Merry Christmas!

I know pretty much no one reads this blog, but for those who do I wanted to write a quick entry to say Merry Christmas to you. I have been busy working, baking, Christmas shopping and wrapping, and now am on holidays until December 28, so I am finally unwinding and relaxing at home with a cold bevvie in my hand and Carols by Candlelight playing on my tv from the Bowl in Melbourne. I'm pretty much in my element right now, hehe!

Happy Christmas to you all - stay safe, eat lots, love lots and most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Jorgs

Florentine Slice

Hello again my dear readers! I have been getting my bake on for the last three days in preparation for Christmas, and after a good response from posting my choc mint balls recipe, I thought I would share with you all another favourite of mine. This recipe for florentine slice also always gets rave reviews from my family and friends, and this year I have made three batches of it!

Please leave me a comment if you end up trying it out, and tell me what you thought, and how you went! I would love to hear of your Christmas cooking expeditions!

Florentine Slice

375g packet of milk cooking chocolate
 
3/4 cup of sultanas

2 cups of cornflakes

1/2 cup of peanuts, unsalted

1 packet of glace cherries, chopped (any colour, but I personally think that just the red ones look best in this recipe)

2/3 cup of condensed milk

Line a lamington tin with foil, ensuring the foil comes well over the edges of the tin, then spray the foil with cooking spray.

Melt the chocolate with some copha to get it nice and smooth and glossy and then pour into the prepared tin. Refrigerate until set.

 

 

Before going in the oven

 

 

In the meantime, combine the sultanas, cornflakes, peanuts, cherries and condensed milk and mix well. Using the back of a spoon or spatula, spread the mixture evenly over the chocolate base and press it down slightly to make the top smooth. Bake in a 180 degree Celsius oven for 10-15 minutes or until you can see the top starting to change colour slightly.

Cool and then refrigerate again. Later, cut into squares.

Enjoy!


I am pretty liberal with this recipe, and don't feel quantities are hugely important. For example, the original recipe had just 185g of chocolate, but I felt this wasn't quite enough to be able to taste chocolate on the base when you went to eat it as it was spread too thinly. I also usually put in more peanuts and cherries than the recipe says! It's no big deal.

Happy baking!

Jorgs

Christmas Choc Mint Balls

Merry Christmas everyone! As this is definitely the time of year we all stuff our faces a little bit, I thought I would share with you one of my favourite Christmas recipes! This recipe is so popular with everyone I share it with, and full credit goes to my good friend Nikki who gave it to me years and years ago now! Ever since, I have been making these amazing balls of deliciousness every Christmas and they are always gone in a flash! You will love them!

Christmas Choc Mint Balls

1 block of Cadbury peppermint chocolate, chopped

1 packet of choc ripple biscuits

1 packet of glace cherries, chopped

60g of butter, melted

½ a can of condensed milk

Coconut, for rolling

 

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin inside a bag, or in a food processor. Mix these crumbs with the melted butter, condensed milk, cherries and chocolate. Roll the mixture into balls and roll in coconut. Refrigerate.

Makes between 30 and 50, depending on size.

 

 

You will not regret making these – in fact, you’ll probably do as I do and make 2 or 3 batches! I give them away as gifts and share them with my colleagues and they are still talked about years later, even after I’ve left some workplaces! My family loves them to pieces too! They’ve taken over as the most popular Christmas treat I make – rumballs are dead in the water now!

Happy Christmas!

Jorgs x

That time I went to…Fort Worth, Texas

Hello fellow travel lovers! I have just gotten back from another trip to Texas! This time I took in a bit of Fort Worth as well as my usual Dallas, so I wanted to share it with you all!

It was awesome to leave Sydney on Friday as it was wet, wet, wet! Not to say it wasn’t going to be wintery in Texas too, but I was keen to get away from this not quite winter not quite summer thing Sydney has going on at the moment! Our flight to Dallas was uneventful and we landed into 15 degree celsius gloomy weather in the Lone Star State.

After some Christmas shopping and sleeping during the layover a few of us crew decided to go to Fort Worth to see the rodeo they hold at the Stockyards there. I actually went to the Stockyards on one of my other trips but only went during the day and didn’t get to see the rodeo, so I was pretty keen to get my gosh darn, bootscootin’ cowboy on!

 

 

 

 

We drove the 45 minutes from Dallas to Fort Worth and bought our tickets for the rodeo later that night. The Stockyards at Fort Worth is a forty acre historic tourist precinct that has many restaurants, bars, shops and western themed museums (living up to Fort worth’s unofficial title of being ‘where the west begins’). Of course, there are also the stockyards here, which are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Twice a day there is a cattle drive down the main street, led by riders on horseback. It’s all very western and very cowboy and basically just a whole lot of fun.

 

 

The first time I went there I went by myself and browsed the shops, buying everything from guacamole mix to Christmas decorations shaped like Stetsons and cowboy boots, and had me some ribs for lunch! I also had a look in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and took in the cattle drive. This time, since I was with some other crew we just looked at the shops and went to dinner (more ribs! We were in Texas after all!), and then made our way to Cowtown Coliseum where the rodeo was being held!

