Day 23 - Thurs 06 Nov 2008

Not a particularly enthralling day for me, all things considered, as it involved a significant amount of travelling, with two flights - the first from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the second from there on to Fiji. I'd stayed up until 4am the previous evening / this morning checking emails and posting my blog as I knew the flights would throw my body clock into turmoil irrespective of what I did, so I thought I may as well get in there first and make myself tired for the Thursday.

Regardless of that, I still managed to somehow get 6 hours' sleep in the Green Tortoise Hostel's upper bunk bed in a very tight five-bed dormitory. After checking out at 11am and with the flight at 4.40pm from San Francisco International I utlised the free internet service available and completed a few more days on my blog. A shortish walk to the Montgomery Street BART station got me on to the SFO-bound train by 1.45pm and after the scheduled 30 minute ride the BART train arrived at the airport. Passing through check-in and security was a mere formality and with a few hours to wait until takeoff a bite to eat was needed.

Unfortunately the flight was one to forget as shortly after we were served drinks the fat American sat next to me decided to knock over MY drink - that happened to be an orange juice - over the table in front of me, the juice falling on to my backpack that was on the floor under the seat in front, soaking the front top part of the bag where the zips are and the front pocket where some of my valuables were with other bits and bobs. The American just said "sorry" and then got back to whatever he was doing, leaving me to spend the rest of the flight using napkins to soak up the juice that was seeping through my bag.

Suffice to say I wasn't too impressed with him but by the time I landed in Los Angeles although parts of the bad were still slightly moist the majority of the dampness had been taken up but it did have the "scent d'orange"!

Based on many negative comments from several friends during the (very) brief planning stage of my Tour, I'd decided not to visit LA apart to use the airport for my connection to Fiji but my first impressions of the airport weren't great either as the International Terminal B (the "B" standing for the first letter of an ex-Governor's surname, Tom Brading) was in the process of being completely renovated. As a result of this, after having picked up my baggage from the American Airlines flight from San Francisco, checked-in for my evening flight and cleared security - which took some time - I found that there was essentially only two places to eat at as the rest of the terminal was inaccessible to the public. I grudgingly bought and ate (well I had to eat something!) a rather mediocre-looking and -tasting ham, swiss cheese and egg croissant before the wait continued before my 10.30pm flight out to Nadi.