McPlassmann Honeymoon

I'm blogging this entry from Singapore Changi airport - most likely the last one of our trip - how sad!

We stayed overnight in Changi Village hotel, which is very nice actually - just to break up the trip home. We had an ok sleep but it was nice just to lie in a bed and have a decent meal before getting on the plane again.

Singapore airlines yet again proves its one of the best airlines in the world, if not the best. Their upgraded entertainment system on the new Boeing 777 aircraft is just insanely good. Widescreen 10" LCD screens on the back of the seats, with word processing capability, in-seat power in economy, USB access and tons of movies and tv shows to watch on-demand... can't ask for much more. The new 777 aircraft are fantastic, much more legroom and more airy design inside - if anybody gets the option to fly a 777, take it - you won't regret it.

Hester drove to Frankfurt airport from Hilchenbach and I'd forgotten how much fun those Autobahns are, even from the passengers seat. There will always be the little revhead boy in me I guess

Next stop, Sydney, then Canberra! Hope everybody enjoyed the blog - looking forward to catching up when we get back to Aussieland - and for those Germans reading - we'll see you next year!

Craig and Hester

We had our "little" party here at Hester's parents place in Hilchenbach two days ago which was great. Food was awesome - Annette and Ortwin hired a caterer to provide the food and there was so much and so much choice it was a feast.

Couldn't have been luckier with the weather, a gorgeous day actually quite similar to the day we had in Australia for our wedding, so everybody drank and talked in the sunshine. The garden is looking very different to when we were here last, as Ortwin has had a gardener rip out all the old bushes and new plants and garden beds have been planted all around.

It's a nice new perspective of Germany with such beautiful spring weather - whenever I have been here it has been cold or snowing. We have been spoilt with more presents from friends and family on this side of the world, so I think we may have to send a box back by post otherwise our luggage will be overflowing.

Thanks to Roland and his Krombacher connections, I have lots of Krombacher merchandise!! Sadly, no actual beer though because of the new travel restrictions on liquids

We caught the train from the airport when we arrived in Frankfurt and as we boarded the train there was a bucks party in full swing - nice to know so things just don't change at all no matter where you are in the world.

Sadly we didn't get upgraded to business class on our flight - everybody turned up unfortunately. But we did get 4 seats in a row all to ourselves, thanks to the lovely flight attendants, so can't complain too much.

We went out shopping (yes more) in Siegen yesterday and caught up with some of Hester's friends last night for dinner and a few drinks and now today is our quite do nothing day. It's a public holiday here, so everybody is relaxing.

Tomorrow we fly out to Singapore, where we're staying overnight, then on to Sydney and home! Have loved our honeymoon (we are already planning our next trip to Thailand...) but we are looking forward to getting home to our own bed, awesome pillows (thanks Mum!) and home cooked food.

Craig and Hesti

Here we are back in Hilchenbach (Hester's home town) for the first time in about two years and the weather is fantastic! We're enjoying the sunshine while we can before we fly back to the Aussie winter. The sky even looks like Aussie blue at the moment.

Its nice to not be using paid internet for once so I'm not rushing to remember everything that I want to say and to catch up on some rugby and world cup cricket news (for those who care, the Brumbies are still just in with a chance, and the Aussies won the cricket WC which sounds like it was a complete farce of a tournament anyway).

I now remember a few other random facts about NY and America that I couldn't remember in the last blog entry... so here they are:

-It's always the little things about visiting different countries that interest me - like when walking down a crowded street you have to remember to pass ppl walking in the other direction on the right. Aussies drive on the left side of the road, so ppl tend to subconciously expect you to pass on the left, but here it's opposite. If you forget and go on the left hand side, chances are you confuse them or run into them entirely! LOL

- Same story on escalators - if you want to cause problems, stand on the left hand side so ppl cant pass walking up the escalators (your supposed to stand on the right!)

- I think I now have a better perspective on the TomCruiseScientology crazyness. Scientology strongly denounces drugs as medicine as I understand it - well maybe that comes from all the TV ads in the U.S. advertising drugs. It is amazing - you watch the evening news and just about 75% of the ads shown are trying to sell you some new drug to help you sleep, or lose weight, or prevent heart attack, or whatever. It's insane. They say the pharamceutical companies are very powerful in the states, well now I see it.

- Watching some footage of the Virginia Tech shootings, viewers were writing in with their opinions on CNN and one guy says something like "If more citizens were allowed to carry guns, then this tragedy would never have occurred in this scale, because somebody would have shot him before he could have killed all these people." My reaction was something like WTF! What kind of reverse logic is that????

