29/12 - Touchdown in Miami

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After around 15 hours of travelling I finally arrived at Bed 'n Drinks hostel in Miami Beach. Despite the long journey I was very impressed with both of my flights with American Airlines - plenty of food and bevs to keep me going! As soon as I touched down in Miami it suddenly dawned on me that I was completely on my own. The hostel offered its own shuttle service for $35 per person from the airport to the hostel. I thought this was ridiculous considering it was only a 20 minute drive! I decided to look into other options and found a bus that went from the airport to south beach that cost $2 (!!) and ran up until 11.30pm. By the time I got my luggage it was about 10pm and it took about 15 minutes to find the bus stop as Miami airport is huge! A bus was waiting when I got there and it stopped pretty much right outside my hostel.
I was quite proud of myself for managing to get to the hostel via local bus but when I told my dad he didn't seem that impressed that a 21 year old female got a bus by herself in a big city at 10pm at night! However, all is well. As soon as I got into the hostel room I met an American girl called Cara and we got on straight away. Originally I had intentions to go straight to bed as I had been awake for nearly 20 hours and just needed some shuteye. But due to the excitement of just starting my 6 month trip I accepted the drink she generously poured me and headed downstairs to meet others. We chatted with these two Australian boys for a while and they told me that they were also here for NYE and didn't have plans which made me happy to know that others were in the same boat. We all stayed up for a while but Cara got more and more drunk and decided to go out with her brother. The Australians and I decided to give it a miss as we are planning to go out the next night. The hostel offer a deal where you pay $30 and get an hour free bar and then they provide transport to and from a club and also entry!
We got some food from maccies and headed to bed at around 2am (by this point I had been up for 24 hours!). When I got back to my room Cara was in bed and visibly upset. When I asked what was wrong she said that when she got to the club her brother ditched her so she had to go home on her own! We chatted for a bit then I went to bed. The hostel beds are quite comfy but I always find it awkward in a mixed dorm as there was a lot of snoring going on!

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