This journey to get to Australia is a long and arduous one.
47 hours of travel just so that we could get a cheaper flight.
Regina – Edmonton
The only interesting thing that happened was that my weak
ankles made an appearance I was walking past security on the way to the gate
when I just sort of flopped down without knowing what happened. As my carry on
bag is heavier than most things it sort of made me into an upside down turtle
and I had trouble getting up. It
was cold and raining, but there was a Montana’s in the terminal to shelter
us. What up, ribs!?
Edmonton – Vancouver
We had 6 hours to spare at the Vancouver airport until our
flight left at 3am. We wandered around, drank an expensive Battletoad (bourbon
& Sprite) and then settled down to play crib and relax. Have you ever been
in an almost entirely deserted airport? There was some staff, then some
maintenance workers and then no one. TJ went for a wander and easily could have
made off with a plane if he was feeling industrious enough! It was delightful!
That is until we tried to make our way down to our gate to catch the plane. The
way which we had so carefully scoped out earlier had suddenly been locked. We
walked back to the info booth where we were told that we’d have to exit and
then come back through security. Unfortunately all the exits were also closed.
He told us to walk in the wrong direction because we could exit there and come
back around. After finding multiple exits locked and freaking out we accosted a
security guard and made her radio someone to sort this out. A guard escorted us
through the locked doors and made the polite suggestion of “maybe going a bit
faster”. We sprinted the length of the Vancouver airport to arrive just as the
last people were bording the plane, out of breath, sweating and in the midst of
an asthma attack.
Beijing Airport
We rolled off the plane at 5am Beijing time and tried to
figure out where to go. Domestic transit since we were going to Shanghai next?
International transit since our final destination is Australia? We made the
wrong choice and waited in at least 2 wrong lines. We also found out that we
couldn’t check in for the next set of flights until 3 hours before. Which is 6
hours after we got here. We ate
Kenny Rogers Roasters for breakfast.
It was a mistake. Who goes
for Kenny Rogers Roasters in Beijing?
Us, that’s who! What up,
haters!
This airport is the
biggest structure that we’ve ever been in. TJ thought that the Orlando airport
was big but if what we’re sitting in is only 1 terminal then it is a drop in
the bucket compared to this. It is baby-proofed for safety. There are signs
telling you where to step and how, recordings reminding you to hold on to the
handrail and warning signs such as “Keep away for safety”. There is tons of yellow paint telling
you to watch yourself, but then you get distracted by all the yellow stuff and
warning signs and end up tripping over an old lady or something. There are
thousands of people in this terminal alone and it is sparkling clean. So many
workers polishing and scrubbing all the time. The guys cleaning the men’s bathrooms
are doing a bang up job. Even the
sidewalk outside is super shiny! You can nearly see your reflection! Speaking
of the bathrooms, they consist of several stalls with normal toilets and one
weird stall with just a hole in the ground to squat over and do your business.
In contrast to
the airport the rest of Beijing seems to be questionable. This, of course, is
based solely on the fact that we can’t actually see it due to haze and smog. It
smells a bit like burning. But it appears that the roof of the parking garage
across the street is a small farm.
It’s a big green area sitting around a big igloo dome on top of a 3
story parking garage.
Right now we’re sitting in a Chinese restaurant called
Acting that apparently serves Halal food? We tried to go to a noodle shop but
were unsuccessful. We watched the other customers to see what they did in order
to get served. But maybe we weren’t doing it right? After, we’re going to Mcdonald’s to get cheeseburgers and
conduct an indepth comparison between theirs and ours. You know what’s good!
Shanghai Airport
We were meant to have about 2 hours in Shanghai and then,
apparently get back on the same plane. As we got off the plane the flight
attendants said watch the signs for your boarding time. We decided to take 7
minutes to go to the bathroom and buy a bottle of water. When we came back to
our lounge everyone was gone. It was like the apocalypse had happened and we
were the only ones left. There were no signs, no people to ask, no digital
displays of gate numbers. Nothing at all. In the entire airport! We ran towards
the only direction that seemed to have people in it and finally found a
security person. After trying to explain what happened a representative from
Air China wandered over and said “We’ve been looking for you”. Where have you
been looking?? We had to go
through security again (so glad we spent yen on the water bottles) and arrived
for our next 11 hour flight just as sweaty and unkempt as the first.
We got through the flights pretty well. They fed us a
extremely salty duck egg and some strange pickle type thing but it was pretty
good. Then we tried our best to sleep like mad. It was certainly nice to be
able to sit beside someone I know and like. It’s so much more comfortable to
snuggle up to someone than to sit squished and tense with strangers.
