
Monday, July 13: Orlando, FL – Denver, CO – Las Vegas, NV (total time: about 9.5 hours, 3.5 of them waiting in Denver – arriving in Las Vegas at 11pm)
Monday, July 20: Las Vegas, NV – Denver, CO – Orlando, FL (total time: also about 9.5 hours, and almost 4 of them waiting in Denver again – arriving in Orlando at almost 1am)
Monday, July 27: Orlando, FL – Philadelphia, PA – Oslo, Norway – Ålesund, Norway (total time: about 15 hours, arriving home at around 2pm the following Tuesday)

As you can imagine, it’s going to be a major bitch of travelling, but I’m trying to focus more on the fun I’ll have in the days between those long flights.

Some things have already been planned, some things are semi-planned (will do, but undecided on which day), and some things are yet to be decided.

As I’ve said previously, I’m staying at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Blue Man Group fans will already recognize that name from the fact that their Vegas show is at that very same hotel (which was also the main reason I chose that hotel). I’m planning on catching a show with them while in Vegas, and maybe even a show with Penn & Teller (I’m a bit of a fan of them too). No idea which day(s) that will be, though.

If you’re in the Las Vegas area and want to hang out with a fat Norwegian guy, do let me know.

And as I’m staying at the Loews Pacific Resort Hotel in Orlando, I’m going to spend a few days at the Universal Studios Orlando park (I do have a few attractions I definitely want to catch while there). The hotel package I selected also includes a Blue Man Group show Wednesday evening (the 9pm show on the 22nd), plus the big fan meet is on Saturday, so those are the only things that are locked in.

And yesterday, I bought myself a ticket for two days at Disney World (I wanted to check out a certain selection of attractions at Disney Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom and Epcot – and yes, considering two days spread over 3 theme parks, I did add the Park Hopper option to my tickets), considering it’s a 25-30 minute drive from my hotel at Universal. I’m not really a rollercoaster guy, so it’s going to be mostly 3D movies, simulator rides and a couple of galleries and tours at both Disney World and Universal Studios. In particular, I’m at least catching the MuppetVision ride at Disney Hollywood Studios, the Simpsons ride at Universal and the studio backlot tours at both. I’ve planned it to a point where I have a specific list of attractions I want to check out (some of them even clearly marked out on a printout of the park maps found online). I’ve yet to decide which two days I’ll spend at Disney World, though, but I will have to find out when I arrive, as I have to let the Mears service know at least 24 hours before going to the Disney parks (I’ve already booked the attraction shuttle ride from my hotel to the attraction and later back to the hotel).

Not to worry, this painful planning process is only a rough outline on how to get the most fun out of every park hour available.

And so far, I don’t know about the quality of the Mears service, but I liked the way I could make my shuttle reservation (and payment) online and way in advance. The price wasn’t too bad, either – from the airport to my hotel (round-trip) cost me $29, plus $18 per attraction transport (two days to Disney World), a total of $65 for all the transportation I’ll need in Orlando. And I can even make adjustments to the whole itinerary until the day before my first arrival (judging by the time listed in my confirmation e-mail, I’d have to say about 12 hours before my first use of their service). All pre-paid and ready when I finally arrive. One less thing to think about. I’ll get back to you on how that went, though.

And before you start suggesting rental cars: I don’t drive. I don’t even have a license. For now, I’m using buses to get around in Ålesund (and the occasional taxi), and I’m doing just fine.

And again, if you want to hang out while I’m in Las Vegas or Orlando, just let me know.

I’m also on Twitter now, giving the occasional update.

I’ve also booked cell phone rental (actually just a SIM card, as I’m using my own phone) while I’m in the U.S., but I won’t know the number until next Wednesday (when the rental company starts shipping the SIM card to the Orlando airport hotel where I’ll have my first overnight stay). I’ll publish that number on Twitter when I know (and maybe here, depending on whether I remember doing it).

That’s right, I’m going overseas to spend one week in Las Vegas and one week in Orlando. I’m excited already! On July 12, I leave the comfort of my home for connecting flights to Orlando, just to spend one night at the airport hotel while waiting for another flight that takes me to Las Vegas on the 13th (via Denver), where I’ll be spending my first week (checking in on a Monday and checking out on the next Monday). I then have a return flight back to Orlando, where I’m also attending the Orlando Monster Meet for Blue Man Group fans on the 25th. My return flights back home are on the 27th, so technically, I’ll be spending a total of 15 days in the US.

If you’re in any of these areas, do give me a signal in advance so we can meet up.

Between the 13th and the 20th, I’m staying at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas (where there’s a big show with Blue Man Group as well).
Between the 20th and the 27th, I’m staying at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando (right next to Universal Orlando).

