Of fulfilling a lifelong dream
In a day's time, i'll be landing in New York City for the first time in my life and thus fulfilling the dream of going there (while still in my 20s)... =p
i'm dreading the long flights; 7.5h to Tokyo, 1.5h transit, then 11.5h to NYC. The furthest i'd ever been is Sydney, 8h, and it was already a torture. After googling "how to survive long-haul flights" i'm armed with a change of clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, 2 novels, 2 face masks, moisturiser, energy bars and my now-indispensable eye drops. Actually the no. of eye drop vials i'm bringing is almost embarrassing but better than to risk running out of them.
The temperature, 5 to 12 degrees Celsius, is a lot lower than what we, creatures of the tropics, are used to, and again, i'm probably erring on the side of caution. It's OK. The luggage limit is 2 x 23kg so i have lots of room left. Our strategy is to shop in NYC and eat in Tokyo where we will stop over on the way back for 2 days 3 nights. As much research i think i've done, it doesn't seem enough now that we are finally, finally setting off. Ah well. Topmost priority is to enjoy ourselves and not stress over the must-buys or must-do items. Otherwise what'd be the point of a vacation?