I left Montreal on a 6am flight last Friday to Chicago, where I had a nice 3hr connection, which might seem long, but was actually a good call. Why? Because as one of the first flights out of Montreal, my flight was obviously delayed. Due to a giant back-up line at US Customs. Because the counters don't open until 4:30am, but everyone gets to the airport 3 hours before their flight and so there were people who had been waiting in line since around 3:15am. Then the backlog creates a backlog at security (and we all know how annoying they can be). Side story on security: FML THOSE PEOPLE ARE ANNOYING. This is the second time where I went through a line with male security people, and these guys are seriously just perves. Like they stop young girls just to hit on them slash go through their personal items. Creepers. If you want to check out women's underwear, go to La Senza. Stop wasting my time going through my bras. D-bags.
Anyways, so I get to Chicago and I'm a tiny bit lost because I know I'm leaving from M, but all it says is 1, 2,3,5. So I'm like, FML, where do I go. And then I guess that M is in 5 because it's further down in the alphabet (and success, I'm right). So, after taking the tram (the wrong way, at first), I get to Terminal 5 where the JAL counters are not yet open, because they are lazy (the flight boards in 2.5 hours, and they are sitting on their bums). Anyways, I fix my seating a little better and chill at the airport until the flight is ready to board (late). Business class and first class board first, and ti's madness. Like, there are a bazillion Asian men! But then you look at the rest of the people left at the gate, AND THERE IS NO ONE!!!! I am so sure there were more people in business/first class than in the rest of the plane. Success! Epic space to sleep during 14hr flight!!!
Arrive in Tokyo and wait for 20 mins for the shuttle to my hotel (there's no connection to KL on the same day, so whattup, I get to stay in airport hotel). While I wait, I notice a "Cart Pool" - perhaps a Japanese play on words? Or they just don't know... Either way, a cart pool is where you put your luggage cart when you are done with it. Japan is so pretty this time of year - epic success on Cherry Blossom season! It's funny you have these giant electric wire fences around the airport and these amazing Cherry Blossom trees in front of them.
Check-into hotel, admire fun Japanese toilet with bum heater/ bidet/ spray all built in, and take shower (not as exciting as toilet) before heading straight to Japanese mall (it was the first bus I saw, and it was free!) and wander around for a bit, before deciding FML I did not come to Japan to eat in tourist-trap restaurants in this mall, so I go outside the mall to a sushi restaurant I saw when the bus was driving by, and go in, only to be surprised by excessive Japanese screaming (slash welcoming?). It was insane. One guy would start yelling something in Japanese and then the rest of the people working would yell something (perhaps the same thing?) every time someone walked in, got up to pay a bill, walked out, ordered something special that was not going around the conveyor belt, and just randomly!!! So, newb story about Japanese sushi...:
You know how in Montreal at Japanese restaurants, you sit down at a table and put the wasabit from the container in front of you into your soya sauce? Well, THEY DON'T DO THAT IN JAPAN. FML. I was such a newb. The little container of green powder in front of you is NOT powdered wasabi... it's powdered GREEN TEA!!! FML. So this Japanese woman sitting next to me (the only person in the whole restaurant who spoke English [the waitress had to give me laminated papers explaining how to eat/ order at the restaurant]) is all: "Whuuuuuuuuuuunh? What-uh strange-uh! Green-uh tea! In duuuuuur?" And I am all so embarrassed and she calls over the waiter to bring another dish so that I don't fail this time around. And she makes me green tea. So I stuff my face for $10, then head back to the mall and chill until my bus comes to take me back to the hotel, where I crash for the night. At like 9pm. Success.
Wake up at 6am because jetlag is amazing slash really because I went to sleep at 9pm, which I haven't done since like grade 8, and eat breakfast/ shower/ pack. By like 8:30 though, I am hungry again and go get some more breakfast at the 7/11, because I am that ghetto. At least they had om nom nom BBQ pork bun. Success! Head back to hotel, and wait for bus to airport. Bus gets stopped at security checkpoint, and 2 officers dress in uniform with those amazing white gloves come in and check everyone's passports, thanking us in Japanese and bowing the entire time. Amazing. Get to airport and check on my bag that I had checked-in, and they have difficulties because apparently I checked 3 bags and not 1. Nope. So they find my bag, and it's on my plane ready to go to KL with me. Success? Nope. It has the wrong information on it, and everyone is confused. After about 30mins of chilling at this counter, finally the girl is all: ok, I fix! So I peace through security and chill before my flight to KL.
