Solo USA XX Contiki Raleigh, Virginia and Philadelphia Cheesesteaks

This post covers the fly over stops of this Contiki. In reality the trip went Savannah, bus Charleston for lunch, bus to Raleigh where we crashed for the night, bus to Washington where we stayed for four nights, bus to New York stopping in Virginia for a quick morning tea and then a long lunch at Philadelphia before ending in New York. But for the sake of cohesiveness I am grouping these stops together and Washington will be the next blog post.

Raleigh, North Carolina was a very average stop over that basically consisted of us going to the greasiest all-you-can-eat and creating the most dirty delicious monstrosities we could plate up. 

Our next pit stop was Virginia, Georgia. I didn't see much of Virginia other than their Facilities but I did learn that 'Virginia is for Lovers'.

We hung out in their very Parks and Rec vibe Community Area. For what I saw of Georgia from the window of the bus looked lovely though, I will have to come back for a longer stay next time!

Last, but certainly not least of the inbetweener stop overs was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We had just spent four nights in Washington and were exhausted but excited for what New York had to offer! But, before we could get to the 'Concrete Jungle where things are made of'...we needed lunch!

We went and ran the infamous Rocky steps. I must warn you that this was probably the worst I looked of the entire trip other than after Vegas. Washington got me good..

A hungover mess.

ytb

Contiki took us to a spot with two famous Cheesesteak joints right across the road from eachother. Geno's Steaks and Pat's King of Steaks. We all got one each and split it with someone who got one from the other place so we could try both. In my personal opinion Geno's was far superior, but I also know that these two places are known tourist traps and that there are genuinely better Cheesesteaks in Philly. Hopefully I will be able to come back and try more soon! Please if you have any Philly Cheesesteak places that you would recommend, message me on instagram @yeswanderlust

erica 

Central Coast Roadtrip

One thing I tried to do more of last year were roadtrips with my dog. She is getting old and I want to give her the best life she could possibly have. I planned to go all the way to Newcastle, stopping off at the Central Coast on the way. The main reason for stopping here was to go to a cafe I went to a long time ago called the Glass Onion Society. Annoyingly by the time I got there I wasn't that hungry so I just got a coffee to go and some advice on which beaches in the area to visit. 

We stopped into two cute little stores, Dapper Darlings and Webster's Vintage. I also bought a few pairs of sunglasses from a place called Beautiful Garbage. 

We went to Toowoon Bay for a bit of a wander. Sadly it wasn't dog friendly so I had to carry my fur child. Afterwards I was sitting down just relaxing and I got bitten by a really angry ant. I won't lie, I was pretty scared it was a poisonous spider so I did go to the surf lifesaving medical tent. They helped calm me down a bit. 

Turns out, a little bit before Toowoon Bay is a dog friendly 'beach' called Little Bay. It's not exactly a beach but it was fun to see all the puppers.

Treating myself to a soft serve with Sherbet YUM!

All about a shameless selfie in good lighting. This is one of the pairs of shades I bought from Beautiful Garbage. I love them so much.

What was meant to be a weekend up in Newcastle ended up being a day trip to the Central Coast. I had to come back home that afternoon due to some personal things at home. That's ok, still had a fun day with my favourite girl. Until next roadtrip..

erica

Melbourne Vintage Shop Crawl II

Here is an image of me most likely searching how to cure a tequila hangover. This was a very difficult morning for me. But considering we were in Melbourne, I wasn't going to waste the day in the hotel feeling sorry for myself. I could do that in public.

I know I went to Biggie Smalls last time I was in Melbourne and I usually try not to visit the same places but 1. it was my birthday 2. I just had to eat one of these insane kebabs again. I got the Dirty South, which is fried chicken, lettuce, pickled onion & lemon aioli I would highly reccomend this one, or the one Paige got was really delish as well. She got the C.Wallace, flaxseed falafel, smoked hummus, herbs, & garlic yohgurt. I wish I could say this kebab cured my hangover for the day, but it only helped me in maintaining basic motor functions, i.e. walking and standing.

jacket / Boohoo.com

top / Interval

jeans / Topshop

shoes / Windsor Smith

Behind me is Service Denim Store. It looked pretty epic inside (more on video) but unfortunately as you all know I am excessively poor. So sadly for me this trip was strictly 'Look but don't Buy'. Below I will attempt to name all of the stores on our Collingwood Vintage Shopping Crawl. I have made a note to actually take proper notes of the places names I go to when I'm travelling next time. 

Shappere Vintage Clothing - I really want most of the cowboy boots here and this cute leather backpack. The denim selection looked great as well.

Sally's Retro Fashion - one of my favourites. I love the true vintage stores where you need to actually look to find pieces. Those are usually the places that the exact thing you were looking for just happens to find you. You unfold something, open a book, look in a drawer, and there is the exact thing you want staring you in the face. These stores have a certain bit of magic in them I think.

This is in a different store and these are the ugliest hats I have ever seen. Go home Melbourne, your drunk.

This was hands down my favourite shop of the day, Vintage Garage. if you haven't been here yet, please go. It is an absolute haven of organised vintage chaos and I love it! Words can't really describe this place, I'll just let the photos do that.

Having a well deserved break. By the way, if you were wondering after breakfast Ray went skating with a mate. It would have been cruel to drag him along on our shopping crawl. At this point I was legitimately crawling I was so exhausted.

Even the bins in Melbourne are aesthetically pleasing!

Just havin a yarn

This was one of my favourite stores. If I had money on me I would have 100% gone crazy in this store. It's called HoMie.

DRAHMAHHHHH! Hahaha not really. Some pyscho just decided to unleash his inner Looney Tunes and became the Tasmanian Devil incarnate. He was running down the street kicking over signs and being a grade A moron. Got a gnarly gash on his head.

Vintage Sole looking dapper as always. 

It would have been nice to stay for a Pintxos or seven but we were just too exhausted. On the way back to the hotel Paige and I stopped in to RetroStar Vintage. I sadly did not find anything. When we got back to the hotel around 6pm it was to a very upsetting site. Anja had dislocated her knee and had to be taken to the hospital.

I've never seen anyone in hospital look so glam while in so much pain. Strongest girl I know. She will be getting reconstructive surgery soon. Wishing her the speediest of recoveries. She came back to the hotel that night and the next morning we took her to the airport and sadly had to say goodbye. This was so devastating, we had both been looking forward to this trip so much. But it's fine because once she is healed we are going to Boracay Baby!

Don't forget to watch & subscribe to my new youtube channel. The video from this day will be uploaded shortly. Until then, here's the first video if you haven't seen it.

#ericasbirthdaybender

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