Airports and parrots

I've made it to Australia!

It took a while, but I finally got here. I was supposed to arrive a day ago, but I didn't. Also, I know what airline is no longer on my nice list.

Thursday evening I flew from Philly to San Francisco. The flight was uneventful, which is always good. I got off the plane, ate a highly overpriced sandwich, waited a bit at the gate, then boarded a 747. It had actually been a little while since I'd been on a 747. Everything felt a little old school, including the leg room.

But I digress. Next to me was a lovely gentleman traveling home with his wife and son. We chatted about Australia, his family's travels in the US, the usual sort of conversation that happens when preparing to sit next to a stranger for 14 hours. This conversation lasted, off and on, for four hours. The plane never left the ground. 

Apparently, when the latch to the cargo door doesn't lock, it's a problem (which I guess makes sense since otherwise all the luggage would end up in the ocean) which cannot be easily remedied. Or at least not quickly remedied. Four hours!! we sat on that plane before the captain announced, "Ladies and gentleman, thank you for your patience. Unfortunately the flight has been cancelled." Followed by a lot of information that you probably don't care about.

Awesome, because I really did want to be trying to find a place to sleep at 2:30am. 

So we took our merry time getting back off the plane, down to the ticket counter, and then over to the big ole board of hotels and various other places to stay in the San Francisco area. There was but one catch.

A convention was in town, which meant there were no rooms at the inn. At least not enough for most of us. I gathered my things, found a quiet place near the baggage claim, and tried to sleep on the floor. There were a lot of us scattered about the place. It was quite sad looking.

The worst part? I totally forgot my glasses case on the plane. I have my glasses (since I was wearing them in preparation to sleep), so that's at least something.

I hung out in the airport for 24 hours. I would have gone into the city, but my sleeping failed miserably and I had visions of myself getting lost in San Francisco and completely falling to tears in my fatigue. Because that happens when I'm tired. So I decided not to risk that; instead I would just try to sleep a little more. 

Happily, the next flight was not cancelled and since I was so exhausted, I actually slept a bit on the plane! And watched Men in Black III. 

My connection to Melbourne from Sydney went without a hitch, which was great. And the 1hr 40min flight went by so quickly after being on the plane for 14 hours before that. It helped that I fell asleep while waiting for it to take off and only vaguely remember lift off. I do, however, remember a very suspicious clunking noise as we went down the runway...

So here I am in Melbourne. While waiting to check into the hostel, I walked a bit and found a place to get a prepaid phone. I walked into one shop and told the girl what I wanted. She responded with, "Oh! The cheapest one we have is $129, but there is a sale at such-and-such a place. Much cheaper. Just take a left on Chapel St and it'll be on your right." 

Love it. And it was much cheaper :)

Also, on my walking adventure, I heard a bunch of birds in a tree and went to investigate. Parrots!! Pretty green ones with red and yellow markings. There were probably about eight of them. I was walking away and a couple of them flew right by me! Seriously, they were precariously close to my head. It made me nervous.

Since then I've taken a much needed shower and an even more needed nap. The pillows here are kind of great. 

Hopefully next time I'll have some pictures for you.