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Published: January 19th 2008
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FREE SUSHI!!
After our flight to Sydney was canceled, we got $30 of free sushi! There are many important questions that need to be answered in the world. Question like how many licks does it take to get to the center of tootsie roll pop? If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? How long does it take for Jake and Dan to get to Australia from San Francisco? Well, it should have taken 14 ½ hours, but the epic 45 hour trip we took to the other side of the world is bound to go down in a record book somewhere. Almost everything that could have done wrong on our way over her DID! I didn’t really mind, the whole thing was kind of funny.
There are certain things in life getting upset about, and there are certain things to laugh about. The first two days of my trip were something to laugh about.
I arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Monday evening ready to board my 14 ½ four flight to Sydney. Jake, the guy I’ll be traveling and living with, met me at the airport and we were ready to go. Everything was going great until some large bellied
CLUB TED!
Party at the back of the plane? Why not! We had nothing else to do for 14 hours. man came over in front of us and announced that, “the plane is BROKEN; flight 863 to Sydney is CANCELED!” Fortunately we were at the beginning of the line, and we were still about to check our bags for a flight the next afternoon. United Airlines gave us a hotel and $15 each to spend on food that night and another $10 to spend on breakfast the next morning. We weren’t too hungry, but who can pass up $30 of free food?! We grabbed $30 of sushi, and headed out to the courtesy shuttle. Have you ever ordered $30 worth of sushi for two people? We couldn’t even finish it all. Anyways, we went out to wait for the courtesy shuttle…and it never showed up. About 90 minutes later, we hopped in a cab and took the short drive to the Comfort Inn. When we arrived at the hotel, the line we saw made at least me consider sleeping on the floor of the lobby. Waiting in line, we found some funny Australians to entertain us. It seems like that is going to be one of the themes of our trip: hanging out with funny Australians. So we got into
LINES LINES LINES!
We waiting in a line for 3 hours to get a hotel after our flight was diverted from Sydney to Brisbane our room, the sushi was delicious, and we arrived at the airport the next day with plenty of time to spend our last $10 United gave us. We boarded and took off about an hour late. I guess it is to be expected when a jumbo 747 is being loaded. It didn’t really matter; we were finally on our way!
The first 10 hours of the flight went by fast. We watched American History X and probably spent three hours standing at the back of the plane drinking beers with some of the Australians and Canadians we met. It got a little rowdy, but it was fun. What did they expect to happen when they gave away free beers?! Anyways, no one seemed to complain, especially the flight attendants. One of the Australians gave our little party at the back of the plane a name: Club Ted. United’s smaller partner in the States is called Ted, so it was appropriate. After we all settled down, we watched four episodes of Entourage, and took a little nap, but decided that since we were supposed to land at night, it might be better to be tired when we arrived. About three
hours from when we were supposed to land in Sydney, the captain comes on and says, “Ladies and gentleman, flying a 747 across the Pacific is like conducting a fine symphony…you never know how it is going to end.” I didn’t really know what that meant…but something told me we were in trouble. We were. We took off late from California, and because of storms over the pacific, our flight path looked like a limp noodle. Apparently planes can’t land after 11pm in Sydney…if they do there is a hefty fine. United decided the fine was greater than the cost of putting everyone up in Brisbane for the night PLUS paying for everyones flight to Sydney, PLUS upsetting everyone on board who will probably never fly United again. We waited about three hours in the airport here going though customs, and getting situated with our hotel room. After a 30 minute ride into the city, we got out, and unloaded out coach at what we thought was our hotel… but of course the bus driver got it wrong. So we reloaded our 50 seat coach, and drove across the city to what actually was our hotel. The rooms were beautiful,
Finally in OZ
Fizz picked us up from the airport, and brought us back to get house to finally relax! probably really expensive. We got to the hotel around one in the morning. We were told we would find out in the morning when our next flight was. We both went to sleep, and around 2:30am, the phone rings to tell us that we have to be up in 2 ½ hours to go to the airport. We got up at five, showered and went to the airport. It seemed like we would finally get to Sydney! HA!! Not before one more twist! Even though they asked Jake and I if we were together, AND we were in the same hotel room…they put us on separate flights. Jake boarded his flight. I guess they decided they wanted to split up the good looking people, so they put him on one flight and me on one later in the morning. Thankfully we had a camp friend Fizz picking us up…so once we got to Sydney, everything was okay.
So anyways…It was a surreal few days. I’m not really sure if I was tired or if I could really comprehend where I was. I was traveling for what seemed like three days, met a ton of fun people that we will
Great View!
If everything goes according to plan, this will be the view from my family room! (birds only come to visit in the morning) hopefully meet up with in Sydney…and the whole time I was wearing the same dingy clothes. One of the girls on our flight described it perfectly. She said, “I feel like I feel like I’m in the circus!” I’m not really mad about this; the only thing I can do is laugh. It took us 45 hours, two hotels, a canceled plane, a diverted plane, a bus going to the wrong hotel, Jake and I being on separate flight to Sydney from Brisbane, and probably 8 hours of waiting in lines.
Now that we have been in Sydney for 2 days, things seem to be going our way. When we landed, Fizz picked us up and took us back to her house. It was so nice to finally sit down and relax! Later in the afternoon, she took us over to another friends place (Max and Mike) in Harbord…just north of the city. We had been talking to these two guys, both who we worked with, and they said they had a room for us to share. So that is where we are now. It is a long story, but basically we are staying in some random guys apartment.
He is coming Monday to move all of his stuff out, and then hopefully we will be able to move back in. So there is a 90% chance we’ll be here for the duration of our trip. It is so nice. It has an amazing view of the water; it is pretty big with a nice kitchen, and not too expensive. It will be something like $380 a month. Jake and I have been exploring and getting used to being here. If we do get to live here, the next thing will be to find a job. That is the goal for this week. Next weekend we are flying to Melbourne for Australia Day. Apparently it is a huge party! Another guy we worked with at camp Steve (Scuba) lives down there and has some plans for us. After the weekend, Max and
I are sailing back on a huge 38 foot boat. It was in a race down there, and now they need some experienced sailors to bring it back! It is supposed to take 3-4 days. I really want to get a job, but I can’t pass up the opportunity!
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Alissa L P
Alissa L-P
Sexy Jake
Wow guys, quite a flight story! You should tell jake to use that face he has in the airport pic on all the ladies, I can't imagine anyone turning that Face down!!