I can hardly wait!

Right now, I’m in Prague, enjoying the sun and a good vacation. We arrived here yesterday, and we’re leaving tomorrow. And as I’ve come to notice, that’s not nearly enough to experience the multitude of culture this city has to offer. At least we know that now for next year.

My only sadness is the loss of Internet connectivity, and I don’t have the ability to bring along my laptop to the Internet café I’m at now. I do have the ability to use the GPRS connection off my mobile phone and connect to the Internet using my laptop there, but using GPRS from Eastern Europe costs about 4 or 5 times per megabyte than back home, so I’ve come to the conclusion that I can use that connection, but only in extreme emergencies. Another bad thing is the Czech keyboard layout, which is quite different from the Norwegian layout (or even the US layout), making it hard getting used to. The letters themselves (a-z) as well as the numbers (0-9) are in the same places, though (as is the same difference between the Norwegian and US keyboard layouts).

Other than that, it’s been nice. So far, the route has been the following:
July 1-2: Oslo, Norway
July 2-3: Langeskov, Denmark
July 3-5: Berlin, Germany
July 5-8: Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
July 8-10: Prague, Czech Republic

Meaning, we’re checking out tomorrow morning and setting “sail” for Leipzig in Germany, where we have hotel rooms waiting.

And yes, the road trip part of my vacation is hot, awful and tiresome. Only the end stops along the way make the trip worthwhile.

I’ve taken a few photos, although not as frequent as on last year’s trip, but still a small handful. I’ll try to post ‘em when I get to a proper Internet connection (ie. somewhere that allows me to connect my entire laptop), and, of course, if only I remember to update my site.

As I was saying in part one, we were going a trip down Europe, stopping by Opatija in Croatia and Zalakaros in Hungary. I finally got around to bother writing the second part. Hopefully, I’ll still be able to recall from memory the rest of the storyline. I’m just thankful I already prepared and uploaded all the images a long time ago, those will definitely aid me in the writing. If you missed the first part, here it is:

Article: Summer holiday 2005, part 1 of 2

And so we continue…

Day 13 went on uneventfully, really. We just relaxed, sighing about the rain (when it poured down) and I watched another of the DVDs I had brought. Oh, joy.

Day 14 had the sun coming out again. Unfortunately (and typical for the whole vacation so far), we were going back on the road for our next destination; into the Czech Republic. Hot days seem to be coming along just when we’re going to drive all day, apparently. Figures. We drove past Lake Balaton most of the way, we passed the border into Slovakia around dinner time (for most people, which was around 4pm). Not long after that, we passed through the Slovakian capital, Bratislava. I gotta tell ya, it looked like a construction site the whole time we passed through the city. From what I can tell, the Czech Republic got the better end of the deal when the two nations were split apart (I have to note that this was a mutual agreement between the nations, as they were forced together as one in mid last century; at least so I was told). The trip through Slovakia didn’t take long – about an hour or so – but at least we got to add another country to our vacation record. When crossing the border into the Czech Republic, we had now been in 8 different countries in a single vacation (not counting our home country, of course). When arriving in Brno (for you native English speakers out there, it’s pronounced “Burr-noe”), we decided to call it a day and started looking for a decent enough hotel. Easier said than done. After an hour or so walking around to the different locations we had in our guide for a hotel, we finally settled on Hotel Slavia. I even found a wireless access point nearby, just to get a quick “fix” for my Internet addiction. Yeah, I know, I’m way to dependent on the Internet. So sue me. At least I paid for the Internet access from a large ISP (T-Online, the biggest in Germany), as opposed to wardriving and hacking my way in to a random access point. This night, we had another Italian style pizza. Oh, boy, those are good down here. Much better than the American style pan pizzas we usually get back home. Thin crust, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese (or other cheese types), ham, bacon, whadhevver fllavour youh lcan geth youhrl handsth onn. *wipes mouth* …and off to my room, surfing the web all night. I think I laid down in my bed one hour before breakfast, though, just to get at least a little bit of sleep before getting back on the road. Thankfully, I had my parents to wake me up for breakfast, or I’d never had gotten up in time for checkout.

