Nicci's Eight Month Adventure

Last post folks. Its weird...I was so ready for this moment, ready to stop having this guilt and responsibility of finishing hanging over my head, but its weird to think it'll be over. I've enjoyed the ride, I hope you have too. Alright, time to get on with it.

So I arrived back in London on March 30th (Monday) at about 6am. Waaaaay to early. I grabbed the tube, let myself back into Jan's place (Lauren was visiting family in NZ by this point so it was just Jan and I), and grabbed a massive nap. My last week was spent wandering around the city checking out a last few touristy things and soaking up the city, doing some last minute shopping (I don't care how many celebs rave about TopShop, Primark is the cheapest, best store of all time), and hanging out with Jan getting to know each other better. He's in his mid 30's and has lived in NZ most of his life so we didn't know each other very well before. He and Lauren have done a ton of travelling though since they've been in Europe so we spent some time looking at photos and he told me lots of his travel stories. He made me really want to get to Israel and Egypt. And I still need to check out Egypt!

On Tuesday I went out to Woking and visited with Christy Elliott, a daughter of an old friend of my parents. We had lunch with her mother in law and played with her little boy (she also has another one on the way!) and went shopping. She bought me some chucks for a belated grad present and I AM OBSESSED people. Just to warn you!

For my last weekend Jan and I did some museum hopping. Oh...I checked out the British musem earlier in the week by myself and it was amazing. I loved the Egyptian wing...saw Cleo's mummy. Weird. Jan and I checked out the Natural History museum and the V&A (Victoria and Albert) museum. Turns out he's really into photography and has some amazing equipment...made me jealous! I don't have the stick to itness to make investing worth it though. At least I know myself well enough not to waste the money! On Sunday we did some more market hopping, and I got sore feet in my new Chucks Gorgeous, but not enough support for hours of walking.

On Tuesday I said my goodbyes to Jan and headed off to Heathrow airport. I was promptly informed there were no seats left. I was 3 1/2 hours early. Apparently they oversell their flights! Luckily I was dealing with a super nice woman who got me shoved onto the plane...and my seat even had extra leg room! I had a nice seat neighbour and spent the flight chatting and watching movies.

When I arrived in JFK I was nervous because I didn't have an exact address of where I was staying (I had an overnight layover in NY), but luckily I got a grandfatherly type who just let me through. Jane Chrysostom picked me up (major thanks goes out to her, I only contacted her a few days before I flew in but she was amazing, she came from NJ to get me and dropped me off the next day!), so I got to have a real sleep on a real bed (well, couch, but close enough!) rather than a night being chased by security with all my luggage in freaky NY! One night was enough.

The next day she dropped me off at LaGuardia and I bummed around before heading through security, where I got "randomly selected for additional screening." Again. For the third time on this trip. Pretty sure its not quite that random. I hopped on a tiny plane and flew up to Hali! When we came down through the clouds and I saw Canada I cried. Seriously people, I bawled like a baby, and I was so glad there was no one in the seat next to me! I was just so happy to be home. We were early, and there was no line, and the man at the desk was super kind. I LOVE Canada. I never want to leave again! I think I amused people in the airport with my combo of puffy just finished crying face and creepily huge smile.

Dad wasn't there yet (we were way early) so I went out to wait for him. Of course it was a beautiful day! He showed up quickly, and then took me home to see Mum. It was so incredible to see them again, I missed them SO MUCH. If you ever want to realize how much you take home and family for granted, just go away for 7 months. It becomes all too clear all too quickly.

So now I'm home. And have been for a couple weeks! I'll be starting work in a few weeks, back at the park as an interp and I can't wait. I've had an amazing experience and I wouldn't take any of it back. I highly recommend it to everyone. BUT...if you decide to do a Eurotrip, contact me first for advice. Seriously, I did pretty much everything wrong! I have great advice on what not to do! Hope you're all having a great Spring, will miss writing to you

XOXO,

Nicci

Back again. So, I told you there were some adventures on my bus trip from Paris to London. They weren't the fun kind. They were more of the getting off the bus and hauling your luggage into a massive lineup to have it x-rayed, then hauling it back onto the bus, only to have to get off again 10 minutes later to get grilled with a million questions before having my passport stamped. And this was all before we left France and got unto the Eurotunnel (like a massive moving sidewalk that vehicles ride under the channel). But I made it.