 

 

Thankfully Cowtown Coliseum was an indoor venue, so we didn’t freeze to death while the show was on! We decided to pay an extra five bucks (tickets were usually $18 for adults) to get reserved seats at the front so we could be really close to the action, and this was SO worth it. We were so close to everything that was going on, and had such a good view!

You can’t get much more American than a rodeo, and I was not disappointed, let me tell you! The rodeo started with a very patriotic rendition of ‘Proud to be an American’, which much of the crowd got very, very into. So into that the two women in the box beside ours got angry that not everybody stood up for the song. I believe their exact words were ‘I’ve never been to a rodeo in all my life where people didn’t stand up for this!’. They were not happy, but I think it was a bit unfair, as most of the crowd were tourists, and while they stood for the Star Spangled Banner which was played afterwards, they didn’t know to stand for Proud to be an American. Technically I don’t think we really needed to stand for the first song – it’s not like it was the national anthem (it was certainly the first time I’d ever heard the song) – and even though I did (because those women next to me did, and also because I at first mistakenly thought the song being played WAS the Star Spangled Banner so I SHOULD stand, out of respect of course) – not everyone would think like me and my crew did. I think those women next to us were just very patriotic and very passionate about being American. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it would’ve been nice for them to take a moment to realise that many people in the arena were visitors and many probably didn’t even speak English, so they were not being disrespectful intentionally.



Getting our rodeo on!

 

ANYWAY. The rodeo was fantastic! The closest thing I’ve been to a rodeo was the Outback Spectacular on the Gold Coast in Queensland, and really, that was not a rodeo. Not like this. Here there was bare back riding, barrel racing, lasso-ing, cowboys, cowgirls, bucking bulls, the works! They even got the kids in the crowd out a few times into the arena to chase around a calf and get a piece of paper that was tucked into his harness and take it to the rodeo clowns for a prize. And boy did those kids get into it, racing around all over the arena after this poor calf, and later a sheep! It was super cute! One kid even lost his little cowboy boots in the chase and when it was all over had to run back to the other side of the arena to collect them out of the dirt!

 

 

 

The show lasted a good two hours and was edge of your seat stuff! I was constantly holding my breath when these rodeo riders came out of the gate, hoping they would last until the buzzer went off, or that if they fell off the bucking bull that they at least didn’t get trampled! It was also amazing to watch the cowboys with their rope skills – they could lasso a bolting young calf and get off their horse and tie the calf’s legs together in under ten seconds! Such precision and skill!

I highly recommend going to the Stockyards at Fort Worth if ever you’re in that part of Texas. It’s very interesting being immersed in such cowboy culture – you really get a feeling of the real Texas. Plus Texans are so friendly, and it’s fun to peruse the huge array of Stetsons and cowboy boots and belt buckles and barbeque cookbooks and all things southern in the stores there. And who doesn’t like drinking a beer and getting grubby fingers with a plate full of sticky messy smoky ribs!? It’s a good value night out, no question!

 

Ribs baby, RIBS!

I also briefly visited downtown Fort Worth on my first trip to the city when on my way back to Dallas from the Stockyards .While waiting for my train I came across a lovely memorial to John F Kennedy outside the hotel where he gave his final speech before he headed to Dallas and was assassinated just hours later. Texas seems to have a lot of connections to the late president, and documents and memorialises it at every opportunity, but they do it so well, so no complaints here!

 

 

 

Until my next adventure,

Jorgs

We couldn't leave without a horse selfie!

Travel tips for backpackers part 2

Well I'm back dear readers, this time with even more travel tips from someone who's been there, done that! I'd love to hear your tips too, so please don't hesitate to leave me a comment below and share the love!

Sunset in Dubai

1.       For discounted hostel stays, plus many discounts at many attractions around the world, become a Youth Hostels Australia/Hostelling International member. For Aussies it’s less than $40 a year last time I checked. Your membership card entitles you to cheaper beds than everyone else, and discounted entry fees at many tourist sites. Worth getting.

2.       Don’t be afraid to take public transport. It is often the cheapest and quickest way of getting places. People often seem scared of taking public transport but truthfully these systems in major cities are often the safest mode of travel (hola NYC subway system!) and among the most extensive, fast and easy to figure out (god bless you London Underground). My first recommendation on how to get somewhere is definitely walking, but if it’s too far (or you’re just too tired), public transport is the next best way to go.

The London Underground

3.       Be prepared in case the ultimate nightmare happens and your luggage is lost/delayed. Pack some clean clothes (at least a tshirt…it doesn’t have to be a whole outfit), underwear, any important medication and some toiletries in your carry on bag. Plus anything important to you, like valuables and expensive gifts you have bought for your family on the course of your adventure. My motto is that I don’t pack anything in my checked luggage that I would cry over losing. The important stuff sticks right by my side. And it might sound silly, but let me tell you, as a flight attendant I cannot tell you how many times passengers have fallen ill during the flight and their medication is in their checked luggage buried in the hold below the aircraft. “I didn’t think I’d need it!” they say. Well if you’d had it in the cabin with you, you wouldn’t have! Duh. Same goes with packing emergency clothing rations. If you have them, chances are your luggage will never get lost and you will never have to resort to being down to your last pair of undies.

