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I’ve been really busy lately and last time I wrote an update it didn’t save. So here’s what’s happened in my life in the past two months.

Shortly after my last update, I took a disappointing trip to Manchester. It was disappointing for a couple of reasons. The first is that the driver hit a large bird on the way and shattered the windshield. As a result of hitting the bird we had to go in the opposite direction of Manchester about thirty minutes and then we had to wait for a replacement bus. This ended up making us two hours late reaching Manchester. Because we were two hours late, we didn’t get our tour of Old Trafford which is the stadium that Manchester United plays in. Instead, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was a decent museum but, not good enough to make up for events earlier in the day. The museum did have planes and trains on display though. The pictures from this trip weren’t any good and, so I won’t post them here.


After this trip, I only ventured out of Sunderland to Newcastle a couple of times. During this time, I finished my space law class. The professor told me I passed but, I wasn’t ready for the class to be over. A few days after this, Spring break started.


To start off spring break, I sat on a bus for 26 hours. It was worth it though when we finally reached Val Thorens in the French Alps. I don’t have many pictures from this trip but, here are the ones that I do have.

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View from the hotel we were staying at.

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Picture from the top of the mountain.

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A steep section on a red that I boarded down (Would likely have been a black in Colorado).

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A top of the mountain Selfie.

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When it snows at Val Thorens, Visibility goes down to zero. This was taken on a slope that would normally take 5 minutes to get down but, instead took us 45 minutes to get down.

Then at the end of the week, I sat on the bus again for another 26 hours.


A couple of days after I got back from Val Thorens, I left for Edinburgh in Scotland. I took a lot more pictures on this trip.

On the way there I sat in First class on the train because, it only cost me about 3 pounds extra and included free food and drinks.

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First Class menu.

After settling in at the guest house that I stayed at, I ventured back out to the Camera Obscura in the city centre. I walked 1.5 miles each way three times that day. The first three pictures below are of Edinburgh from the top floor of the Camera Obscura.
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Edinburgh Castle as seen from the Camera Obscura

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Another picture taken at the Camera Obscura.

After visiting the Camera Obscura, I went back to the guest house for the night. The next morning, I started off by going to Costa Coffee by Waverly station for breakfast.
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There’s a frog in my Coffee!

Next, I purchased tickets for the hop-on, hop-off bus which also included tickets for Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Yacht Britannia and, the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Then I rode the bus to Edinburgh Castle. The below pictures were taken from the castle.

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I was at the castle for about three hours touring all of the museums (There’s a bunch of them) on site. I also saw the one o’clock gun fire while I was there. An interesting thing about the castle is that it is an active castle. Due to this there is a military unit permanently stationed in the barracks there. Next, I rode the bus to the edge of town where I visited the Royal Yacht Britannia.

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View from the bridge of the ship.

 

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The queen’s room on board (yes, that is only a single bed).

 

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The officer’s dining room.

 

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Dining room used by the queen and her guests (Bill Clinton once dined at this table).

 

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Boat used by the queen to visit the shore.

The royal yacht was decommissioned in the late 90’s and was not replaced. While it was in active use, it traveled enough miles to equate to rounding the Earth. There was also a crew of over 250 military personnel on board while it was in operation.

After visiting the yacht, I again went back to the guest house for the night. The following morning, I got up and hiked to the peak of Arthur’s seat.

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25% of the way there.

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Looking toward the top from the same place.

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70% of the way there. I stopped here and ate my lunch/breakfast.

 

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View from the top.

 

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Edinburgh Castle from the top.

 

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Palace of Holyroodhouse from the top.

Getting to the top only took me about 45 minutes. I went up the steep side which was, well, steep. Then I went down the easier way which took me 20 minutes. It let me out at my destination of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The video below shows the distance that I walked from the peak. Surprisingly that point is only about 1.5 miles away.

After reaching the bottom, I toured the palace. The palace is where the queen and the royal family stay when they visit Scotland. Most of the palace was excluded from the tour and instead older parts were included. Everything was off limits to photography therefore, I do not have any pictures from the palace. Next, I went to the Edinburgh Dungeon (not actually a dungeon just a tourist destination). For dinner I went to a sports bar that had a tv at every table. After dinner, I went back to the guest house for the night.

