Monday 15 August 2011

Kanga and Roo

So, Internets, it occurs to me that not only have I majorly slacked on keeping up with my blog this month, I also seemed to have not managed to finish my Australia story. So I suppose I better do that now.

We left off on the bus home from the snow, am I correct? I really should have written this earlier, because the days now seem to blur together a little bit. Lets see...

So we got back to Sydney around 4 in the afternoon (ish... very ish). After a brief exploration of the cities train system while carrying luggage we managed to make it back to my sisters apartment. As far as I remember, we didn't do anything overly exciting that night. Brief grocery shopping, homemade wraps for dinner, spent the evening reading and going on the computer. I remember us discussing the idea of watching a movie on one of our laptops, but I dont think that ended up happening... OH! I remember the major thing that happened that night. My laptop broke. As in physically broke. The left-hand side hinge decided to give out, to my dismay. Stupid laptop, honestly never again buying an HP. Anyway, it wasnt that big a deal. The hardware and software and all other types of ware still worked, so my computer was still usable. I just had to be very careful with opening and closing my laptop until I was able to get it back to Canada and my tech-guru fasha.

Anyway the next couple days were quite fun but not exactly what you would call Ulitimate Australian Experiences. On the 25th, so the next day, my sister and I decided to hit up Patty's Market for some last-minute souvenir (and whatever else) shopping. However it turns out that Patty's Market was closed so we went to a different part of the Sydney Harbour (the name escapes me at the moment) and did souvenir shopping there. I found this awesome little store full of touristy aboriginal Art. Have I mentioned I love the Aussie Aboriginal art? Cause I really do love the Aussie Aboriginal art lol. But anyway, we spent pretty much the entire day there shopping and wandering and talking and whatnot.

That evening was awesome. We went to a all-day Pancake and Breakfast restaurant (not the awesome part, as I pretty much got plain creps and then bought myself sushi afterwards) with my new friend, my Australian counter part, Elyse (also known, to me, as Padfoot. And I am Prongs :D). It was a night filled with hilarity, newly formed inside jokes, puns, that's-what-she-saids and nerd humour. And it was awesome to see her again (met her last in Canberra, as I BELIEVE I mentioned in this post here. ). It is saddening that she is now on the other side of the world from me, but hey, isnt that what facebook is for? :)

Only picture of Elyse and I in my possesion -
Her allowing me to delight in the sight and aroma of her chocolate and whipped cream and etc. crep.
The next day Jen introduced me to her friend Louise and the three of us went rockclimbing. Not real rock climbing up like the side of the Three Sisters or anything, but at a Rock Climbing Gym. Which was pretty cool in itself as I was unaware such things existed and it was covered from floor to ceiling with rock climbing walls. And it was such a blast. I've only gone rock climbing before, at someones birthday party when I was a kid, and it didn't go well. If I had to pin-point my one major fear it would be heights. Inarguably it would be heights. And I am working very hard to, if not get over the fear, to at least be able to tolerate it. Not freeze up when I'm more than a meter off the ground. And I did it, at least with the rock walls. The first time up was pure determination, not concentrating on anything but the next grip up. The second time I froze about half-way up. And then forced myself to move. After that, it was no problem at all. Also I love the decending part after you've reached the top. So much fun.

Louise was quite good at the rock climbing thing. She does it at least once a week, so I guess she better be, but it was still fun to watch. And then there was my sister. My stupidly, annoyingly naturally-athletic sister. Helped, of course, by her pole-dancing muscles (have I mentioned that before? My sister does competative pole dancing. Anyway, back to my story) she would just scurry up those walls like a little monkey. Climbing both the walls and the ceiling, trying to find the most challenging path she could do. Little shit :P.

AFter we were done that we went to Louise's house and made pizza (or, for me, dough with veggies and chicken) and watched Sucker Punch. I really liked the movie, much better than I expected it to be. I really want to see it again because I feel like this is one of those movies with more details than one can get in their first view.

And then I left. Next day, July 27th, I packed up my bags (well, finished packing my bags, they were mostly packed the day before really) and headed off to the airport. Got there at 8:30amish expecting my plane to be leaving 10:30amish. Boarding pass, when I got it, said 9:30am - but the plane still ended up leaving at 10:30, so I think something just was weird with the boarding pass. So I said goobye to my sister and headed off through security.

So my journey home was supposed to go something like:
Sydney to Vancouver: 14 hours
stop over
Vancouver to Toronto: 4 hours
Stop over
Toronto to Ottawa: 1 hour (or less)
And essentially it went like that. However it wasn't exactly what you would call a "seemless" collection of flights.
We left Sydney slightly late, not monumentously, but something like 20 minutes or so. However our slight was slightly longer than normal because we had very little tailwind the entire time back. This resulted in our getting to Vancouver at 8am (Vancouver time), when we were supposed to be leaving Vancouver at 9am. And in that hour we had to get off the plane, get our luggage, go through custums, go to the other side of the Airport, re-check our luggage and re-go through security before boarding the plane again. Which, if you couldnt figure out, takes a little longer than an hour to accomplish. So I was absolutely running through the Vancouver airport (not, by the way, a small airport) with two large peices of luggage in hand as well as my carry-on bag and my purse. Oh, did I mention it was about 3am Auz time at this point and I had had no sleep on the plane? Yeah, definitely in the best frame of mind during all this. By the time I got to security it was 9am. I was of 2 minds - part of me was thinking that they couldn't take off yet because there was definitely more than one of us who got off that flight who needed to get back on. The other was "Please please PLEASE don't take off without me!!" Which they didnt. Of course, I didnt find this out until after I got through security, but they had delayed the flight 40 minutes.

Actually, they ended up delaying the flight almost 2 hours. The other flight from Vancouver to Sydney via AirCanada got cancelled for some reason, so they had to delay to get them onto our flight. Which ended up meaning that more than half of us on the plane ended up missing our connecting flights. Now for me, not a big deal, there are flights from Toronto to Ottawa like very couple of hours. For the lady and her 3-year-old sitting beside me heading to New Brunswick, bigger deal. There was only one straight connection to NB, and they missed it. Meaning the poor lady had to drag her (admittedly well-behaved for a 3-year-old on a long plane journey) through a couple more airports and transitions. I felt bad for her, I hope everything worked out in her favour.

But finally I made it to Ottawa. Got a new connection from TO, let my friends and family know I was going to be late (the Vancouver plane landed pretty much at the time I was supposed to be landing in OTtawa) and settled down. Had a bit of a nap on the flight and just enjoyed the thought of getting off the damn thing in less than an hour. And then I was home. Well, techincally it was my friends and families home as I am actually living in London, Ontario atm, but it was close enough. Spent a week in Ottawa before heading back to London, which was super nice - I think tht may be my next blog post. Or a future one anyway. Unless I forget. In which it wont.

So, Internets, that was my journey. From Canada to Auz, there and back again. I'm really glad I blogged it, hopefully that will let me remember specifics better in the future. So until next time Internets, this is Paige landed and signing off.