Liverpool!

SO!

After my epic journey to get here, I went to bed pretty early that night - that was the Wednesday.

On the Thursday, I eventually got up, as did Gabie, my friend from camp that I was staying with. We mooched around the house for a bit before heading down to the shops. Dangerous!

I spent a lot of time in Superdrug, a chemist type place, with the hygiene aisles of the supermarket thrown in. I got a lot of stuff there - paracetamol, shampoo, hairspray, deodorant etc. All the stuff one really needs!!

I also got a few bits and bobs from around the place. I can't really remember what I ended up with haha. A few bits and pieces from Lush - no surprises there! It wasn't a very exciting day cos I was still super exhausted and tired, so after dinner I pretty much went to bed. I had a suuuper cosy bed and pillow so it was a great place to be!

The next day was a museum day. One of my mates (Hey Herb!) had been to Liverpool earlier in the year and gone to the museums, so I wanted to see them. Gabie wasn't too into them, but I had a good time.

The first one we went to was the Museum of Liverpool. It wasn't quite what I expected, but in saying that, I don't really know what I expected in the first place. The way the museum has been designed makes it slightly awkward to navigate your way around. But its deffo an interesting place. Pretty much what I got out of it was that Liverpool was the first major city outside of London, a hell of a lot of history there!

The view outside. It was quite pretty I thought.

ME! PROOF!

 We then went to the International Slavery Museum.WOW, what a museum. Liverpool was the hub for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade early on, and so a lot of their history has to do with slaves. It was defiantly a moving experience to see all the stuff and read all their stories. It was quite emotionally draining to look around really. I guess everyone will have a different emotional experience as they look around, but it took me a while to go around as I wanted to make sure I read everything. Honsetly, craziness.

They had walls of quotes.

Example B

And me.

 That night, Gabs and I met up with Crabbe, one of the guys from camp. It was totally aweeeesome to see him again! We have chatted a lot on FB and one of his mates was in NZ, so we have been keeping in touch. We went to this place that had food from around the world. I now wish I had ordered the lamb skewers (probs got the meat from Warren....lol) instead of the prawn salad that had chili flakes all through it and was so coated with dressing you couldn't tell what was what. Yep. Hindsight!

The next day we went to this outlet mall place called Cheshire Oaks. MAN! Its like Dressmart x10000. Super cool! Epic stores, epic sales, spent too much money. But had a great time looking around. I got some thigns I needed like a new handbag (the purpleish one that i brought with me is beginning to snap and I wanted something before it did!) and some body gel from The Body Shop - like one of those huge container things for £8! Amazeballs. Anyway, I took some pictures of what I got -

This was everyones shopping - Mine, Gabies and her mums!

Les Mis book, its amazing. I'm excited to read it!

A canvas poster thing for my room. Its now above my bed.

Top. I like it. Its funky.

Oh yeah, and its from Burberry!

Said handbag

2 new pairs of jeans. One from Gap, one from Levis

Shower Gel. YUM!!

Amzaing chocolate smelling goodness!

The next day I did a whole lot of touristy stuff, so there are quite a lot of pictures. I'll do another post for them!

Travelling to the UK

So, I started to write thison the train yesterday, but its disappeared. Annoying.

So I guess I'll just start again.

Mum and I left home at 4am (ouch!) so we could get to the airport in plenty of time, should I need to repack my bags cos they were too heavy. Luckily, all my bookings had been done through Virgin, who gives you a 30kg luggage allowance. Yay! My bags were all good, thankfully, so no repacking needed. We hung out in the airport for a bit, eating and exchanging money before I headed into "The Rock". Its quite cool in there. Hung out there for a while and then boarded my Air NZ flight to Sydney. The middle seat between me and some guy was free, so could stretch out a little which was nice. Apparently my travel agent had booked me the cheapest flight available cos I got no food (totes got some Air NZ lollies though, my fave!). Managedto squeeze in a showing of Les Mis too!