Get on the plane and success! Another empty plane, which means epic naptime. Arrive in KL at 6pm or so, and have a small dinner snack (om nom nom BBQ chicken bun) before getting on the bus to go to the other terminal for charters. Get to the other terminal (which is so much nicer than it was last year) and realize, FML I forgot that KL is an hour behind Tokyo and I have an extra hour to kill and no battery life on my laptop. FML. Realize that my gate is inside like a quarantined area because they have super intense checking of passports to check for forgeries... I have never had someone ask me so many questions/ stare at my passport with a magnifying glass before. Intense. Get on my overnight flight to Melbourne, where, surprise, I AM IN A FLIPPING MIDDLE SEAT. FML. 8 hours. FML. AND, I'm in the last row of the section. So my chair does not go back. FML. Flight takes off and I go to the washroom and realize that the back of the plane is empty. Success! So I go to my seat and grab my shit and head back, only to see that in the time I have done all this, people have taken up ALL THE SEATS. Like, people are lying across 3 seaters. Alone. FML. So I go back to my seat, all annoyed, and try to sleep. On my tray table. And I pass out. And destroy my neck in the process. FML.
Finally get to Melbourne at 8:50am. Epic success. Minus that it is FREEZING! FML. Like, I brought 1 sweater on this trip. ONE. It's 9C. FML. I bus to my hostel but the room isn't ready cuz it's not 12 yet, but luckily another girl is trying to check in at the same time as me, and we decide to go get SIM cards/ lunch together. Success! So we walk all around dt Melbourne and then hit up a Malaysian/ Indian restaurant, of which there are a bazillion here! Head back to hostel and I pass out and take an epic nap until dinnertime. FML though, my dinnertime and Melbourne dinnertime are 2 different dinnertimes. Like restaurants close here at 8pm. WTF. Everything was closed near the hostel, so new friend and I decide to walk to Chinatown to get some dinner because she wants Laksa, but success! on the way there were find a Malaysian restaurant and get some on nom nom dinner. Seriously. There are so many Malaysian restaurants here!!! Slash food is more expensive than it is back home, minus that tax is included here, so my meals out will be limited from here on in. Minus my next lunch.
So Tuesday is my epic touring day, and super independent me, I go out at 10am in the rain to catch one of the free tourist shuttle busses that take you around the city! I start at the University of Melbourne cuz it's close enough to my hostel, then go by Queen Victoria Market (I stop there at the end because it's also near the hostel), then Docklands and Victoria Harbour (where they have the most amazingly wicked buildings and public art ever, which I totally tooks pics of from the bus), then pass William Street and get off at Southbank at the Yarra River. Walked over to Eureka Skydeck 88, which is the Southern Hemisphere's highest viewing platform and also has this thing called the Edge, which is a glass cube that projects 3m out from the building and is suspended 300m above the ground, but didn't go up because the weather was crappy and I'm on the poor side these days... Continued walking along Southback to the Alexandra Gardens, and then went back over the river towards Federation Square, and hopped on the City Circle Tram (another freebie, success!) towards Parliament and Chinatown). Walked along Little Bourke Street (like every street here at a "Little" version right next to it for some reason) and had lunch at another Malaysian restaurant (yes, that is 3 for 3 right now, and yes, I am going to Malaysia in 3 weeks). Then continued walking towards the Koorie Heritage Trust Cultural Centre, which was pretty wicked, walked through Flagstaff Gardens, which is called by that name because back in the day, it was high enough and close enough to the water to be used as a signal post for ships, and finally reached Victoria Market again. After some successful souvenir shopping and bargaining, I went back to my hostel to chill a bit and write this blog. Success! Tonight there is a free wine and cheese at the hostel (you have to listen to people talk about travel programs to get the wine, though I think it's only 1 glass, bastards), and then I get to crash early because I have an amazing 6:30am flight to Adelaide tomorrow!!! FML a bit because I have to cab to the bus station and then bus to the airport. Should be interesting.
Anyways, that is it for now. I'll write again post-Kangaroo Island, next week! Miss you all!
xoxo
Kat
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