The next day, I got an early start so that I could make it to my tour to the highlands and Loch Ness. The first bus I flagged didn’t stop and almost made me late. Most of the day, I spent in a van looking at the scenery. Our first stop was Loch Lubnaig.

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Then we made a bunch more stops for photos.

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Finally we made it to Loch Ness. I didn’t spend much time down on the lake though because, in the middle of the town we were in there was a canal system. I watched the boats pass through for a while which, wasn’t very photogenic and then I went to take pictures of Loch Ness.

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After we left Loch Ness, we stopped at a bunch more places for photos on the way back to Edinburgh.

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When I got back to the guest house, I packed to go back to Sunderland which, only took me 10 minutes to do (Traveling with 1 backpack is amazing). Then I went to bed. The next day, I rode the train back to Sunderland except this time I was in standard class. This meant a lot of screaming kids on the train.


I haven’t done much in the few days that I’ve been back so far. On Tuesday, I’m going to go see like four movies in the theater since it’s half price on Tuesdays here. Then on Wednesday, my flatmates and, I are going to have a taco night for my birthday. Maybe, I’ll update sooner than last time. If I wait exactly another two months again then I’ll be getting on a plane back to the states.

Monday
Today I went to all of my normal classes. Instead of having a typical Space law class we had a guest speaker talking about space insurance. After class I went to the pub with my space law professors. It took me an hour after class got out to get there because, the stupid bus never showed up. In the space of 50 minutes, 3 buses should’ve passed instead no buses passed. I wasn’t happy standing in the cold and rain for almost an hour.

Thursday
Today was thanksgiving. My only class for the day was from 1630 to 1900. Afterwards I went to Revs with USSC for trivia. We met there after 2000 which would have been fine except they changed the hours that they serve food without telling anyone in our group. Instead we played trivia and went for food at 2300. I went to a Chinese restaurant that only took cash. You guessed it, I didn’t have any cash.  I walked all the way back to Clanny and had two bagels for thanksgiving dinner at 0000. Then I played Kerbal Space Program until 0200 or 0300.

Friday
Today I relaxed and played Kerbal all day. Since it was black Friday I got on Amazon which, could be seen as a mistake. I bought myself a Nexus 6 64gb for under $300. Which is a really good deal since this phone cost $800 when it came out last November.

Saturday
Today I went to York. York for lack of a better description, is very british. In the city centre the streets are narrow with shops running down both sides it seems like there were an infinite number of streets. Even the alleyways were only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time. It was busy. Being the Christmas festival there were tens of thousands of people. You couldn’t walk six inches without bumping into someone.

Sunday
I didn’t do much today. I did start to get a cold during the evening.

Monday
I didn’t feel like going to class today but, I forced myself anyway. On the bright side the film we watched for my class this week was Die Hard. When I got home from Class, I went to my bed and watched Netflix until it was late enough to sleep.

Tuesday
Very much like Monday. My only class was Spanish and I did not want to go because of this cold. I skyped my mom and she told me that I shouldn’t skip class. Why did I call the one person that won’t call in sick, ever? I regretted going afterwards and laid in bed until I could sleep when I got back.

Wednesday
I woke up and decided to skip class today. Instead I laid in bed an worked on developing my video game level for a while. Then Netflix. After that sleep.

Thursday
I felt much better today. The only symptom I have left is a cough. After my only class, German, I went to Revs for trivia night. We made sure to go earlier this week so that we could eat dinner. We decided not to hang around until trivia and left. I played Kerbal Space and watched Netflix until bed at 0200.

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I know, this post is a full week late.