 



4.       Don’t get caught up in converting the price of everything you want to buy, from soft drinks to souvenirs, into your home currency. It’ll just put you off buying cool things that will be great mementos of your trip of a lifetime. It’ll also do your head in from all the maths that you shouldn’t be doing on something like a holiday. Just buy it. Some things will be a total rip off when you convert the euro or the pound price into Aussie dollars or vice versa, and some things will be so cheap you’ll want to buy two. But just buy it. Adapt to the prices of the country you are in and buy as if you are a local (plus that beautiful hand blown Venetian glass ornament or the fine Italian lace table cloth you bought your Mum as her Christmas present).

5.       Keep a travel journal. You won’t have time, or energy, to write in it every day but who cares? Just write whenever you feel like it. Travel journals are the most glorious things to read back on, whether it’s on the plane ride home after months away, or years later when you are moving house and rediscover your journals when packing things up. I stick tickets, leaflets, postcards, maps and other assorted reminders of my trip in there as well.

 



6.       Take advantage of anything free your hostel offers. I have stayed at many hostels that offer free breakfast. Sure, sometimes it’s just cereal or pancakes or a single French stick, some mini packets of honey and some paper plates (like a hostel I stayed at in Athens, Greece!), but it’s still free. Free is good. Fill yourself up and you won’t need to shell out til lunchtime! Some hostels also offer free pasta night, or things like $5 BBQ’s where you can get a sausage in a bun and a drink. It’s a great way to meet people and save some coin!

7.       A travel towel from somewhere like (for the Aussie’s) Kathmandu, Anaconda or Mountain Designs is a great idea and I would say a travel essential. You cannot only use it for the bathrooms in the hostels, as not all hostels provide you with towels, but also for the beach or for extra padding around a delicate item in your suitcase for the journey home. These towels are light weight, not too big dimension wise (although you can get many different sizes), dry quickly and some even come in a plastic sleeve type zip up bag, so you can put it in there wet and not have to worry about all the other stuff in your suitcase getting wet.

Disneyland, California, USA

8.       First time travellers are often weary of pick pockets and unpleasant things like that and my advice is just to be switched on. Don’t be careless. Don’t stand on a street corner in the middle of Times Square with your map open. Don’t walk around with your bag unzipped. If you’re just smart you will be fine. Try your best to blend in and look like a local. If you look like every other commuter on the tube in London, just going about your day, getting to work or whatever, why should a pick pocket target you over anyone else? They shouldn’t. Just don’t take risks, that’s all. The kind of money wallets that you hide under your clothes are a good idea for first timers – I had one for my first trip overseas and kept my passport and emergency credit card in there at all times, and always felt safe because I knew those two very important things were always on me and always safe. There are many ways you can be targeted – I knew a girl who had her phone stolen by gypsies at the Eiffel Tower (and she didn’t even notice they were doing it!) and a guy who handed over his credit card to a quad bike rental company in Corfu, Greece and they charged him two thousand euro instead of two hundred and he did not realise until a few days later! – but if you are cautious and sensible and take no more risks than what you would take at home when it comes to your safety and your money, then you shouldn’t run into much trouble.

Katoomba Falls in the Blue Mountains,
 New South Wales, Australia

9.       Don’t buy one of those travel sims for your phone. In this day and age where there is free wifi everywhere, you don’t need to call everyone at home to stay in contact, especially if you’re going away for less than a month. Send postcards and emails and keep up through Facebook if you must. Call once or twice but keep it short so you’re not slugged a huge fee for international roaming. I got this silly travel sim device thing on my first trip and I had to load it up in $25 increments to make calls, and also to receive them. I was away on my birthday and received about 3 phone calls that day and had to load up $25 about 4 times! What a rip off. And so unnecessary. I also had to call a number first and then they in turn would connect me to whoever I was trying to reach! It was ridiculous. You do need a phone for emergencies, but no one is saying you need to use it like you do at home. You’re out travelling. It’s not like real life, like at home. Go off and see stuff and tell everyone about it later.

10.   I recommend taking two credit cards – an everyday use one (a debit one for example) that doesn’t flog you too much in international fees every time you use it (or if it does, just withdraw a couple of hundred dollars/euros/pounds/whatever each time so you can last a few days between trips to the ATM. Store the money in your hidden money wallet until you need it) and then a credit card for emergencies. I take a VISA credit card on all my trips and almost never use it. It is just there in case something big comes up, or I buy or have to pay for something that will only take that type of card. Two cards is a good idea because if you lose one, or one is rejected, blocked by your bank, not accepted or hacked, you still have something else you can use in the meantime until you get it sorted out. I don’t need to tell you what a mother trucking hassle it is to get a new card sent to you overseas – especially if you are moving between countries, say on a tour, every couple of days! Hello nightmare! And you don’t want to have to borrow money off other people.