Day 15 was another day on the road. At least we were on our way northbound by now, heading in the general direction of home. However, one of our defined destinations on our route was Karlovy Vary. It sounded nice, I had a hard time finding on the map, since my mother insisted it was named “Carlsbad”, in which the nearest hit I could find was on or past the border to Germany. It turned out I wasn’t even close, though. And on our way in to a gas station for fuel refills and trash disposal (including our bladders, I might add), we were stopped by the local police. I assume they were looking for smugglers or robbers or something, cause we weren’t the people they were looking for (and no, I didn’t use any Jedi mind trick). The entry point to the town of Karlovy Vary wasn’t the best I had seen, considering it was literally uphill almost all of the way. We spent a few hours this day as well looking for accommodation for at least the night. Now, remember I did say “defined destination”, and not “planned”, since we had very little planned ahead for the whole vacation (something we regret the whole way through our trip). The only accommodation we had planned for the whole route, was in fact in Skjeberg and in Opatija. We had to scrap the Skjeberg one, as you could tell from my story on day 1 of this trip. Anyway, we finally found a place way up in the hill called “Villa Rosa”, which was more of a small apartment hotel (5 apartments). We didn’t get much done today, really. But at least we had the view of downtown. And since the weather was all sunshine, we decided that we’d stay a few extra days here. We were not going to spend another sunny day in a hot car, that’s for sure – especially when in a car without air conditioning. After installing our gear in the rented apartment, we finally headed downtown again to get some dinner. And since my parents planned on drinking alcohol (and I don’t have a driver’s license), we took a taxi downtown. Language can be a problem, though, especially since we almost gave up on getting a taxi until a couple of local kids passed us and we got them to help us. Oh, joy. But in any case, I had pizza today again – Italian style (again). *drool*

Day 16 was quite relaxing, since we knew we weren’t going to drive a lot today. We did, however, take a trip downtown to stroll through the streets and to find one of the public baths to cool off in. For a publicly available pool, I thought it had one amazing view, though. I mean, just look at it! And I must say, it’s relaxing to chill in a pool after a long stretch of hot days. After our little swim, we headed downtown to stroll around and find some sights. Just a basic tour of the town, really. I even caught some bad snapshots of the sights (frankly, they weren’t any good, which is why I deleted them from my camera shortly after). Now, I wish I kept them. That’s one of the downsides of digital photography. Snap, snap, grin, grin, trash, trash, regret, regret, say no more. Another pizza restaurant, this time I think we picked the one next the to one we went to yesterday.

Day 17 was our last full day in Karlovy Vary. What I like about most of the destinations down here, is that breakfast is included in the overnight price (unlike the hotels in Norway). Today, we took a stroll down on the downtown colonnade, which also included some mineral water (and we’re talking heavy minerals here), which was rumoured to have health-giving effects. I took a quick sip from it, and it tasted like carbonated water laced with iron shavings. Gruesome. If you’ve ever licked an iron object, you know what I’m talking about (ok, I admit I’ve actually done that at a couple of occasions – don’t ask, I’m not sure I want to know why either). We did spend some time searching for a decent lunchtime place, too. Note the “decent” bit. All we wanted, were some sandwiches, or perhaps a toast each; all the places we went looking only had dinner-sized lunches, which is a bit too much for us. We finally ended up at a local McDonald’s restaurant, for a burger menu each. Simple and plain, no extras. After our afternoon stroll, we decided to pop by one of the shopping malls just on the other side of town. A car comes in handy in this town, apparently. We spent just about the rest of the day here (a few hours walking around). I ended up buying a USB cable for my mobile phone (which is about half the price here than what it costs back home), as well as a couple of games for my computer and my GBA-SP. No biggies, really. One of the computer games I bought, I may have to put up for auction, simply because it’s only in German. If you’re reading this and are interested in a German language version of “Age of Mythology”, get in touch. The GBA games were “Mario Party Advance” and “Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2″. Later in the evening, we took at taxi down to the other side of town for some pizza (again – but I like it that way). The restaurant we went had apparently been visited by several celebrities, among others, Morgan Freeman. We found that out when we arrived, when there were several pictures posted in the window. The major part of the restaurant was outside, though, and included live entertainment (music by guitar and keyboard). Dinner was delicious, though.

Photos:

"We're up to here in fucking castles"

The town looks like a wedding cake

The town looks like a wedding cake

The town looks like a wedding cake

The town looks like a wedding cake

My sleeping area in the "living room"