I started of this morning going to where the tour bus picks up from. I waited a while in the freezing cold when the bus  finally arrived. On the bus we went to a couple more stops then we drive for about two hours through the Irish countryside until we reached Kilkenny. The Irish countryside looks very similar to Kansas except more cows, sheep and, hills. Instead of getting of immediately getting off the bus in Kilkenny, I went to a cave. The cave was the site of a Viking massacre a long long time ago. It was really a fairly small cave. After the cave, I went back to Kilkenny and had lunch. I had a beef pie of some sort with a coffee and lemon meringue pie. It was delicious and like everything else in Ireland, expensive. Then I did a little bit of shopping. I found that my camera was going dead so, I found a dig store and bought since batteries. After leaving Kilkenny we went to the Wicklow mountains. Several movies have been filmed in these mountains including Braveheart and P.S. I Love You. There’s even a small town named Hollywood by the mountains. In the mountains it was really child and windy. I couldn’t fell my hands for a while. I really wish I had taken clothes warmer than my under armour hoodie and jeans. After we left the top of the mountains, we went down to a small town with hiking trails. By this time it started to sprinkle. I decided to suck it up and walk to the upper lake, 25 minutes away. Big mistake, five minutes into my walk the light rain turned into a down pour and hail mix. I walked back to the small town and bought a cappuccino at the hotel bar. I was drenched and cold the rest of the evening as the bus heater wasn’t working great and, it was still a two hour ride back to my hostel. As son as I could I put on dry clothes and climbed into my bed shivering. I was hungry but, I didn’t want to leave my bed. I forced myself out and had the worst taboo fries I have ever had. I think the Irish need to learn how Mexican food is really made. Here’s some pictures:

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Cave entrance
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Selfie in front of Kilkenny castle
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Creek by Kilkenny castle
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It was really cold in the Wicklow mountains
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Hail on a walking bridge.

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This morning I went straight to the bus after breakfast so that I could visit as much as possible. My first stop was Trinity college, the oldest university in Ireland. I was really underwhelmed; It looked like every other college I’ve ever been to. I visited the science gallery but, there wasn’t anything there.
From Trinity college, I got back on the bus and went to the little museum of Dublin. It really is a little museum but, I got free admission with my bus pass. It was a great museum actually with an entire exhibit of U2. Instead of being one of the places that just says you can’t have backpacks they check it for you, just like a coat check. From there I wandered around a shopping area. Did I mention everything in Dublin is expensive?
My next stop was the Guinness storehouse which was a much better tour than Old Jameson. I ate lunch at a cafe there for a good price (Guinness and beef stew and a bottle of water for <$10). Then I continued the tour, at the seventh floor of the tour there was a observation room where I drank my pint. I could've also had my pint at the Guinness academy where you learn to pour it yourself. The views were amazing with windows facing down on Dublin. On my way out I bought my only souvenir so far, a deck of Guinness playing cards. After Guinness, I went to the Kilmainham goal. This is an 19th century jail. It is also where most of the rebel leaders from the revolution of 1916 were put to death. The tour itself was kind of boring really. Mostly it was a lot of taking by the tour guide. Next I went to another national museum which, I forgot the name of. The museum is in old army barracks with at and history from every period of time of Ireland's history. It was the best of the museums I went to this trip. I was there until they closed and still didn't have enough time. I got on the bus for the last time and went back to the hostel. I finished the book I was reading on my kindle then went to find dinner. I walked around 30 minutes until I found a Burger restaurant. It was a really good Burger better than most I've had in the States even. I also has a bottle of cider that's now one of my favorites, it's an Irish cider. This meal cost me more than $20. In case I haven't mentioned it yet, Dublin is really really expensive. I wandered back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early (23:00) so that I would be well rested for my tour to the mountains. Now everybody's favorite part, pictures. image
Entrance to Trinity college
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A building at Trinity college.
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Trinity college
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Entrance to Guinness
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The Guinness brewery lease, valid for 9,000 years.
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A view from the top of the storehouse.
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Another picture crib the storehouse
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Those mountains are where my tour is going tomorrow.
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Killmainham goal chapel, the die behind the alter is where prisoners would walk shortly before being hung.
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Killmainham goal
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Killmainham goal
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The national museum I went to.

I had an entire post typed out yesterday and apparently it didn’t upload. So here’s a list of what I did.

