An Audience with the Pope
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2007
1
84
106
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Thursday, July 17, 2008
australia's somewhere i dont know too much about. though i did learn from kelli on our last trip that its taken over from america as the fattest country in the world. there you go now! ive moved time zones yet again and am now 10 hours ahead of those you running on GMT.
not too much to report just some bits and bobs from the last 2 days... my last full day in HK was spent primarily in the quantas office trying to sort out my changes. SUCH cheeky b*stards too. because i re-routed out of HK to sydney instead of beijing to sydney they had to re-issue my ticket. and because they were re-issueing the ticket they seized the oppotunity to slap the bloody fuel surcharge for ALL my flights (even the ones ive already made) cos the cost of fuel went up after i booked my ticket. its so cheeky i was outraged. however in happier news ive managed to re-route my flights to LAX so now instead of flying from fiji to LA, i fly from fiji to hawaii and have 11 days there before heading on to the states. its all good and you can expect a lost-tastic blog from hawaii as well as probly countless photos of lost locations!!
yesterday i got the airport express train to the airport and they have a super service where you can check in in the train station and dump your luggage. however there was a momentary panic attack when the lady asked to see my australian visa. visa i said? i dont need a visa for australia? oh yes you do she said at which point i got that dreadful sinking feeling in my stomach. thankfully it turned out to be the most efficient visa application process and 2 phonecalls and 20 minutes later i was all good and sorted. PHEW.
the flight was about 3 hours late so i just chilled in the lounge and listened to my CD player - yes you heard me right, its like being back in the dark ages lugging a load of CD's and a player around with me. but after having one ipod nicked and the second one go belly-up im not investing any more mega-bucks in music-playing-devicery. the plane to sydney was bleeding massive and thanks to the help of several glasses of wine and dose of good ol' gravol the time went fairly quickly for an almost 9 hours flight.
and upon arrival in sydney i had en epiphany-like experience. i realised all of a sudden the reason why hotels here were so astronomically expensive when i was trying to book one last week. the pope is in town!! yep, il papa himself - benedict xvi is in town for afew days to help celebrate youth day (which stretches over a few days.) allegedly there are 500,000 extra folk in town complete with matching backpacks, matching letterman-style coats, enormous flags, face paint all hoping to catch a glimpse of his holiness. the down side to this is that for the 2 days im here the city is completely mobbed. thats not to say i wont be heading downtown in an hour or so with my new camera in tow to see if i can snap the main man in his bullet-proof motorcade!!
and thats really all from me for now. for only the second time since leaving home im staying in a hostel-hostel, though this one isnt as bad as the mixed uber-dorm i stayed in in singapore. its a girl dorm of 6 people but they have the aircon on 23 which is WAYYYY too warm for me. and its shared bathrooms *shudder*. i dont know how long i can survive on this budget thing!!!
brisbane's the next port of call then the following 10 days is pretty much up to me - any recommendations for east coast activities very much appreciated - LP for east coast oz is 3 years old so im not wasting my precious dosh on one thats so old.
right time for some food. ive been up 28 hours now and am starting to get a bit delirious...lots of love to you all. bye for now.
me x
