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

Make a difference this Christmas

Hi again kids!

Just a quick little blog entry tonight that I really wanted to do, as it is a little time dependant.

I was out shopping today, trying to get some inspiration for Christmas gifts, and I bought the Myer Spirit of Christmas album for myself. This is something I do every year (I think I have about 20 of these albums! Almost every single one since they actually began producing them in 1993!) as they are always chock a block full of fantastic Christmas carols sung by an array of great Australian artists, and the money made from the sales of the album goes directly to the Salvation Army, who do so much great work all year round, but especially at Christmas, for those less fortunate than you and me.

ANYWAY. It really got me in the mood to do something for others this Christmas. I spent several Christmases when I was at university volunteering with Lifeline, Apex and the Starlight Children's Foundation at many of their Christmas events. It was always gobs of fun and something I thought was really important and really enjoyed being apart of. Unfortunately these days with my flying schedule and my odd work hours I can't commit to stuff like this anymore.

So tonight I was trying to think of some other way I could make someone's Christmas that little bit brighter this year. And then I remembered that a few years back I had read somewhere about sending care packages to our diggers who are currently serving overseas. I absolutely loved the idea and eagerly filled two boxes to send away (of which there are pictures below - I can't believe the pics are still in my phone, but I do remember being proud of these boxes and so I guess that's why I took the photos of them and kept them for like four years!).

 

So tonight I have done some searching to find the details to send away some Christmas care packages and I wanted to share this with you all, in the hope that you too might make a package to send away this Christmas to show you care and are thinking of our troops during a time when I know they are all wishing so much that they could be back with their families and enjoying Christmas like the rest of us.

I have found a fantastic blog with all the details you could need - www.oceanskykhaki.blogspot.com.au - but if you don't have time to go have a squiz through this website fully, just know that if you head to an Australia Post outlet and buy yourself a B2 or BX sized box and fill this with goodies such as roll on deodorant, lollies, tissues, pens, writing paper, magazines, toiletries, biscuits, tinned food, socks, games, chewing gum and coffee and tea, you can send it free of charge, as long as it is under 2kg in weight, to our awesome guys and girls serving overseas.

Address it as follows...

An Australian Defence Member
AFPO 60
Australian Defence Force NSW 2890

...and make a soldier's day a bit brighter, and their Christmas a whole lot better than it would've been before your package.

These amazing soldiers are making such a sacrifice for us - let's show them we are thinking of them and care about them this Christmas! You can send your packages to this address until December 8th, 2014, and if you get them in before then, they will be delivered in time for Christmas Day.

Jorgs

The ecstasy of friendship

As soul crushing as it is to have a friend like the one I described in my last post, where it is such a shame that that friendship is no longer, I also thank my lucky stars for many of the other people who have floated into my circle and had a positive impact. Here is the story of one such gem…

I have done two Contiki tours in my time, both around Europe, and I truly loved those experiences for so many reasons, but most of all because I got to meet and make friends from all over the world that I still have to this day. Of course I don’t still speak to all of them, but I have become very close with one in particular, and the way this started off took me pleasantly by surprise.

My first Contiki to Europe in 2009 was the most glorious whirlwind. It was my first trip overseas by myself, a three month party that I had saved two years for. I met so many great people and after three weeks on a tour bus, the thirty or so guys and girls I shared my adventure with were like family.

I kept in touch with many in the years after the tour ended, and in Melbourne a few years later I caught up with one Contiki sister, who I hadn’t even really been that buddy buddy with on tour, but who I still had had a blast with. We went out for dinner and then laid on the grass in Fed Square and watched the tennis on the big screen in the close January heat, and when I said that one day I wanted to move from Perth to Sydney or Melbourne, she said so genuinely that she would love it if I moved to Melbourne, even if it wasn’t for a few years. I was so taken aback, gobsmacked that someone could be so chuffed at the thought of being able to hang out more. Someone so awesome and gorgeous, seemingly who had it all, was excited to become better friends with me? This did not normally happen to me.

Ever since that night I have often gone to Melbourne to visit her, and she has come to Sydney, and we have grown very close, sharing our darkest secrets and fears. When I got my job at Qantas she was one of the first people I told, and last year I was one of the first people she told she was pregnant. And then just a few months ago she asked me to do a reading at her wedding.

