On My Way Home 🧳 🎒 💻 🚙 🇦🇺 🌃 ✈️ 🌫️ 🇹🇼 💻 ✈️ 🇺🇲 🏙️ 💻

Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day)

On Monday morning I worked on packing my luggage for travel (distributing the weight, figuring out what to throw away or give to Christina, etc.). I tried to take it easy that day to be well-rested before my long journey home. (I also tried to catch up on my blog!) Christina prepared me a lovely lunch with salmon and a green salad with pears, knowing I would not eat on the plane until close to midnight. 

Christina & Ian

My last animal encounter in Australia 

(in the bathroom after my shower)

Christina called me an Uber around 7:00 p.m. Fortunately, she lives close to the Brisbane Airport. I made it there early to check my luggage and pick up my boarding passes.

Goodbye, Brisbane!

My first flight left at 10:15 p.m., heading for Taipei, Taiwan 🇹🇼 (a 9 hour flight). I had a window seat, but the middle seat was not occupied, so that gave me and the aisle seat occupant more space to spread out. I was able to sleep until dinner was served at 11:30 p.m., and then I got to sleep some more (on and off) until breakfast was served at 5:00 a.m.

Good old airplane food! But nicely presented, the bread roll was warm, and they had real flatware to eat with, plus a hand cleaning cloth for before eating and a floss cleaner for after.

Hello Taipei!

The Taipei, Taiwan airport is very nice! I was glad to see that most restaurants have Taiwanese food. I didn’t see a McDonalds or a Starbucks! 

The water dispensers have different temperature options from cold to boiling

The airport is very clean, and the toilets even have bidets!

I was traveling on EVA Air, which I think is a Taiwanese airline. It was rainy in Taipei.

There is a 2 hour time difference between Australia and Taiwan (going backwards). I had a 5 hour layover in Taipei (which I spent part of catching up on my blog 💻). My next flight to Los Angeles was a 12-hour flight, and a time change of 15 hours (also backwards), and another 5 hour layover. I crossed the date line some time in the middle of the night on what was Tuesday for me and Tuesday started over again. So I lost 17 hours traveling from Australia to California, which is why the 32 hours and 41 minute trip could leave Australia at 10:10 p.m. on Monday and arrive in San Jose at 2:00 on Tuesday (which would only be 16 hours). I have given up trying to figure it all out 🙃!

I arrived safely in Los Angeles, where it was very foggy, but daylight at least, which was good to help me start to adjust to the time zone.

Hydration Station in LA. (Better than airports that don’t have anywhere to refill water bottles!)