Sydney Take 2 - The end

So today is the last day in Sydney, as we fly out tonight at 9pm. It has been a lazy last couple of days and now it is time to return to the desert and finish the deployment. It has been a fun trip, and I wouldn't mind coming back at all to see more of Australia. Here is what has gone on the last couple of days.

Franck and I flew down from Surfers Paradise, and I can't really comment too much about the flight. I slept through most of it, but it was nice. We flew on Virgin Blue Airlines, and they had the screens on every seat like on Emirates, but a little smaller. No complaints on the flight, which means it was pretty good.

Took a cab to the hotel, and checked in. The room is nice, but not as nice as the last room. Guess I was spoiled by the king sized bed, as this time I had two full sized bed. And for those wondering, there was no sharing of rooms on the trip except the first night where we were forced to. We hooked up with Hubred and went out for supper.

The next morning, I got up early in the morning and went out to get sunrise pictures. There were clouds again, so I didn't get much. I did go for a walk along the coast though and it was pretty cool. Some cool rock formations and the waves, while not as prevelant as Surfers Paradies, were still nice to see wash up against the rocks.

I wound up just hanging out in the room and the beach off and on through the morning and we went out again for supper. Supper was good at a small little italian restaurant, and then it was back to the room. The next day was pretty much the same except that we didn't go out to eat together. I picked up some food at a nearby place and brought it back to my room to eat. A lazy last couple of days, but that is what I was wanting out of them.

Couple thoughts about where we are staying now. This isn't a touristy area part of Sydney. We are right next to the beach, and that is nice, but we are surrounded by residential area. There is a small area with restaurants and shops close by the hotels here by the beach, but that is all there is to the area. It is nice with the shops, as there are a couple of small bakery shops that have fresh made bread and pastries every morning. Reminds me a little of Europe when Kim and I went to Belgium. It is just too bad that small bakeries like this can't work out well back home, as the big grocery stores have their lock in place.

Another thing is the sports. There are about four major sports here in Australia, that I have watched on tv at least. They are Soccer, Australian Rugby Leage, Australian Rules Football, and cricket. Now I know soccer, and have actually started to watch more of it. I enjoy watching the Premier League from England/Europe because these are the best of the best, and it is interesting to watch. Maybe I am drinking the Bill Simmons KoolAid, but I am starting to enjoy it. The Rugby is fun to watch. Very action packed, and I think I have it figured out. Now the Football is another thing. I get the very basics, and it is more fast paced than Football back home, but there are rules and things that I just can't pick up. And then Cricket is just goofy. I was talking with a local in Cairns about it, and he tried to explain a little, but it only helped a little. All of the sports though are have their die hard fans, just as we have our fans for our sports. Interesting to see the perspective of another country on their sports.

That is about it though. I figure I will hang out in the room until I have to check out. Then we will hang out down here for a few hours until we catch a cab to the airport. From there, it is the 14 hour flight to Dubai, and then another couple hours to Kuwait. Not sure how long it will be from Kuwait to Iraq, but there is that conflict where I don't want to go back, but I do so I can get that part of the deployment started and finished. I will continue to post here off and on, but probably not as often, as there is only so much you can say about the desert.

Until next time.....

Gold Coast - Days 1 & 2

I didn't really feeling like blogging the last couple days and figured I would just combine the two full days I have here in the Gold Coast into one post. I didn't do anything special here, but just relaxed and enjoyed the room. I did get out to the beach and enjoy some things here, but overall, I have decided to just relax and get ready to return to the grind of the desert.

On day 1, we went to the Hard Rock for lunch. I also got some shirts for myself and Kim so she will have the Hard Rock shirt from the only Hard Rock in Australia. We then walked around a little and saw some shops, but didn't buy anything. Then we went back to the hotel and I sat in the whirlpool for a bit and then relaxed for the night.

Day 2, I got up early to try and get some sunrise pics, but couldn't wake up early enough. It would have been perfect though as there were no clouds in the sky when I opened the curtains about half an hour after sunrise. I then gathered my things and went to the post office to mail stuff to Minnesota and also to Iraq. Cost an arm and a leg, but I couldn't take all that stuff in my bags. I then stopped at the Casino and played a little blackjack. I didn't do too bad, and left when things started to turn.

I came back to the hotel and hung out until supper. Dan and I went back to the casino for supper, and it was pretty good. I tried the tables again, and they were awful. I still wound up ahead for the day, but not as good as I was before that. Then we came back and I relaxed for the night. I got to bed early so I could try to get sunrise pics again.