When I got in, I thanked the heavens that the signs were finally in English! I missed my own language being readily available. I used my cousin Eryn's (cousin on my Dad's side) directions to catch the trains to her place, then called her from a payphone and she and her fiancee Steve walked out to meet me. We had a nice get to know you chat...she grew up with Mum far from Albert County so we really didn't know each other aside from a few emails (so it was extra nice of her to let me stay!).

I spent the next week at Eryn and Steve's apartment in Shadwell, which is East of central London, but an easy trainride into the city. My first real day, Monday, was spent exploring the insanely awesome Oxford Street, London's main shopping district. Home to TopShop, H&M, Selfridges, and my personal fave; Primark. I bought myself some insanely inappropriate shoes (but OH SO gorgeous...grey suede sky high heels!), and raided TopShop for a great little purse and some tights. I'm sure you're all enthralled with this account of my shopping! But it was fantastic. Ok, enough gushing.

Tuesday, I made plans to meet up with Michael, the guy I met in Rome, who was also in London. It was St. Patty's day, so we made plans to meet at a tube stop and go check out Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. We had a mix up though and didn't end up connecting (turns out tubes have multiple exits), so I checked them out myself and went postcard and souvenir shopping to boot. We did meet up later though and went for some St. Patty's day beer, though London was alot tamer than I expected, considering the holiday basically equals drinking.

The next day I went to the Science Museum (London fun fact, almost all the museums are free!), and did some exploring. It was cool but different than I was expecting, alot more historical than I had pictured. Thursday Michael and I planned to meet at Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard, but that was pretty much the worst idea I've ever had...there were seriously thousands of people there! I guess people get there as early as 7am to get a good spot for the 11:30 show. I got to see it, it was mostly alot of marching and music and stomping and whatnot.

We had more luck on Friday, when we went on a massive walk around the parks in London. We checked out Hyde park and St. James park, as well as Trafalgar Square. It was so beautiful that day, the trees had blossoms and the parks were packed! Apparently Londoners frequent the parks as soon as the weather turns nice, and it was like a Spring heatwave that week, incredible weather for that time of year. That evening I met Eryn and her coworker Alice for drinks and dinner at one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants on the water. Steve came too but got a text and had to leave early to get some report done for Sunday (the banking industry...stressful work these days).

Saturday morning Eryn and I met up with Alice again to check out the Borough Market. We walked from her house to the Tower of London, crossed the Tower Bridge, and grabbed smoothies and falafel wraps at the market. From there we headed on to Tate Modern Museum, the Globe Theatre (SO COOL! I love Shakespeare), London Bridge (kind of a letdown...its just a plain old bridge, way more boring than Tower Bridge), and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Some time during the week Eryn (who, by the way, reminds me of Denise in a big way!!) told me all about a bus tour of Scotland she had done a few weeks back. She looked it up online to show me and it turned out it was on sale until Easter, so I was spontaneous and signed up. Sunday Eryn took me out for a yummy brunch and then I packed up my gear and headed of to stay with my cousin Jan (on my Mum's side this time), who lives with his girlfriend Lauren North of central London.

He met me at his tube stop and we dropped my stuff at his apartment, then headed out pretty much straight away by bus (my first double decker!) to meet Lauren, walk around some incredible markets, and eat some yummy market food. We also grabbed some cider in a crazy old pub. Seriously, Europe is OLD. The cities have so much more history than ours its insane. Quite humbling as well.

Monday was a pretty quiet day, I settled in, caught up on sleep, and packed a (much smaller) bag for my Scotland trip. Tuesday I headed to Victoria Station and settled in for my overnight bus ride (seriously, I am so over these. I am getting way too old). Will post my last couple sections very soon, promise. XOXO.

Well, I'm home. And I'm not starting full time work for awhile, AND I'm unpacked, so I'm officially out of excuses for avoiding finishing this up. Not that I don't love having it to look back on, its just alot of work. But here I am, sitting down at Mum and Dad's brand new mac using their brand new (satellite powered) high speed. Or medium speed, as Mum calls it.

