Adventure to New York - Iceland - Greece (1 November to 14 November 2023)

1 November 2023 

We’re flying off today! I am on leave yesterday so we managed to pack our stuff yesterday. And seems like because we got more time to pack, we started to have funny ideas of buying more comfort items! Haha. And then, we ended up forgetting to bring our race belts. I’m so tired of packing. And I am so relieved that our flight is at 12.35pm so we can have a good night sleep before sleeping on plane for 18 hrs.

Jianhui went to buy McDonald’s breakfast for us. Then after final packing, we left house at 9am to get cab. It took us a while to get the cab. Lucky, the traffic is good so we managed to reach at 10am. 

Airport is quiet at this time and there is no queue to check in. Our luggage weight is 15kg and 22kg. I didn’t know that this direct flight to New York only has premium economy seats and we paid $1,300 for this one way trip. 

Lexuan wanted to eat muddy mud pie but to her (and our disappointment), it is not available and so we decided to head to other place to eat. As we were taking lift to the basement, we saw my sister and family in the lift! So happy to see them! ❤️ They have came to the airport to send us off. 

We walked the whole stretch and realized a lot of restaurants are closed. In the end. We ended up eating at Yakun. 

After that, then we went to departure hall. Our boarding gate is B9 and it’s quite far back. 

We relaxed a while then we went in the security check. There weren’t a lot of people. We also topped up 3 water bottles before we board the plane. We were sitting at the middle instead of the usual left side. The plane took off at 12.35pm sharp.

As usual, I managed to nap a short while while taking off. We were happily snacking on our own snacks. And there is complimentary unlimited wfi! They started serving us lunch at around 1.30pm. Lexuan ate the bread and fruits. Jianhui And pre-selected his food and so he had briyani which was not bad. And my meal… looks so sad… it’s black pepper chicken but totally not appetising. And we got haagen dazs cookies and cream ice cream! 

I watched the Singapore movie, Seven Days by Ya Hui and it’s so touching. I was crying like mad on the plane. By the time I finished the movie, it’s 4pm+… 14hrs to go! 

Lexuan fell asleep around 4pm too and woke up around 5pm. By 6.30pm, we are only 6hrs into the flight. 

For the next 3 hours, we went to the toilet many many times, took a couple of snacks and drinks. Then they served us 2nd meal when I was about to sleep at 9.30pm. Lexuan has the same lasagne but now with fish. She has nicer fruits platter than us with grapes and melons. For us, we don’t get any fruits. We had fried rice with sweet and sour fish. The fish is still not bad. At least now the bun is warm so it is soft and nice. 

I started to watch detective Conan and it’s nice. I watched until 11pm then I decided to sleep. At least I managed to sleep… until 4.30am when Lexuan wants to go toilet. 

They served us pizza which isn’t very nice. I was surprised that they don’t serve hot drinks. To kill time, I watched Sing 2 again. Love the songs in the movie. 

And we finally reached New York after 18hrs of flight! Our longest flight ever! When we touched down, the airport is busy so we cannot park the plane, and got to wait another 10mins. So, literally, we are inside the plane for 19hrs!

Finally we have touched down New York! It’s long queue at customs… we started queuing at 7.50pm. And we are finally cleared at 9.50pm! That’s 2hrs of waiting at the customs. 

The moment we are outside, we started to feel cold. We had to take out our jacket. 

There isn’t much things to eat so we decided to take cab. And it costs us USD83 to Club Quarters Hotel World Trade Center. There were quite a lot of cars given that it’s already so late. We took around 40 mins to reach the hotel. With the tip to the driver, the taxi fare costs us USD105!

At least we are finally at our hotel. Everything is self check in and so we got to make our hotel card too. Our room is #1904. Jianhui was telling me that the 2 buildings in right of our hotel is where the twin towers of 9-11 were which explains why it is the 9-11 memorial site. 

The room is not very big or nice but it costs us USD 2.4K for 5 nights! But then again, it turns out to be Lexuan’s favourite hotel because 3 of us get to sleep together and I think she loves the water refiller machine outside our room. It’s so expensive, staying near the World trade and. Oh well, what can we do? We washed up and wanted to cook Maggie Mee. But it took a long time for our induction cooker to cook the noodles. Lucky we managed to drink coffee. 

This pretty sums out our 1 November 2023 adventure! 

Good night from New York! 

2 November 2023 

We woke up around 6am and Lexuan was so excited that she woke all of us up. 

She did some writing and then we got ready to go out. It’s so cold today! 2 degrees Celsius! I am freezing cold! My hands totally cannot… haha. 