I did get up early enough and walked the three blocks to the beach. The waves were coming in pretty cool, and it was just lovely. There were clouds on the horizon, so I couldn't get clear sunrise pictures, but I got some good ones I think. I will know when I put them on the computer. I figure I will do some uploading of pictures when I get to Sydney later today.

We fly out this afternoon to Sydney, and I don't plan on anything special these last couple of days. I might see if I can get on a wine tour, but not going to try too hard. That is it for now. Expect one or two more posts from Sydney before we start flying back to the desert.

Until next time.....

Travel day to Gold Coast

The day started fairly early, as we had a flight that left at 10am. I had to pack everything into the one bag, which wasn't fun, but I got it all in there. I didn't want to have to pay the extra charge for another bag. Stupid airlines these days. Anyway, we left Hubred in Cairns for a couple days, as he is getting his diving certification. We will meet up with him in Sydney on Friday.

Got to the airport and took the Quantas flight down to Brisbane. Nothing special about the flight, as it was a short two hour flight. I slept most of the flight, and we landed in Brisbane. Got our bags right away and I rented a car for the drive down to the Gold Coast. I got a Mitsubishi Lancer, brand new, and it is a pretty nice car. Just the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and we drive on the left side. Different, but I picked it up quickly.

I drove us down to the hotel we had booked, and it was about an hour drive. We could have flown into the area, but it would have been a layover in Brisbane, and just didn't seem worth it. It was a quick drive down, and I only got us turned around twice as we tried to find the hotel. I only turned on the wipers five times by mistake the whole drive down, as the blinker switch was on the wrong side.

We checked in early afternoon and the room is amazing. King sized bed, balcony, whirlpool bath tub, shower, plenty of room to relax in. I had a late lunch and then walked along the beach for a short bit. The sun was going down, so I decided to head back to the room, and just relaxed for the rest of the night.

Today, I woke up early to see the sunrise. There were clouds on the horizon, so I didn't go out to the beach. I did some stretching and then went for a morning run along the beach. It was really cool to run on the beach and listen to music as I went for my run.

I think the plan for the rest of the day is to maybe get some laundry done. I want to go to the Hard Rock cafe to get a shirt and eat. Not sure what we will do tonight, but I am sure we will figure something out. We are here for a couple days and then Friday, head to Sydney for the last couple days of the vacation.

Until next time.....

Day 6 - Food and Wine Tour

Today I had the food and wine tour, and it was pretty good. Our first stop was at a coffee farm, and it was interesting to see the berries and the beans. The whole process by this elderly couple and their daughter in their garage basically. Now I am not a big fan of coffee, but I had a little of it and it was really good. Not bitter at all, so I picked up some for the guys back at the site. I also got some chocolate covered beans that were pretty tasty too.


Then we went to our first wine stop. The wine wasn't too good, but they had some liqueurs that were really good. I wound up buying a couple hoping I will be able to ship them home, as I obviously can't bring them back with Me to Iraq.

From there it was the Macadamia Nut farm. This was interesting to see the trees and hear about how a cyclone a few years ago had taken out a huge bit of the farm. I picked up some packages to send to me in Iraq, and also some bits and pieces to send home to the wife. I am sure she can find some use for the nuts.


After the farm, we had lunch. It was fish and prawns. It wasn't too bad, but it is weird seeing prawns with the heads and feet. There was also a salad and fruit on the plate as well. Not bad for a free meal, or at least a meal as part of the package.

After lunch, we went to a dairy farm where they made fresh cheese, and also molded chocolate. The cheese was ok, but would have been better with crackers or something to eat with it. The chocolate was pretty good, and I had some chocolate macadamia clusters.


After the farm we hit the second wine stop. This one probably would have been better, but we started with a merlot. At least that is what the guy said it was, and it really screwed with my taste buds. I couldn't really taste any of the next wines because it just stuck on my palette. Once we got to the liqueurs though, it finally cleared off since they were a bit thicker and could overpower the merlot. I got a bottle of Hazelnut/Macadamia nut liqueur that was really good.
Almost like a maple syrup you could put on pancakes.

After that we stopped at a crater lake for scones and juice. I could have had tea or coffee, but didn't want to push my luck too much. After that, we stopped at this HUGE fig tree. It was immense, and it was all roots. It looked like something out of a horror flick and I was expecting a root to come out and grab one of us.

Then it was back to the hotel, and the drive was winding. I am not good on that sort of thing as a passenger, and my head started to spin a little, so I closed my eyes and just rode it out. Once we got through that passage, it was better, and we drove back into Cairns.

I then had supper, which was OK, and then I will pack and get ready for the flight tomorrow to Brisbane. I will get us a car there and we will be staying at the Gold Coast. Should be relaxing with the beaches and a lot of fun. The main purpose of this stop is to go to the Hard Rock cafe.