I just find it so funny how we were not even that close on Contiki, but now she is one of my best friends, despite living in a different state to me. That she trusted me with all her secrets, offloaded so many worries to me, as I did to her, and is so supportive of everything I do. What a terrific friend. If only all friends were like that. I got a tear in my eye when she asked me to be a part of her wedding – the most special day of her life – and knew I would move the earth for her if she asked me to.

And that is what I think friends should be. They should move the earth for you if that’s what you need. True friends would not even hesitate. I am so lucky to have several friends who are like this, and I hope they know that I too would move the earth for them, if they so asked. Nothing is too much trouble when you are true friends.

Jorgs x

The agony of friendship

Today’s topic is going to be friends. In the last year or so, and especially since I left Perth and moved on my own to a city I knew next to no one in, I’ve learnt some hard truths and been lucky enough to have some absolute blessings when it came to friends.

Maybe it is just me, but I feel like you have less friends as you grow older. People move interstate and overseas, sometimes forever, they get married, split up, have babies, study, have ultra busy jobs, run businesses – there is just an endless list of reasons why your circle of friends dwindles as you grow older. That being said, I’ve never been one of those people with heaps of friends anyway. Just a beautiful handful, who I can always count on and who are just top notch guys and girls. A few others float in and out as I get older, and this is what I find funny. Those floaters – are they there to teach us a lesson? Good lessons AND bad lessons?

Perhaps it is Sydney – a place where I feel like everyone already ‘has enough friends’, because they sure didn’t seem to want to be my friend – or perhaps it is just age, or maybe the wisdom that comes with age. I don’t know. I feel a lot more strongly about my friendships than I used to I think. I also have higher expectations, and when these expectations get slaughtered, or exceeded, well, I think you become a little bit more adult every time.

I once had a friend who I met about four years ago at work. She was the only person I’d ever met who totally got my love of Australian comedy and could quote Rob Sitch in Frontline right along with me. She had the same thirst for travel I did – we even backpacked around Europe and America together some years later – and I could just talk to her for hours on end. It was awesome, and I counted her as one of my good friends. I always think that if you can travel with a person, successfully, then you must be pretty good friends and pretty damn close.

Anyway, she moved overseas and got a new job, but we still kept in contact and travelled together and visited each other. Then when I got my dream job in Sydney, she applied too, and was also successful. It meant we were both moving to Sydney. I was excited, and while not getting too ahead of myself I envisioned us hanging out, bidding to work trips together, walking Bondi to Bronte, having Australian comedy marathons on the couch with bowls of icecream, maybe even being flatmates.

But none of that ever happened. Truth be told she is flighty and scattered and the kind of person who is very hard to pin down, a true gypsy. But still. We had both lived in Sydney for six months before I could finally pin her down enough to catch up at my place.  Then after that I got a text message two months later, and ever since, nothing. That was ten months ago.

Now I understand moving to a new city is a big deal. There’s lots to organise, plus you want to make new friends, settle into where you live, settle into your job. But I truly never expected to just completely be given the cold shoulder. No explanation. Nothing. And I persisted, believe me. But after a while of too many unanswered and unreturned phone calls, unanswered text messages and being pretty left out on the one trip where we did work together, I gave up. A friendship cannot be one sided. I decided if she doesn’t want to hang out with me, then I don’t want to hang out with her. Of course I was very disappointed, and had a bit of a cry, not understanding why she suddenly had ditched me. I’d thought we were good friends, but it’s pretty rude if someone just never answers your texts, never calls you back, never includes you. What had I done wrong? And why didn’t she want to be friends anymore?

I still don’t know the answer. And I’m not going to be totally dismissive here – I know that so many things can pull you away from friendships –family problems, a new boyfriend, study, work commitments, anything. But no explanation at all, not even a simple ‘I’m super busy right now babe, can I call you when things have calmed down?’ text, well that’s just not cool.

I got pretty mad, trying to figure out what the eff was going on. She is the type of girl who loses her phone (which could explain never texting me back), or who is out having too much fun, just totally scatterbrained and a bit irresponsible that she might take a day or two to return your text, but she always used to. But now, nothing.

