On New Years’ Day, we left New York for Orlando! Why? For one reason only. When my mom told me we were planning to go to the States, I jumped at the opportunity to go to the new Harry Potter Theme Park. Yes. Harry Potter! Did I mention I was a HUUUUGE Potter fan?! Well now you know! :D I read the book when I was 10 so I pretty much grew up with Harry. Yes, we’re on a first name basis. ;) HAHAHA

So we arrived at the airport and there happened to be a Universal store with a huge HP wall poster and of course, how could I resist not going inside? Went out with 5 wands before heading on to Baggage Claim. ;) I think it’s better to buy at the Airport since there aren’t any lines, they have more stocks plus, the prices are the same anyway.

At night, we went to Downtown Disney to have a stroll and dine in one of the restaurants there. We ended up in Planet Hollywood! Got some souvenir glasses with dancing lights. I ordered some fajitas while my sister had the roll up lasagnas which were their best sellers and mom had this fish dish (I’m bad at recalling what she ate xD Sorry!).

The next day, we were one of the early birds. I’m naturally a fast walker (can’t seem to slow down >_>) so I had to stop and wait for my mom and sister (poor dears) to catch up and so we won’t lose each other. Once in the park, instead going right so we could reach the HP theme park faster, the staff blocked the way so we had to go allll the way around the park. =.=

I was sooo excited I didn’t know where to go first! Get a butterbeer? Ollivanders? Or the ride in the castle?

We decided on the castle first. Since my mom is not a big fan of adrenaline, only my sister and I went. The line was pretty long but moving. You pass through the dungeons, then the greenhouse and finally into the castle. It was a childhood dream come true! It really felt like a movie set with the stone walls, dim lights, talking portraits, Dumbledore greeting you and of course, Harry, Ron and Hermione getting you out of History of Magic. ;)

Awesome isn't it?

Then starts the ride. Which was soooo awesome by the way! It was an adventure-y, felt-like-riding-a-broom, 4D kind of ride. We went on it twice since after we described it to Mom, she went all regretting and stuff, which we felt bad for. She still slapped us afterwards since apparently, the ride was still scary for her. :|  The only ride we didn’t go for was the big dragon coaster since I’m too chicken for big rides. :( Oh well..

Lined up for the Ollivanders wand show which was pretty quick and I felt kind of sad since I didn’t get picked. BOO! ..LOL Oh! Did I mention the staff had British accents? Made the experience more real haha.

Excuse me, didn't get to take a picture of the butterbeer alone. HAHA

Then we got butterbeers! Tastes pretty much like butterscotch with vanilla ice cream in froth form. I don’t think it’s for everyone though as my sister didn’t like it. I thought it was okay at first but for me, it’s one of those things that as you keep going it loses its appeal or you get tired of it eventually.

Anyhoo, we also lined up for Dervish & Bangs which was the store you could get your souvenirs from. The line was quite slow moving as the place was packed! They allowed us to bring our butterbeers inside which we were extra careful. ;) After buying some neckties, we ate at the Three Broomsticks! Here’s your obligatory theme park turkey leg and pumpkin juices for sale..

After eating, we took some more pictures and dropped by Honeydukes and Zonko’s which were connected inside. There was a line forming earlier to get inside the candy store but good thing we went there when there wasn’t any. The place is quite small so it gets packed quite easily. I was shocked to see that the chocolate frog was for $10.. or is that typical in the US? It’s fist-sized and isn’t hollow but still O_O.. I got Godric Gryffindor for my card though!

After that, we left the park and went back to the hotel to pack the additional things for our flight the next day.

We arrived in LA late in the afternoon. I don’t have much pictures since we’ve been here before so we didn’t go to any tourist spots. And of course, we mainly shopped. Hehehe.

Met up with two of my friends who happened to be in LA, Minji and Whitney! ^^ We went to The Grove and ate at the Cheesecake Factory! Love the interior of the restaurant and the food had such huge servings! Didn’t get to order a slice of their cheesecake as we were so fullll >_< I don’t have any pictures of our food too since it was so dark inside and I didn’t want to use flash.

The next day, we were planning to head to LA Live since my mom wanted to check it out. As I was browsing their site, I saw that the Peoples Choice Awards was going to be held on the same day! We quickly booked tickets and went! To say we felt out of place is an understatement. Everyone was dressed to the nines while we were dressed so casual. But whatever! We got to see so much celebs even if they were quite tiny from our seats. My sister was expecting to see Justin Bieber but was so disappointed since he didn’t win therefore he didn’t go on stage. Poor thing.

So on our last day in LA, we went to the Westfield Century City mall since it was very near our hotel and we couldn’t go far as we had to go to the airport in the late afternoon. Walked around, shopped last minute and ate at Obika Mozzarella Bar.

Their cheese was delicious! We decided to try their mozzarella bar which you pick a kind of mozzarella cheese (Original, Smoked, & Creamy, if I’m not mistaken) plus either some meats or dips to go with it. We got each of the cheeses and I chose the eggplant with pine nuts dip. It was sooo good! The dip was sweet and I loved the crunch from the nuts.

For dessert, we got frozen yogurt from Pinkberry. Loved the taste of their yogurt since it actually has the tangy taste unlike some fro-yo places here which doesn’t taste like yogurt at all! I had the green tea yogurt and chose mochi, slivered almonds and chocolate chips for my toppings. Yummmm! I missed having green tea flavored things since they don’t have it in Switzerland >_>

So here ends my rather long post of my trip! Sorry for the very late update by the way! I’m back in Cebu for one more week before I fly back to Switzerland again for a new semester. I’m trying to take as much pictures for future posts since I don’t think I’ll be able to bake back in Switz since I don’t have a kitchen anymore.  :(

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my post! Going back through the pictures made me want to go back to the States again! :\