That is it for now. I will keep up the posts, and you guys can just read and be jealous of my trip. Ok, maybe not, but let me have some fun, ok?

Until then.....

Cairns Day 4 & 5 - Relaxing

I skipped a day, sue me.

Things here have been pretty relaxing. Yesterday we left around noon and drove towards Port Douglas. We stopped at a zoo and looked at the animals there. I got my picture with a koala, and saw a bunch of crocs. Then we continued on up to Port Douglas.

It was a winding road up there and even though it was only about sixty kilometers, it took an hour with all the turns. The views were cool, and we stopped at a lookout place to get some pics too. When we got to Port Douglas, we had a late lunch, and it was pretty good. We looked around at some of the shops and then headed back, as it was getting late afternoon.

We drove back and then I just hung out at the hotel for the rest of the evening. A very slow day, which is good when you are trying to relax on vacation. Today was pretty much the same. I hung out by the pool all morning. I then went downtown for a couple hours, looking around and just killing some time with something to do.

I came back and then we went out for supper. We wound up at this bar/pub and had a cheap meal. Cricket was on the tv, as Australia was playing England in a big match. The Aussies were getting their ass kicked, but it was interesting trying to figure out the rules. We got to talking with a couple guys who were up from Melbourne for business, and it was a good conversation. One of the guys rode motorcycles and was a member of a forum talking with people all over the world about them. He even had a buddy he talked with from the Twin Cities. Just shows how the world is getting smaller and smaller with the internet.

Tomorrow is the Food and Wine tour. That is an all day event from 8am until 5pm or so. It should be fun as I will be seeing a Macadamia farm, a couple wineries, a coffee place and then a cheese place. Should be interesting, and I will try to get a bunch of pics as I can. Then Tuesday we fly out to Brisbane and go to the Gold Coast. The Aussie guys said it is a lot like Vegas. I will let you know, as I have been to Vegas a couple of times.

Anyway, that is it for now. I will type again tomorrow after the tour to give an update. Pictures are uploaded on facebook and up to date pretty much. Just look me up, and if you aren't a friend, just add me. I am not fussy who I add to my friends.

Until next time....

Cairns Day 3 - The Reef

Ok, wow. That is how I am starting this post on the reef. Wow wow wow. It was much more fun and amazing than I had thought it would be. I wound up taking over 400 pictures during the day, and I put up only about a 60 of them on facebook. And now, I don't know how much I can put here in a blog post before making it way too long, but here it goes.

We started the day out early in the morning to get on the boat around 8:30am. Loading was quick and easy, and I bought some sea sickness tablets to help keep me from leaning over the railing. We road out on the boat to the pontoon that they had set up near one of the reefs. On the way out, they gave talks on diving, helicopter rides, and other things going on.

I listened to the diving brief, just in case I wanted to do that. They did have some perscription goggles on hand to rent (hire) for the day, but they didn't have my exact perscription. I got the worse that they have, and I could see much better than nothing. Because of this, I didn't do the diving, but it did make my snorkling through the day a lot better.

I then signed up for the 10 minute helicopter ride. This went up to 3000 feet, and then down to 500 feet before landing again. I took pics from the flight, and it was cool to see the reef from that height. You get the prespective of how the reef is so large, but is not one continuous reef.

After landing, I went out and did some snorkling. I tried without the vest, but it was too much of a struggle for me to enjoy, so I put on the vest and went out again. It was a lot easier to move around with the vest keeping me up on the water. I went out a couple of times before lunch and took a whole bunch of pictures. When I was coming out for lunch, I was one of the last people out. One of the crew was diving and taking pictures with this big fish with people, and I got right there and got my pic taken. I am not going to post them, because I hate how I look, but it was cool being that close and touching the fish. Really amazing.

So after lunch, I went out once more snorkling, and then did the semi-submersible tour. That was cool, and then the day was over. Franck went out a couple times, and Hubred did the diving all day. He loved it so much that he is going to do the course for diving here. He will have to stay a couple extra days, but that is fine. He will just meet us in Sydney after he is done with the course.

So we came back, and I realized I lost my wedding ring on the reef. I was upset, but Kim took it in stride when I told her later. I did get her an Opal pendant that I think she will truly like. We just relaxed for the rest of the night, and tomorrow is driving to Port Douglas.

It is tomorrow right now, and I am being lazy this morning and holding us back from leaving when scheduled. I needed to do laundry though, and clean up before we go. I also loaded pics on facebook, and wrote up this blog. Besides, this is vacation. There should be no rush if you are on your own time, right???

Until next time.....