It was also pretty hurtful because I was having a hard time fitting into Sydney, and my new job for a while there. A job like mine takes a while to get into the groove with, a while until you feel totally comfortable on board the aircraft and know what you’re doing so much that it is second nature, and on top of that I had made very few friends in my new city (as opposed to her, who could make friends with a washing basket it comes that easily to her!), had had a bit of time off work for some major (expensive) dental work (never fun!), and had lost my uncle early on in the year. Death is still a new thing to me – I have only ever lost two people I am close to in my entire 28 years – and it was a horrible time. Having a friend close by at a time like that would’ve been the help I needed.

Anyway, finally, a few months ago, we had to work together again. This was the first time I had seen her in eight months. I was not happy, having come to all my own conclusions as to why she cut me off, so I was determined to give her as cold a shoulder at work as what she had given me for almost a year. I spoke about 5 words to her over the course of four days, and it felt good. Maybe that’s spiteful and childish, I don’t know, but I felt I had to let her know I was not happy. And I could have gone up to her and said straight out ‘what is the deal?’ but I don’t have that much balls, so I gave her the silent treatment.

And this brings me to today. In typical gen y fashion I suppose, I have blocked her on Instagram and unfollowed her page, which also felt great doing at the time, as stupid and petty as that may seem. If she doesn’t want anything to do with me then I don’t want anything to do with her. And really, I am pretty sure I know why it is that she doesn’t, and it centres mostly around the fact I am not ‘cool’ enough to be her friend – I don’t drink often enough, I don’t enjoy going out to bars and such on the weekends, I haven’t dabbled in any drugs, I’m not into the things she thinks are cool, I’m not pretty enough or skinny enough, to be her friend. Well, that’s fine. We don’t need people like that in our lives. Sure would’ve been nice if she could’ve just been an adult about it though and told me the truth and let me down quietly and kindly. But I guess it’s easier to just ignore someone. The coward’s way out.

Wow this has turned into a long post! Apologies if I sound a bit grouchy – this chick kills me! I don’t even care if she reads this – but since she can’t even return a text message, I highly doubt she will read a blog post.

I promise that I have nice friend stories too that I want to post about, but because this entry is so long I think I will make a part two and post it later!

Until then,

Jorgs

That time I went to...Dallas, Texas

Howdy y’all!

Well I’m back from Texas, and I had a fantastic time! Let me tell you allllllll about it.
 

 

I started my day off awesome the day we left for Dallas, because before the trip even started the on board manager gave me a Recognition on Q letter, which is a kind of reward program the company runs. One of my colleagues from a previous trip had nominated me! I was pretty chuffed, even though the nominator was anonymous and they didn’t say why they’d nominated me. But still, I felt pretty spesh!

Just me and Abe Lincoln, waiting for the bus

So I was in a top mood all day as we flew across the globe to Dallas. The flight over wasn’t bad at all – I had been prepared for it to feel endless, but in reality it was only about 30 minutes longer than a Sydney to LA flight, of which I’ve done hundreds of times before. So I got to Dallas with my crew feeling much better than expected!

We arrived on Monday afternoon and on my way up to my hotel room I ran into Lizzie, a girl I knew who’d arrived on the flight from Sydney the day before with her crew, and together we decided to go to Target a few blocks away. Because I was feeling pretty good I pretty much got to my room, took off my uniform and my make up and put on some fresh clothes and went out again to meet Lizzie. We spent about an hour in Target, wandering up and down the aisles buying stuff we didn’t really need, but couldn’t resist because it was so cheap, and when we got back to the hotel at dinnertime only THEN did I start to feel like fifty shades of tired. I was asleep by 7:30pm.

Oh, and just quickly, remember a few entries ago I talked about the pumpkin spice obsession America has? Well in Target I found further evidence to prove this to you all with more things than I could have ever imagined flavoured like pumpkin spice. So of course I took some photos to share on this blog (I also may or may not have bought several of these items).
 

Jet lagged holding jet puffed!

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, next day I caught the bus into downtown Dallas and went to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. This is where President John F Kennedy met his sad end on November 22, 1963 when he was assassinated from a sixth floor corner window of the Texas School Book Depository as he drove in an open top motorcade on the street below. Today the TSBD has been turned into an incredibly detailed museum that is a fantastic legacy to a brilliant president.

