Adelaide to Los Angeles

I made it home! It took a very long time, but I am typing from the study in my house in the suburbs of (freezing) Chicago. Let's backtrack to Saturday morning so that I can take you through my whole trip!

On Saturday, I woke up at 4 in the morning to make my 6:05 am flight from Adelaide to Melbourne. Luckily, I was able to check my bag all the way through to Los Angeles. 

I did NOT get the seat I requested for my long leg of the flight. I like the aisle seats in the middle rows (I am very particular about what I like now that I've done the journey enough times), but I got an aisle seat on the side. If you don't know what I'm talking about, there are ten seats in each row that are divided by two aisles. It goes: wall, three seats, aisle, four seats, aisle, three seats, wall. That would mean that I would have to get up several times for the people next to me, because there is not the option for them to go out the other side. I therefore ran to the Qantas customer service desk and snagged the last window seat of the flight. As I told you all a few days ago, I planned on sleeping and not getting up much. 

The short leg from Adelaide to Melbourne was fantastic, because I had the window seat with nobody next to me. Those are always the best plane rides, because there is more room for my crap. And since Qantas is so fabulous, I got a complimentary newspaper with headphones (to watch "Modern Family" and "Mythbusters"). The "Dark Tower" book is mine, so I had to pay for that. 

The flight was only 50 minutes (much different from the 12-hour flight I was about to face), but I still got my breakfast. It was much better than the last time I got a Qantas breakfast. It included a small bottle of milk, orange juice, Light'n'tasty cereal, a fruity bread roll and an apple. The flight attendants also walked around with coffee and tea, so I asked them to fill my red cup with tea. 

The cereal was so yummy. 

I also got a beautiful view of the rising sun. 

Everything was a breeze once I got to the Melbourne Airport. Unlike Sydney (and LAX, which is a bunch of different buildings), the international and domestic terminals are under the same roof. Since my bag was checked and I already had my boarding pass, I just followed the arrows to the international departures and went through security. 

After going through security, everybody has to walk through the duty-free shop. In Melbourne's airport, though, it's more like a duty-free mall. I was greeted by lines of sales people holding shopping baskets and offering me alcohol samples. Several people asked me if I needed help while browsing. This shop seemed to go on forever. Look at all of the wine! 

It's actually been a while since I've been through a duty-free shop that wasn't Melbourne or Auckland (I think Auckland has a nice one, too), so I'm not sure if there are nicer ones. I really wanted to buy a lot of things, though. 

While waiting at my gate, I took a look at the departures board. I always enjoy looking at all of the destinations around Australia. They are basically all New Zealand, LA, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands (take me to Fiji, please). 

Our plane to Los Angeles took off at 10:35 am, and we got our dinner at about noon. Do you see  how these long trips can be a shock to the system? 

Dinner included chicken in brown sauce with potatoes, peas and green beans (I also could have chosen a beef dish). There was also an orzo salad with tomatoes on the side with a bread roll, crackers and a square of sharp cheddar cheese. Everything was good except for the chicken, which was inedible. I need to remember to order a vegetarian meal for next time. 

I ate all of this while watching "The King's Speech". Great movie! 

Alcohol is free on international flights, so I snagged a bottle of white. It was from the Clare Valley. How special! I drank the lot in hopes that I could fall asleep easier. 

Before I attempted to really go to sleep for real (when my body thought it was the afternoon), I accepted a cup of Cadbury hot chocolate with a marshmallow. It was so yummy.

I also ate a mango ice cream bar. 

I tried very hard to fall asleep after this, but it was more difficult than I anticipated. First, the man who sat next to me was very tall and large, and he had to sit with his legs open so that he could be comfortable. Unfortunately, this meant taking up my leg space. In addition, this large man was travelling with his wife, mother-in-law and his two young children.

 He was a very nice man. In fact, he was so nice that he didn't feel the need to tell his children to be quiet while everybody else on the plane was trying to sleep. He let them talk loudly and play their Game Boy (or whatever it is these days) with the volume on. I was ready to tell him off so many times, but I didn't. I'm actually surprised that nobody else said anything! There were plenty of people around us and flight attendants going up and down the aisles while the lights were off. Anyway, I only ended up sleeping for an hour. I actually only blame the loud family for a small percentage of my inability to sleep longer. I really just wasn't tired. Perhaps I should try sleeping less the night before. 

While I wasn't sleeping or trying to sleep, I watched "Love and Other Drugs" (decent movie) and lots of episodes of "Keeping up with the Kardashians". Who would have thought I would actually enjoy it?I also ate two chocolate chip coconut cookies and a granola bar, which was part of a snack pack that Qantas gave us. 

Then, my TV stopped working during the last two hours of my flight. It just stopped loading shows. The same thing happened to the noise-loving father next to me. I just stared at the flight map (since that was one of the only things that would load)  and watched the plane get closer to LA. Once the lights came back on, I took off my headphones and read my book. I was slightly crabby by this point. It was something like 1am on my body clock. 

Breakfast came around during the last hour. I ordered the hot breakfast (instead of the cereal), and kind of wish that I went with cereal. It was runny eggs with a sausage (that looked like a brown ding-dong) that I wouldn't touch and tomatoes and spinach. There was bacon under the veggies, but I wouldn't touch it either. There was also melon, a croissant, orange juice and much-needed black tea. I really need to remember to request vegetarian meals from now on. The meat just isn't safe. 

Eventually, they took away our trays, and I could see a coast line outside the window. Land ahoy! We all shuffled off the plane on our sea legs (er, plane legs) and went through customs. That took what felt like forever, because there was only one customs agent working each line. Usually, there are several. I watched the same "Welcome to America" video numerous times. They played it in English and Spanish, which made me so happy to be home. I love our bilingual-ish country. 

After, I went to grab my bag off the carousel. I laughed when I found mine, because it was piled on top of a bunch of other suitcases. I had a lot of trouble getting it, but I was eventually able to yank it off. 

Finally, I waited for my bestie Jess to pick me up from LAX. My flight to Chicago wasn't until the next day, and she agreed to wake up around 7 am on a Saturday morning to collect me. While I waited, I took some pictures of the international arrivals area. It just makes me happy. 

Get ready for an LA recap and then some more stories on the rest of my journey back to Chicago!