Day 0; Leaving the country..

Hello!

This blog is to combine the media I have with the stories I happened upon.
This first series, will be in essence a day by day account of my days in the USA, as I travel abroad for the first time in my adult life. Scroll at your leisure, but this is as much for my memory and nostalgia as it is for any of you who wandered here out of curiosity.

24/12/17 - Christmas Eve.
Purchased presents for family and took Gran and Mum to Hokitika to see the towns Christmas lights. Every business it seems has chipped in and gotten into the spirit and it all looks amazing. Went to church with Dad and both sisters to satisfy that tradition, and took till 1:30am making an apricot cheesecake from scratch and some vegan nice-cream for the big lunch tomorrow.

25/12/17 - Christmas Day.
Woke up and started packing for about an hour before lunch at mums begins at 11:00am. A friend of mine, Jamie, meets us there and brought her own vegan dessert, an avocado chocolate mouse. Very tasty! Gran offers me the use of her big purple suitcase which I accept because I hadnt figured that out yet. Get home and spend another hour packing and sorting things before heading into fingerfood dinner as is tradition at Nannas. Only stay for a couple hours though 'cause theres still heaps to do. Nanna offers me her suitcase, as she dosent think she'll be needing it ever again. Kinda sad to think about it like that but I'm glad to be able to use it. Plus its got a picture of NZ on it, and is a more appropriate size in my opinion so we get that filled up and head  out the door.

Grey District rubbish bag tag to identify luggage. Good advice from my Nana!

 

Super excited.. so off we go! left at like 11:30 pm.

Road was a little rough leaving town..

But we got there! nice and early.

Cheers Tim for keeping my car safe for three weeks! Saved a lot on parking at the airport fees.

Quick duty free gift idea, and was advised to wear a NZ shirt to help stop the Aussie confusion.

Layover in aussie was only a mildly annoying but with a decent layover I actually had time to kill so turned out fine. The cash I got out here was helpful on the way home too. The airport security here stuck a probe into my backpack to check for explosives and made a random person from the line step through a big scanner machine. Shoes on.

One 13 hour flight later.. LAX!

Security here was a little different. No explosives probe but made every person go through the rotating scanner and take the shoes off  and hold them while doing walking through. Checking for knives in shoes I was told. Customs also insisted on taking fingerprints and a picture of you at a wee booth as you come through. No cameras allowed but mine was too creepy I couldn't resist. If they're looking for a criminal.. thats the kind of photo they'd get... lol

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 LAX was getting an upgrade while I was there, more terminals. One of the biggest airports in the world so no wonder they have trains and buses between terminals. Chilled out with some retired steam engineer guy at an airport bar. I ordered an interesting drink, which got him curious and he got one too. Random conversations about the industry and how its changed and he ended up giving some advice (about tipping. Just round it to whatever and make it easy on yourself dont sweat the small stuff) and then about fifteen minutes before he left he paid for his food and drink, a bit more chat, and he was gone. When I got up to go ten minutes later and pay for my stuff, the barman told me it was already taken care of. Some real warm kindness and hospitality there folks. 

Apparently there are a lot of Aussies here.. like.. a lot. Arrive in JFK. A full 36 hours of traveling since I left Greymouth. Time to figure out a bus ride to Grand Central Station, where I assume I'll be able to train to wherever I need to go. Get off the bus and first challenge was finding a way underground to where the trains actually are. See some street names and then moments later around the corner some people who see me walking fast (I assume they think that means I know where I'm going.. lol. This happens a lot on this trip actually..) and those people then ask me for help finding places, which I'm more than happy to oblige. I have no working phone at this point as Vodaphones roaming data plan is really choppy and not loading much of anything. I find a map in the station only to find out that grand central dosen't actually have every train coming and going to it. You have to chop and change trains at different places to get anywhere.

Grand Central Station.

So I take a minute, and then remember a lyric from one of my favorite songs..

The Lumineers - Ho Hey

Buy a ticket, step over and lift my lugage over a large passed out homeless man on one of the stair landings going into the subway and hop on my first NYC subway!

Once I get out, I head up canal street, 5 blocks later I ask someone the way to Bowery Street and have to turn around and walk all the way back the other way. Mostly just concerned that at this dark hour I was gonna get mugged or something and lose it all at the beginning I really wanted to get off the streets. Takes about 20 minutes of searching to find the hotel and theres a buzzer to call the 24/7 reception desk once you get there.

View of Bowery Street from the hotel.

The hallway between the rooms. like a super large room with a heap of these tomproary partitions jacked in.. not exactly luxury but.. very New York and spartan in style!

I learned here that the rooms are supposed to be for sleeping. Anything else and you're in the wrong room. When you're as busy as New Yorkers, there's no reason to be home almost, your either out working your ass off, out with friends, or asleep. You're wasting time and space otherwise.

So I leave the luggage, go for a quick walk to explore, and find food and stumble into Little Italy. Its basically a whole street full of Italian food shops, so we get some take home carbonara and eat it in the hotel lobby which is some kind of informal hangout area. Didnt really feel hungry, but, I knew I should be so I ate. Basically ran on adrenaline the whole time I was in NYC haha.

Excited!! Cant wait to see what tomorrow brings..