Cairns Day 2 - Relaxation

This was day 2 in Cairns. Nothing was planned, and we really didn't do too much. That isn't a bad thing though because we are here to relax and unwind as we recharge to go back to the desert for another five or six months.

I got out around eight and logged in for a bit. Nothing special was going on, so I hung out in the room until about noon. We then drove downtown and walked around the Esplanade. This is like a boardwalk along the beach. There really isn't much beach there, and it was low tide, so it was really muddy, except through the channel into the inlet. We walked the marina and saw a bunch of boats. It is really lovely around as there are mountains that surround the town. I got a bunch of pictures.

After three hours, we loaded up and headed back to the hotel. Back here, I basically relaxed and logged in for a bit again. At six, we got the underwater cameras that we rented for when we go to the reef tomorrow. Then it was a quiet supper at the bar/lounge, and then going to bed early I think. We have to be up early to head out to the reef tomorrow. It is an all day trip, and should be a fun time. I will take as much pictures as I can, and I hope to start posting some pictures soon if this connection ever gets any better.

Saturday, I think we are going to look at driving up north to Port Douglas. It is through a rainforest, and supposed to be pretty cool. Not sure exactly what else we will do, but we will figure it out. I am looking at trying to do a scenic flight on Sunday, but not sure I will be able to get on what I want, since I am a single, and they have a minimum requirement of two people, and I don't want to pay double to go by myself. Monday I am hoping to try the Food and Wine tour. Now it will be interesting to see how things work out.

That is it for now. Until next time.....

Cairns - Day 1

I woke up fairly early and did a little surfing on the net. Nothing pressing on this day, as we pretty much decided to just relax more here than try and run around too much. Morning was total relaxing in the room and around noon, I took the shuttle downtown to the mall and shops. I needed to get some shorts, and wanted a couple of shirts as well.

I got dropped off at the mall and went in. It was just like malls back home, except that Target was a part of the mall, sort of how Macy's has a corner at the Mall of America. That was different, since Targets back home are usually their own buildings. So I got a pair of shorts, some swim trunks, a couple of shirts, and a belt. Nothing special there, so I left the mall to walk around town and find something to eat.

I got a little turned around in my walk, but got back on track and was back in the shops area. I walked by a few restaurants, but didn't see anything that stuck out. Finally, I was walking by the Sebel hotel where we were first trying to stay, and it was right by the casino. There was a chinese shop there that I decided to eat at, and it was pretty good. I then sat down for an hour and played a little blackjack. I didn't do too bad, and left to catch the shuttle to go back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, I played on the internet again for a bit until we all went out for supper around six. We got in the car then and drove around just a little. We ate at this place called Wildfire, and I had prime rib. However, when I got it, it wasn't prime rib as I know it, but really a steak. It was good though, and I enjoyed it with a glass of wine. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel and stopped at the booking place to plan the trip to the Reef.

We talked with the booking agent and got input on the different options. We wound up booking with Reef Magic for Friday, all day. Then, I wound up booking a Wine/Food tasting trip for Monday, hoping I will be able to get in. I checked out some of the other things they offered. They had a hot air balloon trip, but I think that would be better if others were going with. I took brochures for some scenic flights and returned to my room for the night.

I have decided to try and book an hour flight to fly over the rain forest and see where it meets the outback. It is a little pricey, but I think it would be really cool, and how often am I going to have an opportunity like this? Tomorrow is another relaxing day I think. We are going to drive downtown again, and do more looking than shopping this time. Friday is the reef, and I think Saturday we are going to go north and see the rain forest and maybe the zoo.

That's it for now. Until next time....

Day 3 - Travel to Cairns

Today was our flight up to Cairns (pronounced 'Caans' as in Tin Cans). We checked out of our hotel at around 10am, and caught a cab to the airport right away. Our flight wasn't until 3:20pm, but we wanted to make sure we got there in plenty of time. Plus, we had our bags and you can't really look around and sight see with your luggage in tow.

We got to the airport and had to wait a little before checking in. Nothing special to say here. It was an airport terminal. Got checked in around 12:30 and then I went and had some Nachos and a beer while I waited. The nachos were actually pretty good, and I was ready to fly.

We boarded on time, and didn't take off until about 3:45. The flight was uneventful and we landed around 6:30pm. The sun was setting, so it was dark by the time we got our luggage and rented the car. That's right, we rented a car to get a little practice driving up here in a quieter area than jumping into the deep end down in Brisbane.

Now driving here is slightly different. They drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. Franck, being a student driving instructor, took the first go and didn't do too bad. It was a short drive to the hotel, and we got checked in with ease.

