female travel – Page 4 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 45 – Paris

September 26, 2015November 30, 2016SarahLeave a comment

For those of you who’ve come here to read about my Top Deck Experience, it all starts here! Refer back to my previous posts under ‘United Kingdom’ about my few days in London before the Top Deck started 🙂
I stayed at The Wombats Hostel in London which is where the Top Deck started from and it was really good! Probably one of my most favorite hostels on my trip so far.

September 25th 2015

This was my worst day on my trip so far.
I had no sleep because I was up all night with a sore throat and swollen glands.
When I got up at 5am, I had a shower and packed up my bag.
The other girl Emily, in my room was going on the Top Deck tour as well so we both headed down to reception at 6am to meet with the rest of the crew and sign in.

I pretty much sat there feeling like shit for the next hour.
We boarded the bus around 7am and a driver drove us a couple of hours away to the boat that would take us across to Paris.

I slept basically the whole way on the boat. It was about a 2 hour boat trip so I curled up on a couch and lay there freezing from the air con that was blasting through the boat 😦

When we got to France, we met out Coach driver Antonio and went over rules etc… for the Coach.
It was another 2-3 hour drive into central Paris so I had another sleep on the coach. I was honestly feeling so crap, I defintaly have the flu. And to think I got a flu shot before I left as well!
My whole body ached and my ears hurt, my glands were swollen and my head hurt 😭😭 not a fun first day!

When we got into Paris, the first thing I realized was how much litter there was in Paris. Which probably wasn’t the best first impression. And also how many crazy drivers there are!
There’s also a lot of dodgy people hanging around but it may just have been where our hostel was located.
At the moment i’m rooming with two other girls Kelly & Kara (who are friends from New Zealand). Kelly lives in London now though working as a nanny and Kara lives on the Gold Coast in Australia with her husband and 4 year old son.

When we eventually got to our hostel and took our bags up to our room, Kelly & Kara headed out to explore Paris a bit and I re-did my make up coz I felt like I looked crap after feeling sick all day. 😕

At 7pm I headed downstairs to the hostel restaurant where there was a Top Deck included dinner. We were all given some bread & cheese type dish for our entree and escargot and a beef dish for our main.
I was too wussy and didn’t try the snails (escargot) because just the thought of it makes me feel sick.

When we’d finished dinner, everyone boarded the coach for our ‘City of lights tour’
We were driven around all the main sights of Paris and got to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, The Pantheon, The Louvre pyramid etc… all under the dark night sky.
We also got to stop for some photos outside the Eiffel Tower at night which was nice. 🙂

We’re going back into the city today (Saturday) so hopefully I’ll get some better pictures in the daylight as my Phone Camera takes terrible pictures in the dark.

We didn’t get back to the hostel until around 11pm after our bus ride so I was soo knackered!
Kara and myself actually went and got crepes for dessert (even though I was nearly falling asleep) we were craving a bit of sugar haha. We got Nutella & Banana crepes from this place down the road from the hostel.

With full tummies we went back to our room where I then stayed up to quickly write a blog post and have a shower etc before bed. I don’t think we all got to a sleep until at least 12.30am.

I thought I’d wake up feeling heaps better but I still feel like crap and now I think I have a temperature 😥😥
I’m currently writing this at breakfast before we all head out on the coach to explore Paris.
There’s a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower tonight before 7pm so I might try and head back to the hostel before then and get a sleep or something in. I really don’t want to be feeling crap for the rest of this trip!

Au revouir!
X

Day 44 – London

September 25, 2015November 30, 2016SarahLeave a comment

My last full day in London was spent doing little errands I needed to do.
Who would think I had errands to run on holiday!
I slept in again 😴 it must be adjusting to the new time zone or me staying up late to write my blogs that make me super tired 😧

When I was ready for my day, I took the underground to the nearest 3 Mobile store. My friend recommended getting a SIM card from there as it can be used in most places around Europe as well.
I had to wait in line for awhile but eventually got a new SIM with a UK number.

I passed a MAC store earlier as well so decided to get some more foundation from there. With the exchange rate it wasn’t that much cheaper than home but with me doing my make up like twice a day sometimes I’m running out really quick.
I also bought a darker shade of lipstick 💄 because I’d only bought like 2 colours to wear on my trip and I’m kind of getting over them haha.

It was after lunch time by this stage so I went down the road to this Falafel Place and got a pita with falafel and salad in it. The lady at the counter who served me was a bit of a grouch because she was bossing one of the other employee’s around but the falafel was nice to eat 🙂
I sat eating my lunch while searching the Internet for jobs in the UK.
It seems like every place I go to I want to move there! Haha.
The more I think of America the more difficult I find it is to work there.
If I could work in New York easily I would but it seems easier to work in the UK.
Hmm….choices!
Plus my grandmother was born in the UK so I’m assuming from what I’ve read I can stay for up to 5 years and then extend my visa?

Anyways, I have ages to plan that type of stuff!!
I could end up loving Singapore and wanting to move there hahaha 😀

When I was finished my lunch, I did a little bit of shopping at H&M (bought a jumpsuit and a top for like £10 on sale) and tried to find some shoes.
I only have my Nikes and these sandals I bought in Vegas that are falling apart.
I need go buy canvas shoes or boots to wear with my jeans 😦 as sandals aren’t cutting it anymore.

