The Flight

On Sunday morning, I woke up and it was THE day! The day I had been counting down to for a couple months now. The day I would be leaving Austin, Texas to start my new adventure in Melbourne, Australia.

I woke up and had breakfast with my parents and Amalia at Jardin Corona... of course, where else??! I had to say goodbye to all the waitstaff there. Also I had to say goodbye to Amalia, my best friend of so long.... that was quite a hard and tearful goodbye! But I am trying to convince her to visit me! 

From there I relaxed at home for a little while longer and then my parents and brother loaded me up and we headed for the airport. Another hard and tearful goodbye, but luckily my parents and brother are coming to visit me in 2.5 months!

I am really comfortable in an airport and so I got along just fine!

My flight itinerary looked like this: Austin --> Los Angeles --> New Zealand --> Australia!

Except for a slight delay on my Austin flight... getting from Austin to LA wasn't bad at all. When I got to LA, that is when things got interesting. I had to collect my baggage and then hustle to a completely different terminal to recheck my luggage and get ready for my first international flight.

Imagine this - girl pushing a luggage cart with over 150 lbs of luggage... heading in a direction that will hopefully take me to the correct terminal. That was a stressful couple of minutes. I checked my luggage, got through security, and headed to find my gate. LAX has such beautiful shops I was tempted to do some shopping!

I relaxed at my gate and waited for boarding. I was flying with Air New Zealand, which is known to be a nice airline! As it was my turn to board the flight, I entered the plane to see the most beautiful seats I had ever scene. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City 2! I was thinking... wow I will get a GREAT nights sleep in these seats!

...... then a flight attendant told me to continue walking toward the back of the plane. I had completely misunderstood and I was not going to be sitting in business class --- but I would be sitting in economy class in a normal seat. My dreams were crushed!!! Then to make matters worse, not only did I have to sit in economy class, but I was placed in the middle seat..... BUMMER!!! I optimistically sat down and got settled and was trying to imagine sleeping sitting up for the next 13 hours, when the clouds parted and a gorgeously handsome man sat down right next to me. I immediately struck up a conversation and found out he was from Canada but had been going to school in New Zealand for the last couple years. He had done this flight multiple times, so he was explaining how things worked to me. On the back of each seat there is a TV screen where you can watch any movie, TV show, play games, etc. For anyone that knows me... I loved this part. I began a Harry Potter marathon.

After a couple hours into the flight dinner was served. It was a delicious meal of a beef roast, with mash potatoes, and grilled zucchini. Another bonus about this flight was the free alcohol. So I enjoyed 2 (large) glasses of wine to help put me to sleep. The next couple hours were quite a blur. I woke up with aching neck and my legs were crammed. I was tempted to lay my head on my cute seat neighbor, but I realized after 6 hours of travel together we still hadn't exchanged names.... So I figured I shouldn't freak him out haha. After a pretty miserable sleep, we were woken up by breakfast being served. It was a cheese omelet with home fries and yogurt and fruit! Very delicious. We made our way into New Zealand safely and I had to say goodbye to my cute seat neighbor.

I got off the plane and had ONE more flight into Melbourne, Australia. I was very discombobulated due to the lack of sleep and all the time changes... I still am a bit confused. One of the weirdest thing is that I completely skipped Monday while traveling. On my way to New Zealand we crossed the international time change line and so I completely lost a day. The time change is something I am still getting used to! It is weird to get up and think about Austin, Texas time being 17 hours earlier. My flight to Melb was 4 hours long and luckily I had a window seat. So I managed to sleep a bit. Thank goodness for Melatonin and sleep masks!

We touched down in Melb at 10am and I was SO happy to be "home". I was eager to get off the plane and meet Jodie and the kids who would be picking me up. I made it through customs and went to wait for my luggage... my two giant suitcases that I had packed my entire life into. As the carousel kept going around and around, there were less bags to choose from. My bags did not appear...

I was absolutely distraught. With tears in my eyes I walked over to the luggage services and they informed me that its possible that my luggage didn't make it on my connecting flight. I filled out some paperwork while trying to wipe away my tears. Maybe I sound a tad bit dramatic... but I was alone in a foreign country, with no luggage, and had slept maybe 2 hours! I got in line and waited to go through the final passport check - bag less and still crying. I heard the accents of 3 English boys behind me who were talking about their crazy experiences of their holiday for the last couple of weeks. It felt like I was meeting the cast of the Hangover and the Hangover 2 based off the stories they were telling me. One guy was bit by a monkey, one was punched in the face by a tranny, one lost his passport... and so I became a part of their struggle bus when I shared that my luggage was lost. Those boys were a breath of fresh air to me and helped get a smile on my face!

I was finally done and walked through the final doors into the arms of Jodie, my new mum!! She was there with Madd, 8 year old daughter, and Zoe, 2 year old daughter, with welcoming signs! I was so happy to see them and get as far away from the airport as possible. She informed me that they would hopefully drop my luggage off in the next couple of days.

ADVICE FOR TRAVELING INTERNATIONALLY:

-pack an extra outfit (top, bottom, flip flops, undies, bra, socks, etc) because I did not and I was SOL...
-pack lightly in your carry ons (most of what I thought I needed was completely unnecessary and just wasted space!)

All in all, I am just happy I made it safely :)

xoxo,
Tomi