We Ride

It's been four days since my last entry, and for that, I apologise. I know I said I'd do this every two or three days. After reading this blog you'll have a nice idea of why it took so long though. I think I have a pretty good excuse as it is! Here comes;

Monday we had our day off, and we started moving. With the keys to the gate, the garage and the house itself, it was time to get the furniture from a few Dutch interns who had done their year here, and had to go back to finish things up, end school, take a vacation or whatever else they had planned. Early in the morning we went to Steven's place. Steven worked here in F&B (Food and Beverage, only time I won't shorten that) and had a lot to do with implementing the pool service that now runs. The last few weeks he's been around Le Marche, the outlet store I told you about earlier. We had hired a van to get as many things as possible from one place to the other. Put everything in the garage at first, and then went to get the second load. As the garage fits two cars, a lot of stacked up furniture was no problem either. Second house to empty was the one from Stach and Majda (I think it's spelt that way). Took us less effort than with Steven, as he lives on fifth floor and had this really annoying sofabed where the springs would give us a hard time all the time. Not to mention his elevator is SLOW. Seriously, real slow. Walking the stairs goes quicker if you haven't got a desk or bed to carry around.
Stach is already out of the country so we dealt with Majda mostly and took some drawers, chairs and matrasses from their place. When we had everything in the garage after four drives in total, Georgi and I went back to the hotel to get a vacuum cleaner and later buy some hygienic wipes to clear all the furniture before moving it in completely. Bart and Yatha, in the meantime, carried up as many things as possible. It was somehow easier to hand things over, up from the patio to the balcony on the second floor, rather than moving it through the stairs. That's how we got most couches and beds in to the house. After we ate in Le Marche and got more great crepes (with strawberries, banana and blackberry, three pieces total), Yatha and I went with our rental van to the Fort Lauderdale airport to pick up another car for the next day. Had to perform a little trick with the parking garage as Yatha lost the parking card for the van, and we got out with two cars, paying only one dollar (don't tell anyone!). While Yatha went to his car that he parked a little from the garage, I drove on, thinking he was further out. I couldn't find him naturally. Upon returning to the hotel we found out that both of us drove the wrong way trying to get back to the city. The exit to either I95, the city centre, or Port Everglades (anyone fancy a cruise?) is really short and hard to read, so I drove off to Port Everglades instead. Had to go back to the airport and try again. Along the way got past a "Random Vehicle Search" from the police, but I guess mine wasn't random enough. I accidentally had left my wallet in the other car, with my drivers license in there, so I'm glad I could drive on.

Tuesday morning we took our newly hired Chevrolet Malibu two blocks further, to pick up Tommy, who works at the Front Office as a Dutch intern as well. We headed off to Orlando! Universal Studios Orlando, and even more precise. Islands Of Adventure there. According to quite a few people that park would suit us best. Drove all the way over the the I95 north bound. Missed the turn to the Turnpike that would lead straight to Orlando, and hit the I95 further until we could go right to Cape Canaveral, or left to Orlando, basically. After 2/3 of the drive, Yatha took over and tested the maximum speed of the rental car. Got to Orlando in 3:15 hours.
Time for Universal Studios that opened at 9, while we came in around 10. As we had ordered them online and printed the barcodes, there wasn't much to wait for. Hold on. The entire day, there was nothing much to wait for! No attraction took us more than 10/15 minutes in total, from the moment you walk in to the moment it started.
First one was the Hulk rollercoaster. A green one with plenty of corkscrews and loopings in there, and a little dive through a tunnel of mist. The first ride we took was a bit harsh with the mist, as we went from that cold, wet mist, straight into the full sunrise. After two rides in the Hulk, both of which left me groggy upon leaving my seat, it was time to move on to the next one. Dr Doom's Fear Fall. For all the Dutch people who've been to Six Flags, it's similar to the Space Shot. As all of us had been in the Space Shot before, and this one was actually less exciting than that one, we decided to leave it at that one ride. Next up; Spiderman! It's not really a rollercoaster, but it sure leaves you flabbergasted. You get 3D glasses on, and get in this seat, which can best be thought of as a cabin for a flight simulator. You then go from hall to hall, seeing different Spiderman scenes in each of them. In one room, a waterbased villain attacks, and you get sprayed. In another, fire comes out of Dr Octopus arms, and the room heats up instantly. Whenever another bomb exploded, a flame entered the room to make it more real. It all ends with a "free fall". It's all visual deception as the car isn't going anywhere I think (or some belongings would not be safe in that very cart), but it seems and feels so amazingly real.
Time to eat something, and then go to the water attractions. And these aren't fake water attractions. These get you soaked real bad (see pictures in my photo album). Had a lot of fun, both in the logs, which had an amazing dive in there, as well as the Popeye ride, which consisted of these round boats with lot of openings in them to let the water in and soak the people in there. Was hilarious to laugh at people at the other side of the boat getting drenched at some parts of the course, only to be up next yourself. Did both the logs and the Popeye ride twice.
Then took a ride in the Jurassic Park boat. Took us to see some dinos, and then got us a great free fall. I'm thinking of uploading some of the videos I made, onto Youtube, and share them later. Once I do I'll link you through of course :)
More food in between, and then the Duelling Dragons. One big attraction, two different rides. Red and Blue/Green. Both had a different course, as the red one had more loops and the blue one had more screws, but somewhere halfway through, both rides go head to head, seeming to crash into eachother, to then both make a looping. It may seem like your legs hit the ones from the other side at some point. Such an amazing ride. Did I say you were below the track already? For those in Six Flags state again, think El Condor. Did those quite a few times. The later it got, the easier it was to get into the front row, and that is sooooo worth it. Makes everything about the two rides, so much more intense, especially where you seeming crash into the other, and where you head straight to a wall to make another looping there.
Ended our day with two more rides in the Hulk and took one of the pictures made in that ride as a souvenir.
Got home around 11 or something, after dropping the car at the airport and taking a cab back.

Wednesday I started at 8, to find that, luckily, I did not have to work in the laundry, but could check floors again as Bart was doing computer training again. Nothing much happened that day. I worked a lot as I had 8 floors to take care of, but it was all alright, as there weren't too many occupied ones. Took Marten, Wendy (his girlfriend who is here for two weeks this time around) and Sabrina (did I ever mention her before? I hope so!) to see our new house and impressed them all, I think. Admitted, it just looks better than the places Marten and Sabrina live in themselves. Marten flat out admitted he was jealous. Got back around 12, and that's when Bart informed me about an e-mail from our HR manager, consider a possible switch from one of the MITs (Manager In Training) from Rooms Division to go to F&B for the rest of the year. As I love working in restaurants too, and love setting up meetings and such at Banqueting, I applied and it might all happen next week. We'll see what goes on here. I don't want to get ahead of things so I'll leave it at this.

Today, thursday, I started at 8 again, not knowing if I had to laundry this time around or not. I got to inspect rooms straight away, as someone from an external audit came to visit and inspect everything. Walked around like crazy today to get things done in time, and I was dead tired already. Got the report a little later and I think we scored a full 97% in general, so everyone here is happy enough as it is.
Just got back from another hour of indoor soccer in Hollywood again and finally found the time to write this blog. Will now upload all the pictures to the photo album so you can all enjoy a bit. I didn't take too many as most attractions require you to store everything in lockers somewhere in the park to keep it all safe and easy.
Thought I'd be off tomorrow, but I need to work again. Need to see how and what we're going to do with all the moving now, but you'll hear that later.

As Universal was full of rides, and I said the word quite a few times already, I'm sharing Lostprophets' "To Hell We Ride" for today.

a little p.s. I LOVE my iPhone.