Departed Auckland on Thursday July the 1st at 11.45pm- after saying all the sad farewell's at the airport I made my way thru to duty free to use my vouchers, soon realized I'd gone thru to late when it came over the speakers that it was my final boarding call!! so quickly bought my purchases and practically sprinted to the whitcoulls which was closed and then I started to notice all the other shops were shut so I thought aww it'll be ok the shops up top will be open....just my luck EVERYTHING was shut- so couldn't get a book, magazine pillow or ear plugs I managed to stop an indian man from shutting his stall to get a blow up pillow, he obviously notcied I was distressed and stop shutting up shop I asked him why the hell everythng was shut in a bloody airport he proceeded to laugh and say "ooo u just missed out the shops only shut 15 mins ago (the extra 15 mins that were spent in the bar!)" (in his pnujabi accent) You can imagine the face I had on when he said this, as a result he gave me free earplugs.
Finally got on the plane and found I had a young girl around my age sitting next to me- we got talking and realized we were the same age and doing exactly the same thing- meeting friends in London and then heading to spain! and her dad was a gold elite flyer aswell so thats how she'd got the seat, so that was a good start, than had the lovely plan dinner watched a movie and hit the sack, sleep was pretty damn uncomfortable so I dropped one of the sleeping pills and it seemed to do the trick, woke up at about 4amish so watched a couple more movies had breakie and then we were in Hong Kong this first flight was pretty painless and went fast. Once we arrived in Hong Kong at about 6.30am we had a stopopver for an hour n a half so enough time for me to find a book, pillow & a mag. But of course my luck again we went thru customs to hit the shops and the were ALL shut again so frustrating eventually they opened up shop 20 mins before we had to board so My plane pal - Terryn and I ran around the airport like mad woman trying to get everything the pillow shops didnt open in time and mac were only just opening up but I once again managed to convince the mac girl to sell me something I think she just wanted me to get outta the shop caz I was sweating like there was no tomorrow- good look! then we headed back to the plane. This flight was the most painful it just dragged and dragged and Terryn's seat had been changed for some unknown reason, so I watched like 7 movies in total saw sum pretty gud ones- boys you should watch Out of my league soo funny, and James watch clash of the titan's you'll love it. So finally arrived in london after the 13 hours, met up with Terryn in the customs line, we worked out on the plane that we both had to get the tube into the city- soo glad I had someone to do it with I was seriously dreading it, so we got our luggage- Terryn actualy had a shit load more didn't think this was possible but trust me it was- then we headed thru to the underground.
Bought my oyster train card and checked with the train guy if we were headed toward the right direction- he gave us a new route & then we were off. There were so many people getting on & off but luckily we'd timed it before it was rush hour so it wasn't as bad. I couldn't even sit on the seat with that large child on my back so kinda hung off the end of it, it was ridicously hot about 27 degrees and there's no aircon on the trains so I was once again a sweating beast and I'd started to notice my feet and swollen to twice the size & I now had cankles- sarah pissed herself when she saw them.
Said goodbye to Terryn exchanged numbers and jumped off the train to meet up with James & Sarah at the station then we headed back to our hotel- a cute little place in Paddington. After dropping off my backpack we heading out to meet Sara & Hannah in a park, and then made our way to the London Eye. This was very cool gave us a view of the whole city, we'd done quite a big of walking by now and we were all beginning to fade, so we decided we'd have dinner nearby and then head home. At dinner we all just hit a wall, the conversation at dinner didn't make any sense we were all nearly falling asleep in our plates so we paid quickly and got out of there and headed home. We crashed out so early and then woke up at 4am.
Got up at 7.30ish for our free breakie and then headed off for the day, we decided to head to oxford street to look at the shops, the city was absolute chaos, we went into primark to get my towels and look for white shorts for spain but it was so busy I got the towels and then left there was queue just to pay for items it was like shopping in NZ at Xmas time but 10 times worse I don't know how people were finding things, we quickly moved on and I managed to find sum white shorts for 3 pounds that are just going to be covered in sangria and thrown away again. Then we headed for topshop (we couldn't do to many shops we had James with us and serz had a sore foot) so I walked into this 3 storey shop and literally drooled it was everything I dreamed of and more nicole's gona love it too it has evrything you possibly need, I did a quick run round a found a few things, Can't wait to go back there properly!!
Then we found a nice sandwich shop got ourselves some big baguette rolls & drinks and headed to hyde park- it was 28 degrees and so humid! the park was beautiful and full of people to there were quite a few girls sun bathing in full bikini's weird sight to see when there's no water around but since there's no local beaches around here guess its the only place to do it! it was soon time to meet up with the other girlies :)
So we headed to a garden bar to meet mink & hannah- of course mink being mink she turned up and hour and a bit late (nothings changed!!) and chloe still wasnt ready (again nothings changed!) so once mink arrives decided hmm this bar isn't fun- everyone was watching the football and there were alot of screaming germans so we headed to a bigger garden bar in a nicer area- this bar was really cool so we all sat out in the sun drinking cider's. Was great seeing the girls there exactly the same there was alot of laughing and excited talk about the trip. All the NZ traveller's started to get a bit weary again around 9 so we headed home to get a good sleep & the other two went home to pack.
Next morning we got up early again since we keep waking up at 4am, and headed down to the internet cafe to check all the emails etc and then went to shepards bush mall, this mall was ginormous like bondi junction in sydney but 20 times bigger- so so cool I can already tell my wardrobe is going to become twice the size of the one at home, can't believe how cheap stuff is over here aswell don't worry didn't buy anything here Mum, sure I'll go back tho, then we headed back to hyde park again there was a big concert happening there with Jay Z, chase & status & 2many djs playing, it was sold out but we lay round outside in the sun and got to hear the music free :) then we headed home and I caught the train to meet chlo. Me and chlo headed off to Shepard's bush for a mexican dinner and Now I'm back at hers doing washing and finishing our packing we've found out we've gotta be up at 3.30am to be at the airport so we'll be in bed very shortly! that's all for now off to spain tomorrow and won't have access to a computer for awhile, but will write this up again when were in San sebastion.
Bye for now
Love Alexandra x
