Days .5 and Day One

.5
I get through the organized chaos of the airport to the hostel and am surrounded by white people.There is also a dance party on the lot next door that may as well be in our dorm and then, the rooster. The damn rooster is crowing for the remainder of the night that there is no dance party. I want to throttle the rooster.

One
I walked down the road to my hotel with very little problem. People are offering to take me in their unmarked taxis, but it is a 4 minute walk. I decline and point to where I'm going with a smile.

I get to the hotel and there is no sign of anyone from my tour. Eventually my roommate shows up. I am tired of being cooped up and decide to go for coffee.

There is very little in life that prepares you for the opposite. In Canada, I am basically the majority; I am a white female. A few times in my life I have been in the minority - at Fowler, anytime I was in Northeast Calgary. These weren't so bad because while I was a minority, I wasn't alone. I always had other white people with or near me.
In Nairobi, this is not the case. I had no other white people with me. I am used to attracting attention when I walk at home. I have purple hair. In Nairobi, I attract it because I am the only white person. It is a little unnerving, though I don't feel unsafe.

There is no rhyme or reason to the roads. It is chaos. I figure I can just cross when everyone else does. This works. I don't find coffee because it is way too crowded to find anything. I go back to the hotel

After meeting the group, five of us need to get things from the store. We catch a cab and go to a 24 hour mall type place. We have to go through metal detectors to get in. After we leave, our cab is late in returning for us and children approach s for money, watches, my Canada maple leaf luggage tag on my purse, anything we have. They won't leave us alone. They are touching us as well. Their mother/guardian is trying to get money from someone in the group. The cab eventually returns and we go back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

Travel

I started my day knowing I had to go to the bank. The weather gods decided that now would be a great tie for my first thunder and lightning show here in St. John's. Pissing rain. No big deal., I think. I'm going to be climbing a mountain in Tanzania very soon so complaining about a little rain (a lot of rain) really doesn't do much.
The thing I regret was not getting out of my damp socks when I got home. I wore my hiking shoes to the bank and then on the plane. I really should have changed my socks.

I had been having trouble with WestJet's online check in because my flight was mostly with KLM (a partner airline). I couldn't check in with KLM because my flight started with WestJet. I called the call centre and got everything figured out. When I got to the airport, the check in kiosk told me to go to guest services. Apparently I had to get them to print my boarding pass, which is perfectly fine.

YYT-YYZ is uneventful.

The wifi in the ipad infested, lack of seating hellhole that is T3 at Pearson would not connect. Whoever designed this terminal is an idiot. Nearly all of the seating has been removed and replaced with four top tables featuring permanently mounted ipads. What a mess. This is a very bad impression to give international travellers who may have only this transfer as their experience in Canada. Airport design is consistent for a reason. Travellers know what to expect at gates and we appreciate the sameness. The place for airport design innovation is not at the gates (unless the innovation is more plugs).

YYT-AMS

YYZ-AMS is also uneventful as far as the actual flying goes.The service is another thing. Amazing. the in-flight entertainment system wasn't working for a while. Not a big deal; they rebooted it a couple of times and it eventually worked. When we disembarked, they gave us a voucher for miles/travel credit as compensation. There was even a hot towel service before the meals! In economy!
Two meals! The food was equivalent to business class in Canada. the trays and packaging looked like the Delft plates, even though they were all disposable. Someone was coming around every hour or so offering drinks. As one would expect from KLM, everything was in Dutch and English - no French. In AMS, I managed to find the JW missionaries going to Kenya.

AMS-NBO is also uneventful except the service.

 The remote control for the TV on KLM. It waits in the armrest and on the other side is apparently a phone

NBO is different. The jetway doesn't connect so we have to walk downstairs and on to the tarmac to waiting buses to take us to the immigration bunker.
We all walk single file through the infrared Ebola scanner to take our temperature. Of course I'm constantly running a couple of degrees warm so I'm pulled away for questioning. It doesn't take long after I explain my kidneys and show them my scars, my Ebola free passport and equally Ebola free itinerary. I'm allowed to go on.
As is the norm, there is little to no direction for visa acquisition. We all pile in the line corral and wait. it isn't very long but it is long enough as I have to pee a lot. $50USD later, I allowed in to Kenya!

This was written at the hostel before I knew what was ahead of me. It was next door to the hotel.

Videos!

Sometimes I film videos. Mostly in airports. They're not interesting or funny. I've already posted a couple of them and here are some more.

EWR, sounding pretty positive.

San Francisco. Went outside and walked around. It was hot out and more than a bit smoggy.

You're not allowed to take pictures/text/have contact with the outside world while going through Australian Customs. The video screens alternate between telling you about horrible viruses and now not to get them and that carrying drugs is a crime. You will also be informed that no matter where you choose to have sex with children, it is a crime in Australia and you will be charged and jailed there for it.

Sydney Wild Life Zoo

Anyone who has known me for longer than 30 seconds knows that I am Scottish. They will learn that I am very cheap.

Given the option between paying roughly $60 for a ferry and zoo admission to see a whole bunch of different zoo animals I can find in any old zoo or paying $2.20 for bus fare and $30 (online, saved $8!) to see all the "Australia Animals", it is not difficult to see which I would pick. As much as I love zoos and I love animals, I did not come to Australia to see red pandas or leopards. I have also been given specific instructions by my Nana to "bring back a koala - alive!" that I can't really ignore.

