Day 9

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Got up at 9am to pack my bag and get ready to leave and meet Carl at the airport, where we would be flying Buffalo, so we could visit Niagara Falls! My shuttle to the airport wasn’t coming until 1.45pm, but I was taking my time to do everything, so it was just about right!

I said my goodbye’s to Madi, headed downstairs to wait for my shuttle, and was out the front watching a car which was stuck in the middle of the road, in the snow and ice, unable to move. Half an hour later, I was still waiting, and starting to freak out a little that I was going to be stranded, when finally the shuttle driver walked up to me, and told me he’d parked on the next street, as he couldn’t get through ours. He took my case and we walked for a little bit, with him joking on the way, saying he hoped the bus would still be there, as he left the keys in the ignition, and the vehicle still running. Funny…

Once I was finally in the shuttle I was happy, and I was the first person in, so I got the front seat and a good trip around the city whilst we picked up about 4 more parties.

About an hour later, we were finally at JFK, and I got dropped off at terminal 5, where our flight to Buffalo would be leaving from. I walked inside, checked in my luggage, and then headed through security to the main part of the terminal. I knew there’d still be a little bit of time until Carl arrived, and was super hungry having not eaten all day, so I headed over to have a look at what I could get to eat… Pizza looked good! Grabbed a cheese slice, and some Pepsi, and found a chair and table to eat at. I heard Carl had landed, but still had to clear customs and then check in before I would see him, so I got my laptop out to have a bit of a play. Free Wireless in the terminal!!

Finally, Carl arrived, and we did have a little bit of a movie style hug! It was slightly weird seeing him for the first time in 18 months, but awesome at the same time!! We went into a little newsagents so Carl could get some water then went to find our gate – which had changed since I had checked in. We sat down and chatted for a little bit, then got on Skype to Mum and Dad. Our plane got delayed, for an hour, changed gates AGAIN, then finally we were boarding the plane at just after 7.30.

The flight was quite uneventful, with Carl sleeping and I was watching TV. We arrived at the Buffalo airport, and found a taxi which was going to take us to our hotel. Our room was quite nice, and we were so close to the falls you could actually hear them! We settled in a little, and then decided to go for a quick walk to try and grasp our bearings. We found the Hard Rock Café, and stopped to have some fries and a cocktail each. There was a band playing who were quite heavy rock, but were doing Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crowe songs, and the singer was quite terrible!! She sang some notes that made me cringe =P

From there we decided to head back to the hostel (falling into some snow along the way), and went to bed, ready for the following big day!

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