robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

One thing’s for sure, we are both glad we don’t have another long-haul flight for 3 months. The flight was the most uncomfortable experience ever! I need the 3 months to try to forget about what it is like.

It started by arriving at the airport 6 hours early – thinking we will get good seats by arriving early. Instead, we are told our flight has been cancelled (engineer’s strike??) and that they are trying to push as many people as possible to a United Airlines flight which left at a similar time. Qantas weren’t really that great – we felt like we were downgraded (United can be a bit dodgy) and all we got was a $15 meal voucher.

So by the time we actually got everything sorted we only had a little over an hour left to have lunch and catch our breaths after all the hassles.

The flight itself was … unpleasant. It was packed full because of the Qantas people and I swear the seats are more tightly packed on a 747. The staff were nice and everything but 13 hours is a bloody long time to sit in cramped conditions.

Anyways, once we got off we were (or maybe just me) dreading the customs wait. It turns out that “Customs” just involved getting fingerprinted, photographed and asked a couple questions like “Business or pleasure”. We picked up our bags and expected to walk into a big “Border Security” style area where everyone gets questioned further – but… we we suprised to walk straight out of the airport. 20 minutes all up.

We then got a cab.. yes.. a cab… and took the ride to our hostel. San Fran definitely has a unique style – the housing is just amazing and I freaked out a bit the first time the car passed us on the left.

Anyways, I can’t say much more because we haven’t been outside yet so have no idea where we are in relation to shops and transport! We are both shattered. The hostel seems pretty good. Nice spacious room with a modern bathroom. They also have $5 dinners, free brekkie and free kitchen/laundry facilities – oh and free wireless :). It’s pretty noisy round here but that’s to be expected in inner-city living I guess.

So no photos now cos we most likely will scare you with how we look right now. But hopefully we will be able to do some wandering around tomorrow.

PS> I keep spelling San Francisco wrong – think I have finally got it right now.

Leeane

Tags: san francisco