Come Fly With Me: Parte Uno

If you follow me on twitter, you will know that this past December/January I had been on what was essentially a long journey across the world to get to my cousin's wedding in Dominican Republic, the island where my mother is originally from.

All in all we covered 3 continents, over 25 000km, more than 15550 hours, took way too many photo's, and spent a stupid amount of money. Nevertheless, it was definitely one for the record books.

The journey went as follows:

From Cape Town --> Dubai --> New York --> Dominican Republic, and back along the same route.

I figured the easiest way to blog about this trip will be to break it up into the different cities we were in.

Just a quick story to tell. Before I was due to leave on my month-long family trip, one of my BFF's Preshina came to see me off. She left my place 30mins before we needed to head to the airport, and somehow managed to get into a car accident literally a few houses away from mine.

Luckily she was ok, and her parents came just as I needed to leave 

I also have to mention that whilst somewhere over Africa, Farhana, my genius of a sister, sitting in the aeroplane, asked me if I: "Brought the camera charger with"
NO???!

Turns out she left the camera battery charging the night before, and so that's where it stayed for the next 30 days, and we were left with a battery-less camera.

 

<3

9 hours to Dubai

And we're off!

My friend, Nawal, (on the right) had been studying in CT for the passed 4 years and  was leaving to Dubai the same day as I was due to travel. Through a random coincidence we got seats next to each other on the plane. Lucky, no?

And we're off again!

14 hour flight to New York

Touchdown.

8 hour lay-over in the airport waiting for my cousin, Mariela (a Jet Blue air hostess), to come up from DR to get us.

Yay! Finally she's here.

Even with Mariela there, we still had a few hours to kill, so we chilled in the JetBlue section of the airport. Yes, NY airport is THAT big certain airlines have their own terminals, separate from the main airport.

In America they do things differently, including in the airport food places. You punch in your order on a screen and collect your meal once it's been made.

Then you can shop around like a Pick and Pay.

Finally at the end, you check out and pay for everything in one go.

How many purposes does a spoon have?

Cockpit.

For the final time on that 3-day journey, we were off.

3 more hours in the air. 

First family photo in 17 years, and this is what happens when you give the camera to my Dad.

Tortugaaaaa's!

Go big or go home. 

The Peanut Butter one is MY FAVS. 

Late night hookah/ shisha sessions on the roof.

Ginger

The local student printing centre

Trip to my cousin, Marielissa's, university

"...And the word became flesh and dwelt within us..."

Santiago's famous landmark, El Monumento

I was on an island, okay??

I am important!

Twas the season

Mi abuela

Trip to the dressmaker to check on the bridesmaid's dresses.

December 14th. Birthday love :)

From here on out are photo's taken the day of my 22nd birthdaaaay.

The backyard

Phonebook

Summer rain on my birthday! I <3 the rain

Unfortunately tap water isn't safe to drink. Which SUCKED for me.

"I love you my love"

Check out the booty on that mannequin

CAKE TIME

It's a normal past-time for people to go in to a cake store and buy pieces of cake to take away and eat as you go . And it's GOOD cake too.

Calle del Sol ('Sun Street').

 

Definitely NOT like the coconut we're used to in SA. 

The NATIONAL school uniform

Fort

Museum painting on the history of DR

Mamajuana

Mielieeeees!

My brother's eye burst a vessel just before we left SA

Love Mariela's face in this one haha

DOMINO!