Hawaiian activities

I have been to many places by now and I am happy about it because I am not even twenty years old yet. I have been to ten European countries as far as I can remember, and then I have been to two countries in North America.

Today I want to tell you more about my Hawaiian experience. First of all, it all sort of happened because I was not supposed to go. I was in the United States of America as an exchange student and my American family already took me to Mexico with them for Spring Break. I had my flight ticket back to Milan, Italy for the sixth of July, but my American parents told me that they wanted me to join them to Hawaii and that they would leave the fifth, so I changed my flight ticket from the sixth to the fifteenth, when I eventually flew back to Italy.

Royal Hawaiian, Honolulu

The fifth of July finally came and we all arrived at Denver International Airport and had breakfast at the United Airlines Lounge. After that, we boarded first class and I mean I felt in Paradise already. The staff was super nice and I flew comfortably. Once landed in Honolulu, we took a cab because something was wrong with our rental car agreement. This guy, who did not like to talk, drove us to the Royal Hawaiian on Waikiki. Not to brag or anything, also because if it was not for my American family I would have never been there probably, but this hotel is very famous. It is pink and it is so famous that according to the guy at the front desk even Justin Bieber stayed there. The rooms were amazing and I was sad we were just staying overnight. I wish I took a picture of my room but I am dumb so I did not, but anyway as soon as I entered I could see the bed and the night stands, then the bathroom was "on the second floor" and from the bathroom you could face down and see the bed. It was just so cool. Even the toilets were fancy, they were the ones which have water sprays, they were so smart that you could even choose the temperature of the water.

Surf Lessons on Waikiki

Getting to the interesting part, after being amazed by the beautiful room we got, we changed into our swimming suits and went on Waikiki beach for our Surf Lesson, which I was thankful only lasted about thirty minutes if I remember correctly because the instructor was a dick. After struggling and being tired for like half of the time, I somehow manage to stand up and ride a wave. It was amazing, but then I fell. So I tried again and succeeded. It was good enough for me, I could not presume to wake up one morning and be the best surfer in the world. Once we were done with that I started taking pictures with my camera on the beach and then I went back to my room to take a shower because we were going to have dinner on the top of Waikiki: a restaurant which rotates 360 degrees while you eat, so that you can see the whole city! Breathtaking.

Pearl Harbour

The day after we were all refreshed and ready for our next destination: Pearl Harbour. It was such an interesting place to see in person. We learn about it in History Class, we see videos on TV, but being there was incredible. A huge coincidence was the following: There was a veteran sitting there for people to come and talk to him about anything, so my American family and I went there, and my American mom noticed, while she was talking, that his last name was the same as a person she knows so she mentioned it to this Pearl Harbour survivor, who asks us where we are from. "Greeley, Colorado", we told him. My American mom's friend turned out to be this veteran's son. Isn't the world small? Well, anyway, after this incredible story we took off and found a nice little place in front of a little port and had lunch.

The shortest flight of my life

In all my life I think that I only flew with five or six airlines at the most but what is cool is that one of these is Hawaiian Airlines. That flight was also the shortest I have ever taken, it lasted twenty minutes, not a minute more not a minute less. It was incredible how the stewards served us drinks and stuff in such a short period of time. We flew from Honolulu to Kauai and well... it is a nice memory. It was so nice to see all the islands and the ocean.

Na Pali Coast Dinner Cruise

I have never been on a cruise before, but I have been on ferries and this one was pretty much a big boat just like a ferry, and it was called dinner cruise because it was only a few hours long and we had dinner on it. At the beginning, some people were feeling sick because the boat was moving a lot and there was a lot of wind. Some people actually threw up, it was not the best day to sail but we did, and my American family and I turned out to be okay. It was amazing to see the green coast on our right. There were also little waterfalls which created rainbows, the boat even went under them so that people could get wet. It was very fun. But I think that the most breathtaking part of the trip was seeing the sunset from the boat and spotting dolphins swimming next to us.

Kipu Ranch Adventures

Believe it or not, one of the days we had rain, and when was that? When we decided to ride on some UTVs. We went on an off-road scenic tour of Kauai and, of course, this just means one thing: mud. Yes because the ground was completely wet and the vehicles in front of us would throw all the dirt on us, just like we probably did with the vehicles right behind us. I had a white shirt but it does not matter because it has been super fun. They told us that many famous films were shot in Kauai, like Jurassic World, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, and Soul Surfer. But also other films were inspired by Kauai's little towns, between these there is Lilo And Stitch and Avatar. We had lunch during our tour and then they even showed us a little natural swimming pool with nice and cold water but I decided not to swim because I did not want to be wet for the rest of the tour, my American brother instead just jumped in. He could not care less and he was also full of dirt, just like we all were, so he decided to wipe it off by swimming.

At the hotel

At the hotel, we had most of our lunches and also attended some Luau parties where they gave us some leis to wear. When we were not at the hotel, we were somewhere in town eating some Mahi Mahi or buying some shirts produced in Hawaii. I bought a blue one for myself, a yellowish for my dad as a present and an orange one for my brother.

Nostalgia

Writing about it made me realize how much I miss the trip and everything I have done and seen. Hawaii is such a beautiful place and next time I go back, I will definitely visit more the other islands I left out the first time I went. The interesting fact about Kauai I really feel I need to share with you before I end this post: We were driving our car and we saw lots of chickens just doing their things on the side of the road. Lol.

- Cristian

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