MIAMI!

Day 1
Friday

Just to be sure.

This is how it started. Two hours of sleep, a cab at 4.30am to the RobertQ bus terminal, a cup of Timmy's half&half and off to the airport. That coffee was a mistake since I wasn't able to sleep on the bus and I also kept my friend awake (and annoyed) with my constant babbling. We were a group of 8 exchange students from Finland, France, The Netherlands and Belgium.

The flight was supposed to leave at 9:20am but it kept being more and more delayed due to some fog in New York. We had to change our connecting flight twice and when we were finally given the green flag I think it was around 12 o'clock. Thank goodness for good company and WiFi.

Our tiny ride and our perky steward. Dat scarf tho....

The plane was tiny but we had good seats thanks to some people who asked to change seats with me. Once we got to land at La Guardia, New York, after a little bit of circling in the sky, there was a small scare since one of us got lost from the group. The airport was crowded and there were no employees visible. We already thought about making an announcement but luckily she found her way back. And even more luckily we all got to leave at about the same time although in two different planes.

Once we stepped out of the airport in Miami the air gave us a WARM welcome. We were all knackered after a loooong day of travelling so after checking in at the hostel we just went to have something to eat and headed back to the hostel to sleep (even though some people had talked about going out...).


Day 2
Saturday

We greeted the Floridian sun with a little bit too much enthusiasm and spent hours on the beach. Result: a lot of bright red burnt skin. (joojoo äiti, tyhmää.) The water was nicely warm and there were no big waves so swimming was fun! Can't even remember the last time before that. Also tried to go parasailing (which I reeeeeally wanted to do) but there was a long queue and the price was higher than what we were told before.

Our beach.

Day 3
Sunday

Bayside Marketplace. Not a very exciting place imo. Almost everyone bought a pair of shoes though. I bought a new pair of All Stars, yay! Btw, I'm still pissed I took FRIES with garlic shrimp haha. The ordering situation was just too confusing for me... Or maybe it was the pain killers I'd had to take to ease the pain of my sunburns...

Bayside Marketplace. As you can see.

Day 4
Monday

 Little Havana and Wynwood. Little Havana is home to most of the Cubans in town (which is a lot)  and the other latinos. We only saw The Walk of Fame and Calle Ocho which were really not that exciting either. (I'm giving a really good picture of Miami here haha. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely place.) So since we were getting bored in Little Havana our French friends' French friend guided us to the Wynwood Art District. Now, THAT was awesome. Street art everywhere. As a street art enthusiast I had a hard time keeping up with the rest of the group as I was taking pictures and admiring the works of art. We just walked around (I don't even know where) for a couple of hours, had lunch, went to see the Wynwood Walls, got a little bit lost, waited for the bus for a very long time singing all kinds of song from nursery rhymes to My Heart Will Go On (for some reason the others pretended they didn't know us...). Saw and definitely heard (I can still hear it in my head) a car crash into a tree. I guess the driver was texting or fell asleep cause there really wasn't any apparent reason for it (note that it was a MALE driver). Well the bus never came so we walked to another bus stop and eventually got home safe.
Then we just hung out on the rooftop of the hostel chilling, listening to music, playing pool and having some drinks. There was also a limbo competition which I did NOT participate in to save myself and the others from humiliation.

Our epically street credible gang.

I was so stoked to see a Banksy piece!

One of my favourites. Artist: Eduardo Kobra

The Wynwood Doors

Day 5
 Tuesday

We went shopping with the girls. We just walked on the shopping street on South Beach. Collins Avenue was the name of the street I believe. I also planned to go to a mall because everything's a lot cheaper in the US but sadly all the malls were very far away.

Since I don't have have any pictures from our shopping trips here's a pretty cool car.

