I've made it.

Yes, I've made it to America. Okay first I'll tell you about my flight. The first airplane I went on was a Boeing 757. The flight went well and I enjoyed the persons around me. Next to me was 'Hurley' sitting. I think most of you know who I mean when I say from the television series Lost (the big, kind, almost stupid one). Well if you found out who I mean, can you imagine him in such a tiny, small airplane seat? But it gets better. Behind me there came an elderly couple. First they passed all the rows in the airplane several times before they found out were they supposed to sit down. Then even before they sat down, the man already lost his wife. I believe he was almost blind, but his wife didn't seem to bother much about that. After that half of the airplane found out that they were deaf too. Not so bad, except as the woman is kind of like me (not one single moment quit!). I think many passengers were glad when somewhere half way during the flight the steward asked to be a bit quit for those who want to take a nap. Well somehow I've made it to Philadelphia. There I needed to rush through the customs office (of course I was standing in the wrong line which took hours) and then run to the luggage, drop the luggage straight away at the baggage drop (I'm sorry, I still don't understand why the suitcase couldn't find his own way but needed to be carried from one conveyor belt to an other which were situated next to each other!). Run further, again through a checkpoint and then with the shuttle from gate A to gate F. Right on time I arrived and found out that my flight was delayed with one hour! Oke also not a problem. I grabbed my laptop but at the moment it totally started up, the plane apparently arrived and we could check in. Well I say the plane arrived, but it is hard to call that a plane. Just for your imagination, the plane which I used with the parachute jump a few years ago was bigger than this one. Luckily this one wasn't fully booked as the one before, so there was still a lot of space inside (I don't want to think that I need to sit with 36 persons in such a small thing!). Well glad that we could leave we started to drive around on the airport and stopped again. We needed to wait an other half hour because we were not able to land on time in New York. So after a while we were ready for take off and after an other thirty five minutes we prepared the landing already. At least they tried but because there was no lane available we needed to fly an other round above New York. No problem for me, you could see the whole city, including all the traffic, the (which seems to be) small houses and the tourist attractions such like the Statue of Liberty (which was pretty amazing from above). After we landed well, I walked up to buses. Of course I was half sleeping and I didn't noticed that the bus already passed me two times. But the third bus I could hold up. Then from bus to subway, to an other subway, into the wrong subway, so back and again in an other subway… No problem with a twenty kilo suitcase, a backpack and a photo camera if they have something like elevators but apparently they don't know those in some parts of New York even as the escalator. However after a long day I made it to the Hostel. Checked in, took a shower and went to sleep!

p.s. I don't know how the weather is there at this moment but I can tell you, the sun is shining behind the clouds (at least that was he on Thursday).

And then sightseeing New York

I stood up around eight o'clock. Ready to go. First I took the subway halfway up to Central Park. There I walked around surprised by the lovely area, the many persons and the even more dogs running around! I saw someone lying in the grass, reading the newspaper and ones in a while throwing a bal away. Can you imagine that by three degrees Celsius? Or an other example. I suppose everybody knows the movies with the dog walkers? Well I found out that in real life there are many more of those persons then is shown in the movies. It seems here normal to walk with ten dogs around you. Nice is to see how those people struggle if the lines are mixing up when the dogs suddenly make an unexpected movement. After Central Park I continued my way via the Plaza hotel to the Rockefeller Center, further down to the Empire State building a small way with the subway, walking to the Manhattan and the Brooklyn bridge, the World Trade Centre area (which is still pretty impressive!) and finishing up at the Statue of Liberty. Hanging around a bit and found out that the ferry wasn't going due to Christmas?! So I went back to the Empire State Building and went up to the 86 and 102 floor. Wauw, the view was amazing. And even better I was right on time on the 102 floor to see the sunset! After I went down I walked through Broadway and Times Square. Everything in New York is so huge! Not to late I went back to the Hostel because the next morning I needed to leave the Hostel at five o'clock already.

And now?

And now I'm still sitting here with around me 13 others at the Holiday Inn in New York. Why? Apparently Kilroy booked me on the wrong tour. I've received the documents for 2010 but I've been booked on the tour for 2011. At this moment the tour leader is on his way to the head office to see if an other van is available. This van must have 14 seatbelts in stead of the generally 13 seatbelts. I believe I ruined Christmas for many 'emergency persons' because everybody is heading to the office to sort things out. Hopefully we will depart soon (at this moment we are four hours delayed) and hopefully we will go with fourteen in stead of thirteen persons!

p.s. The group and tour leader are really great!