Month: September 2015

Day 43 – London

SarahLeave a comment

I don’t think I’ve been disappointed in any city I’ve been to so far.
Even if some places are a little bit mediocre I can still see the beauty or difference in it which is always a good thing. 😍

London is beautiful!
It may be alot colder than America and the sky is more cloudy but it has so many beautiful old buildings and things to check out.
The taxis are all black and everyone is in a rush. I find the tube more confusing than New York but I’m getting there 🙂 Ecspecially now that I have a SIM card so I can use that cheeky Google maps.

My first day was spent sleeping until 1pm. I didn’t get to sleep properly until about 5am so I had to have some shut eye!
I messaged a guy who was staying at the same hostel, Sean and asked if he wanted to do a bit of sightseeing. I met him the night before and he was one of the few people who hadn’t seen much of London. Even though he was born here!
So after getting ready, I met Sean down stairs and we headed off over the Tower Bridge.
I didn’t even know it was Blue!

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We were both pretty hungry/hungover so went in search of some food.
You’d think there’d be food places everywhere but we were struggling to find something we both felt like.
We eventually decided on getting some smoothies and then went to find some Mexican Food.

imageimageWalking with our yummy Smoothies, we found a place called Benito’s Hat and decided to have some lunch there. We both ordered Burritos with some Chipotle grilled Chicken and recieved a small side of Corn Chips, which we ate by the womdpw people watching 🙂
Finally with some food in our tummies, we headed off and caught the underground tube to Westminster Abbey. We basically just looked on a map and picked somewhere touristy to go to. Big Ben was also nearby so it was good to tick two things off our list.

imageWhen we exited the tube and walked up the stairs to the sidewalk, Big Ben was literally right there in front of my eyes. They’re not joking when they call him Big either!
I only got a quick snap on my phone because we planned to come back later and take some better pictures. (which didn’t end up happening of course)
However Big old Ben will still be there when I come back from my Top Deck tour so I’m not too worried about missing out.

imageimageBy this stage of our adventure around London, I was freezing!
I stupidly thought I’d get too hot from walking so decided not to bring a jacket or jumper or anything!
We had to Google map some shops so i could go and buy myself one.

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On the way to the shopping streets we walked past Buckingham Palace so had to stop and take pictures!
The Queen was most likely out getting some groceries from Sainsbury so we decided not to go in for scones and tea.

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I did consider buying some tea towels for my mum from the Buckingham Palace gift shop nearby until I saw how expensive they were!
I generally don’t think the UK is a very expensive place,but with our New Zealand exchange rate I’m dying even more than I was while in America. I think a tea towel ended up being about NZD$15 😧😧
So, sorry to my Mum back home, I didn’t get it for you.

I did however buy myself a Harvard University hoodie from a British gift store for £20 (which is probably over $40 back home just for a generic Hoodie) now I feel like I can’t ever throw it out.
Continuing our walk through London, we came across a park and I took some snaps of the squirrels and the cute ducks! (we don’t have Squirrels back home so I always find them adorable)
We also saw the London Eye but didn’t make it up there as we didn’t quite have enough time. Just another thing to add to my ‘list of things to do in London’ when I get back.

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imageWe came across a Boots store (which I now realise are everywhere around London) and I bought some Shampoo and Conditioner as I was running low. I also had a look at all the make-up and skin care they had while Sean hung around – probably bored out of his mind.
When we got back to the Hostel, it was 9pm! I didn’t even realize it was that late as we’d been walking around for ages. I must still be on New York City time.
Sean and I agreed to go and grab some dinner after we’d freshened up a bit so met down in the Hostel Lobby half an hour later.
We decided to sit down and have some Indian food at a restaurant really close to the hostel before heading back to the hostel bar afterwards for another couple of bevvys.

image(That’s my picture of the dinner I had but finished and forgot to take a snap of 😑)

I’m rushing the end of this blog because it’s 11pm here and I still have today to write about! Plus I have to get up super early to sign in for my Top deck tour tomorrow morning.

