had a bit of a hairy start this time - but what's a trip without a little excitement. checked my flight status one final time before leaving for airport. did get an email saying "your flight details have changed", but after staring at it for about 5 mins i couldn't find any differences, so wasn't too worried. took my now accustomed walk down the hill to westlake station (it was funny to not have gareth with me this time to get yelled at by the cops), and made the 35 min journey on the light rail to sea-tac. upon arriving with what i thought was plenty of time, a quick glance at the board told me that my flight had been changed from 12:50 to 11:40. whaaaaat. mini heart attack, as there was no way i could check in and clear security and customs in that amount of time. fortunately the lady at the counter affirmed my flight was indeed at 12:50. phew. way to unnecessarily raise my stress hormones, seattle.
flight to amsterdam was smooth overall. boarded without any problems, and got my coveted aisle seat. did have to sit next to 'curry guy'. my apt hallway constantly smells of a mix of curry and maple syrup (weird, i know), so maybe my nose was somewhat used to the smell. and i guess i prefer curry smell to B.O. managed to watch 2 movies, "invictus" (of course!) and "pirate radio". both decent films, tho i am partial to anything with morgan freeman in it. tried to snooze, but being a ridiculously light sleeper - it was nearly impossible. several people around me had very distinctive voices that pierced my ear plugs, and they kept opening the window, letting in the constantly bright arctic summer sun. fortunately we flew way north of the iceland volcano (eyjafjallajökull - try saying that 3, err, even 1 time.. at all), so that did not interfere with anything.
landed in amsterdam and met jeff at our connecting gate. glad he made it - take that 2 month long volcano eruption! oh i was going to be mad at the gods if a volcano interrupted my dream journey. had a 3 hr layover, which wasn't awful. tried to change our seats so we could sit next to each other, but only middles were left, so decided to wait til we boarded to see if someone would switch. did a lot of people watching - need to mention the african man with a windbreaker jacket that said "i was born in kenya - the land of obama's daddy." seems people the world over are depending upon this president to make good on his campaign promises.
boarded the plane and parted ways with jeff. while waiting for my seat, managed to have a pretty heavy bag drop on my head. direct hit to the right side of my face, ouch. the lady who owned the bag apologized profusely, but her husband still tried to convince me to switch seats with her so they could sit together. really? you drop a bag on my head, AND you want me to sit in the middle seat? um, no. despite my guilty conscience eating away at me, i stuck to the promise i made myself in new zealand that i would never again switch from an aisle to a middle for someone else's gain. funny, the guy in the window seat had no problem saying no.. in fact, he was quite unapologetic about it. i need to get better at that.. to appease karma, i explained my brother was in the back of the plane and i was hoping someone would switch with him so we could sit together. the man eventually gave up, and both he and his wife were relegated to the middle seats. at least they were in consecutive rows.
jeff ended up in an aisle seat with an empty middle, so we decided to sit separate so he could have the extra room. watched a few movies - "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" (cute and funnier than was anticipating), "sunshine cleaning" (my kinda film), "the invention of lying" (fell asleep, clearly it wasn't that interesting), and "public enemy" (love love love johnny depp). except didn't see the ending b/c it cut out with literally 5 mins to go b/c the plane was landing. boo.
what i am most grateful for is having a new memory to replace what once happened on a previous 22 may - the day i met the first guy i ever completely fell in love with. i cannot believe it's been almost a year since my world was shattered last september. and i cannot believe it still bothers me the way it does. beginning to realize i may never fully get over him, and trying to come to acceptance. amazing the impact one person can have on your life..
anyway, somewhere between 23 hrs of travel time and a few time zones, it became the 23rd of may and we landed in johannesburg. met our shuttle guys, and after a quick stop to the ATM and europcar to explain we would be picking up our rental tomorrow instead, we were on our way to the hostel, accoustix backpackers. our driver napoleon was confused why we had both a rental and a shuttle service. i explained that i didn't want to drive at night in a city i was unfamiliar with, on the wrong side of the road, after traveling for 23 hrs. he laughed and tried to convince me it wouldn't be that bad. yeah, right. after a longish and confusing ride in the kidnapper van (so glad i didn't attempt to drive), we arrived at our accommodation. after a quick bout of organizing, it was bedtime.
hello south africa, nice to finally meet you.
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