Oh great. Miss Pinky wanted to start the day early so that we could eat breakfast. :( So I got up at 7am (actually before 7... I had a very good nights sleep, although I heard our neighbours flushing the toilet a lot... and Miss Pinky had thought it was me).
So we had breakfast at the Reception area again. This time there was scrambled eggs instead of boiled eggs. I don’t think I want to eat this breakfast again... :P
Before that Miss Pinky asked for the free shuttle to drop us off at the nearest train station. We were kindly dropped off at Inwood / Love Field Station. We had a bit of trouble purchasing our tickets from the machines as they were only accepting coins or credit cards, and not dollar notes. But thankfully we asked a bus driver who said we could purchase our day ticket on the bus which costs US $5 per person (approx. £3.29). And it lasts for the whole day! Wow. I wish London had cheaper bus and train tickets. It would save me gazillions of pounds! (To check out bus and train ticket prices, go to this website: http://www.dart.org/).  |
| Bus / train ticket machine |
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| Inwood / Love Field Station |
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| Not sure what building this is, but it is one of the unique ones in Dallas! |
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| DART train that reminds me of Docklands Light Rail |
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| Akard Station |
There are two lines you can take from Inwood / Love Field Station, green or orange, and both go towards the centre of Dallas but end up somewhere different. We took the green line from this station. We weren’t sure which station to stop at as there are 4 stops within Downtown Dallas. So we stopped at Akard Station where there was an information and service centre. The lady at the counter didn’t realise that we were tourists, and had asked us why we needed to know about the bus service around Dallas. Heheheh. Apparently Americans are not very good at recognising accents even though we have a very clear British accent. Well I do anyway. ¬_¬”” But in the end we explained, and the lady at the counter was very helpful about which places to go to for shopping and where to go around the area. Heheh.
In the end we jumped back on a train to West End Station (it’s a 2-3 minute walk from Akard, I don’t understand why the central stations are so close to each other, and neither did Miss Pinky!). In the end we walked around, found the J.F. Kennedy Memorial where Kennedy got shot 500 yards west from the memorial.
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| JFK Memorial |
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| JFK Memorial |
We found ourselves looking around the area, looking at museums and shops to go into, but the museums don’t open until 10 am. We were there quite early... ¬_¬"
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| Shop selling cowboy boots, hats and accessories |
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| In West End Historic District |
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| Not sure of the name of this place... |
Finally we went back to West End Station and headed towards Park Lane (red line). And then we took a shuttle (bus 72) to the big mall in the area. The big mall is actually Macy’s which is popular in the US. It’s basically like a big massive Selfridges or it’s like Bluewater or Westfield Shopping Centre. You are not really missing anything as all the shops are the branded ones like Gucci and other American stores. I wasn’t really keen on spending all my money in this place as I could spend the same amount in London for the same products...
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| On the train |
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| On the bus |
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| Heading towards the mall |
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| Inside Macy's in Park Lane |
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| Big hallways |
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| Nice design! |
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| Turtles in a mall pond!! |
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| And there were ducks too!!!! |
Miss Pinky wanted to eat in a diner, but there were no diner like places in the mall except for an Italian place and a sandwich bar... But this wasn't up to Miss Pinky’s idea of American dining. And so we ended up in the food hall in the end where I had this lovely Rainbow Sushi Roll... It was awesome!!! I want more of it!! :D I also had 3 dumplings, and a medium sized drink. It didn’t feel like it was a medium drink as there was a lot of ice in it.
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| Rainbow Sushi Roll and dumplings |
Miss Pinky had the beef and chicken rice. It was nicely seasoned. :D
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| Japanese beef and chicken rice |
We checked out a few more stores before heading back to the station.
Address: 687 North Central Expressway, Dallas, TX 75225 (North Dallas) United States
How to get there: Take the orange or red line to Park Lane, then take the shuttle 702 to Macy's
I had wanted to check out a 7Eleven. There’s none in the UK anymore. And I was quite happy to see them still surviving in other countries! Hong Kong are crazy about them, but it feels dim and not as lively in the US.
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| 7Eleven!! |
We then trekked down into a building that had the name TJ Maxx. Isn’t it supposed to be TK Maxx?!... Apparently not. TJ Maxx is the original name of the store and it's from the US. It came to Europe with a different name to save confusion with another company. There was nothing much there, just an empty building, so we headed back to the station.
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| TJ Maxx |
From Park Lane Station we went back towards Downtown, and stopped at Art District this time and we decided to walk back towards West End, so we did a lot of twists and turns.
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| Cancer Survivors Plaza |
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| Looking up at buildings |
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| Thanksgiving Square |
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| McDonald's in West End - the rough spot!! |
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| Liquor store opposite McDonald's |
We found a CVS which is a general store. And look what I found... Peanut Butter M&M’s!!! I was so happy!! I’ve been trying to look for these from the day we landed!!! :D These M&M's are massive compared to the UK ones!!
After this we ended up drinking a pint. Miss Pinky was exhausted from too much walking. I seemed to be ok, but my hand muscles seemed to be aching a lot.
Finally we went back. Took the green line again back to Inwood / Love Field. And then one of the smaller local buses 526 back to Hawthorne Suites. If it’s your first time on one of these buses and you need to get off, press the yellow or black strip that’s located on the side of the buses by each seat. I felt like I was in Hong Kong again, as they have buses with similar bell stops... :D
Then we had our dinner in the Reception area. I guess Miss Pinky didn’t want to cook that night... It was pizza night!
Day 3 ended almost peacefully between us. :D Wasn’t even tired!!
