This is about the very last two days in Australia and the travels home. I wrote most of this blog while in the airport and finished after returning home and simply forgot where I had saved it. So here it is as a conclusion nearly 4 months later.
The next morning we left the hostel at an ungodly hour… Makenna’s flight was supposed to leave earlier than mine, by about two hours I think and since I am an awesome friends, I woke up early with her and we headed to the train station with all our crap. Luckily the train station was around the corner so we didn’t have to lug it around very fair. I went and bought our different train tickets because I was taking a domestic flight and hers was international. This ended up being a bummer because both our flights were delayed which meant we could have hung out for an additional five hours. Instead we were both bored, sitting alone in our respective terminals, both waiting. My flight back to Melbourne was around noon, so I waited in the Sydney Airport for around five hours. Once I finally got on the plane, the short flight to Melbourne was pretty uneventful. It was a big rush to sit again. This time it was for the long haul though.
The first thing I did was get a trolley for all my stuff. Since I had booked this flight separate from my return home flight, they couldn't transfer my bags. It turned out, that actually I wouldn’t even be able to check my bags in until three hours before my flight. The main problem with that would be that my flight wasn't until the next morning at 11:30am… I paced around for a while trying to decide the best spot to sit down. Got some food and settled on sitting in one of the massage chairs for a while. I read some of my books, I checked facebook repeatedly and honestly looking back now I hardly know how the time passed. It went soooooo slow. Eventually the crowds dwindled and around 1am I started to fall asleep with all my stuff around me. After being pretty uncomfortable in the massage chair I wondered around for awhile and found a wonderful sleeping location. There was KrispyKreme store that was not locked out and it was in this nice more secluded part of the airport that had a squishy red bench seat. I was able to use my stuffies as pillows and actually got a couple hours of sleep in. Around 5am though the normal bustle of the airport woke me up from a very light sleep. At this point I had nearly been in an airport for 24 hours and was starting to be a little cranky. I can remember the feeling that I thought time would never pass. When time DID finally pass I got ready to go check in my bags and thought I was all organized and ready to go. In hindsight, I made some stupid choices at this point in the journey but I would like to blame it on my lack of sleep and moderate loss of brain capacity. I had repacked my carry on twice before I went to the counter to check in. I checked my main bag and kept my new duffel with me since it had all my souvenirs in it. This part was a breeze. And then I started walking to the first security checkpoint. Now I should preface here with the fact that before this day, I had made a claim that airports were always so easy for me. Talk about jinxing myself. First, I was stopped by the guy to make sure my carry on was not too big or too heavy. It was slightly overweight but I told him I had just put all my coats in there to make this process easier, so he let it slide. I get in line and halfway down the line, behind a family of like five, I get called aside to have my bag randomly checked with this wandy thing that checks for residue of bomb stuff. Clearly, I passed and was having a nice chat with the lady while she did it. Then I moved to the normal security line. Both my bags get stopped. One because of my empty water bottle… which was stupid and the second is because of a souvenir for Mike, Ryan’s husband. It was hot sauce. How could I have forgotten that hot sauce is considered a LIQUID?! The lady was really mean and was trying to ask me if I wanted to throw it away or check my bag. This would be one of those moments where I now see I clearly made the wrong choice. I was so set on having that bag as a carry on, when in reality I hardly needed anything in it. I could have taken out the fragile gifts and brought them in a normal bag and checked the bag that A. was a pain in the ass to carry and B. ended up just staying in the overhead compartment the entire flight… stupid. But again my brain was not all working so I told her to throw it away even though I was devastated since that was the BEST gift I had gotten anyone. And then another devastation, I had taken off my new bracelet from Byron Bay because it had some metal on it. In all the confusion and the mean lady, the bracelet must have been left in one of those bins...I am still upset about this and I can’t find an adequate replacement anywhere. So after this debacle I finally made it through to the terminal. The food in the terminal was pretty much nonexistent so I found my gate and sat and charged my phone. These last hours were probably some of the worst. I was exciting to be headed home, but i was cranky, tired, pissed off about the hot sauce and hungry. I don’t think I have ever been more excited when my flight started boarding. After approximately 28 hours in the airport I was finally on my way and I just tried not to think about the fact that I had a 14 hour flight next.
The flight wasnt bad, and well more than anything it passed in a blur. I got a small amount of sleep, woke up for food and drinks and tossed and turned. Went pee a million times like I always do but did eventually make it. The excitement I felt when I saw the coastline of California is almost indescribable. I might have been exhausted but there is nothing quite like coming back to your country even if you really enjoy being gone. I also knew that Alix was waiting for me and I was lucky enough to get to spend a week with her before having to really go back to reality. When the wheels touched down I was nearly jumping out of my seat. I had survived the last 48 hours and the excruciating hours in an airport. I was home.
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