We walked to McDonald’s for breakfast. The sausage McMuffin is yummy. We also ordered steak+egg+cheese biscuits and it’s nice too! Somehow, US McDonald’s is nice. But it is expensive! it cost us USD25. 

On our way back, Lexuan wanted to buy Dunkin’ doughnuts. We rested a while before we went out for a walk. With heat tech top and bottom, I feel warmer or maybe because the sun has come out. 

We walked around the 9-11 memorial then walked over to the sea. We got to rest a while at the Brookfield place. It’s so warm

Inside and it is like Singapore’s taka with all the branded. We went to the toilet before exploring a nearby playground. The playground is so much fun for Lexuan.

Then we slowly walked towards the riverside market for grocery shopping. Just some stuff, it cost us USD35. 🤣 We had to remind Lexuan not to buy things we could eat in Singapore. Haha. 

Then it’s a quick walk back to hotel. We rested a while then we went to the bill’s bar opposite our hotel. 

We ordered the burger, BLT burger and a kid’s meal which is a jumbo hotdog. The hotdog is super salty. The nicest dish of all is the fries. The damage is USD66 and with 20% tips, the bill comes up to USD80. Then we went back to our room and I was so tired that I had a nap. Jianhui also had a nap… Lexuan was playing phone and she didn’t nap. 

Not too sure is it due to jet lag or what, I was feeling really sleepy after lunch. It’s 2am+ in Singapore so probably that’s why I am so tired. But, we got to wake up to collect race pack at Jacob Javits centre. We also bought our 7 days unlimited metro rides for USD35. This must be the best thing we have bought in US. So we took the train to Times Square-42 street and change to 34 St Hudson Yards. 

Lexuan is feeling very tired and groggy. I had to quickly take the race bib and she didn’t even want to take photos. I can only do a quick shopping as well then we got to go back. Somehow, we ended up at Rector station which is not a bad thing as it is nearer to our hotel. 

True enough, Lexuan fell asleep almost immediately after we are back. She’s too tired. Jianhui woke her up to eat noodles but she was also crying. I helped her change PJ and brushed her teeth then she went to sleep around 7am+. Think she will wake up super early tomorrow. 

We also slept around 9pm… 

3 November 2023 

Good morning! True enough, Lexuan woke up at 4am and couldn’t sleep anymore. She disturbed me until I have no choice but to wake up at 5am to play with her. She did her 听写 and drank milk. Seriously… 听写 at 5am? I made coffee for myself. 

We ate Nutella bread in the room then we went out to have breakfast at Siena bake house. The croissant and the egg bacon sandwich is nice! No wonder it is so popular. Then we walked over to find Jianhui’s charging bull! 

Jianhui also found a playground nearby which Lexuan had fun playing. The slides are fun even for adults. It’s freezing cold outside somemore. Don’t know how am I going to run this Sunday. 

We walked to New York Stock Exchange (another place which Jianhui is very excited to go) to take photos before we walked back to hotel. We got to rest a while in the room. 

For lunch, we decided to go to nearby Siena pizza for pizza! It’s yummy! We tried 4 different flavours, classic, Margherita, chicken bacon, buffalo chicken and the best is the classic! Lexuan loves the classic too so we ordered 2 of that! The damage of 5 pieces of really big pizza + 1

Bottle of coke is USD30. Quite reasonable I guess in New York City. 

Then we went back to our hotel room. Jianhui went to do some grocery shopping. When he came back then we had our usual afternoon nap. Today Lexuan also joined us in the nap and she slept until she didn’t want to wake up. It was a good 2hrs sleep. Hope that it won’t affect my sleep later at night. 

We went out around 5pm. It’s not so cold when we left our hotel. We took train to 59 street station to go Central Park, the ending point. Seems like there is a lot of walking to be done after my marathon. 

There’s nothing much there so we took train to 42 street station to go Times Square. It’s crowded with lots of people. There’s even fireworks. There are a lot of people dressed up as Mickey Mouse, sonic, King Kong, etc… I guess you got to pay to take photos with them? 

There are many shops and restaurants too! There are taco bells which exit Singapore many years ago. I bought some shirts from Hard Rock Cafe for my in-law and myself. 

Then it’s time for us to go back! We took our favourite no. 1 train to south ferry and alighted at Rector Street. it’s a short walk to our hotel. 

Jianhui cooked Maggie Mee for us for dinner. I wasn’t hungry so I guess my stomach is still in Singapore time zone haha. 

We slept around 10pm. And I hope Lexuan doesn’t wake up at 3-4am again. Haha. 

