Having booked my flight to escape a cold winter Christmas and New Year, I was eager to get away and enjoy some sunshine and relax for 3 weeks. Little did I realise the journey ahead was not so relaxing and I'm not just referring to the plane!
As my sister has now relocated to
Tampa, Florida seemed a great destination to see yet another part of the world and the US I have not yet visited. Although I've been to Miami, Tampa is completely different, or should I say Miami is completely different to the rest of Florida. The City of Tampa is the largest city in Hillsborough County, is the county seat and is the third most populous city in Florida. It is located on the west coast of Florida, approximately 200 miles northwest of Miami (so a good 3 hour car journey away), 180 southwest of Jacksonville, and 20 miles northeast of St. Petersburg (which I will talk about later).
Although it is winter in Florida the weather is still nice and warm, but can fluctuate from nice to bad weather in a matter of days. When I arrived the weather was pretty cold, around 15' but this was due to a cold spell passing through and rightly said within a couple of days the weather was nice and warm with temperatures up to 28-30' so not so bad and a lot better than Switzerland which was around -4' on the day I left.
Florida is a strange state, different rules and laws apply here so crazy things are allowed, for example; you can buy a gun (if you have no previous convictions), ride a motorbike with no helmet (as long as you wear eye protection, sunglasses or goggles) and you can freely drive whilst drinking coffee, smoking and making a cellular call. Well the last 3 are not really permitted but everyone does this and this definitely contributes to the vast amount of road traffic accidents.
Anyway 'enough already' of this and let me focus on my holiday with family, oh yeah I forgot to mention that part, most of my family joined me for the Christmas and New Year break. So you can imagine a house full of people, kids, neighbours and alike. At least I had the first 2 days of peace as I arrived first!
Here are some of the many activities I did over the 3 weeks which include;
Clearwater - a beautiful seaside city with amazing white sandy beaches,
Busch Gardens - great adventure park for kids and adults, with death defying rides, a safari and many other attractions, just be prepared for long queues, a
Shooting Range - even for people like me that had never held a gun before I was permitted to take my pick of weapon (any bloody weapon, which was the scary thing) and go and blast a target,
Lazar Quest - great for all the family and much more fun than the real thing,
International Plaza shopping Mall - great for shopping but a little more expensive that other Malls, but still half the price of anything you can buy in 'rip-off' Europe!
I have tried to be good and I did promise not to eat too much and try and return home looking similar to when I left, but being in America, 'the land of the free', it was hard not to try so many new things and of course at Christmas time there can be an exception, can't there? 
Having booked my flight to escape a cold winter Christmas and New Year, I was eager to get away and enjoy some sunshine and relax for 3 weeks. Little did I realise the journey ahead was not so relaxing and I'm not just referring to the plane!
As my sister has now relocated to Tampa, Florida seemed a great destination to see yet another part of the world and the US I have not yet visited. Although I've been to Miami, Tampa is completely different, or should I say Miami is completely different to the rest of Florida. The City of Tampa is the largest city in Hillsborough County, is the county seat and is the third most populous city in Florida. It is located on the west coast of Florida, approximately 200 miles northwest of Miami (so a good 3 hour car journey away), 180 southwest of Jacksonville, and 20 miles northeast of St. Petersburg (which I will talk about later).
Although it is winter in Florida the weather is still nice and warm, but can fluctuate from nice to bad weather in a matter of days. When I arrived the weather was pretty cold, around 15' but this was due to a cold spell passing through and rightly said within a couple of days the weather was nice and warm with temperatures up to 28-30' so not so bad and a lot better than Switzerland which was around -4' on the day I left.
Florida is a strange state, different rules and laws apply here so crazy things are allowed, for example; you can buy a gun (if you have no previous convictions), ride a motorbike with no helmet (as long as you wear eye protection, sunglasses or goggles) and you can freely drive whilst drinking coffee, smoking and making a cellular call. Well the last 3 are not really permitted but everyone does this and this definitely contributes to the vast amount of road traffic accidents.
Anyway 'enough already' of this and let me focus on my holiday with family, oh yeah I forgot to mention that part, most of my family joined me for the Christmas and New Year break. So you can imagine a house full of people, kids, neighbours and alike. At least I had the first 2 days of peace as I arrived first!
Here are some of the many activities I did over the 3 weeks which include; Clearwater - a beautiful seaside city with amazing white sandy beaches, Busch Gardens - great adventure park for kids and adults, with death defying rides, a safari and many other attractions, just be prepared for long queues, a Shooting Range - even for people like me that had never held a gun before I was permitted to take my pick of weapon (any bloody weapon, which was the scary thing) and go and blast a target, Lazar Quest - great for all the family and much more fun than the real thing, International Plaza shopping Mall - great for shopping but a little more expensive that other Malls, but still half the price of anything you can buy in 'rip-off' Europe!
