Hawaii (Waikiki Beach)
(03.02.2008 - 07.02.2008)
On the flight over from Fiji to Hawaii we crossed the dateline, so Rob got to celebrate his birthday twice, once on the plane and again the day after we landed! We thought that the Polynesian culture would still be a strong underlying feature of the Hawaiian Islands. Instead we found a completely Americanised holiday resort. Never the less the sea was beautiful, so we took every opportunity to make up for the Fijian cyclone.
We spent a lot of our time on the beaches where we bodyboarded at one of the most dangerous breaks in Hawaii. Everybody seemed very relaxed but there were also some very "interesting" characters around.
We spent Rob's birthday drinking tinned beers and eating a Hawaiian pizza on the beach while we watched an amazing sunset. Classy!
With all the surfing and sunbathing we found ourselves feeling very tired so we had to refuel ourselves with some original American cuisine.
In amongst all the huge tower blocks around Waikiki beach there were more than a few examples of Hawaii's natural beauty.
New York
(08.02.2008 - 12.02.2008)
The first thing that you notice about New York is that it is extremely multi-cultural. This is as a result of all the immigrants that have come over the years. We were feeling a little strange as we knew that very soon we were going to be home and we thought it would be hard to concentrate on experiencing New York. However, we ended up speechless at the magnitude of the city and became completely overwhelmed by the rush of New York.
One big difference to the rest of trip was the temperature, it was -12 at one point.
Whilst in the Big Apple we completely embraced being a tourist and found ourselves 1,250ft up in the air on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building with a fat pigeon!
This building is the WT7 building. The first of the World Trade Towers to be rebuilt.
Whilst in New York we got to experience many difficult cultures by visiting the different immigrant areas. In Little Italy we enjoyed huge NY size pizza slices!
We were also really lucky as our visit coincided with the Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat (our birth year). Chinatown in NY was an amazing place to share the celebrations and believe me they really celebrated!
This is the famous Brooklyn Bridge. You had a really good view of the NY skyline from here.
But as you can see from below it was extremely cold and windy.
We were also really happy as we had snow in NY. It was really magical to walk through Time Square with the flakes swirling around us.
As most of you probably know, we are back in "sunny" England! We took a British Airways flight from New York and found it really amusing to hear all those strong British accents!
We had an absolutely amazing time on our travels, something that we will always remember, we definitely grew together as a couple as well as individuals.
Thank you everyone for following our travels, I hope you all enjoyed it, we'll keep you posted on any news, we're already planning to go back to Thailand to visit a friend and planning our Europe trip - so as they say... watch this space!!
Jen and Rob x x x x
(03.02.2008 - 07.02.2008)
On the flight over from Fiji to Hawaii we crossed the dateline, so Rob got to celebrate his birthday twice, once on the plane and again the day after we landed! We thought that the Polynesian culture would still be a strong underlying feature of the Hawaiian Islands. Instead we found a completely Americanised holiday resort. Never the less the sea was beautiful, so we took every opportunity to make up for the Fijian cyclone.We spent a lot of our time on the beaches where we bodyboarded at one of the most dangerous breaks in Hawaii. Everybody seemed very relaxed but there were also some very "interesting" characters around.We spent Rob's birthday drinking tinned beers and eating a Hawaiian pizza on the beach while we watched an amazing sunset. Classy!With all the surfing and sunbathing we found ourselves feeling very tired so we had to refuel ourselves with some original American cuisine. In amongst all the huge tower blocks around Waikiki beach there were more than a few examples of Hawaii's natural beauty.New York
(08.02.2008 - 12.02.2008)
The first thing that you notice about New York is that it is extremely multi-cultural. This is as a result of all the immigrants that have come over the years. We were feeling a little strange as we knew that very soon we were going to be home and we thought it would be hard to concentrate on experiencing New York. However, we ended up speechless at the magnitude of the city and became completely overwhelmed by the rush of New York. One big difference to the rest of trip was the temperature, it was -12 at one point. Whilst in the Big Apple we completely embraced being a tourist and found ourselves 1,250ft up in the air on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building with a fat pigeon! This building is the WT7 building. The first of the World Trade Towers to be rebuilt.Whilst in New York we got to experience many difficult cultures by visiting the different immigrant areas. In Little Italy we enjoyed huge NY size pizza slices! We were also really lucky as our visit coincided with the Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat (our birth year). Chinatown in NY was an amazing place to share the celebrations and believe me they really celebrated! This is the famous Brooklyn Bridge. You had a really good view of the NY skyline from here. But as you can see from below it was extremely cold and windy. We were also really happy as we had snow in NY. It was really magical to walk through Time Square with the flakes swirling around us.As most of you probably know, we are back in "sunny" England! We took a British Airways flight from New York and found it really amusing to hear all those strong British accents!
We had an absolutely amazing time on our travels, something that we will always remember, we definitely grew together as a couple as well as individuals.
Thank you everyone for following our travels, I hope you all enjoyed it, we'll keep you posted on any news, we're already planning to go back to Thailand to visit a friend and planning our Europe trip - so as they say... watch this space!!
Jen and Rob x x x x
