Last day in Wilmington

For my last leg of Wilmington I checked in the Baymont Hotel with a bunch of other festival stragglers and organisers. Since it was opposite the hotel and me being an Aussie, we thought it rather funny to go to the ‘Outback Steakhouse’. Honestly, there was nothing in the restaurant (food-wise or ambience-wise) that I could connect to Australia - but they had good steak and you could compare it to something like our ‘Hogsbreath Cafe’.

I finally slept, even though I was still exhausted when I woke up the next day, but I felt revived and like I could continue on to the last part of my journey.

Festival co-director/organiser Peter Effaldana took me to the airport, danced together with butterfly wings and shared secrets on hair-products.... Yes - hair products. As you can see in my photos - Peter has quite an amazing head of hair, and women literally stop him in the streets and ask him if they can touch it. Peter claims this amazing hair is the result of washing with a special type of shampoo called “Aussie”. When I told him I’d never heard of it, he seemed shocked. I think it’s like my experiences with Fosters beer during my adventures, read my Kansas City posts for more info on that... :-)

The rest of the day I spent travelling again. Two airplanes and a stop over in Atlanta, finally got me into the land of the Twin Cities - Minneapolis.

As I’d mentioned in the previous post - I had spent all night on the phone and internet to my travel agent and legend Mick Tattam of STA Travel, in Australia - who had helped me change my plans for my last week in America. I was supposed to spend my last week on the glorious beaches of Miami, Florida and meet my puppet mentor Paul Louis. However, I’d been invited to take part of film shoot as a puppet extra in a feature puppet film from the cult internet puppet tv show, Transylvania Television.

This was not an opportunity to be missed, however it was a tough decision - especially since I was really looking forward to meeting Paul Louis. But my mind was convinced knowing that I would see Jeff and Kathy again - who lived in Minneapolis and who I formed really close connections with at my time during PuppetFest Midwest.


So off I went, what felt like a kind of crazy whim - but how crazy could this adventure get, honestly? I went to the other side of the world in search of puppetry, what was a couple extra plane rides more?

Hotel review: Baymont Inn & Suites, Atlanta

www.baymontinns.com

Baymont Inn & Suites

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 (based on my personal experience, not the quality of the hotel)

This hotel was absolutely fine. It was nothing fancy, but it was secure, affordable and close to where I needed to be. It had a nice buffet breakfast and a friendly atmosphere with lots of families who were staying at the hotel all busily chatting and eating.

I was however frustrated with the one and only computer in the hotel being broken and constantly in use by other tourists.

Other then that - my room, bed and bathroom were clean, comfortable and quiet and had a good night's sleep.

Hotel review: The Q Hotel and Spa (Kansas City)

The Q Hotel and Spa

My rating: 5 out of 5 (based on my personal experience, not the quality of the hotel)

This hotel was fantastic. The staff were more then friendly and helpful, free evening drinks and buffet breakfast, around the corner to a 24 hour supermarket, what more could you want? The room was quite luxurious, especially for the affordable price, and I really can’t say much more about it, other then it was probably the best hotel experience I had! Apparently the hotel boasts to be a ‘green’ and environmentally friendly hotel as well.

I highly recommend it to anyone who’s ever in Kansas City. It’s close to all the entertainment and the surrounds are more then friendly - in apparently one of the best areas of Kansas City called Westport. The food around the area is also really fantastic - a bunch of real affordable restaurants and one of the best pizza places I’ve ever been too!

Hotel review: The Sleep Inn Airport - Kansas City

The Sleep Inn Airport 


My rating: 4 out of 5 (based on my personal experience, not the quality of the hotel)

It took an entire day to travel from L.A. to Kansas City, Missouri -  having a stop over all the way in Chicago and then going back to Kansas City, I finally arrived in my hotel near the airport late in the evening. I was exhausted and still somewhat jet-legged.

After putting the bad experiences of Los Angeles behind me - I was happy to find the opposite experience in the lovely Kansas City. First stop: The Sleep Inn Airport. Being near the airport was great, especially so I wouldn't have to travel all the way back in from the city. Their complementary shuttle bus was also handy and was able to pick me up and take me back to the airport at my leisure - which was a fantastic deal and well worth the little extra I paid for the room.

I slept in a wonderful comfy bed and felt secure with electric locked doors (as opposed to dodgy locks and broken bars at my window in L.A.). Not to mention a free, fantastic buffet of all-you-can-eat breakfast in the morning. The staff were all very friendly and helpful and allowed me to check out slightly later than I was supposed to in order for me to connect to my bus travel onto Trenton Missouri. They also recommended me to have lunch at a fantastic little diner called “Ruby Tuesdays” which was across the road from the hotel. This was another fantastic experience where all the staff were more than friendly and helpful and catered to my every needs. The whole experience gave me a great feeling about Kansas City and made me love the place, even if I’d only been there just over 12 hours.

Hotel review: The Cecil Hotel, Downtown L.A.

The Cecil Hotel on Main Street
My rating: 1 out of 5 (based on my personal experience, not the quality of the hotel)

Firstly, when searching for the website google says: "This site may harm your computer." I think that really says enough...


It’s cheap which is probably its only upside - but I wouldn’t recommend it to a young girl travelling alone. I would go to the backpackers hostel next door which seemed much friendlier, cleaner and fun. The hotel itself had no internet so you had to wait in line with the backpackers next door to be able to use a computer - so I would recommend taking a laptop with a wi-fi connection.

It’s not fancy, but that’s not what bothers me... It was the fact my window didn’t close properly and my room was on the landing of the fire-escape and the steel bars were broken and looked like they’d been broken into.... not to mention that most of the staff didn’t speak English. Sometimes even repeating myself a third time doesn’t help and it’s probably easier and quicker for me to learn Spanish in the meantime. One thing I forgot to pack - Spanish dictionary.

On my second last day at the hotel (I stayed 4 nights) I found myself locked out of my room. It looked like someone had stuck something into my lock to try to break in. Being alone with all my stuff in my room was rather frightening and I was worried the person responsible might still be in my room. After three attempts at getting security guards to come look at it - I was still scared and stumped, as the guards could not explain to me what was going on since they spoke no English. I felt even less protected now. After finally going to the lobby staff - they rudely explained to me that I should have checked out and they’d put a lock on my room. But how could I prove to them I’d paid for 4 nights in advance when they’d locked all my things and papers of evidence in my room? This for me, was only a ploy to get me to pay more. How dare they take advantage of a young girl travelling alone.

I received no apology and was told it was an error on my part - but they finally saw it my way and after much searching, they found my booking. I will never stay there again.