4 November 2023 

Our dear girl woke up at 5am and woke all of us up. I wish I could sleep more. She’s so noisy in the morning that you just can’t sleep anymore. 

So I woke up, made coffee and ate bread. Then we walked out to have McDonald’s breakfast! We ordered the same as what we had the other day. 

We walked around and went inside world trade centre. There’s nothing much inside and so we walked back to our hotel. 

Lexuan was crying non stop as her daddy didn’t let her play her phone to punish her for disturbing us this morning. Finally she stopped crying after jianhui agreed to let her play for 10 minutes. 

Then we went to the south ferry to see if we want to take cruise to see the Statue of Liberty. We wanted to take the train but somehow when I swiped my card, and was too slow to push the gate and so it got timed out. Jianhui and Lexuan got to come

Out and we walked to the terminal there together. 

Along the way, there were many people attempting to sell cruise tickets which I’m not sure if it is for real. Anyway, we are not taking the cruise. Lexuan is happy to go to her playground again. It’s Saturday so there are more kids today. Lexuan definitely has a great time. Then we walked to South Ferry train station to take train. On our way, we bought 3 magnets for USD10.

We’re taking train to see Empire State Building. So this pretty much summarized our to do in New York City. It’s more crowded and a lot of shopping places here like names you are commonly in Singapore. Was really excited to see “Build a bear” shop here too! The bear is wearing a liberty costume! Way too cute! I was telling my sis that I hope we can go New York together in future and we can build a bear together! Our bucket list for sure!  

We couldn’t find any restaurant so we decided to take train back to our hotel there. We chose Burger King for lunch. We had whopper and a small cheese burger, chocolate milk shake and one large coke! Quite filling! The whopper isn’t that nice though and they don’t have mushroom

Swiss burger. 

Then we went back to our room to rest. I tried not to nap as I scared I won’t be able to sleep later at night. Jianhui was feeling tired as he was being disturbed by Lexuan the whole night. 

We went out for dinner around 6pm and the moment we were out, Lexuan was walking like a zombie. She’s too tired I guess so jianhui volunteered to get food while we walked back. While walking back, my dear Lexuan was tired and I had to carry her. It was my first time perspiring. Haha.

The moment Lexuan is back in room, she’s alive again. After we have showered, jianhui is back with food too! He bought something like Cai peng with chicken, broccoli, mashed potato, Mac & cheese. Not too bad but it’s an expensive Cai Peng. 

We slept early at 8pm+. Thankfully I had a good sleep. 

5 November 2023 

It’s race day! I woke up at 5am to get ready. I had the yummy bread and kopi O kosong. 

We wanted to take one stop to South Ferry station but the next train will only arrive 20 minutes so we walked to the terminal. Luckily it is quite near. When we were there, there was 6.45am ferry. But we decided to take the next one. So I took the 7am ferry, nearly couldn’t board it though as they were closing the doors. 

It was crowded and I couldn’t get a seat so I sat on the floor. It’s a nice ferry ride and when I heard them talking about Statue of Liberty, I went over to the right side to take photos. Yeah. So happy to be able to take at least one photo. Haha. It’s a 30 minutes ferry ride then all the runners walked in an orderly manner to the place to take shuttle bus. 

I must say it’s well organised and I didn’t have to wait for long for the next bus. I was excited to take the New York school bus but ended up when it’s my turn, it’s a big luxury nice bus. Haha. 

It’s an hour journey to the starting point.

The moment we alighted, We had to go through the security check. I only had a handphone with me so it’s a Quick one for me. So I reached the race village at 8.30am which is so early. I walked around the race village and it is huge! I got a bottle of water then settled down on a grass patch. With my poncho, i don’t feel that cold. As I am trying to save battery, I didn’t use my phone much. It’s a good time as I enjoy the environment and observe people while I wait. While waiting, I ate the chocolate brownie Jianhui bought for me. There are plenty of toilets so I can go toilet anytime. I used 2 hand warmers which are very warm and just nice for my hands. 

I was sitting there until 10am before I started to walk around to observe where is the starting point. I am in wave 4, coral E. They are quite strict about this. Only the earlier wave one can join in this wave. At 10.20am, we can finally go to the starting point. After waiting for so long, it’s action time. And there’s toilet at the corral pen too! Nice! It’s funny that they announce that you will be disqualified if you pee on the bridge. 

I finally got started at 10.58am! It’s not cold so I took off my uniqlo heat tech top and under armour yellow jacket. 

For a start, we had to run up the bridge. Not a good start especially when I never train. I can’t really run. After the bridge, there were a lot of supporters lining up the streets. It’s amazing. 

