The Lone Traveller
Well, I have finally arrived in Antigua (pronounced Anteega if you're not sure!).Before I tell you about Antigua itself, I'm going to tell you a little about the trials and tribulations of getting here. Yes, I know from the length of this entry it looks like I'm going to tell you rather a lot about my trials and tribulations, but we are talking about 6 flights and 7 airports over about a 65 hour period!
First of all, before leaving Australia, I needed to take care of my little Chloe and take her to stay with my family in Ipswich. So, there we have flight number 1 - Melbourne to Brisbane.
Leaving Chloe behind was a rather heartbreaking experience. When I was repacking my stuff before heading off to Brisbane Airport, Chloe twigged as to what I was up to and insisted on jumping into my suitcase on top of all of my things. Poor little thing. And then when it was time to leave, she kept trying to climb up my legs and even refused to eat a treat (the first time that Chloe has ever refused food).
Anyway, after the trauma of the morning, it was time to wave goodbye to Mum and Dad and board flight number 2 - Brisbane to Sydney. As we flew into Sydney I was able to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the plane. This was the first time I've seen Sydney since 1996 when Dave and I were on our honeymoon, and the first time ever from the air. After a bumpy landing, it was time to disembark, hop into a shuttle bus to the international terminal, check into the next flight, purchase some US Dollars, and then rush for the boarding gate.
Flight number 3 - Sydney to San Francisco. Well, 13 hours and 20 minutes on a plane, what I say... I was seated between an older American lady with a cold and a younger American lady with a taste for Chardonnay. I was feeling quite sleepy so I hoped that I would be able to sleep through the flight - well at least a large chunk of it. No such luck. I did manage to get about 3 hour's sleep though and I was grateful for that! After hours and hours of trying to fall back into sleep it was time for breakfast, which leads me to a rather important tip: never accept the offer of scrambled eggs on a plane! I did, and managed to ingest about a mouthful of something which seemed like some sort of floury omelette. Very strange stuff, and no amount of salt and pepper was able to improve the situation!
On the landing into San Francisco I was lucky enough to catch a few seconds glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge! Then it was time for the joys of Immigration, Customs and Baggage Collection. I was quite lucky in getting to the Immigration and Customs queue rather quickly. When I got there, there were about 8 queues with about 3 people in each, so I picked one and waited. It took about 15 minutes to get to the counter, which I thought was quite a wait until I glanced around behind me to see a couple hundred people queued up behind me!! Heaven knows how long they had to wait! The guy at the counter studied my passport, took my prints, and photo, and then glanced at my completed Customs form. Being the conscientious soul that I am, I had declared that I was carrying food with me. After explaining to the officer that I was carrying some Vegemite with me, he crossed out this detail on my form - I guess Vegemite isn't actually food after all! Then it was on to baggage collection. Again I was lucky with timing, and as I was arriving at the carousel, my bag was just passing by. I grabbed it and headed off to find out where I had to check it back in for the next flight. Once that was sorted, I had about 2 hours to kill in San Francisco International Airport. I grabbed a few small souvenirs, which I wasn't sure I was actually entitled to as I hadn't actually visited the city!
This was also when I realised that the global roaming feature on my mobile had not yet kicked in. Knowing that Dave would be worried if I didn't call and knowing he wouldn't be able to call me, I purchased a $20 USD phonecard, which entitled me to a whole 5 minutes of talk time. Ouch!
Anyway, time for flight number 4 - San Francisco to Orlando. Despite lack of sleep, I was feeling not-too-bad and settled in for the 5 and a half hour flight. This time I got an aisle seat alongside a couple of Californian's with rather a lot to say for themselves. After another futile attempt to get some sleep, I put on the ipod and hoped for the best. Listening to Missy Higgins, Darren Hanlon and some Hamish and Andy podcasts, I felt like I had created my own little Aussie bubble amongst the flight full of Americans. This flight went by rather quickly - although I think I had lost all sense of perspective about time at this point. It was about this time that I came to the resolution that my throat was not just sore due to the dry airplane air and that I actually did have a cold/flu. Finally I landed in Orlando, and after a short ride on the the shuttle train to the baggage claim area, I was finally reunited with Dave!!! We waited about 5 years (well perhaps not quite!) for my suitcase, and then headed off to the airport hotel to get some food and some sleep. At least that was the plan. The food turned out to be a pizza with cheese about an inch thick on top of it! and other than about an hour an a half, sleep once again eluded me! By this point, I was totally over travelling. In my sleep deprived state, I remember thinking to myself "I just want to go home", until I realised that that would involve going through the very experience I had just been through and so discovered that maybe I didn't really want to go home right then after all!! Thank heavens I was with Dave from this point on and could stumble through the next few flights with him to lead me in the right direction.
Early next morning, it was time to head back downstairs to the airport proper to check-in, get some breakfast and make our way through security and to our next boarding gate. Check-in only took about 20 minutes and we went and grabbed some brekky. Then it was time to line up to get though security. After lining up for about 40 minutes, we finally made it to the metal detectors. Once again, it was time for shoes off, laptops out, and stepping through the metal detector. Once through the detector, Dave and I were just delighted to be told to "Please step over to this side please sir/ma'am". What now?! Well, that's when we both received our first (and hopefully last) frisking! Then it was time for shoes on, laptops back in bags and off for the gate. We made it there just in time for boarding flight number 5 - Orlando to San Juan (Puerto Rico), which is when we discovered that we were seated about 12 rows apart! D'oh!
The two and a half hour flight to San Juan was rather uneventful. I got an aisle seat alongside a Christian man who was working on his church website (so figured that I'd be safe there!), and was able to see the back of Dave's head from my seat!
We arrived in San Juan, and Dave was keen to find out how Australia had fared in their first World Cup match against Japan. Fortunately, his questions were answered when he received some excited SMS messages from some friends who had stayed up late to watch the match!
We headed off to find the machine to officially declare our departure from US soil, and then I ducked into the ladies and managed to lose my comb down a toilet!
Ah, finally, time for flight number 6 - San Juan to St John's, Antigua!!! This was the shortest of all six flights and took less an hour. Dave and I managed to get seats together for this flight. This flight was great. Not only was it short, it was scenic! We could see several other small Carribean islands on the way over. Finally, we landed in Antigua. Just one more Immigration, Customs and Baggage Collection to get through! Mack and Kerri were there to collect us, and it was off to our villa at Dickensen Bay Cottages (pictures to come) to drop off our stuff, and then time for a quick bite of lunch at The Beach restaurant (also pictures to come). By 4pm, we were back at "home" and I proceeded to sleep for the next 15 hours straight! I think having caught a cold actually helped me get through the jet lag as it probably helped me to sleep more soundly.
Congratulations and thank you if you made it all the way through this blog entry. Hopefully it wasn't too dreadfully long and boring and tedious, but even if it was, trust me, it is not a patch on how long and boring and tedious actually partaking in the above trip was! I promise that future blogs will not be this wordy!
posted by Nelle @ 12:17 pm
2 Comments:
Nelle,
Having been there done that, you wrote it as beautifully as I know your photo's will be!!!!! Not long winded at all I wanted to read more except that I know what happens next!!!!!
LOL Kerri xoxo
Hi Nelle,
Wow! What an amazing account of your trip. I'm looking forward to some pictures. Hope you are feeling better!!
Take care.
Kent.
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