New Zealander – Page 3 – ThePassportPrincess

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.

Day 21 – New Orleans

September 3, 2015May 1, 2018SarahLeave a comment

This morning, My alarm went off at 7.30am which I set so I could make it to the 8.30am bus departure for the Alligator Swamp Tour I’d signed up for.
You’re probably wondering if I made it considering the ending of my last blog.

The conversation with my room-mate Brooke went something like this
Brooke – “Sarah are you going to get up?? You have 10 minutes to be at the bus”
Me – “Ahh, I think I’ll miss it. Isn’t it only like $10 I’m paying anyways?”
B – “uhh no its $60”
Me – “F*** sakes!” *forces myself out of bed and puts some clothes on*

I made it to the shuttle bus just in time looking a little worse-for-wear.
Below is a quick snap I took in the morning of my corner of the bus 😩Everyone was feeling pretty similar to how I felt!
When we got to the swamp, we had to wait around for a bit and then got put into groups of around 15 for the boats.Once we were out on the water I felt a little better thanks to the boat breeze. I would have sweated myself away in the New Orleans heat otherwise!I thought Alligators would be quite scary but they’re not at all. They’re really chilled and kinda just swim around in the swamp minding their own business. We had a really good tour guide who kept trying to grab one out of the water to show us and he told us lots of facts about them. He was saying how the alligator guides cut their tail fins a certain way when they’re born so they can find out how old they are later in life.
We actually ended up getting to hold a baby Alligator too which was cool.

(My hair is looking beautiful here I know 💁)

When the tour was over we all went back to the hotel. I had a shower and washed my hair and ended up going out again down to the mall to try and find some more clothes to wear.
I ended up only buying a light play-suit to wear but currently I’ve worn it for the past 2 days straight!
I’m in desperate need of doing some washing.

At 6pm we all headed to Mardi Gras world. That’s where they make all the floats for Mardi Gras.
We took a tour to see what it takes to bring Mardi Gras to life year after year. We also learnt about the history of Mardi Gras and our tour guide showed us how they make all the floats.
It was an okay tour, they gave us free drinks at the beginning so I think people were more distracted by that.
We then got to make masks for the next hour.I didn’t take a picture of my mask but I’ll try to next time I see it.
I gave it to our coach driver Ricky to put on his bus haha.
I made it so it looked like the American Flag.

That night I wasn’t planning on going out…but you know what happens on Contiki.Quite a few of the people who I feel I’ve grown the closest to left Contiki that night. They were finishing the tour in New Orleans while the rest of us continued on to New York City 😥
There were many tears as people said goodbye! And quite a few pictures taken. (very blurry pictures may I add, I’m only 24 and can afford a Samsung Note 3)The flash wasn’t very good so I guess you could say these pictures won’t be going up on my wall any time soon.

The bar we were at closed after 12am so when the clock struck midnight we all went our own ways and went home.
There was 11 new girls who joined our Contiki group too so let’s see if they like us rowdy bunch! 😜

Day 16 – Dallas (Texas)

August 29, 2015June 9, 2016SarahLeave a comment

I think everyone was feeling pretty seedy the next morning on the way to Dallas.
The bus ride took about 4 hours to get there with our usual stop offs for food and snacks etc and arriving in Dallas in the afternoon.

So what I know about the city of Dallas…It’s known for it’s historical importance as the center for the oil and cotton industries. It’s positioned along numerous railroad lines which made it easier back in the day for the transport of cotton, cattle and later on oil – in North and Eastern Texas.
Dallas and Fort Worth (which are nearby) were developed due to the construction of these major railroad lines.
The airport here in Dallas is also the third busiest airport in the world and is larger than Manhattan Island in NYC! dal6 Dallas is known for their Dallas Coy-boys and Cheerleaders. Not to mention they apparently have some of the ‘Best-looking woman in the states’ which I guess the boys on the trip were soon to find out.
7-eleven-office You know the store 7-Eleven? Well that was started in Dallas as an ice-selling operation. (So basically they just sold ice) until 1927 when they started selling milk and eggs to customers. Eventually they sold gasoline in 1928 and then the ‘slurpee’ drinks in in 1965 along with many other goods as time went on.When we arrived in the city of Dallas, we did a quick drive-by to the spot where President John F Kennedy was shot and killed years ago. (But more on that in my next blog)The above picture is a photo I took of the Reunion Tower in Downtown Dallas.
It’s 171 meters tall and is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Dallas. It was a free standing structure until the construction of the Hyatt Regency Dallas in 1998.We also stopped and took photos of these bulls at Pioneer Plaza.
The bulls honor Dallas’ cowboy past by celebrating the trails that brought settlers to Dallas. It has a flowing stream and waterfall with a re-creation of a cattle drive in the form of bronze statues of longhorns being driven by three horse riding cowboys.

Our hotel we stayed at in Downtown Dallas – Spring Hill Suites – was probably one of the nicest Hotels so far. It was walking distance to the Dealey Plaza, Dallas Aquarium and American Airlines Center which is the home to sports and concert events.
It was probably the first Hotel we stayed at that we got a couch and TV in a separate room. Faaaancy.

Once we’d all settled into our rooms, myself and a few others went for a little walk.
I think we were trying to find cowboy boots because we were all going out that night but the only store that sold them (which was close by) the boots were $150+
Considering I have no room in my bag I’d have to throw them out and I couldn’t justify spending that much money on them for one night. 😦

That night we all headed around the corner to Ellens Southern Kitchen for dinner where we had the most delicious meal.
I think I’ve just eaten so much crap food lately that it was good to just have some veges and meat. This meal was included in our ‘Contiki price’ like quite a few of our other dinners. (I love all these included meals)
I had a chicken fried chicken (haha I know) with a creamy gravy, broccoli and sweet potato fries (slightly like Kumara)After dinner we all got Uber’s and headed off to this line-dancing type club called Cowboys Red River. homeRedRiver
I think a few of us just thought it was going to be a pub with us attempting to line dance with a few old geezers.
We were so wrong! The place was massive, it had a main stage where a country singer was singing with a band, a big circle in the middle of the club where everyone line- danced and a bar in the middle of that.
c34cdcd8000508d2c18bd5cb051c5275-450-190 There were around 5 bars spread around the club and all the girls who were either dancing or working the bar were so pretty!
They also had an area of pool tables for everyone to play a few games.
I did attempt a few dances, played some pool and did more dancing when they played more of the ‘latest pop songs’ haha.
Every local girl knew all the moves to every line dance so it was hard to keep up and act like I knew what I was doing.Most of us ubered home when the club started to close.
Lucky for me I got to have a bit of a sleep in as I didn’t sign up for the Stadium tour the next day (optional activity)