Throughout the course, there are more bridges - more upslopes and downslopes. There is Gatorade and water and every 1 mile+. Not too sure why, but I was feeling extremely thirsty that I would drink up at every station. I am pretty much on target for my first 10km and half marathon. I guess it’s due to the slopes, I started to have cramps after half marathon. So I have to walk more. 

I also took half power gel at 21km, half at 30km and another half at 35km. I took videos and photos so that I can show Jianhui and Lexuan. I went to toilets 4-5 times. There are so many upslopes and downslopes. Tough one. Even at Central Park, it’s downslopes but when my legs are about to cramp, downslopes are not good for me. And the final stretch is an upslope where I see Jianhui and Lexuan at the final 200m. I ran with all my might but didn’t manage to complete it without 6hrs. Official time is 6hr2mins47secs. My first marathon in my 40. 😀 Not many people got to run in New York City from staten Island to Brooklyn to Queens to The Bronx to Manhattan I guess. 

I’m so happy to cross the finishing line and collected my hard earned medal! They also have orange poncho which is of good quality and very cosy when it’s kinda cold at 5pm. It’s 5pm only but it is all dark now. then we had to walk 45 minutes to exit the race village. I tried to walk as fast as I could so that Jianhui they all don’t have to wait too long for me. 

Was really delighted to reunite with Jianhui and Lexuan! I miss them so much after a little adventure on my own in a foreign land. Then we took train back. We met a friendly guy who gave up his seat to me. At the subway, need to walk up and down the stairs. 

And I am thankful to have Maggie Mee for dinner. So shiok! Jianhui prepared coffee for me too. We also ate some fruits. 

Happy to complete my 2nd overseas Us marathon! And this is a marathon to remember as it is also my first marathon turning 40! 

Oh ya, today also marks the day US is behind Singapore by 13hrs. I couldn’t sleep the whole night which I guess could be due to the coffee. And I keep wanting to go toilet. Whole night I also feel like having stomach ache and at times I feel a bit like puking. 

6 November 2023 

We’re flying off to Iceland today by Icelandair! The flight has been delayed by 40mins to 12pm. So we got to sleep more, though I didn’t sleep well. 

We woke up at 6am for breakfast. We slowly had our breakfast and coffee. We also got to pack our luggage. 

We took the taxi at 8.30am and there is a big jam due to the morning office crowd. Lucky we were early. Terminal 7 is relatively quiet and we don’t have to queue. 

Then we went in for food. Security check is fast also. We ordered burger, muffin and sandwich for our breakfast cum early lunch. 

Then it’s time for boarding! It’s going to be a 5hrs+ flight from New York to Iceland. It’s relatively a small plane. And now, after sitting premium economy, I do find the seats in the plane very small. Haha.

We bought 2 cans of Pringle’s for EUR7 and 2 bottles of gin for EUR12. Lexuan got kids snacks and toys too. So not too bad for kids. 

During the flight, there’s an announcement to look outside the window to look out for the northern lights. It’s not very obvious but we got to see just some green dancing lights in the dark. 

Iceland is ahead of New York by 5hrs and 8hrs behind Singapore. So we are slowly tuning our body clock back to Singapore. 

We finally touched down Iceland time at 10.25pm. And it seems like only our plane is here. Restaurants are closed too! I guess if you were intending to transit here, it’s going to be very sad. 

We did a quick shopping at the DFS before collecting our luggage. We saw that there was a shop opened at the arrival side but we didn’t buy any food as the pizza looks kinda sad. 

We walked over to our Aurora airport hotel. And it’s freezing cold! Checking in is a breeze as I guess they were just waiting for our arrival. Hahah. 

The room is bigger that what I expected and it is warm! This is important. 

For dinner, we had our favourite Maggie noodle. 

We slept around 1am Iceland time. 

7 November 2023 

I was supposed that I slept all the way till 6am in the morning! What a good sleep!

It is still very dark all the way till 9am+. Today weather is going to be cold. Lowest is 1 degree and highest is 5 degrees only! 

I was having a bad stomachache, so pain that I didn’t enjoy my breakfast. In the end, I had to shit 3 times to get rid of the stomach pain. 

We went to have breakfast at 9am at our hotel. We finally got some decent breakfast. I had hot tea, cafe latte and orange juice. Lexuan ate scrambled egg, ham, cornflakes and milk. We also ate fruits! So happy to eat fruits. The guava is very nice! 

Then jianhui went to airport to change money and to get the car. We exchanged more EUR to change money here. The rate is super bad… at 141 when my currency app is showing 150. 

By the time we were done, it’s about 12pm! We are finally ready to start our journey! It’s a long 300km to our accomodation, Arctic Exclusive Ranch. 

