People don’t really realise how taxing transit time can be on you. When Heather and I were in Ecuador we took a bus direct to Lima, Peru. It was a long two days of travel and cost us about $30, by Australian standards – cheap. When you factor in the complete and utter exhaustion over two days of being in a bus – expensive.

My trip from Darwin, Australia to Salt Lake City, USA turned into one of those epic adventures of chaotic proportions. I left Darwin 12:45am Friday morning. It was a direct red-eye flight to Sydney. Always hate a red-eye but the pain was increased by my annoying neighbour a young blonde girl in her 20s who decided to fall asleep with her music on full blast through the headphones. I could clearly hear Avril Lavigne tell me that she was a ska8ter girl. To add insult to injury she snored. I attempted passive aggressiveness because I hate to wake sleeping people on the plane I know personally how hard it is for some people to sleep. I turned her stereo headphones down via the arm rest and in my delusion I thought it was actually working. Only to discover six hours later that she was listening to her ipod and not the generic plane armrest. I did manage to fall asleep despite the noise, for a brief 20 minutes when all of a sudden the woman at the window turns on her light and buzzes the flight attended. She asks for juice. Its now 4am in the morning I’m fucking tired and she wants juice. I close my eyes and attempt to drift off again, no avril lavigne is woken up by window lady and buzzes the attended again for chocolate and juice. One more time I think as I try to drift off again..... lights come on guess what its 5am in the fucking morning TIME FOR BREAKFAST!!

So before I know it I’ve been up virtually all night and I’m now in Sydney. My time in Sydney is relatively boring. I arrived at 6:30am and my flight was at 10:50am. I located my gate and if you’ve ever been to Sydney’s international airport it can literally be like attempting to locate a virgin in Palmerston after dark. I plugged in my laptop and watched random movies & tv until it was time to board.

I am going to say the 13 hour flight to LA was uneventful. It was 13 hours long and delayed originally for an hour because apparently they had engine trouble. My exhausted delusions had fantasies of the plane crashing and me being the only survivor then getting free first class flights for life (how awesome would that be) however not be and it was just one long journey. I tried to sleep, and I think I managed at least 2 broken hours. Not sure. I watched two movies Burlesque & Hereafter both of which I can’t remember what happened. Also big bang theory and a little live arj barker. Seriously how did people survive before they had tvs in the backs of the chairs in front of them!!!

Arriving in LA it was the fun moment of “Lets go through customs” where I’m always so tired that I manage to make some sort of slip-up and the customs guy starts to think I’m a drug dealer!!!! This weeks was when he asked me about my return flight I mentioned I was living here and had brought a return flight home and this was the return of the return.. (im confusing myself now see|!!” ) to which he says “you were living here???” and I had to quickly correct that I meant Canada and not the USA cause heaven forbid I might illegally immigrate into the US and then leave for a year back to Aus. Honestly why would I live in USA when I make three times the money living in Australia?

So anyway through customs in two hours and Its 930am LA time. I realise.. my connecting flight isn’t until 4:25pm. I am so tired. I have now been away for almost 25 hours give or take a few hours in between... I find a random gate set my alarm for 230pm and try to sleep. Impossible... so many people everywhere. I doze in that trance state and eventually come to and realise I should get some lunch. I discover my flight just happens to be at the gate I was sleeping at. With over 70 gates, random much? Taking the flight to San Franscisco I am treated to another 3 hour layover and have just about reached my breaking point and caffeine overdose when I finally get to board the last plane. 38 hours later, 9 coffees, five airports I am in Salt Lake City waiting for my luggage. My snowboard bag is there, that’s a plus but no my luggage is in bloody Washington thanks to a misboard. Thank god for Leo picking me up. For those of you wondering who Leo is I met him whilst driving through Utah November 2009. I made him my amazing pancakes and he taught me how to fly a kite. We kept in touch and now I am crashing at his house for the next few days. He has the most comfortable bed in the world. Leo drove me home and I passed out. It was a looong two days.