just lovely.

Well. The last 12 hours have been quite the series of events. Last night, I went to visit the victoria room where Caitlin used to work. It was a really cool place, and I met Max and Luke, a couple guys that knew her. When I returned, Jenn and I got on the bus to go to Palm Beach. She read in her travel book that it was a quick 40 minute bus ride to a beautiful beach where you can see the stars so clearly! Sounds great right?! HA! When we finally got on a bus, it was 9:15, but we thought it was still fairly manageable to get out there and back. We rode the bus for a little over an hour before we realized, we were the last people there and we were in the middle of no where. Finally, I asked the driver if it was going back to Sydney any time soon. He said no. There was one bus we could meet in "2-3 minutes" or the last doesn't come by until 2 am. oh man…. The guy let us off and told us where to meet this bus. We literally stood in the road to make sure it wouldn't miss us. It was the longest 5 minutes of my life waiting for that bus. THANK goodness it came. we were not at all worried about getting to the beach or seeing any stars, we just wanted the lights of Sydney. After another hour and a half of busses back, we made it to Kings Cross. I was SO glad to see the bed! Looking back, I should have known anywhere thats far enough from Sydney to see stars is too far after 7pm… None the less, it was an adventure. We got to see a lot of different parts of the city. I've decided Australia is a cross between Hawaii and England. Interesting place. As you might imagine, 6am came VERY early. I quietly escaped my hostel room, found and unoccupied bathroom to brush my teeth in and was out at the curb to meet my shuttle 5 minutes to 6:45 just like planned. the bus did not come until almost 7:30 and I didn't get to the airport until 8:10. Thankfully, there were no lines at the Emirates desk. When I went to weigh my luggage, one of the handles broke and will not go down… also, I found out i was over weight by 3 kilos and it was $15 per kilo. She recommended I hold my computer and rearrange some weight to my carry on. It's always humbling to be on the floor with your luggage open in the middle of the airport. I was just glad there wasn't anything too awkward on top. I got things moved around and started through security. When I pulled out my liquids, my face lotion had decided that my lip gloss, mascara, and everything else in the bag needed some moisturizing. Also while standing in line, I realized I had moved the toiletries bag into my carry on with SEVERAL liquids larger than whats allowed. THANK GOODNESS nobody stopped me. Finally through security I made my way to the gate, and went to find food. Seriously, everything is VERY expensive. I got a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich for 8 dollars. YIKES! Anyways, I'm hoping this stretch of bad luck is over now. I can't wait to get to Christchurch! Oh, and remember how I said something about the intense sun. It's way more intense in New Zealand. I've been using sunscreen everyday, but I'm still toasted. Several people have recommended investing in a hat…. I'm not usually a hat girl, but if my face gets toasted one more time, i'll seriously consider it.  ok, i'm off to board my flight! I hope Emirates doesn't let me down. I'm still hungry! 

PS: I've never seen so many 747s in my entire life. Quantas is crawling with them. at one time I could see at least 8!!!!! And if it's not 74s its triple 7s EVERYWHERE!!