 I did not believe these frogs were real until one of them blinked.

 Wallaby! The wallabies were so adorable.

 Kangaroo! We were allowed to walk around the enclosure and pet them/feed them, but only if they approached us. This guy was a lot more friendly than the rest. I did not tell him that I had eaten his cousin.

 Rachel has very accurately noted that kangaroos lay down like old men.

Kookaburras! They really do laugh. The keepers told us that they only laugh in the morning (like roosters), when it is going to rain or when they feel threatened. This is Jack and Jill, a mated pair. In a pen on the other side of a walk way is Spike, who thinks he can just waltz over and steal Jill. Except that he can't, so he and Jack get in to these yelling contests.

 Koalas! There are four or five koalas in the enclosure. I got there right around feeding time so the place smelled amazing (their diet is entirely eucalyptus). It also smelled a bit like Halls.

 This particular koala was very scratchy. He kept shifting and scratching before he decided to come down and eat.

 He was having none of our picture taking.

 Baby koala! Baby koala was shy but I was patient enough to stick around and get a picture.

This is baby koala's mama. She was on the other side of the enclosure and keeping a careful eye on us.

I pet one of the koalas. They are not as fluffy and cuddly as you might think. They're coarse and wirey. I did not get a picture because they charge, even to take pictures with your own camera (see above note about being Scottish).

Wombat! The wombats kind of lope around.

There was a large section with insects and spiders but I am not keen on either so it looked like a big section of NOPE for me. I did not go in, despite the keeper telling me how amazing it is. No bugs are amazing. They are all fodder to be beaten by my shoe. Spiders 1000x more so.

Next: Bondi!

Sydney, Day Four

I decided to spend the rest of my time in Bondi. I am staying at an Airbnb that is literally metres from the beach; in less than two minutes, I can be in the sand.

From 24 October to 10 November, Bondi hosted Sculptures by the Sea. This was an outdoor showcase of numerous sculptures on a portion of the Bondi to Coogee trail.

 Ghost boat.

 This guy and his friend were holding up the rock.

 This sculpture was massive. It was made of bottle caps and blanketed the rock face, fitting the forms of it perfectly.

 Ghost feet. There were about 20 pairs of feet on both sides of the path, but this was the only pair that looked like they had lost something.

 These little houses were growing something. I have no idea what.

 Everyone and their dog were taking pictures of this one. 1800L of water to turn the world upside down.

From farther away.

The day was warm (about 25) and cloudy. I kept going past the exhibition. The whole area is amazing. The cliffs are a much lighter stone than at home. I want to think they're sandstone, but they look a lot like the Grand Canyon. Which could be sandstone, I guess. 

Next: Animals!

Brisbane Bonus Day!

I have no idea how I managed, but I got my departure date for Brisbane wrong. I thought I was leaving on the 9th but it turned out to be the 10th. Awesome.

I decided to walk in the opposite direction I had been already. Instead of turning left out of the hotel, I turned right. I ended up following the road over the Story Bridge, a giant steel span bridge. There are signs all across it with a number for a suicide hotline and three phones to call said hotline.
This bridge is long. It continues as an overpass once it spans the river on the south side. I think the overpass portion is longer than the bridge itself.

Once over the bridge, I was in Kangaroo Point. Disappointingly named as there were no kangaroos in site. I did, however, see a lizard.

Kangaroo Point and South Bank Parklands are highly organized when it comes to the flow of pedestrian and bicycle traffic. There are physical barriers between the two lanes, about the height of a railway tie. One little boy on a bike veered into the pedestrian lane after coming around a corner and had a minor heart attack about it until his dad told him it was okay, he could get back on the cycle path in a second.

They are anti-segway, however. No segways at all.

 A literal sunflower! I didn't see any more of these on the path or what it might be connected to but it was working overtime.

In the middle of the public park were coin-op barbecues. They were very clean and well used. I'm guessing they are a radiant heat source as there didn't seem to be any kind of gas or propane going in to it.

I walked along to Streets Beach. Streets Beach is a sandy beach and lagoon right off the Brisbane River. I took my sandals off and walked in the sand and the warm water. It was impossible to take a picture without looking like a creep.

Along the South Bank Parklands is an arbour covered in bougainvilleas. This provides some wonderful shade and an amazing scent.

All around there are lorikeets in the trees, singing and flying. I thought they were parrots until I saw one up close.

Next: Sydney!

33!

Also it is apparently Christmas in Brisbane. I do not understand this.

 James has goals. Lofty ones.

 There were more displays like this all around Queen Street Mall that were all kinds of Christmassy things. Keep in mind that it is about 35 and hot. And sunny. And the opposite of Christmas.

It is Hanukkah too.

My goal for the day - for months, really - was to acquire a lamington. A lamington is two pieces of white cake with jam or custard in the middle (Team Jam), covered lightly in chocolate and then rolled in coconut. I could start a lamington business in Canada and be a millionaire.

I got back to my hotel and the lovely staff had set out a bottle of sparkling wine, a card and some chocolates for me. Totally unexpected and wonderful!

Because of the heat and sun and the fact I'm a pasty ass strawberry blonde, my sunburn turned in to a blistering, peeling sunburn. I've never had a sunburn blister before, so that's something.

Next: Bonus day in Brisbane! (Also known as, Jaée Can't Read Departure Dates Day.)