Orlando

After a casual week in Nashville our attitude towards booking onward travelling followed suit, as we left it to the last minute, and were unable to book a sub-$400 (!) flight for the day we had intended to leave. With the benefit of staying at Rob's house, we booked our flight for a day later, which was still much more expensive than it should have been. In addition to paying more than we had planned, we also had to endure the dreaded extremely early morning (in this case, 4am) taxi flight to catch an extremely early flight. Our Nashville body-clock schedule didn't help the situation, as we ended up with less than an hour or two of sleep before we were on our way to the airport.

A flight in the opposite direction to Houston, a three hour layover, and a further flight, and we were Orlando waiting for our bags. And waiting. You know how every time you wait a while for your bags, and time seems to drag on, as you become increasingly frustrated? Then the thought pops into your head that maybe your bags won't arrive? 'That won't happen to me', you say. Well, it did.

After seeing the same bags come around a couple of times, and mine not arriving, I made my way over to the baggage counter to find out my bags were on their way.... from another state. Washington, or Texas, I couldn't tell you, I just know it wasn in another state, and more importantly, where it shouldn't have been. It'll be dropped off at 8pm, I was told. At 3pm, this prospect isn't so bad, but when it eventually arrives at 2:30am, it's safe to say it's a little worse. Thanks, United Airlines, for ensuring I never fly with you again.

Annoying transport issues aside, Orlando had some of the most enjoyable weather thus far. The humid heat of the mid-east had become a much dryer heat, reminscent of a day in the late spring of Australia. We made our way from our bargain bin priced hotel (half the price of some of the hostels we'd paid for a month or two earlier -thank-you shoulder season pricing), passing under blue skies and palm trees, to 'Islands of Adventure', one half of the sprawling Universal Studios resort.

The recreated Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, key locations in the Harry Potter Series were a 'magical' start to the day, as the extremely detail and extravagant trips, rides and buildings gave a brilliant Harry Potter experience. As a side note, chocolate milk and energy drinks do not combine well as a breakfast option prior to riding rollercoasters.

An amazing day of rollercoasters, water rides and perhaps some of the best theme park food ever (the award winning Mythos Restaurant), was topped off by a cheeky 18 holes of mini golf. As for the result, well, it doesn't really matter who won or lost, but I will say that we all had a good time.