Day 1

Day 1 Blog     

 

Well we made it!! One long (9 hrs.), uncomfortable flight later we have arrived in Dubai safely. Special thanks to the first mate on the flight, Christen Ellenston (it turns-out Christen went to West   Leeming Primary School and he still calls Leeming home) for allowing us to visit the cockpit of the plane. Everyone suffered from sleep deprivation, yet we’re playing UNO instead of sleeping in the airport.  We had two hours to kill in the airport-most checked out the duty free shops in this massive terminal. We saw the sun rise- the morning light catching the Burg Kalifa; the tallest building in the world before we boarded the Airbus 380 to New York.

We then had another long flight (13 and a half hours) across Europe and the Atlantic; some of us got some sleep but most did not. After landing, we all got off the plane, collected our luggage, went through customs and hopped on the bus to go to the Hampton Inn where we are staying , on the way we noticed hills with loads of gravestones littered all over the place and everywhere we looked was very dull. Most got excited by the sight of the sky-scrappers as we crossed onto Manhattan Island. The traffic we experienced on the way was horrendous, people cutting- in, stopping in the middle of intersections and honking horns, it took us 2 hours to go 500 meters down the road. The normal 40 minute trip from the airport took us nearly 4 hours.

The hotel is small but quite fancy with down pillows and very complicated shower taps. Some of us crashed into bed while the rest walked the block and found good food in a local Mexican Restaurant   and a Pizza Bar.

By Andrew Kerwin and Jonathan Rayfield