Amsterdayuuuum

Please excuse my cliché blog title but that is definitely an accurate way to describe Amsterdam. One part of me was sad, because this was the last destination in my 3 week Europe tour, but I was excited to explore a new place. We were greeted at the airport by a relative of Jasmins, who she had never met and who we would be staying with for the next couple of nights. We took a train to her apartment, which lucky for us was very central. That night we went and had dinner at a nice pub, explored some of the streets and headed back to the apartment (Which was the cutest apartment, it had a big room at the front where Jas and I were staying, overlooking a park and canal, and was all white with a few plants here and there – Almost my dream apartment!)

The next day, we prepared ourselves for a day full of walking. We walked through the streets, alongside the canals. This place was amazing! After getting lost for an hour, we decided to stop off at a “coffee shop” (sorry Granny) So funny walking into a shop that sells weed, like it was the most normal thing ever! We were then back on track and found ourselves at the Red Light District. So strange walking through streets that have prostitutes standing in booths, beckoning for men to come in. There were sex shops, and sex theatres on every corner. Unfortunately this is where it started raining (Amster-dam it’s raining) We kept walking and eventually found ourselves in Dam Square. We ducked into H&M just to get out of the rain of course, and after it had stopped/we had finished shopping, we walked to the famous I AMSTERDAM sign, and even though it was packed full of tourists we managed to grab a few snaps. Both of us really wanted to go to the Anne Frank House, and even though the line was absolutely massive, we were willing to line up for what turned out to be an hour and a half. SO worth it though! Only 9 euros to experience some world famous history. After a long day of walking, we headed back to the apartment, but not before stopping for dinner and a drink on the way home.

The next day, we were going to a small town about 40 minutes out of Amsterdam to visit another one of Jasmin’s long lost relatives. We caught the train there, and literally spent the entire day walking around the town looking at nothing. I was relieved when they suggested dinner, although dinner was the weirdest meal i’ve had this whole holiday. The menu was in Dutch so we had to have it translated and I ordered bbq chicken with potato salad and corn. We caught the train back to the city and stopped on the way at a “coffee shop” then for a cocktail at a bar. Our last night before I headed back to the UK, leaving Jasmin in Amsterdam until she heads back to NZ.

The next morning, we decided to kill some time and go to the zoo, as it is where her Aunty works and we were given free tickets. We walked around before it was time to go to the train station, and stopping for the famous Amsterdam Fries on the way. I was planning on going into London in a couple of days, to see Jasmin before she left so I didn’t have to say goodbye yet. And that was that, 3 weeks of travelling through Europe finished. Back to work in a couple of days, but as I was sitting alone in the airport (where I had to wait 4 HOURS for my flight) I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was back, this time discovering new places! Vaarwel!

 

Exploring Mykonos

Following our trip to Santorini, I didn’t think any other place could top it off. And I was right, it didn’t. But Mykonos was still pretty cool. That is, once we finally arrived there. Long story short, we travelled to Mykonos from Santorini via ferry. The trip was supposed to take almost 3 hours, and when we arrived 20 minutes early we didn’t think anything of it. We grabbed our suitcases and headed off the ship ready to explore a new island. Once we got to the end of the wharf, there were 20 or so people advertising their hotels. “Cheap room with a sunset view, girls?” We had already booked accommodation and the owner of our hotel was picking us up so we sat down to wait, thinking she just wasn’t there because we were early. One of the advertisers asked us where we were staying, and when we told them they hadn’t heard of it. We said it was right in Mykonos town and she laughed. “Mykonos? This isn’t Mykonos.” TURNS OUT WE WERE ON THE WRONG ISLAND. Little did we know, there was a stop at the island of Naxos before Mykonos. We found a ticket office, paid another 30 euros and grabbed some lunch during the 3 hour wait for our next ferry. And that is how we saw an extra Greek island.

Three hours later, we arrived in the actual Mykonos. Helen had kindly came back to pick us up, and we headed to our hotel. What a view! The building was blue and white, overlooking the ocean. Straight away we headed into the town to have a look around. There is no words to describe the streets of Mykonos. You don’t even feel like you are outside, the narrow alleyways are white and blue, with cute little stairways leading up to apartments above the local shops. We grabbed some food (gyros of course) and had a look around the shops. We had decided to head out on the town that night, so we found an alcohol store and went back to the hotel to get ready. I would love to say yeah, we had a great memorable night out clubbing in Mykonos however after not drinking any alcohol for almost 4 nights the night didn’t turn out too pretty and we were back in the hotel by 12:30pm. Tip: Only order Long Island Iced Teas in Mykonos if you are a pro alcohol as these things were LETHAL. We had to ask them to add some orange juice because neither of us could drink them! After sleeping off a killer headache, we knew we had to make the most of the day so we headed out to hire scooters. However, after being told that scooters are extremely dangerous especially as we hadn’t ridden them before, we went for a quad bike again. We decided to go to Paradise Beach, which was a 20 minute ride away and scope out the beach clubs for later that evening ( Yes we were willing to try again) The clubs were all lined up along the beach, and there were beach chairs lined up with people lying on them (Probably still out from the night before?) On the way back, we stopped at Paraga Beach which turns out was a nude beach. Back in Mykonos town, after getting ready for the evening, we went to our favourite place. Little Venice. The cocktails here are AMAZING! 14 Euros, but SO worth it. Plus you get a great view of the sunset. We caught a bus to Paradise Beach and the night began. More cocktails, dancing on tables, dancing with midgets and cheering when the dj called out ‘New Zealand.’