We stopped over at Iceland supermarket to top up our food. We had to go to Pizza Hut next door for toilet. 

It’s a nice landscape with snow-capped mountains and as you drive along the way, the landscape changes. All I can say is, there aren’t many cars, people or even town. 

Then we stopped over at selfoss town at around 2.40pm. We bought domino hawalian pizza. It’s one of our cheaper meal which cost SGD11. Lexuan loves it and ate at least 2 pieces. Then we went to the ice cream shop next door for the toilet. Seems like it is kinda hard to find toilet here. 

Then it’s another long ride. Luckily, Lexuan fell asleep so we has one less problem to worry about. We stopped over at Vik. It’s very cold by now. In fact, it is freezing cold, especially the strong winds. They are selling Icelandic coldwear which looks so nice and cosy. It’s expensive too as it costs average SGD800+ for a jacket? We bought chocolate cake and waffle + Swiss mocha. It’s also our toilet break. And we also shopped at the supermarket to get more grocery! We definitely can survive tonight at our cosy accommodation tonight. 

Then it’s another 64km to go. It’s only 5pm but the sun has knocked off. So it’s getting darker. It doesn’t help that our last 20km is gravel roads so we got to go slow. By the time, we reaching the Actic Exclusive Ranch, it was pitch dark and we panicked for a while as we don’t know where is our accommodation. 

We drove slowly and managed to find house 4! What a relief. And then a guy came over and told us no parking at the grass patch. Haha. We wanted to minimize effort to carry our luggage and stuff to the room. 

It’s a nice house I must say but dunno why the light is in orange. So the living room is so orange. 

We slept around 9pm. I would say it’s quite a good sleep though I dreamt a lot. 

It’s so windy here that the whole night we could hear the strong winds. 

8 November 2023 

We woke up at 8am+ and it is still so dark. I had a good sleep though I would occasionally wake up to see if we can see Aurora. 

We relaxed and had a quick breakfast. Then we set off at around 10.20am. 

It’s a beautiful morning and we saw. Big rainbow the moment we were on the roads. But then we realized, you can rainbows everywhere along the way. There are lots of sheeps too! It’s a beautiful landscape and I love such road trips. 

We reached the restaurant, Freysnes. It must be a popular place for tourists as we see a few tourist bus and it’s crowded. We decided to have our lunch here. I ordered a lot of food! I ordered lamb shank and salmon, both with side dishes of potatoes and salads. I also ordered fried and mushroom soup. Food is not bad but it cost us SGD77 (7,990kr), tourist price. Most importantly, there is toilet! 

Then we continued our shorter journey to our highlight of our trip today, Diamond beach. As expected, there are more people there. It is freezing cold! We definitely stayed there outside for long. We got to play with ice too. We quickly rushed back to the car as it’s just too cold. It’s funny that we forgot to bring our hand warmers out when we need it. Haha. 

Then it’s time to drive back. We drove back to the other cafe - Cafe Vatnajokull. It’s really a cafe unlike the earlier one we went. We bought yoghurt, cappuccino and a cake which is not bad. 

We also pumped petrol before making our way back to our accommodation. It’s another 120-130km to go! 

We saw many rainbows on the way back too! We stopped by a restaurant (Skaftarskali) which is like selling fast food with a convenience store. I bought some chocolates, souvenirs and magnets. The damage is SGD70. We also bought fish & chips + burger which is expensive as it cost us SGD50+. 

Then we drove back to our hotel. We managed to make it back just before sun set. 

Then we can slowly enjoy our dinner! The fish & chips is nice! We also ate avocado and the avocado is nice too! 

Just when we were about to sleep, Jianhui checked the Aurora app and realized there is some sighting. So we decided to go outside and see. It looks very dark then when we took out our phones, we can see the northern lights! iPhone can’t take nice photos so I tried to download app (Northern light camera) to take photos. Jianhui’s Oppo can take nicer photos! After being busy for a while, the light is less obvious so we went back to our room. At least tonight is not so windy last precious night. 

No sound of wind the whole night but I didn’t sleep well. I kept on waking up and going toilet. I dreamt a lot too. 🤣

9 November 2023 

It’s Thursday! We woke up around 8am and had our breakfast. Today is not so windy compared to yesterday. The temperate is 0 degree Celsius. Jianhui tried to pour boiling water in the air but it didn’t turn to ice. Experiment failed! Haha. 

So fast we got to move on to the next accommodation. We packed our stuff and ready to go at 11am. 

