Yes Mum, I'm Eating Vegies

I could not comprehend how cold minus 40 was.

Now I can.

I also understand how important thick socks and beanies are.

Hands up those of you who have had ice-covered glasses and eyelashes.

Yes yes yes, I'm the worlds slackest blogger. I just HAD to write about my day on Sunday, though.

I'm sure you're all aware that I'm now living in Calgary with Travis, one of the boys that I met in Montreal. I'm working at a clothing store in Chinook Mall for the time being. I had Sunday off work, and it was one of the best days ever.

Slept in and didn't wake up to an alarm. I DID, however, wake up to a whole lot of snow falling from the sky. Three of us went out for brunch at a popular cafe in Hillshurst. There was a bit of a wait, so we stood outside in the snow drinking coffee for an hour. Had the best food ever - berry filled crepes with fresh fruit.
Travis and I went shopping downtown and got some great bargains. There was SO much snow that we couldn't even see the roads. The trees were covered. The cars were covered. It was all powdery and crunched under our feet when we walked.

We arrived home, and there was a note under our apartment door telling us to go to the drugstore over the road to collect some parcels. YAY! Christmas presents from home are now lying underneath our Christmas tree.

Travis and I then put on our pjs, wrapped ourselves up in blankets, and watched Pay it Forward on DVD while eating chocolate. The fairy lights were on, and we lit candles around the house.

It REALLY felt like Christmas.

Oh my goodness it’s been FOREVER since I’ve put anything on here – SORRY! I was making a habit of updating on transport, but we haven’t really been on any longhaul trips for a wee while so it’s been a bit neglected.

We have been having a blast. It’s going to be a bit of a task to write everything on here at once, so I think I’ll have to do it in a few updates. It’s hard to write this thing without making it sound boring and “we did this then we did that”, so hopefully my Thursday night brain will be awake enough to make it mildly entertaining.

After New York, Steph and I caught the infamous Greyhound Bus up to Niagara. We figured it was a good idea to catch an overnight bus, as we’d save on a nights accommodation, sleep the whole way, and get there feeling great. Naieve New Zealanders is all I can say. We were pretty squished. We had stops every hour or so at different stations. We were told we had to change buses, picked up all our baggage at about 2am, waited in the terminal, only to be told half an hour later that we were to get BACK on the bus we’d disembarked.

We arrived in Niagara at about 8am, and thinking we were smart to save money, we decided to walk to our hostel. Almost an hour later, carrying about 40kgs of luggage each, we made it. Would’ve been smarter to pay $4 each and catch a taxi rather than almost collapse after a night of no sleep and a huge unexpected hike! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

We stayed in Niagara for four nights, and during that time we:
- Walked to the Niagara Falls about eight times
- Went on the Maid of the Mist and the Journey Behind the Falls
- Caught a taxi to the little township of Niagara-on-the-Lake which was so cute – like it belonged in a movie. It was immaculate, with little wineries and bakeries and icecream parlours. Both Steph and I managed to “taste” enough samples to fill us up enough to skip dinner. Good way to save money!
- Travelled over class 5 rapids in a jet boat. (There are 6 classes of rapids, with class 1 being the most tame, to class 6 being the most violent. Yes, we are brave!).
- Almost bought an old van to drive around Canada in, however the insurance didn’t work out and we ran out of time, so we flagged that idea.

The hostel we stayed in was clean (which is more than I can say for some of them!) and we met some really interesting people. The owner was quite overbearing, but meant well.

The falls themselves were, I have to say, disappointing. I KNOW you don’t want to hear that because they’re one of the Must See things in the world, but I really thought that they would be more impressive. The whole town was very touristy and tacky with casinos and bright flashing lights and ferris wheels. The falls were lit up at night with colourful lights. It was all far too commercialised.

The Maid of the Mist was the best thing we did. They give you huge ponchos to wear, and you are taken on a boat really close to the falls. The noise that they made was quite impressive, and because Steph and I were right at the front of the boat (yay for our Beijing training!) we got soaked.

It was great to have had some “down” time – to do laundry and rest and go for walks and cook some decent meals, but four days really was too much.

I was talking to a German guy that I met and told him that we’d been in Niagara for four days. He laughed, and said “one day is half day too many”. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Next stop – Goderich!

Finally have a minute to sit down and relax and write a bit of an update for you all.

Dubai was very cool, but not really what I expected. From photos, I had thought that the city would be far more built up and glamorous and busy. There was lots of construction going on – cranes and road works everywhere. Something that really frustrated Ben when he was driving was the way the roads were set out. There are big fences in between which means you’re constantly having to do u-turns to get to the other side of the road. The driving there is pretty crazy too, especially in taxis. At least they had seatbelts in the cars in Dubai; unlike Beijing!

For the first four nights we were in Dubai we went out because it was pre-Ramadan. Once Ramadan begins, girls have to cover up when they’re outside, there is to be NOTHING passing the lips between 6:30am and 6:30pm (supposedly sunrise and sunset), there is to be no loud music and no dancing. So we had to make the most of it before Ramadan kicked in.