So. I grabbed several trains to arrive in Vichy, which is a medium sized town in France. Of course, this leg of the trip wasn't without its problems. I arrived at my first stop in France and was informed that the train I was supposed to catch in 25 minutes was full and I would have to wait 2 hours for the next one. Which meant using my (super rusty) french to buy a phone card that I only ended up using that one time, even though it cost me 7 euros. I called Sarah (an old acquaintace of my parents) to let her know I was running late. We caught up on the hour long drive to the house she shares with her partner, Christophe, getting in pretty late at night. It was so freaking amazing to have a double bed in a room all to myself, with a roaring fire just through the door.

I took full advantage of my time there, sleeping in, taking naps, going for a run, practicing my french, and tasting the amazing fresh bread and pastries from the shop across the road. They had friends over on my last night there and so my french really got put to the test. I did alright, understanding most of what was said and being able to get my point across most of the time. The accents are so different there though, it made it all a bit of a challenge, especially when I was surrounded by 5 french people having a warp speed conversation.

On Friday (I arrived there on Monday night) I caught a train up through Paris and on to Amsterdam. I had a changeover in Paris and of course, it was slightly complicated. I got into one station (Gare de Lyon), and left out of another one (Gare de Nord) just under half an hour later. I had to find the metro station, figure out how to get to my stop, and then find the station at the other end. The signs sucked, so I ended up jumping on a train I was pretty sure was the right one and getting lucky.

I got into Amsterdam around 5 that evening, and used the local trams to get to my hostel, just south of the city center. I made friends with a guy in the common room right away and he gave me a bunch of his old books. Score! I was in a room with 9 other people in that hostel, and only one of them was a girl. The rest were 1 british guy, 2 italians, and 5 guys from all over who went to university together in copenhagen. The other girl and I (Fabiolla) ended up getting convinced to go out with the lot of them, and we went to a coffeeshop, a bar, and then a club. We danced for ages and got home really late. That was fine for me, I slept in and caught up, but poor Fabiolla had to catch a flight at 6am! I'm not even sure if she went to bed.

That afternoon I went on a free walking tour with a company called NewEurope. Their tours are free, and the guides only get paid in tips. This means they only get paid if they do a really good job, so the tours are amazing. The guides are all young people who were exchange students but loved the city so much they stayed, and the tours are done in 10 or so countries across Europe.

I got an AMAZING guide, he reminded me of Dan Sinclair, for those of you who know him. He was hilarious and we spent the 3 1/2 hour tour laughing our faces off. We saw all kinds of things, from the red light district to the Anne Frank House, and learned all about the city. I recommend these tours to anyone going to Europe. Seriously, check them out.

That night, I ended up going out dancing again, this time with 2 girls I met in the common room. We had so much fun, the music was amazing but the club was PACKED. Honestly, it was wall to wall, body against sweaty body. It was...interesting. I got to talking with the girls the next day and we realized that not only were we all headed to Berlin the next day, but we were going on the same train! It was fun to finally have someone to travel with again!

Berlin will be in my next post, my last day in Amsterdam (Sunday) was pretty quiet, it was mostly spent recovering from my first two nights there! One of the things I learned on my tour was that the red light district and coffee shops (which sell pot, by the way) will be shut down by 2015, so if anyone reading this wants to check either of those things out, its time to get over there! Much love, will write again soon and get you all caught up. XOXO.

So, I have officially arrived in Rome. I got into my hostel at 1am on Tuesday morning, and man, was it a rough trip to get here. I left my aunt and uncle's place just outside of Auckland before 6am on Sunday, and drove in with Jan and Mike to the airport. We had breakfast and said our goodbyes...I am so SICK of goodbyes, then I hopped onto my first flight. It was about 11 hours, and took me to Hong Kong. There I had a very short layover (less than an hour), before hopping on another plane to Tokyo. There I had a much longer layover (about 15 hours). I had planned on just crashing out in the airport on some chairs, but when I arrived I was informed that the airport closed at 11pm (this was around 9:30pm). So I went to the only open information desk and had a hotel recommended to me. I went outside (my first encounter with cold in a REALLY long time, and all I had was my carry on luggage) and tried to find the bus. I ended up finding a young japanese couple who worked at a hotel and spoke a small amount of english. They were really nice and tried really hard but we had a lot of trouble with the language barrier and with figuring out the yen to dollar conversion, so I could find out in advance how much I would have to pay. Finally, they spoke to a security guard and we found out that there was a small area that would remain open and be patrolled, and that I could stay there overnight. So that's what I did.