Our first stop is back at the same icewear pit stop. We ordered food at Lava cafe - pasta, waffle, blueberry cheesecake and cappuccino. The pasta is not too bad. As expected, the food is not cheap. Our meal here is typically about SGD60+. We like it here as there is supermarket too and toilets. 

We did some shopping at the supermarket tben we popped by the black sand beach to take some photos. We see some people riding horses there. 

Then we made our way to our first destination - Seljalandsfoss waterfall! It is most famous waterfall in Iceland as you get to walk behind it. It is really fun and an easy walk but so get prepared to get wet. Lexuan loves it so much that she wants to walk again. Haha. It’s a beautiful place to take beautiful nice photos. The parking is not free and it cost SGD9 for 2hrs which you probably won’t take more than 2 hours. Then we drove a quick drive to the plane wreck. At first we didn’t see any airplane but when we were driven off, we saw a bit of it. We took a quick photo before we drove off. 

We missed the stop at Skogafoss so we drove 30km back to the waterfall. Thanks to my husband who is a super good driver, he drove very fast to go Skogafoss. So glad that we made it there here! Apparently, it is also one of the Game of the Thrones filming locations. And it’s true that you really get to see rainbow on the falls! So nice! Jianhui walked up the short steep stairs to go to the top and the photos/videos he has taken is so beautiful! I wish I could go up as well! 

We went to the toilet then it’s a long drive to selfoss (98km) for dinner before driving to our next accommodation. We are aiming for KFC! By 5pm, it is getting very dark. We managed to reach KFC at selfoss at 5.30pm. We ordered 8 pieces chickens family meal and it cost us SGD60+. KFC here is expensive for sure. It comes with 8 pieces of chicken parts, 1 large and 1 regular coleslaw and 1 big bottle of Pepsi. It’s yummy! 

Then we continued our journey to Blue Mountain Apartments. It’s very dark by now and quite challenging to drive. So I am really thankful to have jianhui as our steady driver! 

We reached our hotel at around 6.50pm and it is self check in. We were given the security code to open the room. So checking in is a breeze and the apartment is so nice and new! I love this! Must thank Jianhui for finding such a nice one for us! 

I must say it’s such a nice play to relax and chill. If only we could spend more time in this apartment…. 

We slept around 10pm+ tonight. I didn’t have a good sleep as Lexuan was sleeping on the sofa and she kept on calling me to sleep with her. I had to sleep, like sitting on the airplane sleep. 

10 November 2023 

Rise and shine! So fast it’s our last day in Iceland. 

We woke up around 8am and it is still dark. We had a quick breakfast and we were ready to go on car trip at 10.15am. 

Seems like it is -3 degree Celsius as we can see snow on the roads and car frost on the car. visibility is bad so we got to use the defrost function before we can drive. 

We drove to a self service car wash. It’s quite reasonably priced at SGD8 for 5 minutes. We took a while to figure it out how to use the equipment so luckily we paid 10 minutes for the car wash. Our car is finally clean! 

We also bought some candies from the petrol shop. 

We stopped over at a place to take photos and this is where Lexuan fell down and had a small scratch on her knee. She was crying and complaining that she fell down because I was helping Jianhui to take photos. My poor baby. 

She’s quite upset as she has forgotten to bring her tablet out so I lend her my phone for her to play games to kill time. 

We reached Gulfoss about 12.30pm! And first thing we got to do is to eat! I ordered almost SGD100 worth of food! My order is grilled salmon, burger & fries, doughnut, tomato soup, cuppuccino. The good thing is, Lexuan really loves salmon and that’s the only food she will eat a lot other than fries. So I would say it’s money well spent. 

After meal, we are ready to conquer the cold! Haha. Jianhui had to carry Lexuan on his shoulders. Jianhui really carries her on his shoulders all over the world! Haha. It’s quite a short walk thankfully. You could see ice forming on the pathway. It’s so cold! I also walked down the stairs to see the waterfall from another angle. 

Then, we are good to go, good to drive back! As we were driving back, we noticed that there is a change in the weather. It seems to be getting more and more gloomy. At first, we wanted to make a trip to see a church but since it was raining, we decided to go to Bonus supermarket opposite our apartment. Lexuan is happy as we have promised to buy ice cream

for her. Other than that, there is nothing much to buy.

Then we drove back to our apartment. Good to be back! 

Then we drove out around 5.30pm to somewhere nearby for dinner! We ordered margherita pizza (kid’s menu), tiger prawns tapas and arctic char. Lucky we didn’t order more as the pizza is a big one. We celebrated Lexuan’s birthday with the 6 candle I bought and the pizza. Knowing that it is Lexuan’s birthday, the staff surprised her with ice cream cake! The staff pretended that she needed 5 minutes to prepare the receipt but actually she is preparing the surprise for Lexuan. Lexuan is overjoyed! It’s a good celebration dinner! And it cost us SGD80+.