I also have never thought much of those pre-loaded travel money cards. They seem like such a hassle. I guess if you’re super against any kind of extra fee using your regular card overseas might incur, then sure, look into it, but I think it’s much easier to just inform your bank you’re leaving the country than having to get one of these travel cards, decide how much to put on it and load it up and blah blah blah…argh. No thanks. Completely personal preference of course but what if you don’t put enough on it? (we always spend more than we think!)

Your savvy backpacker,

Jorgs

Christmas Care Packages Update

Happy first of December readers!

A few entries ago I told you all about how to send a care package to our troops serving overseas this Christmas. I've been hard at work ever since making my own care packages - collecting things to include in the boxes during my travels abroad as well as here at home, playing a tetris like game fitting everything into the boxes and making sure they didn't weigh too much, and taping them all up and addressing them to our hard working diggers.

 

Just a few of the goodies I gathered!

Finally last week they were ready to go and I hauled them down to the post office. Here are some pics from this project - one I've truly enjoyed doing! 


 

It really made me happy that I inspired a few other people to also make care packages, and hopefully this will continue. You still have time to send a package overseas for Christmas! The cut off date is December 8, so get cracking! Trust me, nothing will make you feel more warm and fuzzy than doing something nice for someone else at this special time of year and not expecting anything in return.

Merry Christmas!

Jorgs

Making it all fit

 



Ready to go!

Travel tips for backpackers (and non backpackers!)

Many of us are not blessed with lots of money, so if we want to travel abroad, or even within our own country, we need to save hard and go without some things for a while in order to have enough money to go on a fun adventure somewhere. I am one of those people, and the first time I went overseas on my own I had to save for two years to be able to afford to go. When I first decided to go travelling this wait was excruciating, as I was positively itching to get on a plane out of my home town, but in the end it was all worth it.

Millennium Park, Chicago, USA

I was a university student who worked two waitressing jobs and did casual bar work at music festivals, and for each job I was paid cold hard cash every week, and I remember so well sitting in my car after work every Saturday afternoon counting out my money, allocating $30 of it to petrol for my car (god bless having a tiny Ford Laser with a miniscule fuel tank!), giving myself ten or twenty bucks to treat myself to a movie or something nice to eat during the week and then depositing the remainder of it in the bank on my way home. I was usually able to deposit between $300 and $400 a week depending on how many hours I’d worked, and the rush I got from seeing the total go up all the time was the best rush I’d ever had. When I hit $10,000 I nearly fainted with happiness, imagining how far I could travel with that much money. And I kept on saving. I can’t remember the total I had in my bank account when I finally set off in April 2009 bound for three months of American and European adventures, but I think it was somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000. Of course I was never going to blow all of that on my holiday – but growing up my family did not have a lot of money, so as a result I have always been a worrier when it comes to money, and I am always very careful with it – so I wanted to be able to go away on my trip and not have to worry about having enough money in the bank or running out. I just wanted to draw funds when I needed them and feel safe in knowing I would always have enough. I am so glad I did it this way. It meant I could buy myself a beautiful piece of jewellery at the Swarovski store on the Champs Elysees when I was in Paris, and on my final city stop I could stay for a few nights in a nice hotel.

Despite having this money sitting in the bank, I was still planning on backpacking and that is what I did. I wanted to spend money on experiences rather than fancy hotels and Michelin star restaurants and taxis everywhere. So I stayed in hostels and caught buses, ferries and trains where I could, and after three months of this I felt like I had become quite the savvy traveller who could do things on a budget when necessary. So here are a few travel tips from someone who has been there, done that (and read all the Lonely Planets and all the travel tips on online forums!)…

1.       Save hard. It will be SO worth it when you are standing in front of the Eiffel Tower and seeing it with your own eyes. All those parties and new clothes and other new things you felt like you missed out on by not going or not buying because you were saving your money to travel will feel totally insignificant when you are standing in front of a landmark as famous as this, a million miles away from your home. You are lucky to be there, but you are lucky because you worked hard and earnt your way there.

2.       Pack light. No seriously, lighter. No, even lighter than that. You will never need as much as you think. Some things stayed in my suitcase for the entire three months, never worn. What a waste of space! As they say, halve the clothes, double the money! Take just the basics. You will buy stuff (oh boy will you buy stuff!), and you can always wash your clothes on the road. And if you can’t, as a backpacker you get used to wearing the same pair of jeans for three days straight.

3.       Get yourself some TSA locks for your luggage. This makes travelling in the USA much easier, as the TSA officials at the airport won’t have to break the lock on your suitcase to open your bag. If you have a TSA one they can open it without breaking it and you will still have a padlock on your case when it comes out on the baggage carousel.

4.       Make sure this lock is also large so that you can use it on hostel lockers too!

Notting Hill, England

 

5.       Ask the flight attendants on your flight over for a few pairs of ear plugs – these will be a god send on overnight plane and train rides, and especially in hostels (where there is ALWAYS a loud snorer in your dorm room!)

