Airports and more airports.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had to travel through Louisville, Dallas, Los Angeles, Brisbane, and Cairns airports...I was supposed to post this while I was traveling, but there was no free wifi. Sorry it's late!

Here we go.

LOUISVILLE AIRPORT
I am all checked in and ready to board my first plane. I'm actually really anxious to see the LA airport. I've heard it's extremely modern (yay technology!) and plus it's in California. This will mark my furthest destination West of my home. This will be the last plane trip by myself. At the Dallas airport, I am supposed to meet one of my classmates, Jeff from Michigan. See you in Dallas!

 The line at Louisville airport for TSA.

DALLAS AIRPORT
I have met my newest friend, Jeff. We are about to hop on a plane to LAX. The Dallas airport is pretty nice, and large. I had been here before for a yearbook conference in high school, but I hardly remember the airport. At first, I walked to the wrong terminal, because I was falsely informed by the pilot of my last plane. I was texting Jeff trying to figure out where to go. We finally met up at the skyrail station and decided to grab some food before the flight. 

I was starving, so I got a cheeseburger and fries from chili's inside the airport. Jeff got some queso, he had eaten earlier. My burger cost about $16 (tip included) and our service was awful, so that guy got a dollar. I believe he charged me wrong, but our flight was boarding so I just paid him whatever. After checking my cash given back (the guy broke $100 for me), he seemed to have given me way more than I should've gotten. Hey, I'll take it. 

LAX
Wow, this place isn't all that magical. I have seen no celebrities and my diet coke from burger king cost me $3. We are now sitting here trying to get wifi on my iPhone so that we can book our dive. It's not happening, so we are just going to take care of it in Australia.

The airport was not cool at all, it looked like a regular airport. My airport (Louisville) looks better than this! We only had to walk a few terminals down for our next flight. Our layover was pretty long. In our layover, we encountered a woman from London. She was talking to us about the United States. Jeff and I were talking about how we sound different and how the North and South can differ in many things, but especially language. She was so sweet, probably in her late 70's. She was charging her laptop as we chatted, while Jeff charged his iPad.

 Before the flight...already exhausted and Boarding sign for Qantas airlines. (Lots better than American Airlines)

Pretty comfy, but not after 18 hours.

The plane through LAX windows

 Our menu for the flight. Not too bad...expected worse. Then projected arrival times for Brisbane.

We are now boarding our ridiculously long flight over the Pacific. Talk to you in Brisbane!



BRISBANE
WOW I'm exhausted. On the flight, I maybe slept two hours at a time and watched a few movies on the mini tvs everyone had. I brushed my teeth twice and went to the bathroom a lot. I would go every time I woke up, just to move around the cabin. There were three babies around us, and they were surprisingly well behaved for a long flight. The seats were very comfortable, but sleeping was hardly possible at all. Jeff slept fine, but I wasn't. I would've taken my sleeping medication that I got prescribed, but I wasn't NOT sleeping, just having trouble staying asleep.

The Brisbane airport is so QUIET. Australia is so much more calmer. We stood in the customs and immigration line for about 30 minutes. After they checked our passports, we claimed our baggage and went on to get our bags checked. This process was amazing.

Australians are extremely chill, this would never happen in the US. There was a lady bringing us around into two lines so that she could see us (8 at a time). She asked us what kind of food we had with us, it's standard to quarantine food. After that, she brought out this adorable beagle, I suppose to drug search our bags. We then proceeded to transfer to the other side of the airport.

We checked our bags through the machines. It was so fast. We didn't have to take off our shoes or jewelry (would also never happen in the US). Now we are waiting to board our next flight. I just transferred my money in for some real Australian money (pictures later). See you in Cairns!

 The plane from the window. It was HUGE compared to others.

Brisbane Airport

CAIRNS

--This portion was written at this time, not at an airport--

On the way here, Jeff and I talked to a girl from northern Australia. She preceded to tell us that America, or as they say here, "The States" has a lot of influence on the country. Not much seems different here. The Cairns airport was obviously correct. It was really green. Pictures of the GBR were all over as well as the rainforest. We met Matt and drove around the Smithfield area, which is about 30 minutes outside of Cairns.

This concludes my airport adventures, I will post again later today.

 Cheers!

 FINALLY!!!

 Hey look! That's Jeff in Cairns!

 I'm so tired here.