The downtown colonnade - simply stunning

The downtown colonnade - simply stunning

The downtown colonnade - simply stunning

Our accommodation while in Karlovy Vary - Villa Rosa

Day 18 was time to get back on the road. We popped by the supermarket outside town to stock up some more groceries and peppermint tea. We do have a division of Lidl in our area at home that sells peppermint tea as well, but it just doesn’t taste right. The best peppermint tea can be bought in Germany and the surrounding countries, at least that’s my opinion. Today, we decided to go to Dresden, just across the border in Germany. When we got there, we started looking for a hotel right away. After popping into the local tourist office, and a quick soda (and pee break) at an outdoor café, we finally landed on picking the Hotel Ibis Dresden Königstein. There are 3 Ibis hotels in Dresden, and although their names are different, they are located right next to each other and are linked together business-wise (although not physically). We rented a family room, just to get through the night. I found a wireless access point available in the hotel lobby as well as the first 4 floors. And since our family room was located at the 7th floor, I spent a lot of time in the hotel bar (which was just close enough to be able to access the wireless Internet). Finally, I had a chance to catch up on my Internet activities. It’s times like these that lets me know first hand just how dependent I am on having an Internet connection nowadays. I had several cups of tea while there, just to have something good to accompany me while in cyberspace. We also decided on our next destination while I was using the Internet, finding out that Hamburg would probably be suitable as our next stop on the road. At least when it came to an overnight stay. We even found out that there was another Ibis hotel in Hamburg, and we also decided on our next stop after that. After some consideration, we landed on Malmö in Sweden. We then booked hotel rooms for both Hamburg and Malmö, just to be sure. We then had dinner at a local restaurant and had Italian style pizza (big surprise there) and went around looking for places to find breakfast for the next day. Believe it or not, breakfast was not included in the price at this hotel, and we could only assume that it wasn’t included on our next stop (which was in the same chain of hotels). My parents then went to bed, while I stayed in the hotel bar until closing time (at about 2 or 3 am, I don’t remember), surfing the net all the time on my laptop.

Day 19 started off with breakfast in our room, bought at local grocery stores and bakeries. Then it was time to say goodbye to yet another room before we headed off to our next destination. We even decided to stop by Berlin on the way, simply to see Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate), a historical landmark in Germany and especially in Berlin, together with Unter den Linden. We took a relaxing lunch toast there, outside Hotel Adlon, which had a direct view of Brandenburger Tor, which we found was actually a quite exclusive hotel with restaurant (at which time it was already too late – we had already ordered and got our toast sandwiches). I must say that this was probably the most expensive meal on the entire trip (including dinners), costing about 80 Euro for 3 toasts and 3 Coca-Colas. Eek! And in the middle of our meal, it started raining, so the waiters were kind enough to allow me to finish my toast in the restaurant itself. It was a rather good toast, though. After finishing up our toasts and buying a cup of hot beverage each (hot chocolate for me, coffee for my parents) on the way back to the car, we went back on route to Hamburg. We probably should’ve caught on the price range earlier on, though, judging by the way the waiter greeted us (extremely more polite than others) and by the general location of the restaurant. At least that was a lunch to remember. It took a while to find Hotel Ibis Hamburg Airport, we apparently drove past it a couple blocks away and ended up on the other side of the airport. Strange thing. We turned back, and found it after a little bit of map digging. We got there, got into our rooms (we apparently each had a double room, but paid a single room price for the one I had) and lagged out, so to speak (to use an Internet term). Okay, fine, “relaxed for a bit”. This was also the time our power converter for our portable mini fridge went “offline”. Shucks. Now we could only keep the contents of it cool while we were driving (since it would only run on a 12V power plug without a power transformer). In any case, after a bit of relaxation, we went to the hotel restaurant to get some grub, when we decided we might want something other than what was on the menu, which made us drive around a bit to find a different restaurant (long story short: there weren’t any), only to return to our hotel and pick an item from the restaurant there after all. Later on, I bought yet another 24 hours of wireless Internet access from T-Online as I did at the previous hotel, and spent some several hours into the night on the interweb. I did, however, sneak in a few hours of sleep, though.

Photos:

Driving on Unter den Linden

Seeing the Reichstag in the distance

Driving behind Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

Some sort of stone labyrinth or memorial ground...

Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate)

Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate)

Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate)

Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate)

Day 20 started off basically like any other day we were going on the road. Although I think I only got 3 or 4 hours of sleep, it was slightly more than some of the other nights I had been using parts of the night surfing on the net. I was a bit tired, but at least it would allow me to fall asleep more easily while we were driving, something which would help me out of the boredom on the road. We pretty much went straight for the border, with regular stops along the way (for toilet breaks, a quick smoke for my parents and lunch along the way). After crossing the border, we went straight for the Swedish border (which is more or less the Öresund bridge when coming from Denmark), landing for our scheduled overnight stop in Malmö, where we had ordered a room for 3 people. When we finally arrived in Malmö, though (and after some searching for the hotel as well as the hotel entrance, which was on the back instead of where the address was), we discovered that the extra bed in the double room was making the room more cramped up than it already was. My stepdad made a quick decision to get an extra room for me, though, which also turned out to be a double room for a single person. And while examining the desk, I saw a very thin networking cable and a brochure next to it. Reading the brochure, I discovered that this hotel also had Internet access, this time via an Ethernet cable instead of being wireless, as I was used to before on the road (not counting the Internet café in Opatija, see days 5 and 6 from this trip). Since I had already been using the Internet extensively over the last few days, I wasn’t that dependent on going online, but at least I had it readily available now. While getting myself installed in my hotel room, I somehow managed to lock the key inside the room (both of ‘em), and I had to get down to the reception to get another (the room keys were of the type encoded into a card) – somewhat blushed and embarrassed. In any case, the days on the road do pass by pretty quickly when I sleep through most of the day.

