Second Time's a Charm

Happy new year!

I am now in Sydney. Note to self or anyone else that wishes to travel: book for ANY day but Sunday. Sunday travel agencies are not open (or don't open until noon), and so no matter how much money you forked over for insurance, your policy means nothing.

Dec. 27th My flight was canceled thanks to fog. Blessing in disguise actually, I wasn't in much shape to fly.

4 flights, 3 stopovers, and 2 days later I landed in the heat of the Australian summer.
My new itinerary had me flying first to Winnipeg, then on to Denver, Los Angeles, and Sydney. In Winnipeg I met Janelle Fletcher who danced with Deanne Magnus. Small world! She was on her way to Melbourne, so we killed some time in LAX airport together.

So what is a 15 hour flight like? Firstly the plane is a flying double decker bus on steroids. How it got off the ground I don't know, but I've never felt so light and so heavy at the same time. I had a window seat, and managed to get 2 or 3 hours of sleep between dinner and lunch. They served the meals backwards on the flight- we had dinner at 10:30 pm (LA time), lunch about 6 hours later, and breakfast just before we landed at 8:05 am local time. It was genius. The first 10 hours flew by, but by hour 12 my legs were freezing and my upper body was boiling from lack of circulation. I consequently toured the bus a lot in the last few hours. I thought that my journey had been long until I met the couple from Belfast that had come the long way around the globe simply to avoid the airports in Thailand and Singapore. Silly.

Jet lag passed by the next day, but I still woke up earlier than the house so I took their dog for a jog around the neighbourhood. We got lost. SO lost. There is no grid system in Sydney. So we ran and ran until I saw the water, and finally the beach near Bianca's house. The dog and I went for a swim in the ocean beside a beautiful golf course, and got back just in time for breakfast. I think the 2 of us will become good friends!

New Year's Eve in Sydney involves Pink champagne, prawns, and a 5 MILLION dollar fireworks display. holy explosions batman. The best fireworks I've ever seen ever. We saw the 9:00 display from the balcony of an office building on the south side of the city with Bianca's family, then went to a house party and saw the midnight display from Lavender bay on the north side of the bridge. Fantastic view. On the way home we danced under the bridge with a couple hundred of our closest friends while a few drummers jammed. We walked across the bridge and all around the city in search of a bus, and 3.5 hours later got home. Great night.

Notes:
- Driving on the wrong side of the road is terrifying. Also, the left lane applies to walking too! Keep left. Left, left, left.
- A liquor store is called a bottle-o
- You can't eat wild kangaroo, only farmed. Go figure.