The hotel this time is really really nice. I had a fruit basket with a welcome card with my name on it when I got in the room. When I turned on the tv, it said 'Welcome Swenson' on the screen. Nice little touch. It is well spread out, and I have plenty of room in my room. We had supper at the hotel restaurant, and then racked out in our rooms for the rest of the night. The only real knock on the place is that there isn't internet in the rooms. Not a major deal though as I don't need to be logged on 24/7. There is spots in the resort that have it, so I can log on for an hour here and there to keep up with facebook, post to the blog, and keep up with the news.

Tomorrow we are just going to do a little shopping for clothes, schedule our trip to the Reef for Thursday or Friday, drive around Cairns a little, and otherwise relax and unwind for the day. Should be a good day, and I will tell you all about it, later.

Until then.....

Sydney Day 2 - National Maritime Museum

Well, day two in Sydney, and I feel as if I haven't really done much while here. I know we really don't have much time scheduled here, but having looked a little bit, I bet we could have done all two weeks here without any issues at all. I am still looking forward to Cairns though, and will try and relax there more. I felt a little rushed here because I wanted to take advantage of the short time we are in town.

The day started out well. I got up and posted the prior blog posts that are here. Gathered up Franck and Hubred and tried to decide what to do. Franck wanted to just relax and hang out. I was going to go to the Maritime Museum. Hubred decided to tag along and off we went. First though, all three of us went and had some lunch.

We went to the same place we had gone to yesterday, because it was really good. Also, they had this juice drink called Acai which is based on a berry from the Amazon Jungle. Very fruity flavored and sweet. I had a steak sandwich, and they had pasta. The food was really good, just as it was yesterday, and then Hubred and I headed off to the Museum.

We walked again across the bridge, and I got a bunch of day pics of the Opera House. I will upload more pics when in Cairns, as they seem to have issues with lots of downloading/uploading here. Anyway, so we walked to the Museum and got a bunch more pics from around town. There were a lot of ships in the wharf, to include a Cruise Liner. But the Museum had the best of the bunch.

So we paid to tour all the ships they had and started with the submarine. It was really really cramped in there, but cool in its own way. Then we took a tour of the destroyer class ship they had right next to the sub. Again, that was cool. The star though was the rebuilt 'Endeavour'. This ship is a copy of the ship that Captain Cook used for sailing in the late 1700's and explored off the east coast of Australia.

Now this ship was really cool. Amazing how cramped the quarters were, and thinking about people sailing on it. The ship we were on had actually gone around the world twice itself on tour, which is also amazing. I think what I was really fascinated by was the rigging. It is amazing all the rope and tackle that is on the ship to work the sail.

From there, we walked into the museum to look at the stuff inside. They had a section on the US Navy and interactions with Australia. One cool section was on the "Great White Fleet". I think I will cover that in another post, but for me, it was cool to see. There was a big exhibition on Darwin and his travels, and a bunch of other maritime stuff. We had arrived there around 1pm, and they closed at 5pm, so I felt a little rushed at the end, but not too badly.

After that, we started walking back. On the way, we stopped at a bar/pizza place, and had Kangaroo Pepper pizza. I was a little disappointed in the size, as I expected it to be a little bigger, even though I had seen the plate it would come out on. The pizza was sweet, which was also surprising because I expected it to maybe be spicy. Otherwise, it tasted like a steak pizza with sweet sauce. Not too bad, but could have been better I think.

Then we walked home across the bridge. My camera's battery had died by now, but that was ok, because it was getting dark, and I had plenty of night time pictures from the previous night. We got back to the rooms, and now I am just relaxing for the evening. Got some laundry done, and now hanging out until bed. Tomorrow we check out around 10am, and fly out around 3pm. Then it is a week in Cairns, or as they pronounce it 'Caans'. I just hope this flight doesn't have issues like the last flight we were on.

Until next time.....

Sydney day 1 - Walking

I left off the last blog post with us packed into a room for some sleep. The room wasn't too bad, as it did have a bunkbed and a third bed, so no one was on the floor. It was about one-thirty in the morning when we were finally able to get to sleep. I slept pretty good, and woke up to my phone ringing. It was my darling wife calling me to see what was going on. It was about 10am, which is checkout time here, so it worked out.

I went to the desk, and they let us stay in the room until we could check into the rooms I booked at 2pm. That was pretty cool of them, so I decided to walk around and see what we could see. We are in North Sydney, and close to the bridge and harbor. Doing a little exploring found some good places to get pictures, and I took them.

Pictures can be found on my facebook page. You can go there here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=516042032&ref=profile
I will be putting up pictures shortly as the trip progresses.