Day 6
 Wednesday

I think on Wednesday we visited the beach again but this time very quickly and I didn't even take my dress off even though it was cloudy - I did not want to make the burns any worse since just about every movement and especially sleeping was painful enough as it was (and wearing a bra). And I'm not exaggerating or being a martyr here, I really was quite badly burnt from some places. So were almost all the others too.
While we were hanging out on the rooftop a promoter finally convinced us to go out telling us we'd get free drinks and stuff but it was quite a disappointment. No free drinks or anything - just the opposite actually. Ridiculously expensive drinks, crappy music, too many people. And my bracelet got stuck in a stranger's dress. Aaawkward. But the only thought in my head at the moment when she was ripping it out was that I really effing hope that it's not an expensive dress and she won't make me pay for it. Luckily she just laughed it off and continued dancing. Pheeew!
We left quite early since none of us were really having a good time (well the boys were and they stayed till the very end...........).

Las chicas

Day 7
Thursday

 We went rollerblading next to the beach. I didn't notice one of the wheels on my rollerblades was almost cut to half until I was far away from the rental place so that made it a bit more difficult and it would've been difficult enough for me even without that. But it was a lot of fun anyway and luckily people realized it would be better to get out of our way since almost none of us new how to break. So despite the lack of skills it was very delightful (didn't wanna use 'fun' again) until one of us fell and hit her tailbone. Ouch :(.
We had rented the rollerblades for two hours but some of us had to head back to the hostel after a little over an hour so we'd have time to take a shower and get some lunch before going to see the Miami Heat vs. New York Knicks basketball game. Although I don't really even watch sports it was a nice experience to see the NBA pros at work. Two words: LeBron James.

Wow. Such hip.

LBJ doing his thaaang.

Day 8
Friday

Me and three other girls went back to the rental place and rented rollerblades and Segways. I chose the Segway because I'd always wanted to try one. I had some doubts though in the beginning but the guy at the shop gave me a quick lesson on how to operate it and I quickly became a pro haha. He also recommended us to go to the southernmost tip of the island to the South Pointe Park. It seemed like a very cozy park and the views were nice too. Afterwards we just walked around a bit taking pictures and popping in some small shops. We also made a last minute visit to the post office just when they were closing and experienced some not so friendly service while we were there.
In the evening we all went to the beach to take pictures and just enjoy of the scenery. Some shoes, phones and wallets took a swim in the sea thanks to the rapidly rising tide. After that we went to have dinner and some big cocktails that we'd been drooling after for the whole week. The we hurried back to the hostel to see our buddy Omar's Michael Jackson performance. He'd been hanging out with us the whole week and promoting the show so how could we miss it!

Deuces. I'm an outsider with my segway. It's ok, I'm used to it.

South Pointe Park

My ride. And my new All Stars.

Day 9
Saturday  


Time to head back home. For the the first time returning home from a trip didn't feel sad at all because I was coming back to Canada. I'm usually very grumpy when going back home but I was surprisingly cheery even despite the 3 am wake-up. The officer at the the customs desk in the Toronto airport made my day by welcoming me home. 

Bye bye for now Obamaland. I might be wrong but I think that strip of land there is Miami Beach/South Beach

***

I'm not really sure if I got the days right since I don't really remember anymore but who cares anyway. There were also lots and lots of cool cars, bus rides, eating at restaurants, cocktails and drinks, hanging out at the rooftop, beer pong, chatting with other travellers and just enjoying the holiday. I had a great time but next time I'll be wiser when dealing with the sun.

*******

Now let's just hope the spring we saw for a couple of days comes back fast.
4 final exams next week. First London Knights game today (Friday), yayy!

*********

Ps. note that there's a post about my apartment too. I didn't share it on facebook so not a lot of people have seen it but a lot of people were asking for it so there you go!

The journey

So... A few days back I wrote a looong post about these same things and it just disappeared. Now that I've finally gotten over the horrendous anger that caused me I'm gonna try again.


Checking in on the flight caused my blood pressure to rise quite a bit. The attendant wasn't sure if I was allowed to come here without either a visa or a return ticket. So I had to wait for her to get her supervisor there and then wait for them to figure it out. Well the outcome was that they allowed me on the flight but they warned me that I "may be refused entry" when I arrived in Canada. Luckily the officer in Toronto just asked me some questions etc but never even hinted that I might need to buy a return ticket or anything.

