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Bye Perth! Hello Brisbane! |Day 7

Waaah! Last day in Perth. Definitely bittersweet. Had an amazing time here but I pretty much saw everything I came to see and will now roll on over to Brisbane!

I scored a later checkout for 11am. Gave me time to finish packing and to get the apartment in shape for the cleaning crew. Cleanliness in these places are SO important to me and it was a relief that this place was so clean! I did a last look around, returned the key to the lockbox and I was off to the airport!

Hard to tell how large the airport is. It didn’t seem large however there is a lot of construction. The bag drop was interesting because it’s all self service. Also a pain because you have to lay your luggage a certain way in order for the system to scan your tags and push the luggage onto the belt. Of course I learned this the hard way with the suitcase weighing 30kg (almost 70 pounds). I was also getting mixed messages about whether my bags could be 32kg or 23kg. I took a screenshot where it showed I was allowed 3 bags at 32kg and showed it to one of the workers. He was kind and easily waived the $70 fee for the heavy bag.

Once my bags were checked in I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge. I should have snapped a pic but it was not anything too special. Better than United’s lounge in Honolulu! Grabbed a tuna wrap and a latte. The cool thing is they have a barista who just makes all the free coffee drinks. And the drinks are good!

After hanging in the lounge until 15 minutes before boarding time, I made the short walk to the gate. Flight was delayed a little but nothing like what is happening in the US! I upgraded my seat using the bid-up option. When I got to my seat, a girl was in it. I asked her to move because I chose that seat so I could take pics. Instead of her getting out of the row to let me in she simply moved over to her seat and I had to climb over her with my giant carry on bag. So rude. We didn’t speak to each other during the flight which was fine by me. She had what looked like fake Chanel sneakers on at some point. I say at some point because she had the audacity to take them off and cross her legs on the seat so her socked foot was too close to my face for my liking. She also used very fragrant lotion several times. Oh! And when we boarded she had a box of fried food she was eating. Stunk up the cabin. So needless to say it was nice landing after 4.5 hours and I never have to deal with her again. Woo hoo!

But now the real fun begins-I have to pick up the rental car! It was kind of a pain to get to where the cars are. Especially because I have 2 heavy suitcases and a huge carry on bag. I eventually found the Avis lot and they wanted to upgrade me to an suv. Very kind but I thought it would be too big. The next car was described as like a Toyota Camry but that too looked really big. I found a Toyota hatchback of some kind that seemed ideal.

So I get in the car and I’m freaking out. I can’t get my phone to work with the car so I can’t see directions on the screen. I also didn’t have much signal in the garage. I prayed I could find somewhere close to pull over so I can input directions. And just outside the garage was a left turn lane that I pulled into and put my hazards on and got the directions going on my phone. Oy vey! The drive to the Airbnb was white knuckles. I’m driving in the left lanes but the one closest to the right even though that’s considered the fast lane. The directions said I would have to keep right at certain points so I just stayed there. It was mostly 1 highway that took me to the city of Brisbane and there weren’t too many cars on the road. But once I got near the Airbnb it was confusing. I had to find a bodega where the lockbox is so I could gather all the keys. Took a wrong turn only once. I’m proud to say I didn’t go through any red lights, didn’t hit anyone or anything and only bumped the curb. I pray I don’t have to parallel park this thing.

Made it to the parking garage and up the elevator to the Airbnb. The Airbnb is nice! It looks clean (I immediately checked the sheets!) although I wouldn’t mind vacuuming if I can find one. But it has everything I’ll need. And the view off the lanai is sick! The building and this apartment is directly on the river by Story Bridge. The bridge is lit up at night and is really pretty.

It was about 9:30pm and I saw the grocery stores close at 10 but there are a couple of bodegas open. I scored in that there is one just down the road. No need to drive! I picked up the usual – bottled water, milk for cereal, butter, apricot and raisin bread for breakfast and a frozen 4 cheese pizza.

Once back at the apartment I finally figured out how to turn on the oven and the pizza came out great. I wasn’t tired so I stayed up until about 2:30am. Kinda makes sense with the 2 hour time difference. I took an ambien or else I would have been up even later!

Bed seems comfortable and the sheets are fresh. Off for adventures in Brisbane tomorrow!