Off to a rocky start... but heading to South Africa

This trip got off to a rocky start. Arrive at the counter and there is that old familiar accent again, I’ve heard it once or twice – the upbeat and chipper, but still slightly strict voice/mannerisms of a British woman. Well, here I go. My bag was almost overweight at 23kilos (yes even for going all the way to South Africa!) I saved it by stuffing a few extra things in my purse. She warned me that I would have to make my carryon bag look “smaller”… how??? Because they could remove it and ask me to pay a fine if it looks too large. I didn’t think she was just being a bitch, but I thought this was ridiculous and I saw quite a few bags larger than mine. Anyways, I digress - but just in case you were wondering, no one asked me to pay a fine. I sleep the whole way to London, and am happy that I only have an hour layover. This turns into longer as we wait for the plane to be inspected. And longer. And finally, we board. About a half hour later, when we should be taking off, we get some bad news. We had already switched planes once and this one was also having some technical difficulties, so off we go. We’re staying in a hotel tonight. Which would have been fine and dandy if it didn’t take them a few extra hours to get us our vouchers and tell us where to go. I saw some really pissed off people, and yes it sucks, but my take on it is that I would rather be in a hotel than stuck on a mechanically unwell plane. Wouldn’t you? Plus, the poor crew who were being yelled at, it wasn’t their fault. What are you gonna do. Wait and get some sleep. My poor body is so screwed up. I didn’t get to the hotel till 130 am that night, and I was starving. It took an extra hour for room service to come with my bangers and mash, least I took advantage of my location right? I woke up in the morning and it took an extra 40 minutes and a lot of snoozing to snap out of my dream state and realize I had to wake up. The past couple days though I was happy, I was back in that curious, the world is what you make of it positive state that I love when it comes to traveling alone. That inspiration was back, and I was no longer as sad as I was to leave Boston. I think being home for 2 months did me well. I am going to South Africa, how unreal is that? I got to the airport and indulged in some breakfast and bought some Godiva pearls. Man I love those things. Where is my chocolate addiction coming from all of a sudden these past few months? My seatmates asked me as I boarded how my cold was doing. Poor things, they probably assumed they were sitting next to a sicky. I explained to them that my allergies are for some strange reason horrific on planes. Don’t know why I didn’t take an allergy pill earlier. I eat, watch a movie, sleep, and then get into an interesting conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She grew up in South Africa during apartheid. For some reason, this has always fascinated me. I am so quick to forget that the US went through the same thing, but not as recent as South Africa. Apartheid appears a totally different species to me, but the truth is that it’s really not. The woman told me one time she came to Maryland to visit the US at one point and she was shocked to learn that this “land of the free” went through the civil rights movement too, and face the same discriminations that are also in South Africa, to this day. She spoke of the Statue of Liberty – give me your poor, your suffering, etc. etc. She was under the impression that the US could work wonders unlike any other country, with totally open arms. Not the case. Not as welcoming as we appear to be I suppose. I arrived in Joburg and felt a little nervous/anxious. Here I go again on my own…. After all I heard about safety issues in South Africa, I felt my heart beating in anticipation. The hotel transfer was waiting for me though, and with him – another guest from the London flight. I was feeling better about that. I arrived without incident - aside from falling asleep a bit in the car. Now I’m tired, think I’ll get some rest. Till tomorrow.

Sunrise surprise... and heading home :)

I came back to the hotel and realized there was a leak in my ceiling. When I called the front desk about it, they told me I needed to change rooms. My new room is a two-room suite right next door. Pretty cool except for some reason my allergies are bad in there. There's always something, isn't there?

Oh by the way, I woke up this morning at 6am exactly and immediately looked outside. There were things floating outside my window, not even kidding. I thought I must be dreaming. Then when I REALLY woke up, I went immediately to the window and looked outside again. There were hot air ballons; about 7 of them rising just in the park right outside my window. I promise I'm not making it up, I even took some pics to prove it. It was quite a sight, especially for the fact that I was still dreaming like it was Alice in Wonderland or something.