Got off in Sydney and managed to get out into the city super easy. Dropped my bags off too, even better! I was meeting Matt Sime in the city,  but had some time to kill, so went to a brow bar place. The lady there was really cool, she had a ruler and everything to make sure my brows were perfect. Managed to catch Matty and we went for brunch at this pancake house, which wasnt really that good at all! We then wandered around the city, down to the Opera House and back up through the botanic gardens before I had to head back to the airport. I was checked in for my next flight so didnt have to be there early. Went through security all good and pretty much straight to my gate lounge.

My Virgin Australia flight to Abu Dhabi was amazing. I had 3 seats to myself! And I had ordered the gluten free meal, so Igot my food super quick and it was gooooood. Had an epic fish and potato meal for a late lunch/early dinner type thing. I watched "The King and I" whichI was in at PLT in 2003. Msn, it brought back some hilarious memories, and it is just an amusing film in general. I had a great time watching that and laughing. I can't really remember what happened next, but at one point, I was stretched out on the seats with lots of pillows. My blue RWC2011 volunteer jacket was a great extra blanket. I reckon I must have slept at least 6 hours, which is awesome for a 13 hour flight! I started to watch a whole bunch of films, but got bored. Ended up watching "The Croods" though which was great. I even got special snacks delivered to me. Yum! They had a little pack on the seat when you arrived so I used my little eye mask. It was great! Had a second meal, which was pretty much the same as the first, but good.

The Fishy Lunch...yum!

All gonsies

Me, all stretched out!

Finally we landed in Abu Dhabi! We had to get off the plane outside and catch a bus to the terminal. It was 35degrees and bloody hot! The bus was air conditioned, thankfully, cos I was dressed for flying so heaps of layers! Had to wait in a really long line to get my boarding pass for my connecting flight with Etihad, which ended up being delayed and no one told us anything! I still need to send in a complaint actually. I meandered around duty free for a bit but didn't buy anything,  but eventually ended up in Burger King cos I was super hungry by this stage! I was waiting in the gate lounge, so was one of the first in line to board, only t be told that cos I was waiting in the gate lounge so early and I didn't have a blue stamp on my boarding pass,  I had to go back out of the gate lounge and get the stamp. More lining up! Super annoying. Eventually got my seat though, a window seat, beside 2 kids eugh. It ended up being pretty much ok, the kid beside me ended up with his head on my shoulder at one point though hahaha. Eithad were ok on board, they had towels coming around constantly, sometimes even hot! The food was meh (there was soooo much breakfast! The gluten free buns were eh, but the mushrooms were delish). The movies were meh. All in all I was pretty gutted with their service. They had been hyped up so much!

My Eithad Breakfast. There was so much of it! Which was a good thing.

Anyway, we eventually landed in London. Thankfully the border control moved pretty quick, cos I was on a tight deadline to reach my bus on time to get me to Liverpool. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw my suitcase - I hadn't seen it since Wellington, so was super glad to see it made it ok. Missioned it through the airport and onto the Heathrow Express Terminal Exchange. An epic walk awaited me to the bus station, but when I got there (in heaps of time) I managed to use my Etihad toothbrush and toothpaste and brushed my teeth which felt awesome. Annnd then, I made it to the bus. The first bus.

The first bus was ok, it was just from Heathrow to Victoria Coach Station. I had an hour wait at Victoria though, and it was the first time I had all my bags with me for such a long time. Eventually got the knack of managing those which was a relief!

After hanging round there for an hour, managed to get on my 4 hour bus trip to Liverpool. It went pretty well. I couldn't really get to sleep though which annoyed me! Eventually I must have though cos I was woken up by the bus driver saying we were gonna ave a quick rest stop. They have these cool rest stop things here with like a whole bunch of cafes and toilets and picnic tables. That was cool. So we eventually got back on the road and straight into gridlock traffic. Like, the bus driver turned the bus off we weren't moving. Naturally, we bonded as a group of young 'uns all travelling the bus together. The escape route hatch thing out the top of the bus was open cos it was so hot! Luckily the baby on the bus wasn't crying. But it added an extra 1.5 hours onto our journey. Apparently there was a chemical spill somewhere on the M6, fun times.