We got back and moved into the rooms around 2pm. We each got a single room, and the rate was pretty good. We all took time to unwind, and then we gathered in my room to book the flight/hotel for Cairns. We decided we would leave there on Tuesday, and will stay there for a week. Everything is booked, so we shouldn't have the issue we had our first night in Sydney.

When we finished that, we decided to go into Sydney. We walked over to the bridge/train station area, and decided to walk the bridge. This was pretty cool because you could get some good pictures of the Opera House. Unfortunatly, it was getting to be night time, so it was harder to get good pictures.

We walked across the bridge and through 'The Rocks' area. Not much to say about that because we were looking for a place to eat. We wound up eating at this place in the Circular Quay, which is an inlet between The Rocks and where the Opera House is. It was called City Extra, and was pretty good food, even if it was a little pricey.

From there, we went to the Opera House, and it was pretty impressive, even in the dark. You could see a flock of bats swarming around one of the peaks of the roof, but I couldn't get a good picture of it, and I tried a lot. From there, we walked through the center of Sydney to Hyde Park, and the war memorial for the Anzac troops that fought in World War I. Very cool, and I would like to go in the daytime to see it better.

After that, we walked east to Kings Cross, because Franck heard that it was the happening place with clubs and such. So we walked there, and it had clubs all right. However, they were strip clubs, and we weren't interested, so we walked by. We walked north on that little penninsula until we had to turn around and we found what appeared to be the Naval yards.
It was cool to see the ships, but again, not good lighting for pictures. We then walked back and across the Botanical Gardens to get back to the Circular Quay. By this time, we are all pretty tired, and have to go to the bathroom. So less looking around, and more moving with a purpose. We got to the quay and found some bathrooms. Then we started back across the bridge to our rooms.

As you can see, the main theme of this day was walking. I think we left around five-thirty or so in the evening, and didn't get back until nearly eleven-thirty. Except for the hour at the restaurant, we were pretty much walking. I couldn't estimate distance, but it wasn't a short jaunt. As Franck put it, if someone told him that was our plan, no way. But it was pretty interesting and worth it in the end. Especially after pretty much sitting on a plane for so long the day before.

Now it is day two, and our plans are to see some of the sights during the day. I want to see the botanical garden, and maybe do a little shopping for clothes. We fly tomorrow in the afternoon for Cairns, so this is really our only full day in Sydney. We will probably have a day or two before our flight back on the 31st.

That is about it for now. Hope you enjoyed my words. If not, that is fine. This is also for my own reasons so I can reference them later on.

Until next time....

The flight that would never end.....

The last time I posted, I was sitting in Dubai during a scheduled layover. I was supposed to fly out at around 10am for the 14 hour flight to Sydney. All looked well, and I was getting more and more excited. However, plans, as they seem to be doing during this trip, went awry.

I get to the gate, and they load the plane. I am sitting in an aisle seat, which I am not too happy about. Also, the plane is packed! Who would have thought that over 500 people would be on the same plane for a daily flight to Sydney? Anyway, I am sitting on the plane, and we aren't moving. We get the announcement that there is a technical difficulty that they are looking at, should be about 20 minutes. This happened a couple of times before they decided to disembark the plane after about 2 hours.

We get off the plane and wait for another three hours to reboard. Now as I mentioned before, the terminal in Dubai is pretty well stocked. However, I wasn't buying because I didn't want to be carrying more stuff than I had. Staying simple for the travel as much as I can. So we reboard and are moving. We take off about six hours later than our original flight. I am thinking that this is OK, because now we will get in around noon, and should have no issues on checking into whatever hotel we find.

The plane we were on was an Airbus380, which is a huge plane. The seats had the screens like I mentioned on the previous flight so you could watch movies, TV shows, play games, listen to music, and follow the flight. I slept a little, I read a little, I wound up watching a couple of movies, and basically killed time. Then, as we are approaching the west coast of Australia, I can feel my ears pop.

Yeah, we are landing in Perth, which is on the west coast. Now this is not scheduled. We landed because an elderly passenger on the plane was not feeling well, and needed medical attention. So we land, and they get her off of the plane. But there is another problem. The crew is at their limit for time to work, because of the delay and such. So they legally can not pilot the plane and take off to complete the trip. So we all have to disembark in Perth and wait for a new crew to fly from Sydney.

Another six hour layover in Perth now. Much smaller than Dubai, obviously as it isn't a major airport, but they had some shops and it could have been worse. But, we had to sit for six hours and kill even more time. When they finally got there, and we reboarded, it was about 4pm before we took off. Now, we are getting even later on our arrival, and we don't have a hotel. This was because we didn't know when we would get there, and figured since we were landing so early, we would have plenty of time to figure that out.

