There’s No Place Like Home
I clicked my heels three times on the 12th of March, just half an hour after noon at a major city in Australia, and about 13 or 14 hours later I arrived back in California, on the 12th of March at 7:00 in the morning, over five hours before I left. Dorothy never had it so bad; I’m still recovering from the jet lag, and I can’t imagine what Jean-Claude Van Damme had to endure every time he time travelled.
Anyway, I’m back. I flew to Melbourne in Victoria, where they are holding this year’s Commonwealth Games, then immediately to Perth in Western Australia, where my godmother lives and where I spent my first week. The climate was a physical shock for me. It was cold and raining in L.A. when I left, and I had on three layers of long-sleeved stuff—a hoodie, my denim jacket, and a fleece-lined windbreaker (because I’m a pussy, yes I know; I survived an early winter in Maryland, though, so there!)—but when I changed planes in Melbourne, it was clear that even the hoodie by itself was far too much. I was glowing like a pig.
And bloody hell—the left-handed driving was a shock for me, too. I had planned for slight changes and gotten myself voltage converters for my cell phone and camera batteries, but I totally didn’t even think of the driving. Heck, I had nearly planned on renting a car, and I’m so glad I didn’t. I’d have killed myself in a car accident that first day by going the wrong way in a roundabout.
Speaking of the cell phone … I’m on T-Mobile because Catherine Zeta-Jones is gorgeous and because H.E. is on T-Mobile, too, and he swears they’re the best if you’re going to do any world travelling. So, yeah. My cell phone works in Oz, so long as they have the holy switch turned on. They use Yes, Optus; Telstra; and Vodafone there as their network systems, and T-Mobile has an affiliate deal with them, so I was in constant touch with H.E.
But I digress.
I spent my first full day in overcast Perth hanging out with my godmother. We went to Kings Park and to the downtown area, where we booked ourselves to more than a couple of tours. The photo above is of the flowers at Kings Park. I completely missed the wildflower season, which is sometime between August and November, but next time … next time. I promise myself the next time I visit, it’ll be during the wildflower season.
In the meantime, I’ll post more later when I’ve caught up on a few things and completely gotten over the jet lag. For now, you know I’ve been to at least two states in Australia—Victoria and Western Australia. Australia has six states, two territories, and some external territories, so by your count, I’ve seen two of the six states, or one-third of Australia. That’s more than I’ve ever seen of the United States; I haven’t been to 16 of our states. Not nearly.
That’s kind of sad, really. I’ll have to fix that one day.
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6 thoughts on “There’s No Place Like Home”
Welcome back! I was thinking it was about time for you to be home. It’s criminal that you haven’t gotten to travel more in the US. So it was really hot there? It’s summerish turning into fall? I know large parts of the continent are desert like. I’m really interested to hear more about the trip.
In the world of Missouri, we had 100 tornados come thru the state on Sunday. I saw three semi’s that had been blown over in the storm on the Interstate.
Hey world traveler! I’m VERY excited to see your pictures, I’m sure that you have a bunch. Make sure to check your email, I know you have a ton of that! Glad to have you back stateside, I’m sure that H.E. is as well.
Drew, yep. It’s super hot there, even now that it’s fall. A tour guide told me that the ozone is not as strong there, too. So there’s that. Lots of bush country — scrub, desert, etc. People die in country like that, so they’re always warning tourists not to wander off or let themselves get dehydrated. I’ve never been to Missouri, but I’ve been to the following states: Washington, Hawaii, Maryland, Connecticut, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and a couple of other ones I don’t remember because I only rode through them with my family when I was a child. I heard about the tornados, yikes. Around about the same time, cyclones were hitting the north part of Australia — brought beautiful puffy clouds to where I was, though.
Broch, I’m going through the photos, now — way too many to download them all at once, so I’ll be a while before I post the lot of them. My ratio isn’t as good this time around either, mostly because I let others shoot with my camera, and most of my own shooting were grab shots while running around trying to see everything and keep up. The e-mail is killing me, and yes, H.E. is glad not to have to worry any more, lol.
Welcome home!!! I got your postcards. Glad you’re home safe. 🙂
Zee, awesome! One or two more might trickle in. I’d read a bit of the didgeridoo book I bought you, which I’ll send in a bit, so I learned a lot.
Finally getting some time to sit down and catch up with your travelogues. 🙂
First of all, loved all the postcards you sent. Thank you! :-* Your style of writing made me feel as if I was right there, or as if I was on phone with you that very moment and absorbing what you see and feel.
Secondly, Catherine Zeta-Jones is astoundingly gorgeous. The only Hollywood actress after Audrey Hepburn I can call a true beauty, though Salma Hayek comes in a close third (but then again, it could be my bias towards here because people have said I look a bit like her. Hmm… no, she *is* gorgeous, too.)
I digress.
Did I say “phone”? Call me. Anytime. 🙂
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