6.       While you’re at it might as well ask them for some socks and a sleeping eye mask too. Go the whole hog. These things are almost always free and you only have to ask.

7.       If you have space in your suitcase/backpack, roll up a sarong or some kind of thin towel or blanket that you can use in the hostel for privacy. If you can snag a bottom bunk in a dorm, tuck the blanket under the top bunk mattress so that it hangs down, giving you majority darkness and privacy in the dorm. Paired with your ear plugs you won’t be so bothered when someone comes into the dorm at 4am and turns on all the lights!

8.       Always carry spare undies. It is amazing how when you’re without all your stuff a fresh pair of underwear and a brush of your teeth will make you feel so much cleaner and fresher and will hold you out until you can get to a shower. Tuck a pair into a little pocket that you never go into in your carry on or day/handbag and leave them there for desperate times (like after 16 hours of plane travel!). This little trick will leave you feeling much less grimy and gross.

9.       Keep your passport in a ziplock bag – this way it is safe from water/sweat/anything else that could damage it.

10.   Don’t take things like hairdryers and laptops – you just don’t need them. A good hostel will have computers and hairdryers you can use or rent (I’ve even stayed at one hostel that rented out hair straighteners! You paid $20 for it and when you returned it at the end of your stay you got your $20 back. How good is that?!), most people have their iphones permanently attached to their hands anyway and there is wifi in more places by the minute these days. You will be grateful to not lug these kinds of bulky things around – especially when you are travelling for weeks or months on end. And besides, travelling is about getting out there and seeing what the world has to offer, not sitting indoors and checking your facebook status. Leave it at home.

 

Stay tuned for more travel tips next entry!

Jorgs

 

Hawaii, USA

That time I went to…Atlanta, Georgia

Unwraps woolly scarf and attempts to defrost all exposed body parts

I’ve just arrived home from a little jaunt to site of the 1996 Olympic Games and home of the famous peach – Atlanta, Georgia, USA! And my gawdddd it was COLD!

If you’ve read my previous blog entries you’ll know that my work now regularly takes me to Dallas, Texas for days at a time, so I’ve decided now that I’ve seen a lot of the attractions around Dallas that I will venture out of Texas whenever I can. I’d like to visit new places and lap up the culture, sights and sounds of cities I’ve never been to before. So this trip I decided to tick Atlanta off my list!

To make the most of my slip time in Dallas (flight attendant speak for the amount of time spent on the ground in your destination) I decided to head to Atlanta almost straight after my flight landed in Dallas. This was a bit of an ask considering I’d been on the go for almost 24 hours getting to work and then working the flight over, but hey, that’s what food and caffeine is for!

You know you're in the south when there's a
Chick-fil-A outlet at the airport om nom nom

I arrived in Dallas about 2:30pm on Saturday, got to the crew hotel at 4pm, left at 4:20pm and boarded my flight for Atlanta from Dallas Love Field airport (a smaller, closer airport than Dallas Fort Worth, which is where I’d flown into as crew earlier in the day) at 5:45pm. I slept the entire one hour forty five to Atlanta, as you can imagine!

I’d done a bit of research before I left and discovered that there was an airport train that went to downtown in less than twenty minutes. As a frequent traveller I am a huge fan of cities that have train lines to the airport. I personally think no airport should be built without a train station right next to it (or underneath it). It is just so convenient for travellers to step off the plane and straight onto a train and be at their hotel in no time. Of course, being a past Olympic Games city, I would expect nothing less than a train line direct to the airport, but I was pleasantly surprised when the fare to downtown Atlanta was only $4.50. Considering the length of time to get from Sydney’s international terminal to the downtown area of Sydney city is the same as what it was to get from the airport in Atlanta to downtown $4.50 was a bargain and a half! The fare in Sydney is between $16 and $22 for adults – highway robbery! I guess maybe the Atlanta airport station is still government owned, unlike in Sydney!

Anyways, I stayed at the Holiday Inn right near Centennial Olympic Park, after finding a good deal on Expedia. It was fantastic to crash into bed after such a long day! I fell asleep instantly.

But of course, as so often happens, partly I think because of my ridiculous work hours but also because I am still, even after heaps of trips to new places, like an excited little child when I am somewhere I’ve never been before, and I was awake at 7am and keen to get up and go and explore. So…I did.

Wrapped up and ready to brave the
cold weather!

First stop was of course Starbucks to completely wake me up with some coffee, and then I walked about two or three blocks down from my hotel towards Centennial Olympic Park. This area is a great area to stay in, if you ever go to Atlanta, as it is super close – I’m talking nothing further than ten minutes walk away – to many of Georgia’s most popular attractions: World of Coca Cola, The Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, The College Football Hall of Fame, the CNN Centre and the Georgia Dome. There are many hotels to choose from in the area, no matter what budget you are on. I quietly patted myself on the back for choosing so well!

