yesterday was literally the longest day of our lives. at 7 am, August 5th – Australia time, we woke up, stuffed the last of our bags and loaded up the van for the last time and were off to the airport. We got there a few hours early; because that’s the only time we could get a ride, but no worries. Hard to be frustrated with a few hours of waiting when you are offered a free ride to the airport. Checked the bags easily, and made it through customs and security just the same. First destination Sydney. Ok, no problem, its only an hour. Second flight, Sydney to LA. 16 hours, but hey, compared to some of our African journeys, that’s nothing. PLUS. On a 16 hour flight, we travelled back in time 17 hours. And i still find it hard to dislike time travel. Great, done, now. LA to Washington. 6 hours. Piece of cake compared to the last one. Now for the easiest of all: One measly hour to buffalo our final destination. CANCELLED!?!
This can’t be serious. After 30 something hours of travel, we get stuffed on the last hour. Hard to believe, but it was for real, just as real as the 2 hour line to find another flight; ANY other flight. and the other 1 and half or so, hours in our baggage claim line, because as you can imagine, the baggage was just as stuffed as our flights. With time to kill, and a system of alternating between waiting in line and using the internet, we kept the morals high, and enjoyed, best we can, the prospect of spending a night in DC.
Our mission of taking a picture with the Washington Monument was basically, instantly squashed by the 130 us dollar cab fare to get there and back, so we did our best to use what we had. One thing weve learned from our experience living in airports is rule number 1. Explore. At 2 am, once our bags, were sorted. (they’re going to buffalo, and us Toronto, but at least they are sorted.) we took off exploring. A massive airport, very few people. this is where rule two comes into play: cross boundaries. Some times this means hoping a fence to get a spectacular look at the Victoria falls, and sometime it means ventureing off path to find a hidden oasis in the Australian rain forest. This time however, it meant walking past a do not enter sign, and using the maintenance elevator to find us a loft all to ourselves.
These times of shenanigans do help to time go less painfully but still, we found ourselves, so close to home, but still so far. The next day, brought with it a bunch more hassle, but a whole lotta good.
Today was the day, were going home! ...hopefully. so at noon we boarded a flight to Ottawa, slight detour, but hey, we made it to Canada. We spent less than 15 minutes in the Ottawa airport, as we ran through customs, and onto our final Air Canada flight. man, let me tell you, it was so great to hear some true Canadian accents again. People always, say you can’t hear your own accent, which is true, but after 6 months away. The enunciated O’s and overwhelming politeness made me feel truely home. Well. That and the 2 massive Timmies as were leaving the terminal. And the long list of “first thing’s” I wanted to do was kicked off with the immediate stop at Tim Horton’s. We met our parents here, took some time over coffee, and began with the stories. The stories that pretty much continued all the way home.
And home is where we made it. Finally, after days. Home was sweet.
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