After a fun week in Seattle with the family, I arrived home, did some laundry, dealt with a dead car battery (or rather Dad came up and dealt with it, thank you!), and less than 24 hours later was walking back into the airport for a flight to Sydney.
But upon arriving at the airport and while attempting to check-in for my flight, I was notified that there was a problem with my Australian VISA. And without a VISA you can't enter a foreign country. Or even get on your flight out of the states. So basically they told me that I'd have to wait for my approval and try to get on a flight the next day. Since I was traveling for work, I needed to be in Australia by Tuesday morning (when my original flight would have gotten me there). Arrival on Wednesday morning would have caused big problems. I called Jenni for some help and then had a full-blown panic attack right there on the phone while standing at the ticket counter. I'm nothing if not graceful under pressure! (Sorry about that Jen.) It was at about that point that Delta's ticket counter manager noticed me and offered to help. She went way beyond nice, people. She called the Australian Travel Authority to rush the VISA through approvals, held my flight (because at this point they had already closed the doors), and walked me right past the massive security line. I ran all the way to the gate and boarded the flight. Whew! I sat down, nerves shot, and worked to keep myself calm on the first leg of the flight to Los Angeles.
You see, I really don't like to fly. Obviously I like the perks of going somewhere farther and getting somewhere faster but flying makes me sick to my stomach, makes me somewhat antsy, and sometimes makes my claustrophobic tendencies kick in. So I found the two-hour layover at LAX a welcome relief. I grabbed some dinner and walked around a bit before boarding the 14-hour flight to Sydney. Ya, you heard me right. 14 hours. Eek! It went pretty well, though it did require some Xanax and quite a bit of Diet Coke. And next time I'll be adding sleeping pills to the mix to make the flight even more comfortable. But to make the flight go by faster I watched movies, did some reading, walked around a bit, and just hunkered down for the duration.
But once I got to Sydney, I loved it. A lot. Like I want a vacation home there one day.
Since I was traveling for work I spent quite a bit of time doing just that. Working. I was there to oversee the printing of our Australian/New Zealand catalogue. And this year we used a new printer, Offset Alpine Printing, so it was great to finally meet in person the individuals I've talked to and emailed a lot over the last 6 months while getting the project ready. They were super nice, professional, and hospitable. They even put the American flag up at the plant as a sign of welcome to me. They also introduced me to the Australian Tim Tam. Talk about a treat. It's composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filling, and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate. Heck ya!
I spent the better part of the first day, the first night, and the second day right there at the plant since they had our project on multiple presses and were trying to stick to a pretty busy schedule. On the second night, however, I finally got to head to the hotel for some well-deserved sleep. By this point I was super tired so I just crashed. Hard. Obviously the plush accommodations didn't hurt. I stayed at the Hyde Park Marriott in a room that had a fantastic view of the city skyline and of the park. There was even a Book of Mormon in the nightstand with the Bible. Gosh, I love Marriotts.
One of the things I could see clearly from my room was the Sydney Tower. So during some downtime at the plant, I walked over there, took the 40-second elevator ride up 820 feet to the observation deck, and watched the sun set over the city. It was absolutely beautiful and a great way to start the exploration of a new city.
More to come . . .
3 comments:
Aw . . . I'm sorry you had so much trouble. But you made it! Way to go!
I had a similar experience once when I was flying to Montreal for work. Not fun! Nothing like boarding a plane with your nerves shot. I'm pretty sure when I went to AUS I was able to just buy the visa at the airport before I left, easy peasy.
Cool that you went the public trans. route so you wouldn't have to worry about driving. Smart.
Sounds like the press worked out well (good!) and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your posts! Brings back good memories.
Miss you!
Ya, from what they told me they want you to take care of your VISA before coming to the airport now. And the first person I talked to at the ticket counter flat out told me I was out of luck. It was the second person, who happened to also be the manager, that found me and helped me out. Once she got involved, and with a phone call to me sister with internet access, I was able to get the VISA approval taken care of. Lesson learned, I guess. :)
Post a Comment