But after allll that I made it to Gabies in Liverpool. Made a beeline for the shower man!!

But your probably over reading by now, so I'll stop, and hope to post another blog soon about my time in Liverpool.

Catchya xx

Shoooopping

Zomg. Went shoping at an outlet store today. I'll take pics of everything I got, but Im gonna do a proper post when I have 2 hours on the train to London.

This is my favvvvvvourite thing I got.

I had an emotional connection to it.

UK....again

Yeeep. I'm back.
Currently in Liverpool staying at a mates place till Tuesday when I head back to London to start work.
Exhausted still, so will post about flights and stuffs laterrr

Flying over London

The Last Weekend in London - Part 2

WOW, so I just realised I haven't quite finished this. So here we go!

After checking out of the hotel in the morning and heading to Paddington Station, checking in some luggage (expensively), getting a Paddington Bear (Thanks Tom!) we boarded the train to go back to the London Eye and give it a go. The line was ridiculously long, but it was pretty fast moving which was neat. Managed to book my hotel for that night in the line thanks to some free wifi!

So much Paddington-ness

The Eye was so cool! There were about 15 of us in the capsule, and it was big enough to wander around in, so we got some good views of London. I tried to get my bearings and find Olympic Park but I failed. London is way to confusing. I was quite surprised with how long the ride lasted actually, but I suppose if you pay that much for it... Anyway, here are some fun photos.

There go the Capsules

Ok, what is this building?

Looking down, with shadow, atistic

My dream home

Hey, I was a tourist, leave me alone

Nice Selfie

Token Tourist Shot

After the Eye, we had an awesome Maccas lunch on the wharf/dock/marina, whatever you want to call it. I would have loved to go to the Aquarium, but we just didn't have the time!

We went for a detour walk to Downing Street. I had an awesome conversation with the Police there about how hard it must be to walk on concrete all day and how they should get some recycled carpet to be easier on their feet. They seemed responsive. So who knows, they may have some recycled carpet next time I go. Lol.  

Yep. Went there.

Soo after THAT, we headed back to Buckingham Palace, I mean why wouldn't we. It was crazy busy cos it was the last day it was open for the summer, but we headed along to the Royal Mews to see the horses!
 Tom totally wasn't into it, but I was. I got to see some amazing carriages like the one Will and Kate were in after they were married *SPAZZ*. They had another cool audio guide thing so we got a lot of cool info about the things. And then there were horses at the end. Cute. I just geeked out the whole way. London is just epic for me to geek out in.

The pre Wedding ride of the Late Lady Di

The Post Wedding Ride of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Coronation Coach. Awesome.

Token horse.

After the fleeting trip that was the Mews, I went and spent wayyy too much money at the Palace Shop. (Oh yeah, funny mews story., A) The hosts there wear robes. It is also like Hogwarts. Awesome.  B) When you go in, you have to put your stuff through a scanner so your not gonna bomb the place etc. Anyway, Tom had his parcel that I had given him which had a crappton of ducks in it, and after his stuff had been through the lady watching the scanner was like "Hmmmm, you seem to like ducks" and it seemed that you could see the outline of the ducks in the X-Ray machine. It was bloody funny. Turns out Tom also had a pair of scissors in his bag. tsk tsk.)

We then had another tube mission to Kensington Palace, through the Kensington Gardens. I wish I could have meandered around there a bit longer and found the Princess Di fountain etc, butjust ran out of time! I went and had a look around Kensington Palace while Tom sat outside. They had some of Lady Di's dresses on display as well as an interesting exhibition about what it would have been like to be at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and some exhibitions about the old Kings and Queens. I tried to look over the fence to Will and Kates new apartment, apparently the staff there have seen them around from time  to time, alas that was not one of the days, much to my disappointment. 

Kensington Palace

This got me way too excited

Coolest barrier ever

Pretty gardens

Outside the gate that was smothered in flowers after "the crash"

Pretty Park.

 We then had a mission to get to Euston Station on time so Tom would stop freaking out that he would miss his train back to Aber, so we had some food and Boo-Boo from camp stopped by which was cool. We just ate. Yum. Tom went on his train home and eventually, I headed back to Paddington and got all my stuff and headed out to my Heathrow hotel before epic flight the next day.