I left Central London around 5pm and when I walked outside I realized all the taxis had stopped on the road and there was this big commotion going on. Turns out they were having a taxi strike, protesting against Uber (I think) it was kinda exciting to be in the middle of it. There were camera crews and everything there haha.
I understand where taxi drivers are coming from basically saying that Uber has ‘stolen’ their jobs.

If you don’t know what Uber is, it’s basically an App on your phone where you sign up with your credit card.
You submit a trip request when you need a ride which is then routed to Uber drivers who use their own cars and come and pick you up.
They have to be a registered Uber driver and they have to have a background check and a newer 4 door car so not any random can rock up in his 95′ Toyota Corolla.

I like using Uber as you can see on your smartphone where the car is and when its approaching. You also don’t need to have your credit card or cash with you, as the money is automatically deducted from your account and you get a receipt automatically sent to your email. You can also do a ‘fare estimate’ to see how much it will cost you to get somewhere which nearly always ends up being so much cheaper than hailing a cab!
I used Uber lots in America and it saved me so much money!
So that was all interesting to see!

When I walked back to my hostel room, I saw I had a new room mate and she was doing the same Top deck tour as me the next day!
We talked for a bit and then decided to go and get some dinner (which ended up with us just buying a sandwich) and went back to the hostel to watch the All Black’s win against Nambia on the Projector they had set up in the Bar area.

That night however I got absolutely no sleep. I had the sorest throat and I was so cold 😯 guess who woke up feeling like shit before her Top deck tour! :'(:'(

Xx
(Paris blog to come next)

Day 37 – New York City (Day 4)

September 19, 2015November 28, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On Thursday morning I had a bit of a sleep in because I got home so late the night before.
I missed out on breakfast because of the time I take to wash my hair and do my make up 😅

When I was eventually ready, I took the subway downtown to see the 9/11 memorial in Tribeca.

I stopped and saw the North and South pool which was built in memory of the twin towers.
Everyone who died on that horrible day has their names engraved around the pools which is nice.

I was considering getting the New York City Pass where you get unlimited visits to all these places around NYC for 2 days for $140 and get to the front of line but I didn’t.
I was actually faster in the normal line than the people that bought the pass.
I also took like 3 hours at the museum so I don’t know if it was actually worth it in the end. Like, how many places can you actually properly experience in 2 straight days by buying the pass?

Anyways, it cost $24 to get in to the museum which was worth it. There was so much to see!

The museum is about 21 metres below ground and houses two tridents from the Twin Towers. One of the museum’s walls is an exposed side of the slurry wall retaining the Hudson River, which remained intact during (and after) September 11th.

Other stuff that I saw in the museum were wrecked emergency vehicles like this fire engine

There were also pieces of metal from all seven World Trade Center buildings and recordings of survivors and first responders (including 911 phone calls) which are quite sad to listen to. Ecspecially the recordings of people on the plane that knew they were being hijacked who called their loved ones.

They also had a room with pictures of all the victims and an audio telephone where you could click on a person and listen to a snippet of audio from their loved ones describing what they were like.

I also saw photographs from the wreckage and other media detailing the destruction (including the crashes, collapse, fires, those who jumped and the clean up)

You walk out of there feeling pretty sad and you really feel for America. Like so many people lost someone and that day was so horrific. The people on the street who thought they were going to die from inhaling so much dust is even scary to think about.

When I had eventually had a good enough look around, I left the museum (partly because I was freezing in there. They really blast the air-con!)
And I went outside in the warmth and headed to an ice cream truck for my first meal of the day. A sprinkle cone…

Please girlfriend, I’m on vacay!
😋

I wasn’t sure what to do with myself after that. I wanted to see the statue of liberty but didn’t know when the ferries were running and couldn’t really be bothered walking down a few blocks #lazy

Instead, I went to Chipotle and had some proper lunch. Chicken tacos for like $8

And then I headed to a nail bar and paid $10 for a basic manicure haha. (Plus $4 tip)

It was nice at the time, but I’m currently writing this the next day and 4 of my nails are already chipped. Average!!!

I was also in desperate need of my eyebrows being done so I Googled the nearest Benefit Eyebrow Bar and it turned out there was one like a 15 minute walk away.
I walked the few blocked and got my eyebrows waxed for like $25. (Not that cheap I know but they always do such a good job)
Now my make up looks heaps nicer when I out it on without all these stray hairs!

When I was done, it was literally like after 5pm so I headed back to the hostel.
I changed my clothes and topped up my make up then headed downstairs for the $7 dinner they had.
To be honest, I don’t know why I bothered. It was another BBQ and since I’m so picky with the meat here, I got a burger but basically pulled out the pattie and just had a bit of bread and some salad.
At 9pm there was a pub crawl going on so I joined up with that.

We all took the subway and hit up 3 different pubs.
I tried to drink and get into it but I think I was just way too tired. I couldn’t really be bothered making conversation with anyone and even playing beer pong I just wasn’t enjoying it.
I guess every night I can’t be a party animal! Haha.

I ended up heading home with another girl who lives in Cali and is here for a Wedding – Amy.
And a couple of the other guys.
We did a McDonald’s stop where I got fries and then we headed back to the hostel. Very Un exciting night for me then! Haha.