As soon as I stepped out of the airport in Dubai I realised what “hot” was. Far out. It was just after 4am and the heat was incredible. It was the sort of heat that engulfed you. The humidity was horrendous. Kinda didn’t help that we were carring about 30kgs on our backs either!

Without boring you with a day-by-day synopsis of what we’ve been up to, here are some of the highlights:
Brunch. Woah. 400 dirhams (about $120 each) to spend four hours filling your face with the most amazing food and unlimited drinks. Mojitos were the drink of the day, and went down nicely with the 40+ degree heat outside. There were three huge rooms in a very fancy hotel brimming with any kind of food you could imagine – Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, Scottish, English, Mexican; you could even get little newspaper packets of fish and chips! We waddled out of there feeling quite ill!

High Tea. We went to the Burj Al Arab which is the only seven star hotel in the world (at the moment – we did see one in Beijing but apparently it’s not finished yet). You go right up to the top, and out onto a platform area to a very fancy restaurant where for 350 dirhams (just over $100) we were fed little sandwiches and cakes and champagne and scones and coffees and milkshakes and handmade chocolates – all unlimited of course. Lots of fun, and it was great to see the inside of such a well known hotel. However… it was TACKY and totally over the top. As Kendall in Perth said – “it looks like someone vomited money”. The colours were bright, there were polished gold surfaces everywhere, huge aquariums and water fountains, and lit up switchboards which reminded us of Star Trek, or like we were stuck in the 80s. Interesting what different cultures see as fancy hey.

Buffet dinner. Went to the Shangri La hotel for a buffet dinner. Guess what. Unlimited cocktails and food and desserts. All people seem to do in Dubai is eat and drink! This was fun though because we went with a whole lot of other flight attendants that were friends of Bens.

Lime Tree Café. Oh what? ANOTHER thing revolving around food in Dubai? This café is owned by Kiwis, and was one of the only places open during Ramadan. You had to enter through the back door, but they had normal New Zealand café food. Paninis and wraps and coffee and the BEST carrot cake in the world. We found ourselves here more than once.

Desert Safari. This was COOL. We got picked up from Ben’s apartment at about 4pm, and headed into the desert. Woah. Talk about get thrown around!! We zoomed up and down sand dunes in a buggy, got henna tattoos, had a huge Middle Eastern buffet (more food), smoked sheesha which is flavoured tobacco, and got driven back about 10pm. Oh yeah, and we rode a camel too. Awesome evening.

Ski Dubai. In the middle of a huge mall in Dubai they have a ski field. Random huh! Steph and Ben went for three hours, but I couldn’t go without having a lesson first which was hell expensive, so I wandered around the mall, bought a book, talked to random people, and read. Steph and Ben seemed to really enjoy it though!

BodyATTACK & BodySTEP. After spending four days pretty much eating, sleeping and drinking, we were all feeling pretty foul. When Ben’s not flying for Emirates, he’s an instructor at a few gyms around Dubai. We got dragged out of bed at 6am on Wednesday morning to be killed! Ben’s a machine! Then on Friday, we got taken to BodyATTACK & BodySTEP. TWO classes in one day.

Beach. Wow. The beach in Dubai was just fantastic. So hot. So quiet. And just so lovely. The water was pretty salty though. We could have lain there all day.

Meeting Bens’ Friends. This was the highlight for me. To see where Ben’s been living for the last 2 years. To meet his flatmate. To meet the people who he’s been talking about since he’s been gone. And, surprise surprise, they were all lovely.

So, that was Dubai. We flew out at 8:30am with Ben as our flight attendant. He spoilt us rotten for the whole 14 hour flight. We got champagne, first class pillows and blankets, more food and drink than we could ever imagine, we hung out in the galley with the other flight attendants, and waddled off the plane with two huge plastic bags FULL of chocolate bars, playing cards, biscuits, nuts…

We stayed with Ben at the Sheraton New York for one night (after the lovely captain let us catch the Emirates shuttle bus from JFK to Times Square with them). I scored the other half of Bens bed, Steph had an airbed on the floor that Ben had brought with him, and we had a nice fancy bathroom with little shampoos and soaps.

Went out that night but were so knackered we only stayed out till 4am (hehe). Slept all morning, and spent the afternoon lying in the sun in Central Park. It was sad saying bye to Ben after spending so long with him.

It’s awesome knowing we’ve got such wonderful friends – even though they may be on the other side of the world!

For those of you not on Facebook, you might like to check out my photos here:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58182&l=bf975&id=626437587

Steph and I are sitting in the lobby of the Sheraton after saying bye to Ben. His layover in New York was shortened, so we had one night with him here. We leave in a few hours on a Greyhound bus up to Niagara Falls. 9 hours overnight - let's hope we can sleep!

Dubai was great. Will definitely write a bit of an overview when we get a chance to sit still.