Travel the world

Since I feel there’s no point in me posting every photo from the trip and explaining about everything like I usually do when it comes to pretty much everything… especially when it comes to things nobody cares about but me, hihi I thought I make a list of things you should do, or try, that we did while in the big Apple.

View over New York City from the helicopter

1. Go on a helicopter ride over the city. It  only lasts for about 15 minutes or less, but the view is breathtaking. It costs a lot more than the ordinary view you would get from the skyscrapers, but in return you get to so the city from every angle, and also, you get to go in a helicopter, how awesome is that?! We went with Liberty helicopter tours, and from what I see online the price is around 185 USD per. person.

2. Bottomless brunch! If you ever visit New York you have to go for brunch and even better pay a little extra and make it a bottomless brunch with free flow of something fun in your glass. We went to Marc Forgione in Tribeca, and had some eggs benedict and burger sliders with bottomless mimosas. Not the best food I’ve had for brunch, but it was a nice atmosphere and the location fit our plans. Apparently Agave is amazing, but we hadn’t made a booking in advance and read that the lines was normally long, so we didn’t try to go as our schedule was quite tight, and we weren’t up for missing out on anything.

3.  I’m not really a sushi person, and when I go for sushi I like it plain and simple, I also don’t like the pieces to be too big so I don’t have to be that idiot that doesn’t eat the sushi in one bite. Sushi of Gari was none of these, it had lots of different flavours and the pieces was large and filling but I loved it. It was perfection, the rice was like nowhere else and the fish just melted on your tongue. The signature sauce on each piece was also from heaven.

4. Go for a burger. For a fast burger (even though the line was pretty long ehm..) Shake Shack is amazing. Five guys is really good too, I love how you can put so many vegetables and that the spicy sauce is spicy! 

5. HALAL GUYS, you have to go visit the stall. Best gyro ever!!! The meat and bread was super soft and nice, and the sauce was delicious. We asked for lots of spicy sauce being used to disappointing spice outside of Asia, but with a few drops of their magic it was perfect.

6. Pizza, for me pretty much everywhere in new york has good pizza. You could pretty much get it anywhere there, and it would still be better than many places back home in Norway and Thailand. I love big and greasy slices filled with pepperoni and cheese and made sure I tried it whenever we passed a place. They have spots with slices for 2 USD, but the best fast pizza slice I picked up was from Liberty pizza next to the Empire state building. We we’re planning to go to Lombardi’s in Nolita or Arturo’s in Soho, but couldn’t fit it into our 4 day schedule but I will definitely go first thing when I go back next. Seeing I couldn’t visit these places, my driver recommended me to go to John’s pizza which was right down the road from our hotel. It was super yummy, and I love how you choose your own topping. 

Liberty pizza, street pizza style! mmm

7. Go on a cruise on the river. If you are going to New york during summer time, make sure you book a cruise on the river.  We did a wine and cheese tasting cruise, and it was really nice. The weather was perfect, and you get to see a lot of the city while getting tipsy on wine. 

Sightseeing and drinking in the sun ain’t bad!

8. BARCADE, gaming, fast food and drinks, do I need to say more? Takes you right back to the games we used to play in primary school. 

9. New York Botanical garden. Until November 2015 they have a Frida Kahlo exhibition, it’s a must see.

Us at Casa Azul 💙

10. Go on a private SUV trip around the city. It’s around 2 hours. I went with New York fun tours. Make sure you book the right one so you have both the guide and car for yourself. This way you get to decide where to visit and what detours to take. Make sure you don’t go solo though, as you will need to have someone to take your photo while you’re visiting sites

Get a hotel around times square. It costs a bit more, but makes being a tourist so much more fun and less time-consuming. You can walk pretty much everywhere. It costs quite a bit, but it’s worth it! We stayed at the Sanctuary hotel right next to Times Square, both the service and location was amazing!

Big thanks to Sony for plane tickets, accommodation and daily activities <3

Have you ever been i New York?

-A

We have finally settled in New York and are having an amazing time. I have been and will be blogging from my phone this whole trip so I appologize in advance for bad layouts and photos as I can’t see how it will look on your sceeen.

Times square!

Bratwurst burger and apple strudel shake anyone?

The time different is pretty extreme here so we are trying out hardest to catch up but have been ending up going to bed around 10 and waking up at 6 am. First day we only managed to stroll around in Times square which is pretty much were our hotel is located. Superb location! We also queued up for some delicious burgers at Shake Shack and made sure we tried some of their Octoberfest specials. I feel 2 kilos heavier just thinking about it!

mmmm hotel breakfast…

Our hotel gives out guest passes at Equinox gym so we aren’t complaining!

I’ll write some more info about the places once I get back from our trip in case you guys would like to go but for now it will have to do with only pictures. Yesterday was filled with activities, after we finished breakfast and the gym we went straight to Chelsea pier to go on a Portugese wine and cheese cruise.

It was such a nice and sunny day , perfect for wine!

Of course my glass is empty and of can ourse I am trying to pinch lady liberty…

I guess you can say we became pretty groggy from the cruise so we decided to go on for some drinks at Barcade which was in the area. We love our fun drinks and games. I love the concept. They had so many machines with games we used to play ages ago like rampage, space invaders and pacman. They also had lots of yummy unhealthy food and a wide selection of beers on tap.

