Harry Potter World and Orlando!

Hey guys!

In the weekend I went to one of the most magical places on Earth, Harry Potter world! It was AWESOME!!!

Lou, Phil, Knic and I headed down for the weekend in Orlando - I've come to realise that if you were to be lost in America you truly would have no idea where you are, the cities are so alike! Apart from New York and Boston, Orlando looked like any other city we've been through - lots of concrete and lots of highways. It also is basically a resort town, belonging to Disney. I'll give you an example of what it's like to drive down the highway - hotel, hotel, theme park, hotel, hotel, fast food chain, fast food chain, fast food chain, hotel, hotel, theme park, fast food chain, hotel, theme park.... etc.

On Friday Knicole and I got into Disneyworld for freeee because her lovely friend Natalie works there. We went to the park called 'Epoc' which Walt Disney originally created to have all his staff there but instead turned it into a futuristic park.

I'm going to update with pictures later on because the internet down on campus at uni here is going ridiculously slow for me today!

Ok, so where was I, Epoc! We went on all these amazing rides - one of them was a simulator that made you feel as though you were going into space. It spun you around so you got into the G force field or whatever it is called and it literally felt as though your brain was going into your stomach. The ride had a 3-D screen infront and you felt as though you were actually in space - it launched you up into space and you felt like you were going so fast even though we were just spinning in this simulator. The weird thing is though that you didn't even feel as though you were spinning! I didn't even know that was how it worked until after we got off the ride.

We also went on this future ride where you got to choose your own future, I sent an email home Mum and Dad from this ride of what Knicole and I's future is going to turn out to be like! We had to put in on the screen where we were from - Invercargill made the map, boom! And then went around this little track that went through history to now and to what they think the future will look like.

In Epoc they have part of it as different countries. We went to the United Kingdom and ate fish and chips and got a photo in a red telephone booth, went to France and had a look around at the shops, in Japan we got some of the yummy chips we used to eat when we were actually in Japan, in China we watched some amazing performers - one girl was en pointe on a man's shoulders, in Norway we went on a ride about the Vikings in a boat, watched some Mexican men sing christmas carols in Mexico and in Germany we saw a christmas tree with pickle decorations!

We then headed over to Hollywood studios to go on the Aerosmith rollercoaster - it was insane. The first time I've been upside down in a rollercoaster and the entire time Aerosmith was pumping in your ears. The carts were shaped like a stretch cadillac too and it was inside and you did it in the dark while neon lights were flashing at you. Knic and I were holding on tight!

Finally, we went and saw the christmas lights - they were amazing! They also dance to music - I will post a video when I put up pics so that you can see! Very cool - Gimblett Cr has something to live up to now!!!

By this time, Phil and Lou had arrived, so it was time to catch the shuttle bus back to our hotel. Unfortunately no one told us that the shuttle wouldn't be arriving for another two hours so Knic and I were stranded in an empty parking lot for a good hour until Phil rang and said when it was arriving - hero. Saved us another hour of waiting, but we lost "a few quid" (as Ben and Lou would say) on a taxi home.

The four of us went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and had massive amounts of food and good banter before heading back to our hotel and chilling out to be ready for our amazing day at universal the next day!

HARRY POTTER WORLD WAS AMAZING. It was everything you could want and more! We were lucky because Justin Bieber was doing the Christmas Parade at Disney world that day so the lines were really short - apart from Ollivander's wand shop which had a line about an hour long!!

We first went on the duelling dragons rollercoaster ride. This thing is ridicoulous. Your feet are dangling and you corkscrew, go upside down, go close to the ground etc. at 64 miles per hour. That's over 100kmph. Phil managed to trick me and say we were going on the baby rollercoaster, until we reached the part where you actually have to sit on the seats. The rollercoaster has two sets of tracks, one blue and one red. The rollercoasters used to go at the same time but things kept falling out of people's pockets onto the other rollercoaster so now they go alternatively. The blue one is slower and the red one is faster, guess which one we did - yup the red. Lou and I were sitting behind Knic, Natalie and Phil and all I could hear from Lou the entire ride was PIIIIP, KNICCCCCC, PIIIIIIP haha and all she could hear from me was AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Expletive.

It was the best ride though and I would definitely go on it again!

After that we had lunch at the three broomsticks and then went on another virtual ride in Hogwarts castle. This one was soo coool!!! We went travelling through Hogwarts with Harry on his broomstick and again you were in another simulator so it felt like you were falling and then you would spin around and you would be in the real world if you know what I mean so there are puppets around you that look really real - dementors were flying at us, spiders dropping down on us and the whomping willow nearly smacked us over. I felt sorry for the poor boy sitting in our capsule as he got really scared - if I was that small I definitely would be too!

After that we split up because Lou and I wanted to have a look at some more shops in Harry Potter and we carried on to the other parts of Universal. There are lots of different sections like Jurassic Park, Super hero land, Comic book land, Dr Suess land etc. They are all really cool and different and have lots of great rides!

That night, we went to a dinner and show with unlimited alcohol for $30. It was awesome. The show was set in the 1920s with the chicago gangsters and restaurant was set up like a speakeasy. Everyone called us dollface and we had to knock three times and say a password to get in. It was lots of fun and we had seats right by the stage. They took a picture of us as we arrived and then turned it into newspapers, keyrings and case files. Knic and I both bought a keyring of the four of us in a mugshot.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and went swimming! Swimming in December! It was so warm in Florida that's for sure!

We came back to Chapel Hill on Sunday and this week we have finals :( boohoo!

Less than two weeks until I leave for Ireland!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer holidays back home

will post photos and videos soon

xxxx