Day 21 was yet another day on the road. At least we were closer to home now. But we had one obstacle left on our trip, though; the final border crossing. We had lots of alcohol among our baggage which we had bought on the way – several times above the allowed limit set by Norwegian customs. You could say we were pretty nervous and on the edge when we checked the SMS service for customs checkpoints for the day; one of them was the new Svinesund bridge, and we were meant to cross it. We spent a long time in the big shopping center near the border, just to stretch the time and hopefully long engough for the customs to move along to a different checkpoint. But to no avail. After a long hour of being a bunch of nervous wrecks, we eventually decided to go for the old Svinesund bridge, and hope that the customs weren’t present at that location. We went back on the road, paid the road toll at the bridge, and successfully crossed the border, and only managed to relax once we were far into the country (where there was no chance we’d be pulled over for customs checking). We then headed for the hotel we usually stay when we arrive into Norway, Olavsgaard Hotel near Oslo. Once we arrived, we had a good Norwegian traditional dinner (which we had been longing for about a week now), “kjøttkaker” (“meat cakes”, not anywhere like Swedish meatballs, in fact, closer to beef cakes). After dinner, it was time for some more R&R at the hotel room (we shared a family room this time as well). I spent some more time online, having found an access point for a Norwegian invoice-based wireless service I had signed up for when I was online in Copenhagen, and after that, lotsa sleep.

Day 22 wasn’t too much trouble. We had passed the final border crossing, and we knew our way home from here. This was a familiar route, although an eventless one. We stopped by Lillehammer for some grub and basic shopping before continuing, and we got home around 8 or 9 pm. After unpacking, we did a bottle count on the alcohol we’d bought (both wine and booze, I might add), I don’t even remember how much it was. I believe we went to bed pretty early this final day, we were way beyond tired now. Next year, I’m considering taking a flight instead of being on the road, even if that means I’m travelling alone.

This year, we’re going a trip down Europe, stopping by Opatija in Croatia and Zalakaros in Hungary. And in case you’re wondering, I am writing this while on the road. God, I love my new laptop. And while I’m at it, I’m also using Microsoft AutoRoute 2005 to plot out the actual route we’re taking, and Jasc Paint Shop Pro to output the maps to a save-able image file. Let’s just see how far I can keep this up.

And just so you know, we left town on the first of July, meaning that each day count also represents the day of the month of July 2005. Nifty.

Day 1 started off early for the first stage of our trip. If you ask me, it was way too early for me, since I had watched The Abyss on DVD the night before. I kinda stayed up late on purpose to force myself into a deep sleep while on the road. I think all the driving is boring, so I really prefer being asleep for most of the ride. And just because of that, the driving stages of our trip won’t be as documented as the rest of our vacation. Starting off at 8:15am from Ålesund, we made stops at Åndalsnes and Lillehammer (you know, home of the Winter Olympic Games of 1994), before getting caught in a laser traffic control a little north of Minnesund at around 4pm. You could say it was quite a party-pooper on an otherwise speedy first stage. At a speed of 95 kmph in an 80 kmph zone, the fine amounted to 2600 NOK, which according to the (somewhat hot) female officer would’ve been 1000 NOK extra if we had been caught at 96 kmph. I guess you could call that “lucky”… And to add to the “luck”, we had been randomly picked out of a long line of cars travelling at about the same speed. Bummer. (And yes, I was so flustered about being pulled over that I forgot to take a picture of the female officer.) We continued on through Oslo, making a short stop to chat a little with my sister, who had been on vacation there for a week’s time. And to say our hello’s and goodbye’s before moving on to the general direction of Sarpsborg. Originally, we had planned to stop in Skjeberg (about 10 km further along the way from Sarpsborg). After some thought, we wanted to make sure we had a certain level of standard where we were about to stay, since it had become somewhat late in the day when we arrived at about 8pm. So much for that day. At least we slept with the comfort of a hotel.

Photos:

Typical Norwegian rest stop

My mom returning from a bathroom break

My mom and stepdad at the rest stop

Enjoying the scenery while passing by

Enjoying the scenery while passing by

Enjoying the scenery while passing by

Enjoying the scenery while passing by

On the road again

Day 2 also started off early, as most of our driving days on this trip. Not surprisingly, I was asleep for most of the trip. We originally planned to make our final stop for the day in Flensburg, right across the border to northern Germany, but as with most of the trip, nothing works out quite as planned. Well, at least for some of the trip. We only managed to get as far as Odense, birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen (Danish author, mainly famous for fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid). This time, we chose to overnight at the local Radisson SAS hotel. Luckily, our room was close enough to a wireless hotspot of “Odense kommunes frie Internet” (translates to “Odense community free Internet”), which enabled me to catch up on some of my backed-up e-mail and comics reading. Another “eventful” day.