1. Picked up hop on/hop off bus ticket
-Buses didn’t start running early enough.
2. Walked to Old Jameson
3. Went to café at old Jameson
-I got list and was still an hour early to my tour.
4. Went to tour at Old Jameson
5. Drank whiskey at old Jameson
6. Stumbled around till I found the bus.
-Just kidding. I didn’t drink that much.
7. Rode the bus back to the hostel
8. Got back on the bus and rode the entire tour.
9. Rode the bus again and got off near the museums.
10. Went to the national art gallery
-It was tiny and a waste of my time.
11. Went to the national museum of archeology
-It was huge and awesome
12. Went to the national museum of natural history
-Probably the Brest natural history museum I’ve ever been to.
13. Rode the bus back to the hostel area.
14. Ate fish and chips at a local pub.
-Also had a point of Guinness, the first beer that I’ve actually liked.
-Dinner was also very expensive almost $20.
15. Went back to the hostel
-Read on my kindle
-Went to bed

Now for pictures.
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The entrance to Old Jameson is the arch on the right.
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Why whiskey is so expensive. These barrels were full when they started maturing but, lose a lot to evaporation over time.
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Whiskey tasting. Scotch on the left, old Jameson in the middle and, Jack Daniels on the right.
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I’m an expert, enough said.
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Ginger ale and lime (with old Jameson)
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The Irish President’s house. His closest neighbor lives in a 60 acre 18th century mansion. If you guessed the US ambassador, you’d be correct.
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St. Patrick’s cathedral
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Polar bear at the natural history museum.
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Giant Irish deer at the natural history museum
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Human and horse skeletons at the natural history museum.

In the future if I upload an empty blog post, please leave a comment telling me there’s nothing there.

Today I came to Dublin. The metro ride to the airport from Sunderland took longer than the actual flight did (delayed 20 minutes). In fact for all the awful things people say about Ryanair, it was pretty good. Just put headphones in, it’s literally an hour long infomercial to get to Dublin. I went from the airport to Abigail’s hostel by taking the airlink 747 bus which was reasonable at €6. The bus ride to town took 30 minutes. I actually arrived 15 minutes before I could check in. When I checked in they gave me sheets and a room card. I’m staying in a dorm style room with 8 beds. I have yet to meet anyone here yet. After checking in, I went out and wandered around. I ate at a burrito restaurant that has awful service and, the did wasn’t much better. Then I wandered around some more where I was approached by a Mormon missionary. He wouldn’t leave me alone. When he finally left, I went into a bookstore and looked at the used books section. Within about two blocks of where I’m staying there are several comic and normal book stores and, a hard rock café. I planned a tour to the mountains on Friday, I didn’t realize it was a 13th.That’s about it for today; here’s some pictures.

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Approaching Dublin

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The river that flows through the middle of Dublin (my hostels clear down on the right(you can’t see it))

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My hostel room, no one else is here yet. My bed is the one with the sheets.

We left Topeka around 08:00 on Friday morning for my departure flight to Dallas at 12:44. After we arrived we found out that my first flight would be delayed long enough that I could not possibly make my connection to London. This was easily remedied by a quick stop at the airline desk where they issued me two new tickets, the first to Chicago and then from Chicago to London. The second flight to London was still scheduled to arrive in time for me to make my connection to Newcastle.

Since my flight would now leave at 14:15 instead of 12:44, we went to McDonalds for my final meal in the United States. We returned to the airport around 13:30 and I said my goodbyes to my family before going through security.  Surprisingly this was really easy even with all of the electronics I brought with me onto the plane. About 30 minutes later I boarded the plane and found that I had a lot of leg room (my new ticket was issued for economy plus). We took of slightly early and were not in the air for very long at all.The flight was so short that literally as soon as the guy next to me pulled out his laptop he had to put it away.

When I departed the plane, I had no idea where I was at the airport and had to ask the counter what terminal I was in. I was glad to find out that the gate I arrived from were on the same hallway in the terminal although, the hall was probably half a mile long. When I arrived at the gate, I still had about an hour to spare. While waiting, I noticed a guy getting on the plane that had a parachute as carry on (I didn’t anyone would actually take a parachute on a plane).