We land in Sydney, finally, and it is after 10pm local time. We have to get our bags, and go through customs. It seems as if our bags were some of the last pulled off the plane, so it was after 11pm by the time we got through all of customs. Now, we need to find a place to stay. Many of the places at the 'Accommodations Booking Center' did not have 24 hour front desks. And since it was sort of an 'automated' type of stand, there wasn't a person to help us out.

As it got to midnight, they moved us to this small area in the airport so they could close sections off for cleaning and such. I had to break down and spend some cash to get internet access and book a room someplace for us. I couldn't book it for that night, because it was after midnight and had to book on the 16th, or the next day. I got us some rooms then, and we decided to find a cab and just go and see if we can check in early. Then, our luck started to change.

There wasn't a lot of traffic around the airport, but we were lucky enough to be able to hail a taxi that happened to be driving by. I think we stole it from someone else, but at that time, I didn't care too much. We drove to the hotel in North Sydney, and I had to wake up the guy for the front desk. I felt bad for doing that, but he did help us out and got us one room for us to cram into for the night.

The whole travel time took about 30 hours. I have had a couple of bad experiences with
flights, and this one wasn't the worst. However, it just seemed to take forever, and ever, and ever. At least we got here, and now we can move forward with our trip, which is now one day shorter. I am typing this after our first day here, so will get the next post about that shortly, but needless to say, things are looking better now that we are finally in the land down under.

Until next time.....

Finally

So, I am finally on my way to Australia as I sit in the Dubai Airport in a layover. It has been a journey to get here, and I still have a few hours until I get on the plane for the last leg of the trip. That will be a 14 hour flight to Sydney, but if the plane is like the last one I was on, I won't mind at all.

So, we flew out of our post in Iraq with little trouble. Sucks having the gear on and climbing in the back of a C130, but it was all good. Flew around 1am or so, and landed at 2am. Then got to the post in Kuwait about 3am. Got briefed, and then turned in our vest and helmet. That was a lot of weight. Got our briefing at 9am, and started the process. This was on Wednesday. We find out that evening that we fly out Thursday at 3:45am. The itinerary is Kuwait to Dubai, Dubai to Sydney.

So we get out to the Kuwait airport, military side of the house, around 1030pm. The guy that was there sent us into the back holding area to wait for a bit. He would call us out when ready to take the bus to the airport. So we are resting and trying to relax. I get some reading done and nothing happens. Finally, it is a little after 2am, and someone asks for us. ok, maybe 2:15am. Well, it was way too late to get to the airport, as you have to be there at least one hour before the flight, and it was a half hour drive from one side to the other. So, we didn't get out that night.

So we had to go back to the Kuwait post and get our tickets redone. We got a tent again and got some rest. Got our new itinerary and we were flying out of Kuwait earlier, but with a long layover in Dubai. Things went fairly smoothly. The lines were long, but moved fairly quickly. Security was almost funny compared to back home. Didn't have to pull out my laptop from the bag as I sent it through the scanners. They scanned us three times before we got on the plane. Once before we checked our luggage, then when we were going back to the gates, and then finally before going on the plane.

Now we flew on United Emirates Airlines for the hour and a half flight from Kuwait City to Dubai. The plan was a 777-300, and it was really nice. They had screens on the back of every seat with touch screens. You could listen to music, watch movies, or watch tv shows. They also had satellite phones that you could call on, or even call seat to seat. So on this short flight, we got a full meal. Meat, rice, pita bread, crackers, cheesecake, and some veggies. Really good quality service from this airline, and I hope the plane to Sydney is the same or better. They even had outlets at every seat if you wanted to plug in your laptop or whatever.

So now we are sitting in the Dubai airport. They have this section where all the duty free shops are located that looks a lot like a mall. The duty free shop with tobacco and alcohol, toy shop, perfume, wine, electronics, bags, makeup, clothes....just about anything you could think of. It is pretty impressive, that is for sure.

So now that we are on our way, we know when we return. Our leave ends on the 31st of August and we return to Kuwait on the 1st of Sept. So that is a nice stretch, and I am looking forward to getting to Australia now and seeing all the different things I have read about.

That is it for now. I will probalby write the next post after our first day in Australia. We land at like 6am, and it will be interesting getting a hotel room and seeing how we feel when we land to decide what we will do on day one.

Until next time.....

Preparations and things....

So for the last few days I have been getting ready for my leave. As I have noted before, I will be travelling to Australia for two weeks. This is the leave that I get while I am deployed here in Iraq for a year. I don't know how the whole process will work, but I do know we will be flying to Kuwait. From there, who knows. I will be keeping things up to date on this blog as I go through the process, and then the fun I hope to have in Australia.