Photos:

About to cross the border to Denmark

Entering the final tunnel to Copenhagen

Day 3 started off, well, you guessed it, early. Another early day. My eyes still hurt from staying up late, getting up early and sleeping while on the road. I never noticed passing Hamburg and Hannover. I think I was awake when we did pass Hamburg, but I can’t be sure; I was probably asleep and dreamed some of it. I did manage to watchMen In Black II on my laptop while on the road. That was kinda neat. Getting to do that, I mean. Battery power on this thing lasts anywhere from 3 hours down to 2.5 hours when fully charged. As with previous parts of our trip, we didn’t get as far as we originally planned. My stepfather had thought we would reach as far as Nuremberg, but alas, no dice. It was late already when we reached our makeshift destination of the day, which became Kirchheim, about 240 km from our original daily destination. At least the motel (which we thought was a hotel until we reached the room) had a swimming pool, allowing us to cool down. It was freezing cold when we entered the pool, meaning that we were probably way overheated by sitting in a hot car with the sun shining for several hours. I finished the day a little over midnight by watching The Matrix Reloaded, which I had brought with me on DVD.

DVDs I managed to fit into my backpack and which were chosen to come along for the trip:Die Hard With A Vengeance, Equilibrium, I, Robot, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Men In Black II, National Treasure and Underworld. Nice to know.

Day 4, another hellish, early, driving day. Apart from the other days, we chose to eat breakfast in our motel room, since their usual breakfast was oddly enough not included in the overnight price. If we wanted to take part in their breakfast buffet, we had to pay about 9 Euro extra. Each. Expensive breakfast. At least, today’s driving stage was going to be the last one for a couple of days. We passed alongside Nuremberg (Germany), Munich (also Germany) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) before arriving at our final destination at around 8pm; Hotel Kvarner in Opatija, Croatia. Too bad the Microsoft AutoRoute map I had on my laptop didn’t include Slovenia, Croatia or even Hungary (which we would go to after leaving Opatija). Okay, the places we were going to and pass through in these countries were marked on the map, but the roads we were about to travel on weren’t. Checking this later, it appeared that the only road maps included in this edition were for countries in Western Europe only. Bummer. Ah, well, at least I’m not planning on driving through Australia or USA in the near future. And speaking of driving, I think I’d rather take a airplane flight next time I’m going down here. Paint Shop Pro came in handy when drawing out the direction maps manually, though. Time for another dip in the hotel swimming pool to cool off after a long day in a hot car. Finally, we could relax without having to think about getting into the car for some time. We were going to stay here for 3 nights, what a great thought. We went off for a quick dinner at a pizza restaurant across the street from the hotel, and went to bed. At last, it was a more relaxed way to finish off the day.

Photos:

Driving at speeds over 160 kmph

The big open Autobahn

This is me most of the trip

We're up to here with fucking castles

Ah, the view of the Adriatic Sea from our hotel

The Adriatic Sea and the outdoor swimming pool

Another shot off The Adriatic Sea at sundown

My hotel room

My hotel room

Relaxing at the restaurant across the street

Tips when in Opatija, Croatia: Try one of the pizzas offered at various restaurants in town, they’re as close to Italian-style pizzas as you’ll get. Perhaps at times even better (I don’t really have a reference point). Also, I’d recommend a stay at Hotel Kvarner, pick a southbound room for the best view. If you’re hungering for Internet access, look up the Havana Club on the main street in town. They’re located on the upper floor (west end of the building), they open at noon, 1 hour of Internet access costs 30 Croatian kuna (at the time of writing this, about 3.75 Euro), 20 kuna extra if you bring your own laptop and want to use that instead. Drinks and sodas can be ordered in the adjoining room.

Day 5 didn’t quite start off as planned. Rain poured down, and thunder was roaring through the sky. What a way to start our relaxation, eh? All this time we were driving through endless sunshine and warm weather, only to get bad weather the day we were going to rest. Good thing we found an Internet café nearby where I could park my ass and my laptop for a couple of hours. Making it run on battery seemed like a good idea, since it would only last for about 2.5 hours, and that would be my signal to unplug. It’s not a good idea to spend most of my vacation plugged in to an Internet café somewhere, even if it was pouring down outside. Two hours of Internet time along with the fact that I was using my laptop (which was 20 kuna extra) came down to 80 Croatian kuna (HRK). Luckily, it wasn’t pouring down all of the time, and I could get from the hotel to the Internet café and back without getting wet. A few days offline and then getting signs of withdrawal may be a hint to cut down a little on your online time. I spent most of the day relaxing in my hotel room, watching The Matrix Revolutions, and then going to the Internet café at about 3pm, meaning that I managed to waste away this rainy day in some way or another. We did get some swimming pool time in the indoor hotel swimming pool (yes, they also had one in the basement) before going for dinner at about 7:30pm.