I finally boarded and we took off a few minutes after we were scheduled to. Seated across the isle from me was someone with a dog that was really well behaved throughout the flight. About an hour and a half into the flight we were served dinner. The two choices for the main entree were chicken and rice or cheesy noodles. I went with the chicken and rice. Included with the meal was salad with a vinaigrette, a sealed roll, Swiss cheese and crackers and, a brownie that tasted like Play-Dough.  It was not good at all but, what could I expect considering it was airplane food (The salad was good though). The next four hours were awful. You would expect being a seven hour long international flight you would get more legroom than you would have on a short domestic flight; at least I did. In real life it seems that the airlines must play a game called “How Many People Can Fit in a Clown Plane”. This was by far the worst part of the journey to get here. I tried sleeping but, could not. I ended up watching Mad Max: Fury Road a few hours before we were scheduled to land. Around 05:00UTC or 23:00CST, we were served breakfast which, consisted of yogurt with granola and dried cranberries. About an hour and a half later we landed in London.

When I got off the plane in London, I had to take a bus to Terminal 5 from where I landed in Terminal 3. It was no joke over a mile of walking to get from the plane to the bus. When I arrived in terminal 5 I followed the signs to where connecting flights disembark from. After waiting 10 minutes in the line I was told that since it was my first time in the UK I would have to go through Customs. I walked back the other way toward the line that I was really happy that I did not have to go through (The immigration line for connecting flights was much shorter). When I got to this very very long line they opened a line dedicated just for first time students (There was a lot of us, 7 at least that were on my flight coming to the University of Sunderland). This line was short and after 15 minutes I had my passport stamped. Now is when it got fun. Because we had to go through customs, there was no way to go through the terminal to get onto my connection. To reach my connection, I had to walk clear to the airport exit, take a lift back up onto the departure level, go through security again then, finally walk to wherever my flight was departing from. I was worried about time as I completed these tasks as I only had an hour to get to my flight from customs. From gate to gate, the time taken was about 2 hours.

We began boarding about 15 minutes before our departure time and took of 30 minutes after our scheduled departure time. This was the quickest flight of all. About 15 minutes into the flight drinks were served. The drinks served were not what you get on an American flight though. On this flight the drinks were juice, water, Hot Tea, and Hot coffee. Instead of pretzels on this flight we were given bacon or ham sandwiches which was good since I had not eaten since breakfast on the first flight. Before departing this flight, I met a girl from Colorado who was also going to UoS. After landing I retrieved my bag from the baggage claim which was surprisingly there considering that I had changed my first two flights after checking my baggage. Just pass the exit doors from the claim area the uni was waiting for the students that were arriving.

The representatives from the school took us to where we waited for the rest of the international students to arrive. After dropping my stuff off, I wandered the airport looking for a cold bottle of water. This was easier said than done as the market type stores all had warm bottled water. Starbucks was there for me though with their overly priced (still cheaper than the other places) cold bottled water. This water cost me 2 whole pounds or $3.09 at the time. After getting my water we went to the bus which seemed like a charter bus. I almost forgot to mention it was raining in both London and Newcastle. The bus departed and, the entire trip I kept thinking we were on the wrong side of the road. 45 minutes later we arrived at Clanny House, my home for the next year.

 

Tips

  • If you can afford it fly business internationally. You get real blankets, better pillows, seats that lay flat and, Bose headphones for the in flight entertainment.
  • Make sure that you have a long enough lay over. 2 hours was plenty in London even though I was worried about time. If you’re connecting in Heathrow to another UK town, you have to have enough time to go through customs or immigration.
  • Pack at least 2 sets of clothes in your carry on just in case your checked baggage does not arrive on time.
  • Take some Benadryl or an alternative as it is really hard to sleep with all of the noise, light and, the small space on the long flights.
  • Bring a Towel if you’re studying here. They’re not provided.
  • Optional: Bring sheets and a pillow. The provided sheets are ok but, not the best. In my opinion the pillow is really soft so if you want more support bring your own. The provided sheets and pillow are decent enough though and, if you don’t have the space in your baggage allowance I wouldn’t worry about it.