I was at the museum for opening – I don’t waste my time when I’m travelling…I like to fit in as much as possible, so I’m there when the doors open first thing! – and paid my $16 to get in. I already knew this museum would be great, even before I entered. I have been to many museums, memorials, presidential libraries and national monuments all over the US in my years of travelling and have always been very impressed by how fantastic they are. Those Americans, they do these things so well I tell ya! They are always so well kept, detailed, compassionate, clean, unbias and beautiful. And remembering America’s, and the world’s, obsession with the Kennedy family, I knew I was in for a treat. As I entered I was given a headset to listen to some audio commentary throughout the museum, and I was off.

To begin you take the lift right to the sixth floor – where Lee Harvey Oswald sat and waited at the corner window, in amongst boxes of books, for JFK and Jackie to drive past. You aren’t allowed to take photos on the sixth floor today, but you wouldn’t have had a chance to anyway – there was too much to read and look at and watch.

The infamous sixth floor corner window

The whole floor chronicled JFK’s life from even before he became president, and then onto his time in office, the challenges he faced as president – there was extensive detail about the Cuban Missile Crisis for example, and the positive things he made a reality during the presidency – the Peace Corps, space programs and the African American civil rights movement. There were an array of videos to watch, inspiring speeches to listen to. Much of the sixth floor was dedicated to that day in Dallas though, with unimaginable amounts of eye witness accounts, photographs – even the cameras used by some eye witnesses are on display here, videos, timelines, police reports and so much fascinating detail to read about the assassination, who did it, how they found them, what happened to them, the trial, the conspiracy theories, the heartbreak of Jackie, the swearing in of a new president. It was just beyond. I was captivated on that one floor of the museum for at least 3 hours.

 

Many of the photographs were stirring, to say the least. Because of camera technology back in ’63 the photographs that exist of the actual event are grainy at best, but the museum has still broken them down into slide by slide, second by second, and put them on display. There were also many pictures on the walls that we have all seen many times before – that of Jackie climbing over the back of the car, thinking she too was about to be shot and trying to get out of the way, or of JFK Jr, just 3 years old, saluting at his father’s funeral. One of the photos that gave me shivers the most though was one of Jackie Kennedy standing ashen faced next to Lyndon B Johnson as he was sworn in as the new president just hours after JFK was shot. The look on her face, I think, is haunting.

I took this picture not inside the museum, but later out
of the souvenir book I bought at the gift shop

The very corner window where the shots were fired from is glassed off on the sixth floor, and behind the glass is a recreation of how it looked that day. The original floorboards are still there, and the boxes of school books still stacked high and haphazardly. There are even shell casings on the floor. Inside one of the boxes is a webcam that looks out onto the street, giving anyone who visits www.jfk.org and views the webcam the exact same line of sight Lee Harvey Oswald had as he pulled the trigger. It’s chilling. And then you look out the window and see two X’s on the road – a yellow one showing where the first shot hit, and a white one a few metres up the road where the fatal shot hit. Later I went outside and got a closer look at the X’s (although didn’t stop traffic and take a picture with the X like I saw some tourists distastefully do) and of the Grassy Knoll, a nearby hill where some onlookers thought they heard shots from, it’s location now almost as famous as the Texas School Book Depository is. Seeing that X on the road and then turning around and looking up again at that sixth floor window of the depository was just amazing. I was standing on top of history. It is hard to describe – but it felt weird that I was standing exactly where a world changing event had happened just fifty years earlier. Crazy.

X marks the spot

I left the museum feeling quite drained, as there had been so much information to take in, but I was still so glad I went. Once again America showed me how well they do museums! In 2009 I went to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and thought that was the best museum I’d ever been to, but the Sixth Floor Museum comes very, very close to that one!

I wandered around a little bit after I left the museum. Downtown Dallas was not exactly what I expected it to be. I was there on a weekday, so I suppose it may’ve been a bit quieter than it would’ve been on weekends, but there weren’t even as many workers and businessmen around as I thought there’d be. It was very quiet. I was on foot so couldn’t go for miles, but thankfully a few other sights of interest were only a few blocks away from Dealey Plaza. I took in the John F Kennedy Memorial Plaza, which was an impressive, but not exactly pretty landmark and Pioneer Plaza, where 49 bronze steers are placed over a large area commemorating 19^th century cattle drives through Texas.

Pioneer Plaza

It was a big day downtown and I retired early to be up the next day to go to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, which I shall write about soon.

Until then, as they say in Texas…

Y’all come back now!

Jorgs