In the meantime, I have been preparing for the trip. Getting laundry turned in and back, buying the bag from the local shop so I can get packed, making sure all the paperwork is completed and turned in. I haven't booked anything yet, but we are looking to stay in Cairns for a full week.
That is the main town/port for tours to visit the Great Barrier Reef. There is also a tropical rain forrest, a zoo, and all sorts of other things to do while there. So we will spend a couple days in Sydney, the week in Cairns, and then a few days in the Gold Coast area before going back to Sydney to fly back. Should be a fun packed adventure, to say the least.

So the plan is to write in the blog everyday about what happened. I want to use this venue to keep track of things for my own memory. I did this for the trip that my wife and I took to Belgium, and it was pretty fun to do. Unfortunatly, that was on Yahoo 360, and they deleted that tool. I forgot to pull off the old blog to save those posts, so most of that information is lost. I think I have some of them saved on a hard drive somewhere, but would have to look.

Anyway, things here are going pretty good in Iraq. I have a great job in providing communications for the command elements so that they can maintain control of the theater. I have a room with one roomate, air conditioning, internet in my room, and basically things are very good overall. I figure by the time I get back from leave, the deployment will be about half way over, and it should be all down hill.
That is about it for now. I don't have too much to say, but look for regular updates as my travels begin.

Until next time.....

Podcasts and other things

So I thought I would write about some of the podcasts that I currently am enjoying. When I first heard of podcasts, I thought that I wouldn't be interested in them. Why listen to people talking about things when you can do that by listening to the radio? But then I realized that there were so many different subjects out there to listen to, and so I looked into it more. I found a bunch of history podcasts, some college history courses that released the lectures as podcasts, and also some fantasy football podcasts. There are so many other things out there, and I thought I would talk about some of them.

For the history podcasts, I am currently listening to 'History According to Bob', 'Hardcore History', 'The History Network' and 'TPN:Napoleon 101'. I will start with Napoleon. This podcast started probably three years ago, and has pretty much finished up. If you have any interest in Napoleon, this is a great podcast that covers from his early life until his death. The podcasts can be lengthy, but they are still very good. 'The History Network' is a podcast that covers military history. They come out every other week for about four months, and then they take a break before starting up again. These last about 15 - 25 minutes, and very well done as well. 'Hardcore History' is done by Dan Carlin, and it is one person's look at history. I like how he talks so passionately about his subjects and brings up things you don't really consider. The podcasts there are from half an hour to an hour, and they are very well done. Not as regular as I would like, but when a new show comes out, I am very interested to see what is new. Finally for the history podcasts is 'History According to Bob.' This is my current favorite for podcasts. Bob is a professer from a college in Missouri, and has been teaching for over thirty years. He does a daily podcast, except for Sundays, with each day being a basic topic. Currently, Mondays are Rennessaince warfare, Tuesdays are Indian wars, Wednesdays are currently the Russo-Japanese war, Thursdays is the age of Napoleon, Fridays is the Civil War, and Saturdays just started with gangters. These podcasts are about 10 - 15 minutes, and are very good information for the specific topic. If more time is needed, they are broken up in multiple parts. Bob has done these podcasts for almost four years I think and has a lot of podcasts that he offers on disc for sale. He has covered WWI, the crusades, pirates, and a whole bunch of different subjects.

The other regular podcasts I listen to right now is 'The BS Report with Bill Simmons', the fantasy football podcasts sponsored by ESPN and CBSSports, 'Wine Library TV', and I just started up with the Adam Carolla podcast. I can't say much of Carolla, since I only just started it. I have heard him on the BS Report, and recall him on the Man Show and other places, and it might be interesting. I like the fantasy football podcasts because I enjoy fantasy football, and they provide good information as we get in gear for the new year. For the BS Report, it is usually sports oriented, but there are sometimes other guests. It is just a fun podcast to listen and enjoy. Finally, Wine Library TV is fun because I enjoy the host and how he describes the wines he is tasting. As noted on a previous post, this podcast has helped inspire the passion that I have with wine right now.

That is about it for the podcasts. I am sure there are others out there that people enjoy a lot. As I stated, there are so many subjects out there you can find. Not much else going on with me. Getting closer to the trip to Australia. It will be nice to get away from here in the desert for a couple of weeks. Things here in the desert are going as well as can be expected. I will probably put a post up about the position of "Company Historian" that I have been appointed to recently.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the post, and perhaps this will inspire you to check out some podcasts on your own. If you want, feel free to comment and share some of your favorite podcasts.

Until next time....