My first stop, since it was so chilly out – and I was wearing jeans, a long sleeved top, a cardigan, a trench, socks and shoes, leather gloves and a huge woolly scarf – I decided would be the World of Coca Cola. Atlanta is the home of Coca Cola, where it was first sold out of a pharmacy here in 1886. Today you can visit this monstrous place, a museum of all things Coke related, for just $16. It was definitely worth the money! Inside were two stories of exhibits, including Coca Cola advertising from all over the world, films, Coke in pop culture, the chance to have your photo with the Coca Cola polar bear, Coca Cola and Christmas plus so much more. My favourite though, was the area where you could taste Coca Cola products from all over the globe. Coca Cola doesn’t just make Coke you see – there are infinite numbers of other flavours of Coke, Fanta, Sprite, root beer and so many other fizzy drinks! And you could try every single one of them for free. The tasting room was divided into different regions – so you could taste the Coca Cola products that are most popular/common in Asia, then the ones that are most popular ni Africa, Europe, North America and Australia. If you didn’t have a belly ache before you went into this part of Coca Cola World, you sure did after! But it was a lot of fun. And as a bonus on the way out you are given a free glass bottle of Coke to take home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that knocked out much of my morning, but it was well spent! I love lame, super touristy things like that, so you’ll hear a lot about stuff like that on this blog if you are a regular reader! The more embarrassing the better I say! It’s a good way to balance out the serious museums and memorials and landmarks I also enjoy going to when I travel.

Next stop was Centennial Olympic Park, which was just across the street from World of Coca Cola. I’m a serious Olympic nut, and to date have visited nine Olympic cities during my travels, often going to the purpose built Olympic stadiums and taking tours inside, and taking in many of the Olympic sites left in legacy of each Games. I also find it super interesting to see how a city has utilised all its new venues and infrastructure after the excitement of the Olympic Games is all over (for the record, Athens and most of its Olympic facilities have already gone to rack and ruin and are mostly deserted, graffited and no longer used, only ten years after the games were held there) This was part of the reason I wanted to go to Atlanta – to tick another city off my Olympic bucket list.

To be honest with you all though, dear readers, I was a bit disappointed in Centennial Olympic Park. This area hosted many outdoor events for visitors during the Games (no actual sports) and at 21 acres and in the heart of downtown Atlanta was a great gathering place (and still is today – many concerts and events are regularly held in the park, such as the Foo Fighters this time next year). Sadly it was also where a bomb was planted during the games, which killed two and injured more than one hundred other people. Although I say I was disappointed, I actually think this was only due to circumstances – the weather was not very nice the day I visited and the main feature I’d come to see – undoubtedly the most famous part of the park, the Fountain of Rings, which apparently sprout water to music four times a day in the shape of the Olympic rings – were barricaded off for some reason, and I could not get close to them, let alone take in the display of music and water that usually happens there. I think it would be much better to visit in summer, when the sun is shining and the trees are lush and full and the flags that surround the fountain are flapping colourfully in the breeze. The fountain is designed for people to cool off in it during the brutal Atlanta summers, and the pictures I have seen look wonderful. It just wasn’t what I experienced on my trip. I guess that’s what I get for going in November during an unusually cold snap of the eastern and southern United States! Lesson learnt.

The Gateway of Dreams

Still, I spent some time wondering around the park and taking it all in. I snapped a few pics of the Gateway of Dreams Pierre de Coubertin statue, which was very impressive, took in the statues and a cute little landscaped area with winding streams and trimmed gardens called the Quilt of Nations, which honoured each nation that competed in 1996. This ‘quilt’ was followed by four others, which saluted the athletes and their results, the origins of the Olympic Games, those who were injured and died in the terrorist bombing and finally a quilt of nature to honour those who dreamt of bringing the Olympics to Atlanta and made it happen. It was quite peaceful to meander through the quilts and read all the plaques. Lastly I had a squiz at all the Olympic pictograms and engraved bricks that made up the park’s pathways. I think it would definitely be more worth a visit in summer time, and hopefully one day I will get back and see it in all its glory then.

The rest of my day was spent shopping and eating (at the Hard Rock Café – I told you I’m lame and tragic!) and looking around the easy to navigate downtown area of Atlanta (I love me a city with a simple grid system of roads!). Since I was travelling solo, I didn’t stay out at night, mostly because I was dead tired (it all catches up with me eventually!) so I retired to my hotel, had a good sleep and was on a flight back to Dallas at 6:30 the following morning. My adventure was ovah *sad face* but it had been fantastic.

I recommend stopping in Atlanta if ever you do a trip around the southern states of America. There was still plenty more to see and do there than what I did, but time and the distance my little legs could walk prevented me from seeing it all unfortunately. Hopefully one day I can explore it more thoroughly and enjoy some more of that famous southern hospitality!

 





 

 

I’ve got Georgia on my mind…

Jorgs

 

Getting stranded and other adventures on staff travel

So a few entries ago I briefly mentioned that once I got stranded in LA when I was travelling on staff travel benefits. Well now is the time to tell this little story, so settle back…

One of the first things people say to me when I tell them I am a flight attendant is “Oh my god so do you get free flights?! That must be awesome!”. They’re always a bit surprised when I tell them I don’t get free flights. I do, however, get discounted flights. Most people still think this is pretty cool. Which it is. But then, if I have the energy, I go on to tell them that sure, these flights are ridiculously cheap for me, but they’re also standby flights. They’re not confirmed seats. I’m only going to get on if there are spare seats or someone fails to show up.