It wasn't the best night's sleep but I survived. From Tokyo I hopped on another plane to Amsterdam. Sadly, that was the end of the good part of my travels. I got a really sore throat on the plane and had a really bad stomachache. I felt like death warmed over during my stop in Amsterdam, where I was super paranoid my flight would be the next one cancelled. Luckily it wasn't, and I hopped on my next plane to (finally!) Rome. I got in at quarter after 10, waited ages for my luggage while freaking out that maybe it hadn't made it all the way through, then finally got it and made my way to customs. Except there was no customs. I didn't even get my passport stamped! It was super sketchy. I found my way to the train station and had an interesting time trying to sort out how to buy my ticket from a machine. In Italy you not only have to buy a ticket, but you also have to get it stamped in a separate location. In my opinion, its a crappy system.

I got to my hostel shortly after midnight, and was so so glad I had booked ahead. I was so exhausted from the travel and from being sick that I collapsed (I was even falling alseep on the train ride to my hostel). I slept pretty much the whole next day. I got up around 5:30 and met some of my roommates, then went back to bed for another night. The next day I forced myself to get up and did some sight seeing with one of my roommates, Samantha. We went to the spanish steps, Villa Borghese, PIazze del Popolo, and the Coliseum. She was from NYC and it was so nice to meet someone that sounded like me!

I was really lucky at the Pop Inn Hostel, I had some amazing roommates. The next day (Thursday), Samantha and I went to the Trevi fountain and the Vatican City and the checked out the Basilica, museums, and the Sistine Chapel. It was gorgeous but a long walk! That afternoon we had another roommate (Michael) check in. It turned into a really fun room to hang out in and talk. That night most of my roommates went out for what was called Eddie's Night Out (a night out at a bar and club with one of the guys who worked at the hostel, basically a roman pub crawl), but I stayed home to get more sleep.

On Friday, Michael and I went to explore the places Samantha had already seen before I arrived/during my sleeping day. We went to the Roman Forum, the Pantheon (which was incredibly preserved, it looked so new!), and piazza navona. The piazza was full of artists and musicians and was a great place to people watch (Dad would have loved it!). That night, in spite of the fact that both Michael and I were sick, we all went out on Eddie's Night Out (he does it every night except Sunday, he must get exhausted!). It was so much fun and we stayed out dancing until 5am!

The next day we were all exhausted but checkout was at 10:30am so we all got up and packed and headed out to wander around the city one last time. We said sad goodbyes to Michael and Sam and I waited around in the train station for ages. It was cold and super old fashioned looking. Our train was delayed by just under an hour, and we sat outside waiting in the cold winter air.

Finally we got on, but had a hard time figuring out where we were supposed to be sitting. We weren't even supposed to be sitting together! We found a nearly empty carriage and just decided to go for it. It was a short night...I slept most of the way and woke up as we were pulling into Verona (home of Romeo and Juliet). We got in at 6am and had to wait a couple hours for our hostel to open, but we found the bus just fine and the guy at the desk was nice and let us have breakfast and leave our luggage behind. We headed out and explored one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.

It was much older looking than Rome, like a small, well preserved town. It felt to me like a town up in the mountains of Switzerland (not that I've ever been there). We went to Juliet's house and saw the balcony, and stumbled upon a mini play in action. It was a beautiful place to wander around, but very cold.

We were both exhausted after 3 hours sleep friday night and 6 hours on the train and crashed out before 7pm. Today we're heading out to separate places (me to Florence, Sam to Venice), and have spent the morning on the computer trying to get everything sorted out. Hope all is well with everyone, much love around the world, send me healthy vibes so I can stop being sick! XOXO.