After room-switching, I had to drag myself to go back out. I don't know what it is about this city, but I just feel so lonely in it! There are too many options; too many places to go, too many restaurants to eat in. I need someone to bring me to the good places to eat and the good places to walk. As I just posted on facebook, it's a beautiful city; but it's meant to be enjoyed at the outdoor cafes with friends, which is exactly what I don't have here. I miss Boston and I miss my friends and family. I keep walking around with this sinking feeling that I really wish I didn't have, because I'm lonely. I'm so so so ready to come home! I hope that tomorrow I can enjoy my last day.


PS I'm stressed about not having my last realtor meeting booked :/ Another reason why Melbourne has sucked... it's tough to sit back and enjoy when you have something weighing over you.

Finally, I got that realtor meeting nonsense taken care of. I took the train to a neighborhood I was hoping to see anyways to do the cold-calling walk-in. It sucked, but I got the info that I needed and that’s all I cared about. Then I got a coffee (my daily happiness) and checked out the beach – but it was a bit chilly and very windy so I didn’t stay for very long. On my way out of the city, there was a sure character sitting just across from me. He was missing an arm and he was in tattered clothing and he was mumbling to himself, clearly drunk or on drugs. I noticed the woman sitting next to him move a little closer to the OTHER side once she heard the muttering. Then, he reached his hands into his pants. I was staring intently by this point. He fished around down there and out came a pill from his pant leg which he promptly chased while it rolled away from him. He caught it and stuffed it in his mouth. He tried to talk to a child and otherwise sat to himself aside from saying hi to another character that got on and off. He got off the train just before I did. Later that same night, I was back in downtown Melbourne, just checking out after buying something small at Target when this same guy comes stumbling into the store and says something to the cashier that I can’t quite make out. He appeared to me to be in worse shape than before and he was foaming at the mouth. She pointed him in one direction without even blinking an eye. Haha… is this normal around these parts I wondered?

It was my last day in Melbourne, though I really like this city I couldn’t wait to get back home.

Some company to kill the loneliness

Another day.... and I'm still feeling lonely. I got some work done a little earlier in the day and then flew back to the hotel to meet up with Alan and his friends; Chris and I can't even remember the girls' name. It was a nice afternoon, albeit a bit awkward. These people were twice my age, and I could tell that girl was really nice, but maybe trying a little bit too hard. Chris just yawned the whole time and looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. But Alan, he was a cool guy; with two sons my age and a couple grandchildren already. (He's my Dad's age). A real free-spirit, a very open person. And not sketchy in the least bit, just a real friendly guy and I very much enjoyed his company. Scottish company, that is. We ate at a cute little Italian cafe with a screaming baby, small portions, and overly salty pasta. How do you screw up pasta, really?? Oh well. Alan was super concerned with the fact that he had just lost his bankcard to an ATM machine and the rest of his accounts seemed to be locked. Um, ya I would be freaking out a little bit too. Maybe I ought to write him a quick email to see how that turned out....

After lunch, we walked around exploring the nooks and crannies of the city until we came upon, you guessed it... another cafe. What else is Melbourne known for? So we sat and had a beer... and the beer we drank happened to be Alan's son's beer from his very own brewery. How cool is that? Alan's son owns/created a kickass, big-deal brewery in Scotland called Beerdog... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrewDog Very cool. I nearly met a beer celebrity. I mean, you gotta be a cool dude to produce a kid who is clearly pretty awesome. I took a beer bottle as a memory. So did Alan.