See? There’s a catch. Still, I consider myself very lucky to be able to travel so cheaply. I am very fortunate and very grateful for the opportunity. And most of my experiences being on standby have been fine. But as with most things, there is always an element of risk. Flying standby means that you might not get a seat, therefore may not make it to your destination on time, if at all. It’s a roll of the dice. You just have to take your chances. Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re not. Flying on staff benefits takes a lot of organising alternatives, a lot of flexibility, a lot of reminding yourself not to stress out because the flight is full and just generally a lot of not having too many plans set in stone.

Sometimes, if a flight is full, it’s okay, because there’s another one to your destination half an hour later, and there’s a spare seat on that. But sometimes there’s only one flight a day. And sometimes that one flight a day is full for five days straight. That’s when you try to remind yourself not to panic. I once flew (and when I say flew, I mean worked with) with a girl who got stranded in Frankfurt for a week. She was due back at work and was having to make outrageously expensive phone calls to all her fellow crew back home to swap shifts with them and take their RDO’s and have them take her shifts, because she still wasn’t back in Australia to do her shifts (and getting stranded on staff benefits is NO excuse to miss work. Again, another risk you take).

Sometimes, as it did for my Frankfurt friend, you have to bite the bullet and accept your fate. You’re not going to get home on staff benefits. You’re gonna have to whip out the plastic and part with a heartbreaking sum of money to buy a last minute full fare ticket to your homeland. This is frustrating, because you thought you were being so money smart in the first place, flying at a discounted rate, not having to pay as much as everyone else. Sometimes this is the sole reason crew travel somewhere on staff benefits. Just because it’s THAT cheap.

But yes, it can backfire.

So there I was in October 2012 inside Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX in Los Angeles. I had just got off the flight from New York and because I was staff, I had to collect my bag and recheck in again for the flight from LA to Sydney. There was not much time between the two flights so I was bustling through the terminal, making my way to the check in desk.

You can imagine my heart dropping when I saw a huge line at the standby counter. I tacked myself onto the end and got to talking to the family in front of me as we waited to approach the desk. My heart sank further when they told me this was the fourth night in a row they had tried to get on the flight back to Sydney. A few other people chimed in too that they were in similar situations. There were many a distressed face in Tom Bradley that night. The all too common distressed face of a standby traveller just dying to get home and sleep in their own bed again. A familiar sight for me now after working in aviation for 4 years.

The flight was meant to leave at 10:20pm, and I soon saw that time tick over on my watch. Names were called at the stand by desk and tickets issued, but alas, mine was not one of them. I was stuck.

I didn’t fret, because I had allowed myself six extra days between the end of my holiday and my having to go back to work, in case exactly this scenario happened. So I approached the desk once the throng had dissipated, and asked for advice. What I got was short and sweet. “Just come back tomorrow night and try again.”

Ahhh yes I was trying to get on a flight that only left once a day.

So I collected my bags, went downstairs, booked myself a room at an airport hotel and left. It was actually nice – I’d just spent almost two months gallivanting all over Europe and the east coast and midwest of the US, and it was all beginning to catch up with me. This was my chance to finally sleep (because when travelling I live by the motto ‘you can sleep when you’re dead’), so I snuggled into a cosy Marriott bed, and thanks to a noon check out, I had an epic sleep in the next day.

So I trekked back to my good mate Tom Bradley the next day after check out, and approached the desk again. They just told me to come back when check in for that flight opened (which was like 6+ hours away). So I wondered the terminal. I bought some Burger King. I used the free wifi, I read magazines, I wrote in my travel journal. I even had an uncomfortable nap on one of the benches in the food court (like a true backpacker/homeless person!).

Some hours later I went back to the desk after much thought about my situation. It had suddenly dawned on me that even with those six days up my sleeve I still did not have much time to get back to Perth in time for work. I’d already lost one day by not getting on the flight the night before. And getting back to Australia from the US takes two days because of time zone changes. My spare days were rapidly diminishing. What if I didn’t get on tonight’s flight either? Even as a solo traveller (not trying to get myself plus my four thousand kids and cousins and aunts and uncles on too), I was worried about my chances.

So I went back to the desk and put on my best distressed please feel sorry for me face. I asked them to be honest with me. To give me a ballpark figure of my chances. The news wasn’t good. The flight was already oversold by more than 50 seats. I had no hope. I was perplexed – it wasn’t Christmas or Easter or school holidays yet…why so busy? The check in chick just shrugged her shoulders.

I deliberated a little bit more. I couldn’t miss work, or I’d be in serious trouble. But I also couldn’t wait around for a flight I was never going to get on. And with the dates, I really needed to be on a flight that night if I was going to make it back to Perth in time for work with any time to spare. I’m pretty sure I actually scratched my head as I sat on my luggage trolley in the middle of Tom Bradley.