So, when I last left you, April and I were about to get off the bus at Tauranga. We got in Wednesday the evening, and an old friend of Mike and Jan (named Rob) picked us up. I’d met Rob the last time I was here and his son even came out to visit us in Canada. Tauranga is a nice town that’s about 15 minutes away from Mt. Manganui, which is a great little beach town and the site of our campground.

Rob not only picked us up, but took us to a grocery store and waited very patiently while we picked out all sorts of goodies that didn’t need a fridge or stove. We were camping, so of course we’d have to rough it with food for those few days! He took us to the campsite, helped us unload, stayed until we were settled in, and then invited us for a bbq at his place on Friday (this was on Wednesday evening). What a guy.

April and I spent the evening setting up my teeny little tent and shoving our stuff inside, eating fish and chips (YUM!), and checking out the campground. Turns out, it had not only a fridge and stove, but also a toaster, bbq, and microwave. Argh! Oh well, these things happen. At least we got to put our bottle of wine in the fridge instead of on the bag of ice we’d bought!

We had an early night and early morning (camp life) and headed to the beach before 9. It was a good thing we got there so early, because it was already hot and intense and it only got more so. We spent a few hours enjoying the beach and roasting. We went for a swim, but I ran out of the water screaming when April pointed out a jellyfish that was about to crash into my leg. That afternoon we had a walk and then some more beach time.

They next day, we decided to head up to the center of town and visit one of the most popular beaches, right beside the mountain. Unfortunately, it started to rain right after we arrived. Fortunately, we had just bought a huge sun umbrella to protect me from the blazing sun. Even my spf 70 hadn’t been enough the day before, so I wasn’t taking any chances. We waited out the rain, and it turned nice out. We got in some more swimming, and lounged on the beach. Well, April did, I hid under the umbrella with a book 

We had a huge photo session, during which my camera died. Well, it would turn on just fine, but when you pressed the button to take a picture, it would turn off! Kind of useless. I was incredibly bummed. At least I had won that money at the casino, so I was still coming out ahead, but I was unimpressed to have to spend it before I even got to Europe. Luckily though, April had hers still, and the plan was to use hers until we got back to Palmerston North, then either get mine fixed or buy a new one. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as planned.

Just before we left the beach, we were doing yet another photo shoot on April’s camera. Just as we were finishing up, her camera broke. Seriously. Her zoom wouldn’t slide back in, so she couldn’t take pictures at all. She was so bummed. On the walk back to the bus stop (we took a bus to get into the center of town), I had my shoes in my hand, and one of them swung and accidentally hit her camera. And it fixed it! The zoom went back in and it worked perfectly.

We made our way (excitedly) back to the campsite and got cleaned up. Rob and his wife Donna came and picked us up and took us back to their place. There we relaxed, drank wine, ate a huge meal complete with tons of nibbles, and lovely conversation with Rob, Donna, and Donna’s son Matt. He was home on school holiday, before finishing up his masters in geology. At the end of the night we got a drive back and pretty much collapsed into the tent.

The next day, we hit up the beach one last time. Sadly, April’s camera did not remain perfect, and the zoom went out of whack again. She immediately decided to go to the nearest mall, hit up K-mart, and get a new one. I was sure I’d wait for Palmerston North, but figured it couldn’t hurt to look. Well. Did we ever get a good deal. For less than $200 NZD (meaning a lot less in Canadian dollars), we got a new camera (9.0 mega pixels, optical zoom, all the good stuff), a case, batteries, and two 2 gb memory cards. Talk about a sweet deal, I was so excited. My old camera had served me well but it had 4.0 mega pixels and no zoom to speak of.

On Sunday, Rob and Donna picked us up and took us to the bus station. We hopped on yet another bus, and headed down to Taupo, where Jan, Mike, and Kalvin met us. We did some touring of the area, checking out Huka Falls, a huge place where they release incredible amounts of water, beautiful views, lake Taupo, and finally the campground in Turangi where we were staying that night. They had been incredible and booked us a cabin to share so we wouldn’t have to tent again. April was BEYOND excited about that.

To be honest though, these were the tiniest little cabins I have ever seen. The whole place looked like the perfect setting for a slasher flick. Old and deserted. It was a nice little spot though, and we met some interesting people, including a French guy that Jan and Mike invited back to the farm if he was so inclined (he has yet to show up though).

