Los Angeles/1-26-2010/9pm
Flew into L.A.- amazingly LONG flight. Really hot flight (ugh, get some air in there!). We finally made it (I’m traveling with my Dad and step-mom, Caroline). Getting through security (twice!) was a major pain- had like 5 different bins and 3 bags going through with all of my stuff (laptop, shoes, etc.). My one red bag is SO HEAVY and it has no wheels!
The International Terminal at LAX
We had dinner at a weird, little diner place inside of the international terminal (lots of international folks, as you’d expect). Some eastern european dude (Polish, maybe?) knocked his wine glass all over my white, adidas jacket, so I had to go all 'emergency wash' on it in the bathroom, and now it’s sopping wet in a target bag sitting next to me on the seat in the terminal. At least the diner place had good fish and chips!
Oh no, now some family has sat down next to me and the two kids are fighting non-stop, the little girl is screaming, oh no. Why won’t the parents like DO anything about it, they’re just completely ignoring it as these two kids fight. PLEASE don’t be on my flight, PLEASE! I can’t handle almost 15 hours of child craziness- no thank you.
Melbourne/1-28-2010/11am
The gate in L.A. was absolute MADNESS. No lines, no direction, just passengers mobbing the entrance to the plane. I felt like we were trying to get on a life boat on the Titanic or something. Looks like I lost one of my USB thumb drives in the mad dash- urgh! Man, I’m so tired of carrying this heavy-heavy-heavy bag. Anyway, the flight was okay- we got on the plane and settled in. Played with the in-plane chat feature (you can actually chat between seats on the plane, lol, it was fun for about five minutes until we realized we were all sitting right next to each other and talking was probably faster and easier than poking around on the silly little keyboard on the back of the pull-out remote). Slept a lot of the flight (really uncomfortably, despite, or maybe because, I had the window seat), woke up for some food (best food, or at least ‘dinner,’ of the Australian flights so far- Air New Zealand comes in second and Qantus in third). Dinner was beef ragout over potatoes and breakfast was Canadian bacon and tater-tots (skipped the eggs, as I don’t like eggs). I saw The Informant!, which was so-so- chuckled a few times, and Matt Damon did a commendable job in his role as corporate whistle-blower. I knitted the start of a nice hat- 3 rows black followed by 3 row grey followed by 3 rows red. I listened to some Beyonce on the in-flight radio (on my duct-taped-together headphones) and knitted.
Views from the airplane window
Getting on in the flight, we finally caught up with the sun- looked very cool at first, with dark almost black clouds and the orange sunrise coming through the edges of the horizon. Tried to take some photos, but couldn’t really capture it all too well (too dark). I realize around this time I should probably get up and move around (I had only done so like once, maybe twice at this time- don’t really need a life-ending clot, thank you very much!).
Overall, the flight was a pretty good experience- I generally have a very laid-back attitude about traveling, and especially on these long flights I KNOW we’re not getting off until the however-many-hours are up, so I just try to occupy myself and don’t worry too much about when we get there until we get there. Dad and Caroline and myself discussed how laid back I am about traveling- they can definitely get a little stressed sometimes. I can, too, but I just let it slide off my back and keep going, because when I’m traveling, I don’t have the time to waste getting angry or frustrated, I just need to keep going and chilllll.
My ghetto, taped-together headphones- they still work! (kinda...)
So, we finally got into Melbourne. It took me a little while to get off the plane (was searching for aforementioned USB drive) and when I got up to the gate- Dad and Caroline were nowhere to be found. I was pretty sure they had probably just gone ahead, but with every turn and weave through the terminal, I saw no sign of them. I finally caught sight of them when I got all the way to Customs at the end of the terminal. I’ll admit, my laid-back traveling demeanor was tested (don’t like getting ‘left behind’ even for a relatively short distance, especially carrying a few heavy bags), but I got over it quickly and moved on. Customs and baggage were a madhouse- we had to wait in an extremely long, busy “queue” (what they call a “line” of people here) to get to the customs official. When we finally got out of the terminal, we picked up a taxi and headed into Melbourne. We passed some cool architectural stuff along the road- a huge, overhanging yellow mast stuck out over the freeway in one place, and exits came through large arches in another area. Got to hotel and checked into room- pretty nice room, clean, can’t complain. SO tired of traveling- need to get a shower!
Okay, got a shower (which was great)- felt good to wash away over 24 hours of traveling! Now I’m getting hungry for some lunch!
Coming up: Australia Day 3, Part 2 - Melbourne afternoon!
