Cairns
I just got off the phone with Qantas Baggage and the good news is that my luggage is on the way to Australia. The bad news is, it will arrive in Sydney about 2 hours after my plane leaves for Cairns. But they have promised to get it to me tomorrow morning at our B&B.Australia has been fun so far, the countryside is pretty here as we've seen it while taking trains from town to town. The put blankets on a lot of the horses as they stand out in the field but the cows don't get any. Kevin???We went out in downtown Wollongong last night to a club with a cover band. I've definitely been in towns with better looking women but it is Spring Break and most of the people are gone.We will get up to Cairns late tonight around 10pm and taxi over to our B&B were we'll be staying til Thursday. I tried to find a room in Sydney on Priceline last night so that we could stay there from Thurs-Mon when I'll be leaving to come back. No luck so far but now that the Internet is available again from the dorm room, I can try some more.I just saw a picture of what used to be Holly Beach from Randy and heard that his family and mine didn't suffer any damage beyond a few roof shingles. I'm glad all are OK.
More from Cairns tomorrow.
Kiama
Today we travelled to Kiama.
It's about 20 min further south from Wollongong. There is a rock formation there along the Pacific Ocean coast that creates a "Blowhole" effect. We watched a few of these spouts of water shoot into the air and turn into a fine mist as a 15mph wind blew it on us.
On the train ride back this afternoon, a picture perfect wino climbed on board and sat on the seat adjacent to me and Anna. If there ever was a role model for drunkards this guy would be it. He had a half-empty bottle of red wine (I think drunks are pessimistic), some bad teeth and an almost black tongue from the grapes. He would pause for a moment and then break out into a whispy-breathed laugh and then back to a straight face again. When you see people in the movies who are trying to play the wino character, this is the person they need to study. It was quite amusing. When I told him I was from Texas in response to his, "Where ya from mate?" question he thought I was referring to a city in Queensland with the same name. We went back and forth on this a few times before he realized I was from the States. We approached the station in Fairy Meadow where Anna's dorm is and off we went leaving the wino to his new best friend who was sitting behind him trying to write quietly in a journal.
We're off to Cairns tomorrow night and my clothes are supposedly still at LAX with Continental. :(
Looking towards the rest of the week, it looks like we will be exploring Sydney and possibly seeing La Boheme at the Opera House.
I hope everyone in Louisiana is fine from the hurricane.
Today we travelled to Kiama.
It's about 20 min further south from Wollongong. There is a rock formation there along the Pacific Ocean coast that creates a "Blowhole" effect. We watched a few of these spouts of water shoot into the air and turn into a fine mist as a 15mph wind blew it on us.
On the train ride back this afternoon, a picture perfect wino climbed on board and sat on the seat adjacent to me and Anna. If there ever was a role model for drunkards this guy would be it. He had a half-empty bottle of red wine (I think drunks are pessimistic), some bad teeth and an almost black tongue from the grapes. He would pause for a moment and then break out into a whispy-breathed laugh and then back to a straight face again. When you see people in the movies who are trying to play the wino character, this is the person they need to study. It was quite amusing. When I told him I was from Texas in response to his, "Where ya from mate?" question he thought I was referring to a city in Queensland with the same name. We went back and forth on this a few times before he realized I was from the States. We approached the station in Fairy Meadow where Anna's dorm is and off we went leaving the wino to his new best friend who was sitting behind him trying to write quietly in a journal.
We're off to Cairns tomorrow night and my clothes are supposedly still at LAX with Continental. :(
Looking towards the rest of the week, it looks like we will be exploring Sydney and possibly seeing La Boheme at the Opera House.
I hope everyone in Louisiana is fine from the hurricane.
Sydney
I made it to the Sydney airport about 7am local time here on Saturday morning. After waiting around a while for my luggage we discovered that it was still in Los Angeles at LAX. Supposedly it will be here tomorrow but Qantas gave me AUS$100 so I can go buy some underwear and a toothbrush.
Anna was waiting for at the airport which is good because she's the only person I would recognize in Sydney. We took an hour long train ride along the coast and over to Wollongong where she is in school. The pacific is quite pretty, big rolling waves, houses stacked up close to each other along the cliffs.
I slept a lot more on the flight from Seoul to Sydney than on the previous two flights and I didn't eat or drink as much. Economy class is a pretty tight fit for someone of my height but over all for being on planes for 26+ hours I'd have to say that I didn't mind it. I'm here in Sydney, the weather is about 70F and it's beautiful outside. It's several degrees warmer now than usual for this time of year which is perfect. Anna has done a good bit of planning in the areas of where to sleep and how to get there, next we're gonna figure out the what to do and when. I'm pretty sure we will take a surfing class one day and also do a boating trip out on the Reef while in Cairns.
More to come, stay high and dry and away from Rita!
A funny thing happened on the way to Sydney
This has been one of the longest days of my life filled with several firsts.
