Feel the heat, the Miami YAP SPECIAL

1.0 Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome back!! I know it has been a long 2 weeks since the last YAP and I am sorry it's taken so long, but it's been a very busy week for me. Today we are breaking out of the UK and we are going to the southern east coast of North America to the tropical state of Florida where I have been for the last week. So many stories, so many photos, so many sunburns. Let's get into it!

1.1 Why I was in Miami

Well technically I was not actually living in Miami, I was living in Fort Lauderdale but I wasn't going to put that as the title. But I did actually go to Miami a few times. I was there on account of my university who set up these events called summits, they have developed a partnership with Inter Miami and had invited some students to stay near the campus, for a fee of course. During this summit, I had a variety of different events to attend which I will get into later but I also had work to do well I was over there to help me in my future career, so we had guest speakers and a final presentation towards the end of the week to prepare for and various networking events. It was very insightful, but not the reason you are here so we will swiftly move on.

2.0 The heat on the streets

I don't know if I mentioned it beforehand but I'm sure everyone who has spoken to me about this trip will know one thing and it was that it was bloody roasting. That's not an overstatement either, my back is peeling because of the amount of sunburn I got. One of America's best assets for me would be the aircon because my god the humidity levels at some points were pretty unbearable. However, it was a nice change from England where the temperature fluctuates like crazy.

2.1 The Golden Hour

If you are a photographer or just love taking photos like I do then you will love Miami, no matter what the time of day no matter what the hour, you can always take the perfect photo. It's almost like every hour in Miami is the golden hour, no matter if your downtown or on the streets of Fort Lauderdale, there is never a bad time for a photo. So if you are looking for somewhere to show of your photo skills then this is the place, but of course there is always more than what meets the eye.

2.2 The cuisine

The American cuisine, well I could spend a few hours here but we've got more to cover, but my god is it good. I mean it can be expensive but the majority of the food I had over there was pretty damn good. However, there were some places I went to and I thought to myself well this is not all it's hyped up to be. Mcdonald's, Five Guys and Wendy's for me were quite disappointing and not really what I had expected. This was mainly down to the food in general just being very mediocre, the one stand out for all 3 were the French fries which were amazing. As for some of the standout's, Chipotle, Greek Gryo place in Fort Lauderdale and the Outback Steak house which was all in all just good. I put on my Instagram about if Chipotle hit the vibe and it did 100%, also a shout out to some of the Irish bars we went to who also served great food like Waxie's and Duffy's.

3.0 Sports in the US

Now on to some of the sports events I have taken part in through the week, due to me going to a sports university it was a given that as part of this summit there would be some sports-related events we would go to in the US. Let's start with Baseball, as we were in Miami it was integral to get involved with the culture and go watch the Miami Marlins play the St Louis Cardinals. It was boring, very boring. We had stayed at the game for 3 hours and with no points to either side, we ended up leaving. Now on a different day if there were some points involved maybe it would have ended differently but due to the slowness of the game, it was difficult to even get involved. As we progressed through the disappointment of the MBA, there was a glimmer of hope as we approached the NHL.

The NHL game was pretty much the opposite of this, the thrill of watching a sport for the first time that was just so engaging from the goals to the fights. It was one of the best sports events out of the three and I have not even touched on the "soccer" game yet. The

Inter Miami game for me was just ok, it had the atmosphere but the quality of football just was not really there and for me that made the experience less enjoyable. If anything I thought the pre-game entertainment with all the activities and food was fantastic and it made the experience more memorable. The whole match day was a decent experience although paying $5.50 for a bottle of water seemed a bit far-fetched.

3.1 To the beach

On one of the final days of my trip me and a few of the other students who attended the summit took a trip down to the notorious south beach in Miami. Now I am not a big fan of the beach myself and to be quite honest I didn't really enjoy it. However for people who want to relax, perhaps go for a swim, catch a tan or want to have fun with the family then it is the place to go. Even I underestimated how amazing the beach looked, with palm trees as far as the eye could see and sand as white as snow it was almost like the perfect beach.

The only drawback for me would be the amount of seaweed there was in the sea when we went. One thing to consider would be to make sure you take a cooler bag and plenty of water, also watch out for people who are trying to sell alcohol on the beach as most of the drinks are spiked. But other than that apply as much sunscreen as you can and you will love it.

As part of this segment I thought I would also touch on the drinks side of things, now being 21 holds a huge advantage anyway but over there do make sure if your asking for a spirit, e.g. rum and coke. Ask for just a single because they put about a triple in there. But going for drinks in general there were a few good places that we went, mainly bars, the Irish bars I bought up before were good for drinks, Duffy's has a great happy hour offer and the cocktails are great. Waxies also do a burger and a pint for $10 which is an absolute steal.

4.0 Travel

Now on to the important section, getting to Miami for me was a very draining experience, because I wanted to save money I decided to get a cheaper flight with a stopover in Istanbul with Turkish Airways. What I did not really consider is how long the flight actually was and for me, this ruined the experience slightly. So I would consider for anyone who is thinking of going on a long flight like mine was 15 hours, to consider may be paying the few extra £100 to go direct as it does make life a lot easier.

Although the flight itself was not terrible, with unlimited drinks and set meals which were not bad, the only issue I had was that there was not really a lot of space, other than that there was built-in TVs for unlimited hours of entertainment. Some of the views that you get outside the plane can be also quite extraordinary.

As for traveling around Miami, you will find that it is quite tricky to get to places without having to hire an Uber or Lyft. Since Florida is a huge state in general you may find it easier to rent a car as you may even find yourself traveling far for simple things like groceries depending on where you are staying. Although most hotels will be close to some form of mall, we stayed at the Hilton Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale which although had it's own little shop, also had plenty of supermarkets and food outlets nearby. But it is always best to take this into account.

5.0 Conclusion

So as I said before it has been a while since the last one of these so I hope you have all enjoyed this blog, I could go on for hours about this trip but it's better to keep these things to the point. There may be more on this in the future, there will definitely be more yaps outside of the UK that will be done but they will be made in between. Overall I had an amazing trip and I was very happy with how it went, although towards the end of the trip I was definitely ready to come home. But for the moment we have all been waiting for, does Miami hit the vibe. To put it simply, yes it does, Miami/ Fort Lauderdale for me gets a solid 9 on the vibe scale. Although I did not really experience the full party life, I was able to see a lot of what Miami had to offer and I've got to say I was very impressed.

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions drop them in the comment box, and click the blue button below to look at some of the photos:

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Matthew :)

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