Then we drove back to our apartment which is 3 min drive. 

It’s time to relax and pack! We have an early flight tomorrow morning. 

We slept around 9pm. 

11 November 2023 

Happy Birthday to Lexuan! Happy wedding anniversary to Jianhui and me! ❤️❤️

We woke up at 2.30am for our flight. We are hard boiled egg and avocado. The avocado is nice! 

Jianhui went to throw the trash then put our luggage. We left the apartment around 3.50am. As usual, ice formed on our windscreen so we needed to defrost it before we can drive. 

It’s about 44km drive to the airport. It is dark but still got some cars on the roads. There are street lights too. We pumped petrol somewhere near the airport. Jianhui dropped me and Lexuan at the terminal first so that he could go and return the car. We reached about 4.40am and it is quite crowded at this time, totally different from what we see when we touched down at night. I went to the self service station to print the baggage tags. 

Then we went to drop our luggage. My luggage is 25.6kg when the baggage limit is 20kg. Think I might have bought too much chocolates and sea salt. Ops. Jianhui’s back pack is considered as odd size baggage, but when we went to deposit at odd size baggage, we were told to get a new baggage tag as they cannot detect the current one. Luckily there isn’t a queue at the counter so we could get it settled quite fast.  

Then we went in for security check. It’s a quick one as well. And then it’s breakfast time. I bought 2 x croissant, egg bacon croissant and cuppinccino. While they eat, I went to Blue Lagoon to do some last minute shopping. The products are not cheap but I guess since I am here, May as well buy some back. Haha. A pity that we didn’t get to go to blue lagoon as it is closed due for the volcanic activity nearby. 

Lexuan went to play playground for a while before we rushed quickly to our gate, C24. It’s almost last call for us. We didnt even have time to top up our bottles of buy water  We had to take a bus to board the plane. Luckily we made it to the bus. It’s cold to board the plane in the dark. We taking Play to go Athens. 

The plane did not take off until 7.30am. Lexuan fell asleep the moment the plane took off. For me, I slept for a while only. 

I did some colouring to kill time. Then we bought 2 cup noodles for lunch. Time seems to pass by quite fast without entertainment. 

Soon, we will be landing. It’s strange that the plane didn’t depart on time but some how will end up being on time. Our plane parked somewhere in the middle and we got to take the bus to go to the terminal. The good thing is, there isn’t a need to clear customs. We could get our luggage quickly and then we saw our driver waiting for us there. 

It’s quite a nice feeling to have your transport planned out for you. He’s going to drive us to the race expo before heading to the hotel. The total cost is EUR150. 

Collecting race park is a breeze. It’s a big one and if not for lexuan, we could spend some time shopping. She can’t wait to go back to hotel. I got to bribe her with my phone. 

Then it’s a super jammed journey to our hotel - Hidesign Acropolis Panorama Suite. We are like so near yet so far. There are so many cars parked along the streets, making it even more jammed. The driver is so good that he knows which route to avoid and will just get out of the jam. So glad that we are not driving. 

Then, we reached our apartment. It looks amazing! It is big and a good view of the Acropolis too at the balcony! We wish we can have more time to relax inside the room. 

Then, it’s Maggie mee time! We slept at 9pm. 

12 November 2023 

It’s race day for Jianhui! I had quite a good sleep. Other than waking up occasionally by the toilet flushing sound, I am good. 

Jianhui woke up to get ready and I woke up at 5.30am too. 

Since I have woken up, I didn’t sleep again. I did some packing and did laundry too. But it seems like there is no dryer to dry the clothes so I hang it outside 

Lexuan woke up around 9am. 

Around 11am, we went out to buy ice cream! It’s quite confusing here so I don’t dare to venture too far away. We walked past Central hotel, the place we always go to have drinks and take photos. I bought pistachio ice cream and it is nice! 

Then we went back to our room and continue to track Jianhui. Around 3pm, we started to walk slowly to Panathenaic Stadium. It seems quite a short walk (1.2km) with all the shops. Lexuan is such a good girl as she didn’t complain at all. When we reached the stadium, we had to walk one big round to be closer to the finishing line and she didn’t complain too. 

So happy that Jianhui completed this authentic Athens marathon! We are so proud of him! 

Lexuan is a good girl today so I bought her a Skye balloon for her which she told me that she will give it to another kid. Haha. 

We finally met up with Jianhui and after taking a few photos, we walked back together. I was really surprised that Lexuan did not complain at all. 