My next blog will be about what I got up to today 🙂

Xx

Day 42 – New York to London

Sarah1 Comment

I was so wrong!
I take back my negativity about Iceland Air.
I judged before I experienced and for that I am sorry.

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Yes that picture above is correct.
I was near the back of the plane but I got the whole row to myself!
I started talking to another girl across the aisle from me who had the same deal. She had the whole row to herself as well! When we realised that the flight attendants had ‘armed their doors’ and no one had sat next to us we were stoked.
Not to mention the whole flight was smooth and I happily watched a movie ‘The longest ride’ (one of my faves) and then had a nap.
I had 3 blankets as well and a bag of candy. Life was plane perfect!

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Apart from not understand half of what the pilot and stewardesses were saying as they spoke Icelandic, it was a thoroughly enjoyable 6 hour flight to Iceland which went so fast.

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I am so glad I could look out the window on take – off too. New York City at night was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen. It made me so happy inside to be able to see such a massive city all lit up!

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And as usual, my camera didn’t do the night time shots any justice… :evil::evil:

When I arrived in Iceland around 7am, I just hung around the very basic airport they had going on. I think I just read a magazine and looked in their gift shop.
Thank god I wasn’t staying in Iceland because everything was so expensive! I didn’t even get a magnet because the cheapest one was $10 NZD
Even the tea towels were about $16 each!!

When it was time to board, I had to sit between 2 others which was fine. We all pretty much slept the 3 hours into London.

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When I landed, I got my bag and dragged it to the ticket kiosk to get my Heathrow Express train ticket into London. I should have asked the attendants where the actual Heathrow express left from because I then spent the next 20 minutes going up and down the lifts at the airport trying to figure it out!
Eventually a guy could see I needed help and pointed me in the right direction.
Not gonna lie, the train was pretty nice for an airport train.

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I got off at paddington and then bought an Oyster card to take the Underground train to my hostel.
It honestly sucks having no internet on your phone and having noo idea where you going.
When I got off at my station I walked off in the wrong direction of my hostel until I eventually figured it out and walked 15 minutes to Wombats Hostel on Dock street. 😧 by this stage my bag was killing me.

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Once I’d checked in, I headed upstairs to my room (a really nice 6 bedroom dorm ) and pretty much flopped down onto my bed and chatted to my room mate Sheree for a little bit.
She was heading out so I had a shower, took out my contact lenses which were drying up on my eyeballs from the flight and then went for a 3 hour nap.

I woke around 6.30pm and dragged myself out of bed to head downstairs at the hostel to their bar area.
I’m glad I did because I met an American girl called Nicole who was really fun. We ate pizza and challenged everyone to games of beer pong. I also played some pool and drunk lots of cider (yay they have Cider in London!)
Overall it was a really fun night. I didn’t even get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning because of all the drinking and meeting new people.

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I slept in until about 1pm in the afternoon the next day, I know – my first day in London ever and I’m having a big sleep.
But don’t worry, I did get to experience some London which I’ll write about in my next blog 🙂
Xx

Day 41 – New York City (8)

SarahLeave a comment

My final day in my favorite place!
I have been waiting years to get to New York and now that I’ve been I don’t want to leave. 😥

However, from a tourist point of view. You can defintaly get alot done in 1 week.
I saw Central Park more than once, I experienced taking the Subway, I saw the lights in Times Square and spent my money in the stores. I travelled to the Top Of The Rock, ate at the Chelsea Markets, walked the High Line and lay in the sun on Coney Island. Not to mention had dinner out in Brooklyn and went past Jersey on my way to JFK airport. (Which by the way does look exactly like the Jersey shore from MTV)

It’s all been a wonderful 8 days but now it’s time for me to take my Iceland Air flight to London (with a quick stopover in Iceland on the way)

I woke up at a respectable time this morning. The girls in my dorm room always get up early and drippy phone girl makes the most noise! She slams her locker closed, rustles everything really loudly and talks to her mate in NOT a whisper.
It drives me insane.

