I'm Going on an Adventure (Alastair and Bini's Exchange Blog)

Our first tourist day :D. Today bini and I woke up at 6 after almost 12 hours of sleep. Walked to the nearest 7,11 (a little supermarket) and bought milk. Had cereal for breakfast then headed off to the Vasa museum at about 10 o'clock.  The Vasa museum was amazing!!!! The whole museum is about a huge old wooden ship that was recovered out of stockholm harbour and somehow preserved by the sea. It had been restored or in the process of restoration since 1990 and was amazing!  I've seen these ships in pictures and games but the magnitude of it was awesome. In other words I loved it and bini also enjoyed it immensely. There was a huge amount of history about the ship and also about the time it was made in and how it worked e.g. How to stear :D Morning tea consisted of a croissants and bananas  We left the Vasa about two and had a late lunch of cheap pizza from a near by restaurant. The pizza was amazing. Swedish pizza consists of a fairly thin and wet dough with minimal toppi...

Woke up this morning at sparrows fart (3 am) to catch a flight from Gatwick airport to stockholm. Took tube and then Gatwick express to airport (all on oyster cards). Check in  was smooth and then we realised we were 3.5 hours early for our flight. We proceeded to wander the airport, look at a couple of dresses then try and order a burger. Sadly no burger as the place was still on its breakfast menu, so we settled for a small cooked breakfast which ended up making us both feel urmy.  Flight to stockholm with norwegian air was delayed  but good. Bini has some pretty bad ear pain On the way down  but made it to stockholm airport safely without too many tears. We were both pretty hungry after the flight so decided to get the Swedish version of maccers which once again made us urmy due to the fact we haven't had maccers for years. That's bad decision number 2. Took fast train into stockholm which was cool. Our tickets we'd bought online before we left Adelaide worked per...

I'm tired. Today binita and I woke up at 3am because of jet lag. We produceeded to get up have breakfast and go for a walk in the Thames. Walk went well we saw Westminster Abby which was shut, big Ben with a huge amount of scaffolding on it and the London eye. After walking down the Thames and kinda getting lost this morning. As In I thought I knew where I was but I couldn't see the tube station I expected we stopped a Consulted a map for a bit. Turned out we were about 20 m from said tube stop and hadn't seen it.  We then had a very nice and needed hot chocolate from starbux where we are a chocolate croissant (bought earlier from tescos). We then returned to Oxford St and bought some lunch stuff e.g. Ham cheese and a baguette. Then I got very lost.. infact I lead us 180 in the wrong direction for about a kilometre. We were trying to get to the British museum. after that bini took charge and we ended up at the Britiah museum in a huge line to get our bags checked. I had my ...

Today bini and i flew from Adelaide to London. After an emotional farewell at the airport, bini and i boarded our qatar plane to Doha. The flight went ok.... i got plane sick after a plate of strawberries and blueberries and became very well acquainted with toilet bowl. After i was sick, i made lots of friends with people who came to the back to stretch. Doha airport was interesting. Lots of security which had very bad instructions so we spend a fair bit of time digging in our bags for all sorts of things they wanted to see. Made it to the next plane with plenty of time. Second flight was only 7 hours however this time bini became very well acquainted with the toilet bowl after an interesting mushroom omelette. Beyond that, it was a good flight although neither of us got much sleep and are very.... very tired. Arrived in Heathrow London hungry and thirsty. After a relatively quick and successful trip through immigration, we went and bought a grilled chicken burger each which helped...

(This pretty much is the whole process we went though for this exchange, it's very long no need to read)  I would love to say the process of applying for this exchange was smooth and trouble free, however that would be lying. It's been a very.... very long road. We started doing research and applying in February of this year (2017). The first part of the application was to get approved by our faculty to say that we were able to do an exchange with our course. For my application this was easy, however Bini was using a backdoor method to get into her course (Chemical Engineering with a double in Finance) because she hadn't done specialist maths at high school and was currently in a course called mathematics and Computer Science, planning to transfer at the end of first semester. After seven unsuccessful visits to the faculty office and one successful visit we managed to get approved. After our successful visit we were refereed/overheard on the phone and then chanced down a...

So for anyone who doesn't know my girlfriend (Binita probably called bini in these blogs) and I are going a six month exchange to Leeds University. Leeds university starts it's semester 2 officially on the 22nd of January 2018 however Bini and I will be doing a two week holiday prior to this date starting in London then visiting, Stockholm, Abisko National Park, Copenhagen, Berlin, Ghent and London a second time. We are required in Leeds on the 18th of Jan to move into our accommodation (called Lupton Residence) and do other uni things like buy pens. I'm planning to do a daily blog while travelling and a few blogs here and there while in Leeds. Accommodation: Our accommodation in Leeds is a four person, self catered flat where four people share the same kitchen and Bathroom but everyone has their own rooms. Sadly we are not in the same flat but at least we are in the same area. Funds: Where funds are concerned the University of Adelaide has provided each of us with a ...