So many beers on tap…

Hot wings and mac and cheese from Barcade. Yes please!! Tom was loving the hot sauce, I’m pretty sure I heard him say the word perfection.

Jameson with a chaser. The chaser is called a hopback . It’s pickle juice, so gross, but actually makes you not gag after the shot.

After playing around at the bar we went for even more beers at the football factory. We passed it around 3 times before realized it was the right place. Talk about bad signing.

Ended my night with a burger at Wendy’s. Why can’t we have Wendy’s in Thailand? So much better than Burger king and McDonalds crap.

Today we have a helicopter ride, brunch in Tribeca and shopping on the agenda. I need some new shoes!!
Xx

Dreaming about sunny Spain these days. It will be the last stop on our trip and we managed to plan it so we get almost one whole week there. Last trip was brief and we only got around 4 days and it’s still so much I want to show Tom. For those of you who don’t know, my mom moved to Spain when I was around 13 years, so I did a couple of months each year of middle school at DNSCB which is a Norwegian private school located in L’Alfàs del Pi , I also ended doing my last year of high school there so it’s feels like my… can I say third home? It was definitely the best year of school I’ve ever had as the teachers there a lot better,of course the weather and way of living plays a large role too.

Broke the rules and walked into the water at the museum, that’s how badass I am…

Sister love at the fountains in Valencia

The trek up to Guadalest is pretty easy but the view from the top is just breathtaking.

V A L E N C I A

<3

Last trip we went to Guadalest, Valencia and explored our area around Albir, Altea and Benidorm. This trip we are definitely adding  Fonts de l’Algar to our list.  We are also hoping to make a little trip to Madrid or Barcelona. Our place isn’t far away from Ibiza so we might even do that. I guess it depends on how it plays out. We have a tight schedule for the other places we are visiting so we might want to chill when we get here.

I’m also up for finding the best spot for paella and drink and eat as much tapas and wine as I can. I’m obsessed with Tapas. I could eat that every day. I know I’ll be filling my bags with cheese and cold cuts for my return to Thailand.

My favourite restaurant in Altea is this little place called Ostau and I can’t wait to take Tom there. They have the best tenderloin and wine selection ever. I hope it’s still as good as when I used to live there, which was like 5 years ago so I’m scared.

Talking about great restaurants we made a trip to Gaggan last night to try their tasting menu and it was one fun ride. I’ll tell you all about it another post.

What are up to on this wednesday?

-A

I arrived Oslo on the 4th of August, after a long 30+ plane ride. I think it was the most depressing ride I have ever been on. Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling and even long layovers at airports, but there was just something off with this trip. First of all, the British Airways BA010 from Bangkok to Heathrow is OLD, the screens took me back 15 years when I used to travel with Aeroflot. If you want to watch a movie, you have to fast forward through the commercial and also, they were out of chicken. How sick is airplane fish? I survived the trip on snacks and wine… which wasn’t too bad, but left me with a bad impression.

Then I arrive Heathrow airport trying to enter my terminal when I get the message we are not allowed to do an overnight layover. I mean seriously there had to be another option. I then ask another lady that tells me to go on the train to go to A gate, which is in terminal 5, and you can’t stay overnight, then I get advised to cross the border and stay a night in the city. It had already passed like 2 hours, and I was not bothered seeing it was already 8.30pm and my flight left at 7am in the morning, and I had to be back at the airport a lot earlier, as the security check is the slowest I have ever been part of.

I then talked to a brighter human being who said I could go to terminal 3 which was my original plan, but a lady at the border said there were a minimal amount of restaurants there and that if I got sleepy I would have to sleep on the floor. It sounded like the worst terminal EVER..

After I had a chat with the bus driver he made it sound like an awesome terminal, and it sure was, they have a large tax free, lots of shops and many amazing restaurants, actually, I think it was better than the British airways terminal 5.

The only annoying part everything closes around 10 pm, but if you have work to to, or series or movies on your computer this is no problem. This is absolutely the best option if you land in the evening like myself, and have to leave early in the AM, as you won’t have any time to go sightseeing in the city anyways. If you do have any time though, or want to check in at a hotel this is a nice lists of things to do.

PS! My return trip with British Airways BA009 from London Heathrow to Bangkok was a lot better experience though, the food was quite different, and I didn’t have to have the crazy long layover, but all in all the planes are way too old and I don’t think I would chose to travel with them again unless it was really cheap or I had no other option. Before I leave you guys with only bad impressions I do want to say that the service is excellent. The crew is very polite and helpful, very British, hehe.

The security in Heathrow is also something you want to avoid. It was fine by me since I had such a long layover, but every time I went to terminal 5, someone lost their plane because it took them 30 minutes to go through security. But then again, people NEED to read the instructions before they go through and not put water bottles with liquids or not take out their liquids before they go through.

I think I have become spoiled from travelling with Norwegian airlines. I know it is a low cost airline and the leg space may actually be smaller than British Airways, but I appreciate the options. I like how you can charge both USB and computer. How you can buy food and drinks mid-air by swiping your card on the screen, and how you can choose if you want to bring your luggage, have your in-flight meals and buy earphones and blankets if you need it and manage to save in on the ticket if you don’t. The screens are also a dream and so easy to watch movies at great quality.

Hope this helps others out there being in the same situation xx 

-A