Meeting old friends in New York

I’m back from one of my favourite cities – New York!

As soon as I saw it pop up on my November roster I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to meet up with my friends Stephen and Colin. While I was interrailing with Lucy in the summer of 2012, we met them in Berlin and stayed in touch. I had a trip to NYC in July (or was it August? I can’t remember!) but they were off travelling so we couldn’t meet.

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We landed into JFK around 8am and once we finally got to the hotel (we happened to be there on the day of the NYC Marathon so traffic was pretty bad!) I was ready for a nap!

Stephen, Colin and I had arranged to meet at 5, so I had a few hours to kill. And what better to do in New York than shop!

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Shanghai Nights

My second flight working in business class took me all the way to Shanghai, China. After leaving Dubai in the middle of the night, we arrived in Shanghai absolutely exhausted! A couple of hours nap in the comfiest bed in the world (on par with the crew hotel in LHR!) soon sorted me out, and I met 3 other crew downstairs in the lobby for a drink.

It was one of the girls’ birthdays so we decided to head out to the Bund for some dinner and drinks. On recommendation from the concierge we chose a place called “Bar Rouge”. When we got there we stopped to admire the gorgeous view across the Huangpu River, including an awesome flower wall!

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Business Class to Manchester

I recently flew my very first trip working in business class. When I got my October roster I have to say I wasn’t particularly excited at the prospect of 3 UK flights, and the whole month on the A380.

However my best friend Lucy has recently finished uni and moved to Manchester, so I had something to look forward to after the flight!

Luckily the flight was only half full in business, so it was a great way to start. The service is so different to working in economy; it’s very personalised and you work more with your “buddy” for the whole flight. I had a great buddy who was very understanding that it was my first flight and that I had no clue where anything was!

Once we landed into Manchester we stepped out of the plane to a beautiful sunny day and crisp fresh air.

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While we were waiting for the bus we were sat watching all of the planes taking off and landing, lovely!

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Rio Part II

After a short flight from Buenos Aires we arrived back in to the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. As we got to the hotel after midnight, we made arrangements to get up early the next morning for a full day of sightseeing.

The bus driver that picked us up from the airport arranges tours so the Portuguese speaker negotiated with him and we were up bright and early. Our first stop was one of Rio’s most famous icons – Christ the Redeemer, also known as “Cristo Redentor” in Portuguese. It stands at 30 metres tall (not including the 8 metre base), and the arms stretch out to 28 metres.

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The Christ is located at the top of the Corcovado mountain overlooking the city, so as you can imagine the views are stunning. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite as good as on our first day, and although it was hot, it was pretty foggy.

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Hola Argentina!

Part two of my 6-day trip took me to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We arrived pretty late in the evening, and after checking in headed down to the hotel bar to sample some Argentinian wine!

We were up early the next morning and after breakfast decided to get the hop-on hop-off bus around the city. Only one of the girls had been to Buenos Aires before, so it was the perfect way to get to see the city.

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The guide on the bus recommended a few places for us to get off and see, and our first stop was the “La Recoleta” Cemetery. It is home to the graves of many famous Argentinians, such as Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, and a granddaughter of Napoleon. On the way there the bus passed by plenty of statues and sights.

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