Buffalo (USA) to Melbourne (Australia)
Day 225
We started the long journey home with a flight from Buffalo to Los Angeles, stopping over in Chicago. The first flight was about an hour and 20 minutes, from a sunny Buffalo to an overcast and rainy Chicago. After waiting around another hour or so we took the next leg to LA, which was a flight of over five hours.
Once we landed we had to wait over half an hour for the shuttle to our hotel, where we'd booked an extended stay so we could have a very late checkout the next day.
Dinner was some very tasty Thai food from a restaurant just down the road from the hotel, just what we needed!
Day 226
Our flight wasn't until 10:30pm, so we took the local bus to visit Venice Beach. We had some lunch by the boardwalk, walked along the beach and checked out the sights. There was some really good skateboarding going on, but the muscle beach bit where we expected to see a bunch of himbos working out was pretty much empty.
After that it was back to the hotel to pack, then another visit to the Thai restaurant before taking the 7pm shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.
We didn't get much further though, after three hours in the airport and another three hours sitting on the plane, we still hadn't gone anywhere. There had been some sort of system error making it difficult to check people in, and it turns out the delay to our flight meant that the flight attendants would exceed the legal limit for hours worked, so the flight was cancelled. We were booked onto an 11:30pm plane the next day, and sent on our way with food vouchers (US$60 for three meals for two people), and information on getting our additional hotel costs refunded.
While waiting in line to rebook our flight we had been able to use the airport's free internet to book a room at the Hyatt next to the airport (the airline was paying), but many people were having difficulty finding a room.
Day 227
An extra day in LA, without transportation - great! At least the hotel was nice, and we'd booked another extended stay with a 7pm checkout, so we pretty much lazed around all day, before leaving for the airport at 7pm.
After checking our bags in we used our meal vouchers that were issued the previous night to get dinner at the airport, we had some trouble but in the end managed to get a reasonable meal as well as a few snacks for the trip.
Our 11:30pm flight was an extra flight that was scheduled because of the problems, so the atmosphere was different to a normal flight, everyone was chatting about what had happened and it was all a bit friendlier usual. We found out that some people had been unable to find any accommodation, so had stayed in the airport all night and all day, we were very lucky that we had been able to get a room.
When the flight finally took off everyone cheered and clapped ..... and 16 or so hours later we landed in Melbourne.
Day 225
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| Never buy a cappucino in the USA. |
Once we landed we had to wait over half an hour for the shuttle to our hotel, where we'd booked an extended stay so we could have a very late checkout the next day.
Dinner was some very tasty Thai food from a restaurant just down the road from the hotel, just what we needed!
Day 226
Our flight wasn't until 10:30pm, so we took the local bus to visit Venice Beach. We had some lunch by the boardwalk, walked along the beach and checked out the sights. There was some really good skateboarding going on, but the muscle beach bit where we expected to see a bunch of himbos working out was pretty much empty.
After that it was back to the hotel to pack, then another visit to the Thai restaurant before taking the 7pm shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.
While waiting in line to rebook our flight we had been able to use the airport's free internet to book a room at the Hyatt next to the airport (the airline was paying), but many people were having difficulty finding a room.
Day 227
An extra day in LA, without transportation - great! At least the hotel was nice, and we'd booked another extended stay with a 7pm checkout, so we pretty much lazed around all day, before leaving for the airport at 7pm.
 |
| LA .... so picturesque when you stay near the airport |
Our 11:30pm flight was an extra flight that was scheduled because of the problems, so the atmosphere was different to a normal flight, everyone was chatting about what had happened and it was all a bit friendlier usual. We found out that some people had been unable to find any accommodation, so had stayed in the airport all night and all day, we were very lucky that we had been able to get a room.
When the flight finally took off everyone cheered and clapped ..... and 16 or so hours later we landed in Melbourne.
The End
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