Day 1: Melbourne - Denver

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Longest.Day.EVER!

Arrived at Melbourne Airport around 9.30am to find the check-in line was huge. I only just made check-in in time.

Flight to LAX was ok. A bit too bumpy so I didnt really get much sleep. So uncomfortable. Customs at LAX was a breeze, unfortunately. This meant I had a long (4 hour) layover just waiting around the terminal. One odd thing is they make you remove any jackets and even your shoes whenever you got through a security checkpoint. Makes for an even more tedious airport experience. And unbelievably, there are three Starbucks' in the one terminal. For breakfast at a diner themed place, I ate Cinnamon French toast with syrup and apple smoked bacon. It seemed like an odd combination but it was quite good. The bad part was the endless supply of coffee. I ordered "coffee", but they just gave me a mug and filled it straight from a percolator, just like in the movies. Unfortunately it was horrid. I mean absolutely disgusting. I forced it down to be polite, and the next thing I knew, it was full again. Turns out ordering "coffee" also means endless refills. I drank another half of it and left the rest.

The flight to Denver wasnt too bad. I spent most of the time chatting to the girl next to me about travel and telling her stories about Australia. It was nice to be able to talke to someone after 18 hours or so of silence.

Arrival at Denver was spectacular. Looking out over the Rockies is just brilliant, especially after the recent snow. I met Anna at the baggage carousel and spent the drive back to her appartment catching up. For dinner we went to a local bar for a burger (salad for Anna) and I tried my first weird food item. Pickle Chips: basically battered, deep fried sliced pickles, dipped in blue cheese dressing. They were actually pretty good. As we were about half way through dinner a trivia night started up. Me being me, I oculdnt help myself and joined in, but sfter about half of the night we headed off. I was absolutely wrecked after well over 24 hours of being awake.

Tomorrow I think we are heading off to Boulder to check out the sights there, but it probably wont be too big of a day, as I'm sure I'll still be pretty tired.

Havent taken any photos as yet but there will be some coming in the future.

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