Off to Oz

Wake up, pack my bags, and head on out. This was made easier by my lovely, and charming host, who took me out to the airport bus, and spent the half hour before it arrived drinking coffee with me. I had a gingerbread latte. I felt a bit like a drink snob having something with a name and delicious flavour such as that, but – it was good. So that's that. I guess it's fine to drink more than just “coffee.”

I was soon off to the airport, a little shocked to see how much Antarctic information they had, a huge American center, and what not. But there was no time to see this, or check it out. I had a plane to catch. Thirty minutes of free internet let me post some blogs, and add a few more photos. And then I was in the air, watching Battle Royale on my laptop. I was impressed that my laptop had enough battery life to stay alive for the whole thing. But there it was. And it was pretty good. I'm sure having read the manga and being able to fill in all the spaces in between made it a lot easier to follow. The movie jumped around a lot, and you didn't care about many characters, and it was not nearly as distressing to watch as to read. But still – quite entertaining. If that's the right word for it.

I then put myself in and out of sleep, until we landed, and I made my way into the city. Southern Cross Station was quite near to my hostel, and it was only a five minute walk to reach. Checking in (once the reception staff decided to show) was no worries. From then on, I made my way to the pizza place to grab a large pizza. It was big – but it was less delicious than it could have been.

I ate it watching a movie about a guy travelling around. It was good, it was entertaining, it spoke of freedom. And then I realized that it was Into the Wild, which meant that character was destined to die at the end.

It was less entertaining to watch from then on.

Still, I'm glad I saw it. The only thing I question was the end. The protagonist claimed he was happy when he died, having found bliss in his last moments. Based on his journals, he wouldn't have written this – as, he died. But it's the story his parents want to believe, and it's the story the filmmakers wanted to leave. And that's important too, yeah?

It passed the time while I ate pizza, and berry fruit gummies.

Then off to my room. I had to wake up early enough to meet up with two girls I met in the deep south. Not the American one, but the real deep south.

I tell you though, I had to have a shower first. And the shower here? It was – and I believe this holds meaning now – the worst shower in the world. Out of the six showers? One was locked forever, one was bolted so that no water could come out, three had no hot water, and all gave only the slightest trickle of water. I've showered under trees in Africa. That was a better shower. That's all I'm saying. Somehow my hair was washed, and I could get the shampoo out of my hair.

Good for me. Off to bed.

I may also have started doubting travel, never wanting to stop, and not really sure of what I was doing. Or what I'd be getting into when I stopped. But never mind that. This was a transition day. And I never think straight on transition days.