Some people are afraid of flying, but I actually enjoy it very much. Especially the take offs and landings, which are the hardest part for many people. The feeling is something quite unique... It's like being on a roller coaster plus at the same time feeling like you're as free as a bird. Well that sounded cheesy...
So the flights went well, but I was pretty exhausted when I arrived in Toronto, because for some reason I'm not able to sleep on a plane... Maybe I enjoy it too much haha. So when I got to the customs desk and had to fill out the form my hands were shaking. The guy must've noticed it since he volunteered to fill in the rest of the form for me. Fortunately he must've also guessed that it was due to being tired and not nervous cause I'm a terrorist or something.
I was surprised by how many times they wanted to check me and the form. I had to show it three more times and each time I'd just put it back in my bag so I had to dig it put every time, and in the end the last guy checking it kept it. So that went well.

There might've been a free shuttle to the hotel but I didn't know about it and was too tired to even think about that so I just took an overpriced taxi. The hotel was nice but not as nice as I'd expected since it was a Hilton. But I just watched some TV and went to bed, and at least the King-size bed was really nice. So was the breakfast. Yum yum yum.

I had made a reservation with RobertQ for a minibus-ride from the airport to London. I expected to see some great views etc on the way but the only interesting thing I saw were the signs for an African Lion Safari and a Butterfly Conservatory. And multiple signs for Tim Horton's and Starbucks.

In London I had to take a taxi again since I had no idea how to get from the terminal to my apartment. At least it wasn't as expensive as last time and the driver was really nice and asked questions and told me where we were etc.

I'll make a separate post about the apartment and all that some day in the future.

I can't come up with a good ending sentence so I'll just throw some pics here.

Can someone tell me what those glowing orange roofs are in Iceland

Wanna go for a swim?

The view from my hotel room. Nice cars..........

Packing!

I only started packing today, the day before leaving. But when I moved, I was clever enough to sort my clothes then, which made it a whole lot easier. I had three different categories: the ones that would be going back there with me, the ones that would not, and the ones that I would take with me to Canada. I'm only taking the clothes that I know I'll wear.

In total I'm allowed to take 56 kg of stuff with me (2 x 23kg + 10kg). Noooot planning on exceeding that. At the moment I've packed almost everything and my suitcase is only 17,6kg and backpack like 3kg so no worries!

This is the best ever travel related invention imo! (a bag scale)

Easy peasy pumpkin peasy! A bit blurred but note that I'm holding it up with one hand and taking a picture with the other

I went shopping on Monday and I was looking for a backpack and had a hard time deciding what I wanted so in the end I just bought one that was on sale. Accidentally it's a bit matchy-mathcy with my suitcase... Ooopsie!

I also finally went to the bank today to get some dollars. Well actually I'd gone before but I didn't want spend all day queuing in there... But this time I just had to wait. The bank opened at 10 and I was there at about 10.20. And I left at 11.10. Yay! I guess all the grannies had been waiting outside for the door to be opened... I felt a bit queasy due to not having eaten anything and I couldn't even sit down because I had to let the elderly to rest their brittle bones (no one told me to but that's just how I roll... even though I don't always like it).

That was my line number. And it was number 8's turn when I went in.

It would've been just my luck that after all that waiting they wouldn't have had any CADs but luckily they did... Love the peeking 'hole'!

I still can't really comprehend that tomorrow I'll actually be in Canada... Well maybe I'll realise it on the plane. I don't think I'll have the energy to go to downtown Toronto tomorrow and I'll probably just hang out in the hotel, but we'll see. It takes an hour to get there on public transport and the flight lands at 17.55 so it'd get quite late... But I'll have time to go there later, it's not that far!

Last supper :b

All packed and ready to go!

Aaaaaaaaahahdocdicjöjcweoc we'll see if I get any sleep this night... At least I think I've got everything ready so I won't need to worry. But I'll probably worry anyways. Ohh well, at least I get to relax and take some time to gather my thoughts at the hotel before going to London and moving in on Saturday.