It was Sunday night and somehow the conversation came to Charles offering me the chance to tag along to Australia. In my head I was already trying to figure out how it could possibly work. So I hopped on to my phone and messaged my mum asking if I could go to Australia. Then the conversation meandered off to other subjects. And I was talking to my friend Kelly and my brother about going to Australia and still waiting to hear from my mum. When I did hear back she was like totally do it! So I was like hey Charles looks like I’m going to Australia and he was like make sure you get your visa. In my head it was like everything was hitting the breaks because I remembered how it was when I was applying for my Student Visa for Britain. And I was like well fuck there goes Australia.
Wrong!
After a little research I realized it takes no time at all to get a visa.
So the next day Charles and Bea were headed off early to Heathrow and I left telling Charles I would see him in Australia.
I headed toward Trafalgar Square to find coffee. The whole way I was excited thinking how absurd it was that I was ending my UK adventure to go to the other side of the world. As I was walking through pretty much empty streets I was asking the angels for a sign on if I should really be going or not. Well I really didn’t need a sign because it just felt so right and my insides were all excited and it was that perfect mix of excitement and fear that I love to manifest. But I got my sign anyways. I was sitting in Pret a Manger having a coffee and contemplating Australia when a group of business men sit at the table next to me… Guess where they were from. I’m give you a hint it starts with Aus and ends with tralia. That’s when I got on my nook and went to the Australian visa site.
I had my visa fifteen minutes and $20 later. Then I googled the US Airways number and 13 minutes later I had a flight home leaving the next day at 12h30. I let my mother know when to pick me up and then I was off to enjoy my last day in London.
It’s a magical city really. I love it and being back made me a little sad that I was so close to living here and it got screwed up… but better things have come my way since then so I’m happy in a way that I didn’t live there. That night I caught a bus from Victoria Coach Station to Heathrow. And I proceeded to spend the rest the night soaking in my favourite type of energy… Airport energy.
Some people sleep in airports as a last resort. I sleep there whenever I get a chance. I just find it to be so much fun! I tend to loose sleep though because I like to stay up as long as possible before hunting for the perfect spot to hunker down. In Heathrow I ended up getting virtually no sleep because I was so excited so I stayed up at the coffee shop there. When the next morning rolled around I headed off to check in then through security I went.
I boarded my plane and pretty much slept the whole way home. I got to Philly on time but I had an almost 3 hour layover. So I manifested a better flight and walked right up to the counter and I was like is there anyway I could be put on standby for the next flight to Newark? I was put on standby and a half hour later I was on my last leg home. My parents picked me up and we went to dinner.
The next six days consisted of me running around acting all crazy like and being way too excited. I packed a suitcase… it was an odd experience since as you know I’m usually backpack only kind of girl so I was like what do I do with all this space!
I had lots of spare room. Seriously it boggles my mind how people can pack two suitcases! I had a hard time sort of filling one. But I got my style on!
My carry on was a birthday present hand painted by my brother Spencer. It was a head turner at the airports.
Nine days after I decided I was going to Australia I was in the Newark airport ready to embark on an adventure… and boy what an adventure it turned out to be.
Nasty weather delayed my flight for two hours from Newark so I missed my connection in LA. That sucked. What sucked more was the fact that LAX closes around 1 in the morning so I couldn’t even try to figure out what to do for a ticket. I was freaking out because this was the first time I had ever had this happen. I told myself to calm down and find a lovely place to hunker down for a few hours. Turns out LAX gets really cold at night so I got even less sleep then I had planned, like 3 hours total of sleep.
^The view from my "cozy" sleeping spot^
Bright and early the next morning I set out fixing myself up with tickets. First I went to Qantas who was the provider of the flight I missed the night before. They couldn’t to anything and told me to go to United since it was their fault I missed the flight. United was like sorry it was the weather’s fault so you’re screwed. I called the place I booked my tickets at and spent and hour and 45 minutes on the phone but I had new tickets. All my flights were with United so I had to go find my luggage. First I went to United who had my case from Newark to LA… they told me to go to Qantas. I had got to be rebellious. You know those signs when you’re walking to the arrivals hall that say you can’t come back when you leave? I had to go back because that’s where the only Qantas luggage desk is at LAX! WTF!! But I got my precious back. Then hoped back on the shuttle and went to the United terminal. Seriously I rode that shuttle so much that I know LAX like the back of my hand!
Now there’s only one flight from LA to Melbourne everyday and that was not the flight I had. I took the scenic route over…
I left LAX at 8:24 that night
And I arrived in San Francisco just in time to make my connection.
From San Fran I flew to Sydney…
And Sydney to Melbourne!
All this run around for flights further depleted my limited source of sleep. And you’d think a 14 hour flight from San Fran to Sydney would have been ample time to sleep… not quite. I got some sleep.
To add to my sleep distress I’d like to give you a little bit of cool information. You see I took off from San Francisco at 10:45 pm on the 19th of June… and due to the fact that I crossed the date like I landed in Sydney about 7 am on the 21st. So my 7 hours of sleep on the plane was actually like getting 3 and a half hours of sleep for the last 2 days. So really by the time I landed in Melbourne on Friday my last night of true sleep was Monday night. Cool right? Hashanah no!
But I sucked it up and navigated my way to city centre via bus. Then from central station I got the brilliant idea to walk a few streets down to catch the tram to South Yarra. That was a bit of a mistake because I was tired and exercise while being exhausted is never as much fun as it seems. As I was on the tram it must have been lunch time or something because a TON of school kids got on and I was forced to squish into a corner and exude annoyance at how loud and in my personal space they were. Normally I wouldn’t have cared but again I was functioning on less then a dozen hours of sleep since Tuesday.
I got off and lugged my suitcase a block from the tram to the hotel. After greeting Charles my first order of business was a nice shower. Then I made up a nice comfy floor bed and chilled out. When I say chilled out I mean napped a bit while trying to read some of A Clash Of Kings. Around 4:30 Charles left to go lecture and I was like see you tomorrow I’m going to bed.
And I did. I woke up around 10 to brush my teeth and change into my pyjamas. Then it was back to sleep. I was awoken the next morning by Charles first asking if I was awake. Then he said he wasn’t sure if I was dead or not because he had expected me to be awake when he got back from his lecture around midnight but when I wasn’t and still not awake this morning he was afraid I was dead… after realizing it was a little after 7:30 I decided taking me for dead was a valid case. 14 hours is an awful long time to sleep. But come on… no sleep since Monday night plus a 14 hour time zone difference meant jetlag wasn’t helping me in the least. Nothing really was. But I’d like to say that I pulled off being awake in class in the most wonderful way, 14 hours of sleep was just what I needed!
And that’s where my grand Australian adventure really started.
Cheers,
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