Lauren doesn't know what to do with too many choices

Today was a bit of a tough day, I've been down a bit since I arrived in Melbourne. I guess it doesn't help when you a) break your computer, b) get food poisoning from trying kangaroo for the first time c) get in late for an important meeting because you don't understand the public transport system and then d) have a washout Saturday. Maybe I should take it easy, this badluck has progressed day after day, man I can't wait to get home.... I'm hoping that tomorrow is a little bit different. Maybe I'll go to the zoo tomorrow..... I wanted to go out to dinner tonight, but I'm starting to feel like Melbourne is just overwhelming to me. It's such a big city with so many choices, I just don't really know where to turn! I also felt a little bit down earlier. Probably the weather, just being a little bit frustrated overall with the sequence of bad events. So disappointing because at times like this I just wish that I could stop myself and say Lauren, look at yourself. Look at where you are. You only have a short time here, being sad and cranky won't help, so WHAT are you doing and WHAT are you complaining about? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it? I ate at one of those sushi places for lunch today where you take what you want off of the turnstyle. It was so perfect for me, it was just like sushi tapas. A little this and a little that and off you go... I had seaweed salad, eel sushi with cheese on top (what?) and another 2 piece crabstick sushi. I was going to keep on walking around but I was getting soaked, and everytime I thought the rain was going to stop it just kept on pourin down.

The next day was a pretty good day. It was finally nice and sunny which sure does beat pouring rain. I got up slowly but surely, had breakfast for the first time since I've been here, and slowly made my way to the zoo which wasn't too far down the road from my hotel which was great. There were lots of animals; lions, tigers, bears, elephants, all sorts of apes and oranguatangs, zebras, giraffes - but for some reason I liked the zoo in Brisbane more than the zoo here in Melbourne. It was more homey - had a great exhibit on koalas and you could pet and feed the kangaroos! I didn't need any more than that. Also at the zoo here, there were so many annoying children it was sickening. I think actually though that the mothers were far more annoying than the kids themselves. Their stupid pictures and pushing and shoving to get their kid to see the baby animals, ugh. I shouldn't have, but I felt wrong being at the zoo taking up the precious space that their kids could be using to see the animals. In Melbourne you could see the animals from afar, but no up and close encounters. Haha, well except for a monkey that would come right up to the glass to admire the people staring at him, and when he peed he stuck his hand under his butt to get some and then put his hands in his mouth, I think he did it purposely to gross the humans out, since he was hanging from right in front of the glass! Yeah disgusting, who was in charge of teaching him about hygiene?!

After the zoo, I went out to walk around and do a tab bit of work while seeing the city. Melbourne is a beautiful city, full of life and people.... and a layout that's meant to gather with friends. The only problem that I have with this is that I have no friends to gather with. After finishing up surveying the hotels, I walked around aimlessly trying to find somewhere to eat. I passed a million places, but they all looked too welcoming, with lots of people and big benches meant for all those people. I'm not quite sure what I was looking for, but I walked to the riverfront and back, and ended up settling at one of the hotels despite all the time I had spent looking up restaurants. All the other ones just felt too... friendly, and I was feeling lonely. Oh well, Melbourne just seems like one of those places you come with at least someone, if not people that you know. I think the city would be a lot more fun that way. Although, tomorrow... I will be having lunch with Alan (from New Plymouth) and a couple of his friends if I can get my work done! Speaking of, maybe I ought to go get ready for bed now so I can get up nice and early.

On another note... It's so lovely that it gets dark later here. And, it's so strange.... so as we all know, people drive on the left hand side. So, cars that are turning right are in the lane allll the way over to the left. They have to make sure they're not going to sideswipe other cars that are going straight when they are turning right! It's so bizarre looking.

Anyways, goodnight.

Warm welcome to Melbourne

Got up nice and early yesterday for my meeting, and from the train station it should only take me 20 minutes to get there. So, I was hauling in just in time, it was 9:10 and my meeting was at 9:30. But wait, the station I wanted to go to was on the list of locations, but I had already watched 2 trains go by and the place I wanted to go was not on there. Hmmm... 5 minutes gone, 10 minutes... Finally, someone tells me I look lost, can they help. Thank GOD yes you can (I wanted help but I didn't want to leave the platform afraid that I would miss my train!) Well, turned out I had to go to another location which all the trains passed through in order to get to the station that I needed to get to. Ugh. Gonna be late. Get to the station, and by the time I find where I need to go I just barely miss the train. Next one comes in 15 minutes (9:42) Ugh. Gonna be real late. Don't you hate that feeling? Ha I know it well.