Well I'm writing this entry from a dinky little internet terminal in JFK airport. The airport itself is HUGE (I think 8 terminals from memory) but we are in terminal 1, and isn't very big by far. I thought it would be a lot bigger than this, so this internet access is the best its going to get!

We're waiting for the Lufty flight to Frankfurt atm - we have a possibility of being upgraded to Business class by Hesters Lufty rep through work, so fingers crossed, but I won't be holding my breath We've got about 5hrs to kill because we had to try and beat the peak hour rush getting out of the city, so yeah it's a bit boring. Nothing like Singapore Changi - not many shops to look around and stuff.

Despite that, I don't think I've ever done more shopping than in NY. Hester is a MANIAC. You know that song - I'll remind you - "She's a MANIAC in New York, and she's shopping like she's never shopped before"...

Hester had so many other stores she wanted to finished, she needed to draw on Ali's list creating experience and write a "stores to visit" list on Thursday!

Items purchased? Try three bags, tops, skirts, two pairs of shoes...! We even got through Lufty luggage checkin without having to pay excess, woohoo!

We scored a "Coach" brand bag from this dodgy asian lady on Canal St - looks like a virtually perfect knockoff to me. Canal St is crazy.

We were planning on getting the ferry to Ellis Island this morning, but it was raining quite a bit, and the wait in line was 45mins (standing in the rain) so I convinced Hester that probably wasn't such a good idea. A bit disappointing, the Immigration Museum looked interesting in the brochure, but you can only do so much in 2 full days I guess.

We did the Sex and the City tour yesterday which was very good - Hester loved it of course. The tour guide was great, genuinely a fan and very knowledgable and funny. She's a stand-up comic locally which isn't surprising.

I have a few random thoughts on NY that have been bouncing around in my head the last few days, so here they are:

- New Yorkers seem to have this uncanny ability to predict when to cross the street at traffic lights. They all as a group move off the curb even before the walk sign lights up... It's amazing, maybe evolution at work! I bet all the tourists can be picked by those diligently waiting at the crossings hoping not to get hit by a crazy taxi driver, while the locals are yelling at the taxi drivers, while dodging them all at the same time...

- New Yorkers can be amazingly rude and so random acts of kindness really surprise you.

- Century 21 is the MADDEST department store I've ever seen. I walked through a few levels trying to find Hester, when I stumbled on the womens shoes area and they are like VULTURES. Women and shoes, I tell you.

- Rubbish bags just appear on the side of the street and disappear just as randomly - dont they have bins here?

- I watched one woman failingly try to hail a taxi cab - I think there is a black art involved. I felt sorry for the poor old lady - I hope she caught one in the end.

We caught the subway from Midtown to the airport which worked out quite well in the mind and saved us a packet of money.

My 20mins is almost up so must go and bore my time away instead. Till next time!

Oh btw... Go Brumbies! - I don't think we'll make the finals anyway Stupid Chiefs!

Craig and Hester

So we're now blogging this from midtown NY, just across from the Empire State building and Macy's. NY has been awesome so far, we have another full day here and then half a day before we fly out to Germany.

The traffic here is madness - I don't know how the taxi drivers manage to cope with it, but our trip from La Guardia airport was interesting to say the least.

Time Square is amazing. It is commercialism at its very best and most spectacular - even at night it is so bright, my camera doesn't even take blurry photos! We wandered past a few places looking for a nice restaurant when Hester pointed out a place called "Hawaiian Tropic Zone" saying that looks nice inside - as we walk past the entrance I suddenly see FIVE "modestly" dressed ladies (in bikinis) waiting in the entrance. Apparently they are the "table concierge" according to our travel guide. Welcome to NY Craigo!

We're really enjoying the atmosphere, the city is a real bustling metropolis and it's sorta nice to see ppl who live and work here going about their every day lives in a place that I think is a little larger than life.

We went up to the top of Empire State building earlier today which was a great view of the city, and we've shopped a fair bit for the rest of the day - Hester has a bag full of clothes from H&M. I got a photo in front of Trump Tower - the lobby is ridiculous - marble everywhere.

Tomorrow we're doing a Sex and the City tour starting from Central Park so we're looking forward to that and we'll go and checkout Macy's and lower Manhattan/Financial district and get a ferry to Staten Island.

Till next time!

Craig and Hesti