Jianhui washed up and then we went to Central hotel for dinner! It’s just a few steps away from our apartment. So this is our 5th time to the rooftop bar at Central hotel. 

Sadly, they don’t have pizza anymore. So we ordered burger, mushrooms and pork fillet. The pork fillet is not bad! We also ordered Mythos! It’s time for celebration! 

Then we went back to our room to relax. 

Our trip is coming to an end… so fast… I wish we can have one more day here. Loving Athens for sure. 

We slept around 10pm. 

13 November 2023 

Time to fly back! We woke up around 7.30am. We had our bread from Iceland + Nutella from New York as breakfast. And of course with our Nescafe kopi O kosong + kopi gao siew dai.

Our luggage limit is 23kg so we had to add one more check in luggage using Jianhui’s Athens marathon goodie bag. Total weight 23kg + 14kg + 5kg 

Our driver came to pick us up at 10am. It’s a short stay in Athens and we are heading to the airport. 

We reached the airport around 10.40am. There isn’t a crowd so we could quickly deposit our bags. 

Then we going Burger King for lunch. Know what? We waited super long at Burger King for our food… in the end, we waited like 30 minutes and we had to gobble down our food as soon as possible.   We got our food only at 11.45am… 

Then we went to gate A for customs and security check around 1220. To our horror, the queue is crazily long. And our boarding time is 1315.  We waited patiently in the queue and finally we cleared customs at 1300. Somehow, it’s always a rush at Athens airport. We are even delayed by the check in counter, customs or food (this time). 

Luckily the customs is quite fast. We quickly walked and finally ended at gate A09. We could still go toilet and buy water. Phew! We made it! Too bad I don’t have time to do last minute shopping. Haha. Even my girl knows I like to get magnets and she will always complains why I always want to buy magnets. Ops. 

We taking Etihad to Abu Dhabi and from there to Singapore. So this A320 doesn’t have entertainment. They have this E-Box which allows you to stream movies, TV and music for free on flight. We just need to connect to their E-Box network to start. But at least it’s considered a short flight each. 

So this trip we actually took 4 different airlines - SQ, Icelandair, Play and Etihad. Total damage - $2,800

We took off about 2pm Athens time. About 2.45pm, they started serving kid’s meal. Lexuan’s meal looks so happy with scooby-Doo! It’s mac & cheese with fish, very yummy. It comes with apple juice too. As for adult meal, we wanted beef but no more so we got chicken and vegetarian. The chicken is not bad but it the white rice is uncooked and hard. For vegetarian, it is briyani so we combine both to eat. Anyway, we are not hungry as we have ate a very full lunch at burger’s king. 

We played Happy Families card games and drawing to kill time. So, for this first leg, we didn’t sleep at all. No entertainment also. 

We landed at 8.20pm (Abu Dhabi timing which is 4 hrs behind Singapore) and parked in the middle again. We had to take shuttle bus to the airport. We needed to clear customs  but it’s a quick one. Then we walked quickly to gate 59. Quite a lot of shopping where we walked past. Sadly, there isn’t anything much near gate 59. 

14 November 2023 

We boarded the plane at 9.40pm and boarding is very fast. So this is our final leg to go back home! The blanket is inside a recycle bag to celebrate Etihad Airways 20 years anniversary. The recycle bag looks not bad. Oh ya, their pillow is super big! Haha. 

Mixed feeling. I miss home and all the local food… but I really going to miss the holiday mood. Somehow, I always feel that I can live a few more years when I travel… and then to get my life shortened when I go back to work. Haha. 

So we ate our “supper” at 10pm. For adults we had chicken briyani, not too bad. Lexuan ate her yoghurt, drank apple juice. Her pasta is a bit hard so we didn’t eat much also. 

Lexuan slept around midnight Abu Dhabi timing. As for me, I can’t seem to fall asleep. Think my body must be too excited to go home. Haha. 

They served breakfast at around Abu Dhabi time 3.15am which is Singapore time 7.15am. We had vegetable and mozzarella puff which is not too bad plus my teh O. 

Then I didn’t sleep anymore and started to watch Meg 2. Lexuan also woke up and she didn’t complain. Haha. 

We touched down Singapore 9.30am! We are home!! Lexuan is 6 years old and so the custom officer asked her to scan her iris and capture her thumbprints. 

And I feel so hot the moment we are in the terminal. Back to the hot weather…. 

All in all, it was a great trip with lots of beautiful memories! A great adventure for sure! ❤️❤️ 

Thanks Jianhui for planning and executing this trip! We really had lots of fun! Can’t wait to book for our next adventure!