That evening after a pleasant day of walking around downtown and getting lots of prices, I stop at a very busy, crowded cafe for dinner. I thought that must be a good sign, right? I knew that I needed to try kangaroo before I left Australia, and this cafe happened to have it on the menu. So, I'll give it a go. Why not? It tasted pretty good, but looked really rare. I wondered for a few passing seconds if this was ok to eat, but I went with it and ate it. After being very full and walking a good 20 minutes back to the hotel, I was sitting at the hotel computer and I knew I wasn't feeling quite right. I was starting to get really cold, and then I felt a bit nauseas. Ugh... I knew exactly what was going on. Up to my room I went and it didn't take long before I was throwing up chunks of bloody kangaroo (since it was so raw, yup gross). That's the last time I'll eat those furry animals.

Rock climbing solo....

I was a bit sad to leave New Plymouth. I had had a really great last day with Antony and Alex and crew. They took me to the beach where Alex and I went on a nice walk while Antony surfed away. New Zealand is really beautiful, I wish I had more time to check it out. The ocean, the rolling hills, the color of the electric green grass... it's just lovely. Alex and I were going to take a short hike up a hill call Peluma or something of that sort but he was called into work unfortunately, but I still went. It was a bit of a scary hike... The first half-way up there were stairs, but then there was nothing but really steep, jutted rocks and a rope to help pull yourself up. I felt as though I was rock climbing, well - I WAS rock climbing actually, for the first time EVER. You definitely don't want to lose your step here... I thought twice about whether I wanted to go to the top but I did, with a little bit of encouragement from some people coming down. Beautiful views of the whole (small) city. I met lots of nice people going up, go figure seems to be the trend around here. One of which is from Scotland (Alan) an older man that I may have a drink with sometime this week, (he was also coming to Melbourne). I met a couple other guys as well, one from Ireland and the other from England here doing a little visiting/traveling. Lots of people here on work visas.

That evening I met up with Antony, Alex and one of their co-workers for some vino. We stayed up for hours drinking bottles of wine and talking, it was so much fun. I really get along well with them, it's always a shame when you meet nice people and then have to leave them. Even though I was just drinking wine, I really hadn't drank that much in a while, and I ended up with a bit of a hangover when I got up the next morning 4 hours after going to sleep! Poor Alex had to work in the morning, at least I was just going to be passing out on a plane.

Speaking of planes, New Zealand is the first place I have ever flown in that doesn't make people go through security for domestic flights. There is absolutely none... it's so crazy! I kept on thinking... there has to be one somewhere, nope never came. Unbelievable. This is goin down in history! I don't know if that made me feel real safe or real NOT safe. Guess they've never needed it before, I'd hate to be on the flight that does!

Jack Johnson's favorite venue to play (so I am told...)

The only department store in the town is called Farmer’s, ha! Now who would have thought that New Zealand would have a department store called Farmer’s. Make yourselves seem even more like hicks why don’t you!

Tonight I ate 3 courses at a French restaurant. I was hungggggry! Mostly though, I was craving cheese. I had a bleu cheese soufflé to start, roast duck leg for dinner, and then French onion soup to end. Wow what a meal, I was comfortably full after that! I talked with Antony a bit more, and maybe I’ll go to yoga with him tomorrow. I told him about how I took a nice walk through the park in the city today; it was beautiful with a lovely lake and red bridges. I took some pictures of a musical venue where many famous artists play (though I don’t know how many actually attend the concerts!) Apparently it’s Jack Jonson’s favorite venue to play at; there is a big grassy field for sitting and the stage it right across from a very small lake in this beautiful park. Really something to see. It was nice to listen to music today, I hadn’t listened to music in a few weeks! Though I jumped a mile when I was in the park and turned around and a car went right by me; I hadn’t realized that I was in the middle of a road, oops… that’s what happens with your head phones on! I cracked up laughing after I jumped and the people in the car must have thought I was nuts.
A realtor today told me that I must break hearts all over the world. Haha, awwww… people here are not outwardly friendly; they rarely say hi on the streets but once you get talking to someone they open up to you immediately.