My holy sh*t moment

Strap in because this could be a long one.  First post via Australia and much has gone on from Sea-tac at 4:00pm Saturday until whatever the hell time it is here right now.  I think Tuesday at 3pm (now Wednesday at  10am, this took days to write).  I just got here by the way.

Let's back it up a sec and I will tell you about what it has taken to get me from Seattle to Sydney.  When I booked this adventure I had several discussions with many of you regarding what it was going to be like, and the only thing I could say for certain was that when I got off the plane it Sydney, it would finally be real.  That was the part that I was most nervous for.  Alone in Sydney, fresh off 18 hours of flying, and boom, all of a sudden its real.  Well, that moment never occurred.  Instead what did happen was a 11 hour delay in L.A., and canceled flight in Brisbane, and an arrival in Sydney 25 hrs later than I was supposed to land.

When I arrived in L.A. I was to check in with the Qantas desk and receive my hotel accommodations and food vouchers.  This was done after about another 3 hours of lines and by the time I was all checked in the restaurant was closed and I had to be back at the airport in 5 hours.  I awoke the next morning at 5am, and caught the first shuttle to the airport.  In typical Scott Hall fashion I was the first of my flight to arrive....so to the bar.  6am in the LAX international terminal in not a happy place, and I figured a few drinks would help me fall asleep on the plane.  They didn't.

The flight from LA-Sydney ranges from tolerable, to fairly miserable, and then get me the f*ck out of here.  I thought I was doing great after watching Django, Zero Dark Thirty, 4 episodes of the Big Bang Theory, and listening to about an hour of music.  I checked the in seat navigation and we weren't even to Hawaii yet.  Not even half way.......  After Silver Linings Playbook, the Entire 8th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Skyfall and more Big Bang, we were finally approaching Australia.  Still running off about 4 hours of sleep I was still nervous for that moment when I got off the plane and the adventure would be on.  Again, this did not happen.

What did happen was our captain getting on the pa and letting us know that a storm in Sydney left us with not enough gas to get back to Brisbane in case our plane had to turn around.  Meaning we would be stopping on the ground to get gas and it would only take about a half an hour.  Two hours later, we were refueled and ready to go.  Only problem was the crew had now worked beyond their alloted hours and we would be grounded in Brisbane for the evening.  So, much like the LA stop, we were placed in a three hour line in order to reach the counter and receive our hotel assignments.  They spread us around in 5 different hotels around the city and one 45 minutes away.  Guess which one I was sent to.  The Chino Inn is a glorious hotel, much like the Rolling Log is a great bar.  The only thing either of them have going for them is they are cheap.  Which means jack to me when Qantas is footing the bill.  We all received food vouchers again, and again I was not able to use it as this place didnt even have a working front desk.  Just bars and about 4 inches of bulletproof glass.  Very reassuring for the first stop in Australia. 

After bumbling around that place and just trying ti figure out how to get a room with no one at reception I had the task of helping all the other guests get rooms that arrived after me.  Seeing as my rooms balcony overlooked the spot where we were periodically dropped off, I felt as though I should help them out.  Pretty soon it was 1am and my flight for Sydney was scheduled at 6:30am.  Being paranoid of oversleeping and in addition no way to call a Taxi, I "slept" with the door open and my clothes on so I could hop in the first cab that came.  Around 4:30 I was in a cab with a German couple (two dudes), that had 12 bags between them.  Looked like they were going on an expedition.  To sum up the rest, I got on the plane, flight was delayed, and I got to Sydney aroun 8am.

When I got off the plane this third time to my final destination, I wasn't sure how long I had been traveling, where I had been, and how much sleep I had actually had.  What is the most logical thing to do....go to customer service and demand satisfaction.  Hoping to get at best a free flight and at worst at least one of the meals I had been promised, I walked away with nothing.  After all of this and the bonds that you form with your fellow travelers, I didn't feel alone when I left the airport.  I was indeed in a strange country alone, but I had new phone numbers, emails, heck one guy who worked for Microsoft Au gave me his business card in case I got in any trouble.  Despite the pos that is Qantas air, the Australian people have lived up to form.  Friendly, doesn't even begin to describe how well I have been treated.  Its like their country is their personal home and I am their guest. 

Much has gone on since I have arrived and I will do my best to find a computer where I can load some pictures.  Ill just bullet point it for now, since it has taken a Herculean effort for my to type all this and for you to read it.  (They dont offer chairs to the computers in the hostel, just the back of a couch, to keep people from sitting on the computer all day.  That is why I am typing all this at 6am.

- Australia, where are all the fat people??
- The Opera House is pretty majestic
- Sydney, land of the 6 foot blond aka heaven
- $2 coin, f*ck you.
- Kangaroo tastes exactly like you thought it would
- Being on a major budget sacrifice #1: food
- Mac and I got in a car accident the night before I left; it was a sign of things to come

Ok, more to come later, thanks for sticking it out, and I am not fixing typos today.  Nope, the computer I am typing on was the original IBM prototype and the keyboard is in German, so this has been hard enough.

I now have a strongly worded letter to write to Qantas,

Scott