Day 6 was, at last, the day to take in some sunshine. And according to the weather forecast, it was going to be the only day of sunshine during our stay. Oh, joy. Well, at least I got to fry some bacon (and I’m not talking about food here) for a little bit before noon, which was going to be the time where the sun would be frying too much for anyone to really take in the sun. We alternated between licking some sun and dipping in the outdoor hotel swimming pool to chill down. While passing on into the afternoon, I spent some more time in the Internet café (reading e-mail, reading comics, chatting a little bit, getting weather forecasts for the next week on the road, and then some) before finishing off the day (before dinner time) with Equilibrium on DVD. My legs hurt like hell. Looks like I got a sunburn at the bottom of my legs shaped like sunscreen not rubbed in far enough down on my legs. Yay. Out with the Aloe Vera lotion, I guess. We took the evening a little further away from the hotel, where I also bought a triangle-shaped painting from a seaside vendor (which was painted by the vendor’s brother). That was nice. The vendor was kinda pushy, though. And excited as hell about the paintings. No wonder, since the artist was a very close relative to him. I’ll return with a photo of the painting I bought later on.

Day 7, another day for thunder and rain. Yipee. And I mean that. Not. Even so, I did have an excuse for not taking some more time in the sun. Two excuses, I mean. One being the rain, the other being sunburned the the bottom of my legs, alongside my arms (a tiny stripe that hadn’t been covered with sunscreen) and along the spine of my back (which my mother has to be blamed, since she was the one putting on the sunscreen on my back). Make that three excuses; the rain, the sunburn and the fact that we were moving on to our next destination – Zalakaros, Hungary. The trip through Croatia, passing by Zagreb (the nation’s capital), and crossing the border into Hungary went along pretty uneventful, with the exception of my friend Lars calling me while we were crossing the border, unaware of the fact that I was on vacation. He hadn’t been in town for some time, and we don’t talk much, since he’s studying computer engineering in Trondheim nowadays. Anyway, we decided to stop by the McDonald’s restaurant in Nagykanizsa (which apparantly is the only one in the area) for a quick bite before ending the day in Zalakaros, which is about 5km north-east of Nagykanizsa (pronounced “Nadj-kanisha”, for your non-Hungarians). And let me just warn you a little when passing the thermal bath in this town: it smells like rotten eggs. I guess that goes for all the thermal spas in Hungary as well, the smell of rotten eggs when getting closer than 100 meters of these spas. Another nice fun-fact. We arrived in the sun, found some rental appartment to stay in, and turned in for the night after a quick dinner at a local restaurant. What we consider to be a small amount, seems to be a big amount around here. The dinner cost us a little less than 300 NOK, which consisted of three plates of venison, wine, soda and the after-dinner coffees, drinks and tea (that last one was for me). We even left about 1000 forint (HUF), which is not more than about 30 NOK, as a tip, and they appear to be eternally grateful for it. Nice.

Photos:

Sunburnt legs

Passing Zagreb, Croatia

I'm sleeping again

I'm sleeping again

Going to Zalakaros: You can get by with speaking German around here. Most shops and restaurants include texts and menus in German as well as Magyar (which, by the way, is the Hungarian language). Most restaurants come with someone playing music to your meal, so don’t be surprised. The polite thing to do, is to leave a 500 forint-bill (or more) for the music player when you leave the restaurant to show your appreciation, even if you were eternally annoyed by the music. Regarding accommodation, it’s very easy to find in Zalakaros. You will usually see a lot of people by the road with small signs advertising in German “Zimmer Frei”, “Haus Frei”, “Appartman Frei” or even “Wonung Frei” (which, in that order, translates to “room available”, “house available”, “apartment available” using an alternate spelling and “apartment available”), which they proudly displays to any non-local car that passes by. I’d estimate about a third of all buildings in Zalakaros has areas inside which are put up for rent during the tourist season (which seems to be all of summer and most of spring and fall). Not including the 6 or 7 hotels in town. Accommodation costs from 30-40 Euro per night, depending on who you go to. Basically, what I’m saying is, don’t bother to make reservations when coming to Zalakaros. Accommodation is very easy to find.