We got an early night and the next morning headed out to National Park to start the hike. The Hike. The Tongariro Crossing. This was a 19.4 km, 7 hour experience. Jan and Kalvin did the first section with us, then turned back and drove the car around to meet us. Just as they were leaving, it started to pour. We were up high, so we were hot and sweaty from hiking uphill, and freezing cold from the rain. It was a very odd combination. We made it up though, and were rewarded on the other side with a view of incredible emerald lakes, which are lakes in which the water is turquoise. I have never seen water that color in nature. We had our lunch beside a lake, then started the three hours back down. Although the rain had let up for lunch, as soon as we took our rain gear off (about 2 hours from the end), it started to pour again. I mean pour. We put our electronics (camera, cell phone, ipod) into plastic bags and prayed, because we got soaked through to the bone. I was pretty upbeat for most of the time, skipping along and enjoying it more than any hike I have ever done, but by the time we had 2 km left, I was just ready to be out of there. The views were incredible, and I would actually do it again given the chance. It was nice to get to the end though and change into warm clothes and go grab togs and head to the mineral pools.

We slipped into the naturally heated (by volcanoes) water, lounging in a private hot tub and then going into the larger but still hot public pool. Then we headed back to the camp site and enjoyed a hot meal and a good sleep. The first night we were there, a very loud, very long alarm had gone off in the middle of the night. It turned out to be for the volunteer fire department, but at the time April and I had no idea what was going on. She was freaking out, saying we had to leave, and I just wanted to go back to bed. We got up to use the bathroom, and on the way back both started thinking things like: what if its an alarm that everyone around here knows means there’s a psycho on the loose? We pretty much ran back to our cabin!

The next day I woke up with terror in the pit of my stomach. It was the day of the bungy jump. Oh, hadn’t I mentioned that already? It had basically been decided for me that I was doing a bungy jump at gravity canyon (80m), the highest bridge bungy in NZ. We had visited one in Taupo a couple days earlier and April had decided it didn’t look too bad (47m) and that she could do it too. When we got to gravity canyon, I had a pretty hard time convincing her though.

After about 45 minutes of pushing, she signed the form and paid the money. Then it was my turn to get nervous. We got harnessed in and walked out on the bridge. They checked our harnesses out there (one on our feet, plus a back up body harness), then gave us a little run through of what would happen. April was nervous but quiet. I was nervous and couldn’t shut up. I was freaking out. We got our feet attached together and then told we had to walk out on a tiny little platform that we would jump off. When we had to decide who would go first, we had a little argument up there. You. No you! Eventually April stepped up. That meant that while I got to hold onto her and tuck my head to the side to prevent myself from looking down she had only my arms to hold onto and nothing to stop her looking down.

As we took baby steps out (it felt like she was dragging me), she looked down. I didn’t. The girl kept telling April not to look down, and she’d pop her head up, but then it would go down again. We got to the end, and the girl told us to wave to the camera. April did, but I refused. I didn’t want to let go. Then she said 3-2-1-Bungy, and gave us a little push. April leaned forward, and down we went. And man, did I scream. April lost her voice for the initial fall, but I screamed the whole way. On the way back up, I started to laugh, having a grand old time. That was when April found her voice and started to scream and say oh my god over and over (which is the same thing she said on the way out on the platform). We got down fine, our feet hurt a bit from the harness though. We got lifted back up in this chair, and were told we were the best screamers they’d had in a long time!

We had huge grins and it was so incredible, I would totally do it again. On an adrenaline high, I agreed to also do the flying fox (1km long, up to 160km/h, 175m high). It was a long walk up and a good rush going down.

We made our way back to the farm and settled in. We spent April’s last couple days puttering around here, showing her farm life, then heading into Jess’s shop and making her some souvenirs to take home. In all, she got to see the city life, a beach, a tramp, a bungy, and a farm. Pretty representative I would say! We had so much fun and I miss her tons now that she’s gone. If you’re reading this, good for you girl for coming. Can’t wait to see you when I get home! Mucho love, XOXO.