Thursday, January 12, 2012

New York, New York

So, with both nervousness and excitement in equal measures, my girls and I arrived at Melbourne airport to board our flight to Los Angeles and then on to New York.
Actually, probably only C and I were nervous. She had flown on domestic flights before and not enjoyed the experience. E, on the other hand, is a seasoned traveller, and Z didn't seem too worried.

The first thing I noticed about the plane, was how confined the space was in economy class. Kind of like being on a bus but with even less room to move!

Luckily, flying didn't bother me at all. A wide selection of movies to watch and food service at regular intervals helped pass the time.

Around 14 hours later, we landed at LAX. We had departed Melbourne at 9.30am on Friday the 16th of September, and due to some amazing time travelling abilities, we arrived in the US at 8am on Friday the 16th of September. Rather mind-boggling.

Extensive security checks followed - bearing in mind that it was only a week since the 10 year 9/11 anniversary, so very understandable.

Our connecting flight to New York was delayed for 4 hours, during which time the girls lounged around and I made several attempts to contact our apartment manager in New York to let her know we would be late. Alternative arrangements were eventually made to collect the keys to our apartment.

At last we were in the air again and after another 5 hours, we could finally see the lights of New York City - a spine tingling moment for sure.

The taxi drive through the city to collect our keys was one of the most exciting experiences I've ever had. Just imagine, Friday night at about 10.30pm, people everywhere, many of them coming out of Broadway shows, amazing lights and colours all around. It was incredible.

On to our apartment on the Upper West Side, and up 4 flights of stairs with our heavy bags. C and I went out briefly to a nearby store for breakfast supplies then back to settle in at our home away from home for the next 10 days. Finally, to bed, but we were too wired to sleep for quite a while - wondering what excitement tomorrow would bring.





 



 

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