I got up and washed my hair, did my make up etc… and packed my bag. It kind of ended up looking like this

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So not quite closed…
I had breakfast with Alicia this morning at the hostel cafe (bagels again suprise suprise)
Then we walked to the post office together which was thankfully down the road.
After talking to the rude lady at the counter, I bought a box and put what I thought was 6 pounds (3kgs-ish) in from my backpack.
Alicia went to go weigh it and I could tell by her face it was defintaly over 3kgs. It was 6kgs!
I really don’t see how clothes can weigh that much 👿
I did have my old pair of nikes in there though and my small hairdrier and a pair of heels.

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I ended up taking the heels and hair drier out and ended up getting a different box from a different lady which made it about $15 cheaper.
I didn’t get to send my magnets back home but currently on their way to NZ are pretty much a bunch of clothes that I really should have just thrown out. I think the postage was worth more than what was in the box now that I think about it.

I have a hard time parting with stuff unless I’m in a I-dont-care kind of mood.
At least I had room in my bag to zip it up! I think when I get to London I’m gonna throw out the travel hair drier I never ended up using. All the places I’ve stayed at have hair driers, plus the voltage is shit and it barely blows out any air. My ugly platform shoes can go as well (Even though they’re incredibly comfortable) they’re just so hideous. And they’re not looking so clean either…

At some point along the way I’ll buy a duffle bag and add it to my luggage but for now I’m not doing too bad…

After the post office experience, Alicia and I headed off to Sephora where I bought another bottle of fake tan. I’ve only just run out woohoo! That big bottle lasted me ages.

By 1pm I thought I better be on my way so me and Alicia said our final goodbyes 😥 and I hopped on the subway to Pennsylvania Station.

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Alicia is defintaly one of my favouritest people I’ve met along my travels. We must get along because we’re both from Wellington haha. She’s moving to London though so hopefully we’ll catch up when I’m there!

It was a bit confusing once I got off the subway in Madison square Garden and finding the Pennsylvania Station but I got there eventually after asking like 3 different people.

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I had to get off the Amtrak at Jamaica and then take the JFK airport train take terminal 7.
I was super early. I was so early in fact that the Iceland Air counter wasn’t even open 😯
I had like 3 hours to pass, which went by really quickly actually. I ate at subway and wrote a blog. Re-organised my suitcase on the airport floor and took a picture in the bathroom.

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Haha!
By 5pm, I checked in and I asked the lady if I could choose my seat. She said no and when I looked at my ticket I saw I’m in seat 32c.
Not just the aisle seat, but the BACK of the plane as well. This is like my nightmare. Back of the plane = lots of turbulance. Aisle means I don’t get to see NYC lit up at night :'(:'( either.
I hate this so much.

And my flight from Iceland to london, I’m in the middle seat. I’m not loving Iceland air so far… Air New Zealand would never do this to me 😐

Also JFK has been a disappointment.
I couldn’t find a MAC store when I came through security into duty free. OR a Victoria secrets store. I asked one of the counter staff and they said all that kind of stuff is over at terminal 4!!!
I wouldn’t even be allowed in there because my flight doesn’t depart from there.
So I saved some American money and purposely didn’t spend any more at Mac so I could buy make up duty free. 😥
Instead I bought a Buttermilk chicken burger meal deal from McDonald’s and a reese’s mcflurball.
What a disappointment.

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The mcflurry was good though.

It’s 7.30pm now and I don’t board till 8pm. I’m going to try and upload this blog but to be honest it probably won’t work until I get wi-fi in London. I get like no internet reception at JFK!!

I don’t have a UK SIM card either so will have to get onto a travel SIM or something when I land.

Lots of love,
Your little passport princess x