Most flights to Australia leave LA late at night so that they make it into Australia pretty much first thing in the morning. So by about 6 or 7pm the airline counters were all starting to open, and they were beginning to check passengers in for these flights. I decided desperate times called for desperate measures, and if I had to buy a full fare ticket, well, then, I had to. I still held a tiny hope that I would, by some miracle, get on my original flight to Sydney, but just in case I didn’t, as each airline counter opened I approached them asking if there were any spare seats on any flights to anywhere in Australia. At that point I wasn’t fussed on which city I went to, so long as I was in Australia! Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, I didn’t care! Once I was in Australia it would be easy to get back to Perth. Getting to Australia in the first place was the hard part.

But alas, no one had any seats. It seemed everyone was oversold. I would have to go on standby with them all. I envisioned myself running, zigzagging between every counter, trying to get on a flight, hoping a standby seat would come up on one of them. It was madness. It wouldn’t do.

I mulled over the situation some more. That was when I remembered another airline in another terminal at LAX also flew to Australia. I heaved my heavily laden luggage trolley out the door and walked ten minutes over to the other terminal and approached the desk in there.

“Sure, we have seats left to Sydney,” they said. OH MY GOD HURRAY! “But they’re only for Monday’s flight and they’re only business class. They’re $4250.”

Le sigh.

No.

I’d rather lose my job.

Disappointed, I rolled my trolley back to Tom Bradley and approached one of the counters that hadn’t opened when I had been in there half an hour earlier. They had a flight to Sydney, but it was full. Would I like to go on standby?

I was just about to answer when the check in girl stopped herself. Wait! She had forgotten! Tonight’s flight isn’t on a 747 – it’s the inaugural A380 flight! Spare seats galore because of the bigger aircraft type! PRAISE JESUS! I handed over my Visa card, and tried not to whince when she told me the price was $1700. I had to do it. Otherwise I’d never get home. And this was a full fare ticket. I was confirmed, which was what I wanted. I was done with this standby bs!

She fluttered away with my credit card and I stood at the desk for the next twenty minutes waiting for her to come back with it. Closer and closer and closer to boarding time. Where was she with my card? And more importantly, my bloody ticket home? Cue panic again.

Finally she came back, apologising that the machine to swipe my credit card was tucked away in an office at the other end of the terminal. Say what? Anyway, I soon had a ticket and was ready to board.

Oh but wait, first you must have a stopover in China.

Choking in China from the smog -
lucky I didn't have to leave the terminal!
 

Yes that’s right. I flew 14 hours from LA to Guangzhou, spent just enough time there to buy myself a coke with a Chinese label (for which the cashier at the store gladly took way too many of my US dollars for, thinking I was a totally gullible tourist, when in fact I was just thirsty and also wanted some evidence of being in China by taking a photo of my foreign coke can) and then flew another nine hours onto Sydney.

I got into Sydney quite late at night, used the free internet in the international terminal to book a stinky bunk bed at a nearby backpacker hostel, and then trudged wearily with my things towards it. I was wrecked.

The next day I finally boarded a plane to Perth, and a day after that I went back to work. So much for the few days of relaxing and unwinding I had planned between getting home from my holiday and starting work again!

So yes, I was out of pocket. After all the money I saved on all the flights I took in those two months on holiday (about 5 flights all up) by successfully travelling standby, it all went down the toilet and was wasted when I had to fork out the money to buy that full fare ticket via China back to Sydney.

But what an adventure! I got a Chinese passport stamp, which I was stoked about, and had a ripper story to tell my crew at work when I got back (which I told like a wise old owl for at least a year to anyone else who was planning to go overseas on staff benefits, warning them of my experience).
 

 

So dear readers, you can see why some crew don’t ever use their staff benefits. It can be very stressful. You can miss important things at home, or that you’re travelling abroad for. Plans change all the time when you’re travelling standby. Some people just want the peace of mind of a confirmed ticket, which I can completely understand. Sometimes it’s worth paying that extra money to get a confirmed seat. Especially if you’re travelling with your children or some other members of your family. It’s bad enough that if you do get on, you’ll probably not be sitting together, but if you don’t get on at all, or have to travel on separate flights just to make it to your destination…well yuck.

Still, everything in life is a bit of a roll of the dice isn’t it? I’m glad to have had the experience – my Mum has always said I am very resourceful, but I like to think I was extra resourceful that trip, when a lot of people would’ve just curled up in a corner and cried because they didn’t know how they were going to get home.

And I have travelled within Australia countless times on standby, and I have never once not got a seat on a flight. Different destinations, different days…you just can’t pick it. Roll the dice, as I said. As I commute from Perth for work I now rely on standby seats, and so far it has been fine, so that must reassure you that it isn’t all bad, all of the time with staff fares.

So next time you meet a flight attendant, don’t gush to him or her about how lucky they are to get cheap flights. It’s great sometimes, but not so great other times.

Your standby traveller,

Jorgs