I'll do an  LA update again soon, I'm sick of typing  for now haha

ME!

The last weekend in London, part one

So, when I last left, I had had a great time in London all by myself, but on Saturday morning, after my epic trip to the post office, I missioned it to Euston Station to meet Tom who had caught a 5am train from Aberystwyth to London to come hang out for the weekend, wooo!

We first went out to sort out tickets to a show for that day, we were kinda planning on going to The Lion King that evening, but we ended up getting cheaper tickets for the afternoon performance. After sorting that out, we headed down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. I didn't think it would be as popular as it was! I also had no idea what it entailed so I just got really excited when the horses came around haha. We eventually managed to head over to the gate and squizz through and see the guards strutting their stuff, to Star Wars music, I sware! That was fun anyways. Especially when the horse took a big ass poo on the ground right where everyone was crossing the road. It was funny watching people try to avoid it, and it stank really bad!

It was the first time I had ventured down the Mall to Buckingham Palace and it was maaaaagical! Couldn't believe I was seeing it! Tom didn't quite get the amazingness of the moment....lol

FANCY HORSES AND RIDERS

Ze Guards

Tall Black Hat

Magical Moment

Some random who sucks at photo taking

Nawwwwww

After that finished, we were meant to head to the Royal Mews, but we got kinda lost, so instead headed to a pub for lunch.Yummmm, epic Lamb pie! Then we caught a cab to Covent Garden and had a poke around the markets there again, but managed to pick up a few more presents for people which was good.

And then.....LION KING!! WOWZA, what an amazing show!!! The costumes were stunning and the singing was coool, I was totally singing along. I had to wake up Tom a few times during the show, I think it was more due to his 5am train than boredem, well, I hope so anyway!We were sitting in the front row of the balcony, so we either had to lean forward to see over the barrier or lean back and look under it. That was slightly annoying, but we managed. We could see the stage moving from  up so high so that was a good angle to watch from. The cast are so good at playing to the whole theatre, no matter how high up they sit!

Tom's excited theatre going face

I was totes excited

After the Lion King, we were meant to go back to the hotel to drop off some stuff and get changed for dinner etc, but we got sidetracked and headed towards Big Ben and  stuff to have a poke around. It was quite fun. We took some fun pictures around the place, so here we go! We spent a while walking around the Thames trying to take photos of us in  front of the London Eye and even spied another random tourist to take our photo in front of it, another crap photo taker.

The only decent photo we got in front of the eye

I asked Tom to take a photo of me in front of Westminster Abbey, and this is what I got

BIG BEN

The eye from across the bridge

Token London shot

Tom and Me on the  Bridgey thing

THE EYE WATCHES

We headed out to possibly the worst place we could find for dinner, which we didn't realise at the time, it took about 15 minutes for them to take our drinks and entrée orders, and then another 20 minutes for the entrées to arrive, and then 10 minutes for our mains to arrive, by which time Tom had to go and ask where our drinks were, man, it was a nightmare (turns out, I totally got  food poisoning from the restaurant too, but more on THAT one later).

We wanted to go on the London Eye at night so had purposely waited until it was dark enough to do so,  only to turn up and find that it had JUST closed, at 8.30pm. LAME! Seems ridiculously early for such a big tourist attraction to close so early on  a Saturday night. So we headed back to the hotel.

Eventually, once we got back and had a nice cup of tea, we decided that we might go out again for a drink. I was feeling like total crap, really bad pain in my side, but decided to walk it off. Anyway, most of the bars were full and didn't look very inviting so we decided to head back home, only to have me pretty much collapse on the street and throw up in the gutter. Thanks for that, shitty restaurant. Some cops pulled by and asked if I was ok, so Tom left me with them and ran off to get some water to wash it all down the drain (I was lucky not to get anything on me!) , they assumed that I had been drinking and was throwing up from that, guh, stereotypes! We were hoping on a ride back but that failed. Sleep was well needed that night!!