One Long Queue

So im sorry to say I haven’t taken any photos yet… I do have some hopefully arriving from a friend I made on the plane of what we saw out the window but not yet.

I guess you could say im currently easing into the holiday… Ive spent most of my time in the Coffee Shop next door to Becka’s house. If I lived here I would be broke! It’s the funkiest little place, with vines growing all over it, wooden tables inside and out. Art work everywhere and people just hanging out. Now you could say its very social as you just sit anywhere on the same table as someone else (ie there is a little round two person table near me where an older lady and a uni student are sharing the table) but as everyone is on their laptops its really not.  Its not quiet though, there are lots of students studying together and many social coffees going on, im pretty sure this neighbourhood doesn’t go to work, I really had to ask myself if it was a weekday yesterday or had Becka just pretended to go to work as she didn’t want to hang out with me ;-)

Im sitting with an iced coffee,  just absorbing the place having placed my final weeks couple of footy tips and trying to get the enthusiasm up to start sight seeing. This is my second day here and I haven’t even seen the famous Mall. Im easing into it guess…..

The flight well… it was just one long queue. It started on the Tuesday night I was meant to be on the bus to the airport at 4am Wednesday morning.  I just missed a call on my phone while listening to the voice messages I somehow managed to delete it before I heard it. When I rang back it was lucky It told me it was a virgin Australia number else I would have had no idea what was going on.

Ringing back I was put on hold and so poor mum sat on the phone waiting while I continued to pack.

Turns out my flight out of Brisbane had been delayed by six hours (already! It wasn’t meant to leave till 11.30 am) which meant I would miss my flight out of LA. So they were ringing to ask me If I wanted to catch a flight out of Melbourne at 10am instead that would take me to Sydney where I would catch a 1.45 flight to LA and catch the same flight out of LA. Well who wouldn’t say yes… a flight leaving 3 hours later but getting me in at the same time.. well if I had known the stress I don’t know if I would have said yes… each place had a 2 hour layover sounds enough doesn’t it?! The airline assured me it was!

I had to ring back 3 hours later as they never sent me my confirmation. So poor Mum was put on hold again. Luckily this fellow just emailed it to me straight away as I finally received the official one 35min after my flight left.

Being scared of the traffic on the western ring road I caught an earlier bus to the airport.  This was fortunate as the queues for check in were pretty crazy by the time I reached the check in counter.. I may have contributed to this a little bit as well the lady couldn’t check me in. First there was $30 owing on my account.. the only thing I can think of is that the domestic flight in the US you have to pay for your luggage and I was wanting to check mine all the way to DC. 

But even after paying she was unable to check me in. Finally the big boss had to come and press a few buttons and then I was ok.. seems my fear of my luggage being too heavy was the least of it!  I wasn’t too stressed though as they would have had to make sure I could get onto my flight.

Anyway through I went to have a nice leisurely breakie If I had known what was to come I think I would have sat there a lot longer and had a bigger breakie with more coffee.

When I got to Sydney I had to wait in the transfer lounge.. we got told to sit down and wait for someone to come and collect us to take us to the international  terminal. Not to worry about lining up to check in with them there were more counters at the terminal. Hmmm maybe for the other airlines.  But that’s ok its all part of it. What I wasn’t prepared for was the queue to leave the country.. the passport control. It was crazy, by the time I got through it and then the queue for security I had to run to my gate they were about to do last call. Needless to say we left late as I wasn’t the last person.  I also felt after all this time traveling I should be in another country by now not Sydney!

When I had checked in the lady was very surprised, “Im not sure what you did but they have given you the emergency exit, its usually worth $150 more” obviously I had got the last seat on the plane! This was bizzare cause while standing in the line I had been thinking about all my friends who constantly talk about the times they have been upgraded.. in all the times I have flown I have never been upgraded. Must be my scruffy backpacker look.

It was a great seat, no sore knees from digging into the seat pocket infront, no having the TV in your face when they put the seat back in front of you. Though my long legs did trip a few people up as I had the aisle seat.   The people I sat next to were lovely and we passed a lot of take of time chatting.  Though it did take a while to get over my jealousy of the fact that they were heading to a Liverpool game at Ainfield as part of their round the world trip!

Sleep was had and I was feeling ready to hit the next part of my trip.  It finally hit me I was on holiday when we landed in LA.  But once again we were put in queues like Cattle.. this time to wait to enter the queues for Border control. I had been expecting the queues for border control but not they fact that 3 flights from Sydney arrive at the same time.  I was lucky my bag was already through I just had to get it off the carousel go through customs the one place there was hardly any queue, and put It on the transfer belt. The couple from the plane had purchased separate flights and so had to check in on time. I really hope they made it. 

For once I had no trouble with border control, he even welcomed me back to the united states. I was a bit concerned my bag wasn’t going to make it as the fellow told me just to leave it sitting next to the belt, having pulled a wad of dollar bills out as I approached I think he was hoping for a tip for putting it on the belt for me. I kept watch as I was leaving and so he finally threw It on the belt, with a glare and made sure it landed upside down.

I tried to check in on the computer but it wouldn’t let me so I joined another queue to check in. There was one person handling this I was starting to get a bit worried but I still had an hour before I left.  I was also worried as to what was going to happen if I got asked to pay for my bag again.

Anyway it all went smoothly no questions. No queues for security. I am struggling to remember the inside of LA airport. I do remember thinking I needed ot get some food as there was none on the next flight but… there were queues for everything! So I kept heading towards my gate. We were boarding so onto the plane I went. For another 5 hour flight.

I was sat in the middle of a family who were returning from a trip to Alaska, it sounded like an amazing trip. The daughter, her boyfriend and I spent the whole trip chatting, we got accused by the hostess of having a big political discussion but you all know that defiantly wouldn’t be me!  They pointed out all the land marks as we flew. There are good reasons for flying by day, you forget what you will see!

I arrived safe and sound, weirdly at 9pm of the day I left.  Becka picked me up and off to the pub we went.. ..

Tonight we head to Philadelphia to see Benjamin Franklin, then Hartford to see Mark Twain and finish with Witches of Salem.  Photos will be taken.