So, tomorrow I leave for Seattle where my best friend, her family and I are going on a 7 day Southeast Alaskan cruise.  Our itinerary is as follows:

13th May - Seattle, WA, USA.

14th May - Puget Sound, USA.

15th May - Tracy Arm, AK, USA.

16th May - Juneau, AK, USA.

17th May - Sitka, AK, USA.

18th May - Ketchikan, AK, USA.

19th May - Victoria, BC, CA.

20th May - Seattle, WA, USA.

I have to leave Bristol at stupid o’ clock because my flight departs from Heathrow at 1pm.  I’m planning to get some revision done on the plane but I think we all know me well enough to know that the chances of that actually happening are minimal.  This is the first time I’ll be flying with Air Canada (to my knowledge) via Calgary on the way, then Vancouver on the way back.  Sucks I won’t have enough layover time to see either of those cities, but oh well! I’m soooo exciteddddd!!! The anticipation for this cruise has been building up for like 5 months, I can’t believe it’s FINALLY happening.  Alaskaaaaa!!!!!

Right, well, as much as I’d love to have a mini-freakout on here about how ridiculously excited I am for this trip, I still have 300 words of an essay to write which I have to submit before I leave! I hope to be posting on here throughout the trip but if not, then look forward to a massive Alaska post upon my return!

Five days until Seattle/Alaska.

Thirty-three days until Amsterdam.

Forty-three days until Manila for the summer!

I’m aware that i’m the furthest thing from a prominent travel blogger, but I am also a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. The level of hospitality and personal attention I just received by the flight attendants throughout my flight from Manila to Abu Dhabi is unparalleled. My main man, Mohammed, greeted every passenger separately to introduce himself and give details of the journey ahead (as well as indulging me on the champagne I ordered). He even checked the toilets before anyone went in to make sure it was in a decent state - something that is above and beyond the normal call of duty, I’m sure. Then there was another man (the name of whom unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch), who nabbed some food for me even though I had slept the whole way and there was only 30 mins til landing. He also chatted with me for a while, making sure I had rested okay and apologising if the crew were noisy at all (I was seated right at the front, just behind the kitchen area). It could be that this attention to detail is evident in business class everywhere, but I’ve been upgraded many times before this and I’ve never seen flight attendants be as attentive as they were today, even during a completely packed flight. So, thank you Mohammed & colleague; you have made my ever-difficult transition from holiday to university a little easier, and I really appreciate the work that you do. Much respect. If any of you have any trips planned, I highly recommend Etihad Airways. They’ve never let me down!

Bristol -> London -> Abu Dhabi -> Manila -> Singapore -> Manila -> Hong Kong -> Manila -> Abu Dhabi -> London -> Bristol -> Calgary -> Seattle -> Alaska -> Seattle -> Vancouver -> London -> Bristol -> Amsterdam.

Bring it on.

There’s something about London that increases your sense of apathy and resolve towards your diminishing bank balance as the city slowly sucks you dry. It’s dangerously convenient.

Following from the previous part, Chesca and I arrived in Cardiff, walked out of the train station, looked into the dark abyss, and immediately realised that we had absolutely no clue where to go.  We started walking towards the car park discussing our options when a woman who’d been listening was kind enough to point is in the direction of the only place we’d ever heard of in Cardiff: Mermaid Quay.  The only reason we knew about Mermaid Quay, might I add, is because it was the only solid answer I can get from googling ‘best restaurants in Cardiff’ on the train with dodgy GPRS (3G, where were you?!).

So we take a taxi to Mermaid Quay and find that all the restaurants are pretty much the exact same ones they have in Bristol.  After wandering around, we found a Chinese place called Pearl Of The Orient, right by the water.  Thanks to our lack of forward planning/thinking, however, we forgot to anticipate just how many people would be dining out on a Saturday night.  20 minutes and a delicious amaretto sour later, we bailed and found a cheap and cheerful 1950s-esque American diner.  ”Two chilli cheese dogs, nachos… and some wine please.”

Eddie’s Diner with a vey creepy statue of Marilyn Monroe.

While we awaited our guilty pleasure dinner, we were disappointed to find that the jukebox was out of order! The selection over the speakers was still good enough for us to idiotically dance around while downing our glasses of cheap wine, drawing in some awkward glances from our fellow diner-goers.  It must have been quite a sight: two half Asian girls messily scoffing down hot dogs while drinking wine and dancing around to a bit of Elvis, hahahah. As the nachos defeated us, we started contemplating our prime dilemma.  It was 9:30pm and the last train to Bristol was at 10pm.  The only contact I have in Cardiff happened to be on a trip to Denmark, and we weren’t willing to fork out for a hotel.  Whilst we were intrigued by the potential of pulling an all-nighter in an unknown land, it was also that very same fact that scared us a little.  We had no idea where we were, we didn’t know anyone and we were running out of cash.  Also, it was SO. FREAKING. COLD.  I genuinely thought that my nose was going to just drop off my face at one point.

So, we shimmied back on down to the station, hopped on our train home and wrapped ourselves up in the unparalleled warmth of our duvets.  We decided we’d make a proper day out of experiencing Cardiff some time within the next couple of weeks, so look out for part three, it’ll come soon enough!