Day 8 included a lot of clouds, even though we were greeted with the sun when we first arrived. Even so, we decided to take a day in the thermal spa for a visit to some of the many swimming pools it provides (which isn’t just a spa, by the way). I think it can be considered to be an indoor/outdoor combined thermal spa and water park. We started off in the one indoor pool which includes a water current pathway in the pool. Fun stuff. This particular pool also has a stair in one end that takes you directly to an outdoor pool. I spent some time in there too. After the pool time, I took off some time off the cloudy day to watch Underworld on DVD. Later on, we also discovered a DVD rental place that also includes a computer with Internet access just across the street from our accommodation. I didn’t get the chance to do just that today, since it was already late in the day when we found it. And we were heading for dinner at the time, this time at another restaurant nearby. I had a variety grill plate with fries. Yummy!

Photos:

Cloudy overview of Zalakaros from our apartment

Cloudy overview of Zalakaros from our apartment

A slightly bigger room for me

Waiting for dinner at a restaurant

Day 9 provided us with some more time in the rain. A whole lot more rain. We basically just took a trip to a shopping mall in Nagykanizsa to kill some time and to do some shopping. We also decided that this was the day for a home-cooked meal, so we got the groceries we needed to get something other than restaurant food for a change. After that, we drove back in the driving rain and started making the dinner. From what I could tell, we had some sausage-based course with potatoes on the side. Interesting, but homely, selection. We played some cards and then I finished the day by watching Die Hard With A Vengeance on DVD. Just another rainy day, I suppose.

Day 10 had sun for us at last! Even though I was still sunburnt, I still had the chance to get some sun for the rest of my body. We took another trip to the thermal spa, and this time around, we started with the outdoor pool we had been in the other day. Sun, fun, water – what’s not to like? Days do seem to pass by fast when you’re not bored, and since we went for a late lunch at a restaurant inside the thermal spa area (pizza), we never got around to eating a big dinner later on. What’s weird, is that the owner of one of the spa restaurants (who was also waiting tables) recognized us. Last time I was here, was 3 years ago, and he still remembered us. Amazing. We did also stop by Janos Papp, a local bar owner who’s of the nice and cuddly kind. Even he remembered us (somewhat). From what I could tell, he felt that the faces were familiar and started going through his photo album to see if he could find us (he did take a photo of us when we took one of him last time I was here). Anyways, a couple of hours later, I ended the day with another DVD flick, this time going for National Treasure from my backpack. I’m down to my last unwatched DVD now.

Photos:

Sunny overview of Zalakaros from our apartment

Day 11 turned out to be yet another rainy and otherwise uneventful day. At least I got the chance to catch up on my holiday diary writing and on my photo editing. The pictures I’ve taken are quite big, so I had to scale them down to two sizes; one for the thumbnails and another for the “full-size” ones (which were originally over 4 times the size). Quite something. At least the rainy day didn’t go to waste – I had a week or so backed up on my vacation writing. Writing a little bit each day, my ass. Good thing I seem to have quite a memory. I did take a few moments away from the laptop to watch the rain rolling in and to take some pictures of the event. I had no idea the weather could be so fascinating. The pictures below are taken roughly 5-7 minutes apart, so I’d say the weather was coming about pretty quickly. Just insane, if you ask me. I even spotted three ladies playing cards on a balcony across the street, even when the rain was pouring in. It took them about 15 minutes from when the rain started before they finally gave up and went inside. I wonder how much they were playing for? I mean, no card game can be that interesting, right? Too bad I forgot to point my camera at them while they were sitting there. Anyway, we decided to grab dinner inbetween showers at the closest restaurant. My treat of the day was turkey breast with a fruit sauce and rice. Mmmm, s’good.

Photos:

A vine crop of some sort below in the backyard

There's a thunderstorm a-comin'

The unsuspecting good weather at the other end

There's a thunderstorm a-comin' even closer

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

And that heavy rain follows very close behind

Here comes the rain again

Day 12 was, and you guessed it, another raincloudy day. With showers inbetween. I’ll tell you, we’ve been quite unlucky with the weather the entire vacation trip. We had sunshine and hot weather the entire time we’ve been driving, as well as the day we arrive at our two destinations, only to have it rain from the second day. When we were in Croatia, we had one lousy day of sunshine, not counting the day we left, and here in Zalakaros, we’ve had sunshine two out of our ten days here (including the forecast for tomorrow). It almost feels like the weather is mocking us, considering the weather reports from home, which talk about sunshine and hot weather from the day after we left town. Great. Just great. At least we’ll have the chance to take in some sun tomorrow before leaving the day after that. I chose roasted gooseliver on toast for dinner today, and I also had enough room for some dessert. Mmmm, strawberry pancake. Delicious.

The story continues here:

Article: Summer holiday 2005, part 2 of 2