Oz Reunion USA Trip

Hi All,

I didn't have chance to upload part of this blog entry at JFK Airport as I only got 30 minutes free wi-fi so apologies if this one is a bit long.

So (now yesterday, Saturday) we met early in the hotel lobby and went for breakfast at the cafe over the road from our hotel, nice hearty way to start what would be a long travel day.

We decided to head to Times Square to do some shopping and pick up some souvenirs, it was fairly quiet and nice to wander around with less people although there were still all of the ticket sellers etc. The time went quickly and we soon had to head back to the hotel to say bye to Courtney so she could catch a taxi and make her way to the airport for her flight home. Us final remaining 2 had a few hours before we had to check out so I packed and Face timed home.

Once we checked out, we left our bags in a secure room at the hotel and got a taxi to Central Park, it seems to of become a tradition that on the last day in a place we sit in a park 😂 While we walked to flag down the taxi we stumbled across some street markets, they were busy with people milling and eating.

We got a taxi up to by the MET, the traffic was particularly bad, partly due to all the Saturday street markets. We popped into the Neue Galerie which is a small art gallery, its exhibition was of Richard Gerstl's work, this guy was like the Kim Kardashian of his time, 'selfie portraits', most of his paintings were of himself, especially nude portraits, he thought a lot of himself 😂 Unfortunately he didn't have a happy ending, at age 25 he committed suicide after he'd been having an affair with a married woman who he was in love with and it had become public knowledge. Very sad.

After the gallery we got some lunch from a street vendor before walking through Central Park and sitting by a pond people watching.
Finally we got a taxi back to the hotel before picking up the hotels own car shuttle service to the airport. I said bye to Kiwi at departures as she was going through terminal 2 for domestic flight and I was going through terminal 4 for international.

Due to our different flight times I was 5 hours early for my flight, which meant I was the first in the queue and even before Thomas Cook had set up, they only have 1 flight out of JFK on a Saturday and that was the 10pm to Manchester so there was no need for them to be earlier than 6.30pm. The flight was operated by Thomas Cook/Condor, on the way out to Boston it had been Thomas Cook/Air Tanker.

When I finally checked in I asked for an aisle seat which they said they would request for me however she got distracted as she thought the baggage scales weren't working as my suitcase only weighed 14kg... it was right 😂 Then she realised that the previous airline who had been using the desk before had left their baggage ticket strip in the machine, by the time she handed me my boarding card I checked if it was an aisle seat, no it was a window, she'd forgot. Luckily it was a 2-4-2 seating plan.

The queue for security was long, there were queues for queues, they were also trying to keep the line moving due to the sniffer dogs who were also going through the queues.
Once I finally got through security I walked around the shops, although I realised there is nothing here now that I can't really get at home, American chocolate, t-shirts and hoodies with New York on, and with the current exchange rate it's a lot cheaper at home. Instead I grabbed a sandwich, crisps and walked to the gate however when I got there I realised that there was no seating at our gate, of course!

By the time I finally boarded my flight it was 9.30pm and I'll admit I was really tired, it had been a long day. I got on the plane to find a bottle of water, pillow and blanket waiting for me. I thought I'd lucked out as no one sat next to me however just as we were about to shut the doors x2 families of 12 people turned up, it was like an episode of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, if they were to do it they would call it the 'aeroplane episode'!?! A youngish lad from their group sat next to me. Luckily as this was an A330 they had seat back entertainment, with a USB connector so I plugged in my headphones, put on the 'best of the 90's' and tried to drown out the noise of the screaming children surrounding me... 😮

One odd feature of this plane was that the toilets were downstairs, never experienced that before. Also it was quite a warm flight which I liked, I didn't need to put on my usual cosy socks or even use the blanket! I know a few who would probably heave hated 😉

Anyway I managed to get some sleep and was woken up to breakfast (not 2nd), the guy in front had got up to go to the toilet, when he came back he decided to drop himself back into his seat which sent everything on my tray table flying, I narrowly missed out on getting orange juice on another pair of jeans...

One final blog entry to go...

Love and hugs
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