The rest of our time in Mykonos was pretty chilled, we ate more Gyros, wandered the streets and swam in the beach. As much as I liked Mykonos, I was ready to leave by 10pm the next night when we headed to the airport. Next stop: Roma! 

 

5 Things I learnt when moving across the world

It took me 27 hours to get to my new home. 27 HOURS. Thats 18,764 km. Or 11659.40 miles seeing as i’m living in the UK now. Obviously making a decision to move this far away cannot be done overnight, as it’s not like you can just jump on a plane and go back home whenever you feel like it. Still been one of the best decisions I’ve made though, and i’ve learnt a ton already in the first 4 months of being here.

1. Who your real friends are: I’m sure everyone who has moved across the world will agree with me on this one. It’s interesting who you hear from when your life completely changes. Not only did I move across the world, but I re-connected with my Dad who I hadn’t seen in 17 years. This is probably one of the biggest things that will ever happen to me in my life, and I still haven’y heard from people that I considered close friends. Yeah, everyone has stuff going on in there life, but it takes 2 minutes to send a quick message.
2. Everything takes time: At home I lived with friends, had a full time job, spent the weekends being social and had a car which meant freedom. Here, I am living with family, I knew absolutely no one apart from them which meant no social life with people my own age, and the closest town is a 15 minute bus ride away which costs £6.30 return (thats about $13nzd!) I wasn’t used to this and didn’t realise the effect it would have on me. After getting a job a couple of weeks after moving here, and finally meeting people my own age, I eventually started spending Friday nights socialising, instead of staying at home watching Netflix. It just took time.
3. Facetime will become your best friend: I don’t know where I would be without social media. Facebook, Snapchat and Facetime are all saviours when it comes to keeping in contact with your friends/family back home. Even if it’s a quick message to let them know you’re still alive, or an essay of gossip from the weekend it all adds up, and us travellers really appreciate it.
4. You will have on and off days: I think i’m lucky, because I haven’t been too homesick since being here. Yeah some days I wake up and miss home. I miss the people, I miss being able to run up the mount everyday, I miss being able to cross the road to go for a swim at the beach and I miss my old house. And then other days I wake up and just think “Wow I am in ENGLAND. I completely changed my life, whereas everyone at home is stuck in the same old boring job doing the same thing everyday. I have travelled around Europe, and seen places I used to only dream of seeing” Whenever I am in London, I sometimes just stop and look around and think how cool it is here, and that people back home would probably love to trade places.
5. Home is where the heart is: This one is pretty self explanatory. When I showed people from work a picture of Mount Maunganui, they were shocked that I chose to leave there, and live in Chelmsford instead. Quick side story: The other day at work, an old lady almost made me cry. She asked me if I was Australian (which i get asked atleast 5 times a day) She then asked if I had left all my family and friends behind, and when I said yes, she looked at me in awe, said that I am extremely brave and that she wishes she had done some travelling at my age, as she has not been anywhere. She then wished me luck with my future. I have had this conversation with other elderly people who always question my accent, and wonder why on earth I am in Chelmsford of all places. It always makes me feel proud of myself and is a small reminder that I made the right decision. Although Chelmsford (soon to be Surrey) is my temporary home, one day I’ll be back in Mount Maunganui.

 

Packing up my life

Three months ago I sat on a plane bawling my eyes out, thinking to myself over and over “why the fuck am I doing this.” Right now i’m sitting on a couch in Chelmsford, England with no regrets.

I’d always wanted to go travelling, but never had the guts or money to do it. I’d been in my job for two and a half years, and one day I decided I’d had enough. I quit my job, and booked a one way ticket to the UK. The only way to describe the few days leaving up to my departure was ‘numb.’  Like everything was still happening around me, and I was there, but not really with it. Packing up your entire life is difficult, like “Yes mum, of course I need to take that dress that I haven’t worn in two years” I sold my bed and dressing table, put old clothes in boxes and finally had a suitcase suitable for all four seasons. The day had arrived. I had said goodbye to all the important people and headed for the airport with my family. I really wanted one of those typical travellers pictures in front of the International Departures gate but unfortunately thats when the tears started. And they didn’t stop until I was in the air. Yup, i sat at my gate waiting to board crying my eyes out. I sat in my seat on the plane, still crying enough for the air hostess to ask if I was okay. “Yup no worries I’ve just said goodbye to all the people I love and I have no idea when I’ll see them again” I had been warned that the 17 hour plane ride ahead would be “hell”and seeing as I didn’t even like flying from Auckland to Wellington, i wasn’t looking forward to it. But there was no backing out now. Surprisingly, the first flight went extremely fast. I slept, watched a couple of movies and looked out the window even though it was pitch black the whole time. I did see lightening which was pretty freaky/cool. Landing in Dubai was a relief, I had to catch a train to my gate seeing as the airport is so big and wait 2 hours to board my next 8 hour flight. Its funny, one of the reasons I had chosen to come to the UK is because my Dad lives here. I hadn’t seen him in 17 years, and never met his wife or two kids. Yet I wasn’t nervous about meeting him at all. I just hoped I would recognise him when he was waiting for me at Heathrow. And there he was. 29 hours of travelling, saying goodbye to my old life, and here was my Dad. We hugged, like it had only been a few weeks since I’d seen him, and he commented on my height saying he thought I was going to be taller. As soon as we walked outside the airport, I saw the famous red double decker buses and black taxis. Here we go, the beginning of my new adventure.