It started early this morning on the jam packed streets of Houston, TX as I tried to make my way to the airport. My friend Vista was nice enough to give me a ride and the usual 20 min trip turned into 1hr30min, and that wasn't the bad part. As I walk into IAH airport, all I can see is people. There are people everywhere, the shortest line for any checkin for Continental was 25 people, and there must've been 50 of these lines. The scene was pretty crazy and as my watched ticked away into the 7am hour, I started to feel like I might not make my 7:50am flight.
Standing next to me in line was a girl I recognized but hadn't seen in about 10 years or more. She was 1 of a set of twins that had gone to high school with me and of course the first name I guessed was wrong. Jackie Fakier was headed to a wedding in Hawaii and ended up standing in the same crazy lines as myself. I made my way to the front finally but it was already 7:30am. I checked in 2 large suitcases, got directions to my gate and took off running. I got to the International Flights security line and it was hundreds of people long, I knew if I waited that I would miss the flight so I decided to just cut everyone and see if I could get away with it. I walked down 2 halls and around 2 corners and eventually got to the front of the line. I played it cool and pretended like I had been there all along. To my surprise, no one said anything and I ended up chatting with 4 old ladies about their Vegas adventure they were about to embark on. I get through security and up to my gate. Only the Continental representative is there, no sign of any passengers. I tell her that I am travelling alone and a quick phone call to the plane reveals that the door is not yet closed (YAY!) so they let me on. I sit down, 2 min go by, they close the door and off we go. A sigh of relief, only thing left to worry about is will I have any clothes when I get to Sydney.
I made it to LAX with about 2 hours to catch my next flight, I walked over to the International Departures building and was suddenly transported into a world where it appeared that everyone bought their clothing from www.Engrish.com :) I waited around til boarding time and then walked onto a gigantic Boeing 747-400. Over the next 12 hours my personal space would be about 6 sq ft big. We were served 2 meals and countless drinks and I dont' think I've ever been waited on by a friendlier staff of people. If you ever have the option of flying Korean Air, take it! It would appear that the job application form for a Korean Air flight attendant is simple a large rectangle with the words "Attach Portrait Here" ;)
At 4am CDT, I landed in Seoul, Korea at the Incheon airport. I made my way over past the huge immigration lines and to my next gate. I had almost 2 hours to spare so here I sit at an internet cafe. Night time is approaching. Seoul is 16 hours ahead of us in the Central time zone.
Next stop, Sydney!
This has been one of the longest days of my life filled with several firsts.
It started early this morning on the jam packed streets of Houston, TX as I tried to make my way to the airport. My friend Vista was nice enough to give me a ride and the usual 20 min trip turned into 1hr30min, and that wasn't the bad part. As I walk into IAH airport, all I can see is people. There are people everywhere, the shortest line for any checkin for Continental was 25 people, and there must've been 50 of these lines. The scene was pretty crazy and as my watched ticked away into the 7am hour, I started to feel like I might not make my 7:50am flight.
Standing next to me in line was a girl I recognized but hadn't seen in about 10 years or more. She was 1 of a set of twins that had gone to high school with me and of course the first name I guessed was wrong. Jackie Fakier was headed to a wedding in Hawaii and ended up standing in the same crazy lines as myself. I made my way to the front finally but it was already 7:30am. I checked in 2 large suitcases, got directions to my gate and took off running. I got to the International Flights security line and it was hundreds of people long, I knew if I waited that I would miss the flight so I decided to just cut everyone and see if I could get away with it. I walked down 2 halls and around 2 corners and eventually got to the front of the line. I played it cool and pretended like I had been there all along. To my surprise, no one said anything and I ended up chatting with 4 old ladies about their Vegas adventure they were about to embark on. I get through security and up to my gate. Only the Continental representative is there, no sign of any passengers. I tell her that I am travelling alone and a quick phone call to the plane reveals that the door is not yet closed (YAY!) so they let me on. I sit down, 2 min go by, they close the door and off we go. A sigh of relief, only thing left to worry about is will I have any clothes when I get to Sydney.
I made it to LAX with about 2 hours to catch my next flight, I walked over to the International Departures building and was suddenly transported into a world where it appeared that everyone bought their clothing from www.Engrish.com :) I waited around til boarding time and then walked onto a gigantic Boeing 747-400. Over the next 12 hours my personal space would be about 6 sq ft big. We were served 2 meals and countless drinks and I dont' think I've ever been waited on by a friendlier staff of people. If you ever have the option of flying Korean Air, take it! It would appear that the job application form for a Korean Air flight attendant is simple a large rectangle with the words "Attach Portrait Here" ;)
At 4am CDT, I landed in Seoul, Korea at the Incheon airport. I made my way over past the huge immigration lines and to my next gate. I had almost 2 hours to spare so here I sit at an internet cafe. Night time is approaching. Seoul is 16 hours ahead of us in the Central time zone.
Next stop, Sydney!
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