MAP testing page...
will be back later hopefully in December 2002 to get this page happening properly...
Around the World in 5 days with 9 day stopover in USA halfway....
"A study in sleep deprivation, mixed with great excitement and solitude" for the travelling sections. *LOL*
Started with a quick flight from Perth to Melbourne, a "redeye special", and I slept some of it. Which I sure needed, as it was a struggle staying awake the 5 hours at Melbourne.
My 2nd flight was a long!!! (20hrs?) Qantas one from Melbourne to Los Angelos, California.
Then an American Airlines quick flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. I slept most of the way. Very cramped conditions on this plane. Talked to some people from Arkansas on the way.
Dallas/Fort Worth wasa huge airport,its one of the largest if not the largest in the world.Didnt have much time to spare, bypassed the shuttle train and went flat out looking for my departure lounge area. Had to walk a long way to find it. Caught a small plane to Knoxville, Tennessee. Was able to find my friend there without to much hassle even though I only had one photo to go on, and was a bit nervous. Not too many people there, fairly small place. It was very cool of my friend to come all that way to get me and we talked lots on the way back, plus stopped at "perkins" on the way, for a meal, nice place, a little bit like sizzler/miss mauds, decent food....
Tim dropped me off at Charlotte. It was kind of emotional having to go. Tim couldnt hang around as he had to drive all the way back to college in time for his classes. Pretty decent airport, a bit like Perth in size.
Flew to Chicago on a tiny little American Eagle plane. Only 3 seats in a row, even smaller than the one I caught from Dallas to Knoxville. Very spectacular views of Lake Michigan? and the city of Chicago, amazing place, and probably bigger than L.A....The airport was huge, again you had to catch a shuttle train between terminals, took me awhile to get my bearings. Not as big as Dallas/Fort Worth I dont think.
The british airways plane had some cool features for passengers and was probably the biggest plane I have been on, lots of rows of seats. Flying into London, at night, it was a bit like when I flew into Dallas, lots of lights showing a very large city much!!! bigger than when you fly into Perth (for example) at night. Found it hard to know which way to go intially at Heathrow, and I thought it was not a very good airport compared to some of the other ones facilitywise from what I saw. Sent off some postcards and got a change of clothes.
Flying into Tokyo/Narita was very interesting I have never! seen landscape and buildings etc like I saw there anywhere else. Learnt the Japanese words basic greetings like hello & goodbye etc from a local person on the plane. Also ended up asking him how to get to my departure terminal, as it wasn't that clear to me, although they did have some good computers there that gave me a rough idea of the name of the terminal I had to get to.. So it was more fast food, and trying to sleep at the airport. I was so tired when I caught the shuttle train to my departure lounge, that I was asleep within about 5 minutes. Got woken by the flight attendants with the plane due to fly in about 3 minutes. In the rush to get on board I left my jumper in the departure lounge. Ran back down this really long corridor with a Japanese flight hostess, found my jumper, and got back to the plane with about 20 seconds to spare.
It was great to hear the (east coast) accent of the Australian flight captain saying welcome to Qantas, and then a few hours later to be back in Perth. :-).