Day 71/73 Mon-Wed All must End!

Here we are on our final flight to Brisbane after starting 7pm Monday 01/08/22 we will land 1235 Wednesday 03/08/22 a day missing and very, very tired!! Time zones flown through, days sliding into one another, the brain trying to get its head around it all…

Tim drove us to the Toronto Airport to start our first leg of our Journey… we decided to go a bit earlier and so glad we did because it gave us time to use Tim’s gift to us….the priority use of the lounge for Air Canada and the extra baggage and Praise the Lord it worked this time…. Tim thought it would take us ages to get through customs and check our bags in…but it truly was like whirlwind from the moment we got out of Tim’s car it was like someone picked us up inside a whirlwind and whhhosh through the process of it all….before we knew it we were on the other side and finding where to go to access the Guest Lounge….wow it was not quite what I expected never having had the opportunity to use one…free food and drink…wines (except bubbly or Rose) darn ohh well heaps and heaps of spirits of every type….hot food, salads, a few sweet treats, tea, coffee…. It was much more than I had ever thought and all free as a frequent flyer program…I had lime/watermelon flavoured soda water with vodka and fresh lime and lemon 🍋 my own little cocktail…John had beers….we had some corn chips, sour cream and salsa…John had some sweet and sour meatballs with rice….my goodness watching people consumer some of the wine was interesting……bet they sleep well on their flights….before we knew it, it was time to head to our gates…

Flight one a 5 hr flight to Vancouver….no free food on this one you had to pay for it…I didn’t think I would want any food but yep I did, my tummy said it needed something…so a bottle Prosecco, crackers and cheese and huge Kit Kat for John more than enough to stop the worms in fact a bit too much….

We landed and which….Off this flight and with only an hour and half for the next big 15.5 hr fight we made it from this our first flight to find our gate not far away and the weird thing was we didn’t have to go through customs here…I had gone to the duty free shop near where we were sitting and was checking out prices and about to ask can we buy here and get it back home to Brisbane on domestic flights as well…when I spotted Rhonda Faulkner talking in her phone in the duty free shop….We knew she was going home tonight but through Brisbane after being here with Steve for 4 weeks tripping together and having done and Alaskan Cruise and travelled to Whistler….she looked a million dollars,..any way we started chatting and laughing we ran into each other…when another lady came up to ask us about did we go through any customs…we all thought it strange we hadn’t had to go through another one like we do so often when travelling in Asian countries to be honest this one was probably the most lax lot of customs I have come across for years…anyway we all chatted then decided well just be happy there maybe isn’t any more….I talked a little longer to Rhonda then thought I had best get back to John, I was gone 15-20 mins said I was only going to be a few minutes…I did find out I could buy my grog here and I pretty sure it’s a bit cheaper and with a bit of time up our sleeve instead of at Sydney because we didn’t know how we would go there…what a blessing that turned out to be Sydney was a night mare…
Next thing I know we are boarding…I learnt over the years to try if possible to sit right at the back of the Plane…3 reasons…firstly no one else wingeing behind you….long story I think I have mentioned before…2nd because your close to the loo 🚽 and lastly you usually get to go on first because you down the back and get to put your over head bags in before the massive rush and crush to get your gear in over head… it’s a flamin night mare with people and their over head baggage 🧳 some of the sizes people actually bring on….even though they aren’t meant to still do is so with these big and sometimes multiple bags of stopping other people bring theirs on….anyway I usually have to try and get my gear in amongst the staffs and the extra gear needed for the flight crew to do their job…tricky but it works… the things you have think about on these darn flights…but if your not prepared to have everything sorted for what you need during the flight ends up a night mare…nothing worse than trying to get stuff out of your overhead bags which may or may not be directly above you can be a pain…. And even when I think I have it all sorted without a doubt I always leave something I need in that darn other bag…which yep others off as you try to access it…

This 15.5 hour flight was killed with 2 TV series I watched…A HBO Si-Fi called Raised with Wolves…nothing to do with wolves even though the name said so…and the other was Julia about Julia Childs the Well known 1960’s chief who changed the way Americans saw food…She was called the French Chief even though not French…she had lived in France and managed after a lot of hoops got it as the first ever cooking show to be viewed on TV in the US…. Not a bad story…I didn’t get to finish that one…sadly it was a good watch…
I managed about 3-4 hrs sleep with drugs…the food was pretty awful…but what can you expect from flight food…

We arrived into Sydney and to another painful Welcome to Australia customs set up….really I think Brisbane does it much better than Sydney…we had checked when we booked our suitcases in at Toronto, would our bags go straight through to Brisbane….yes we were told….well definitely flat no once in Sydney we had to get out our suitcases here and recheck then again…. Go through a customs process but not once did we see our suitcases scanned which is why we thought they were bought out from the transfer before heading in domestically….hmmmm this is odd…there was technically 3 hrs between our landing and our flight thank goodness because it took forever to go through the customs process….collect our bags…then walk what seemed mikes to find our domestic checking and as we made it there we held our breaths because we were sure they would hit us up for extra baggage with 3 suitcases…but thank you Toronto they had marked the bags well for transit and thank goodness the Qantas staff this time were happy with that… it like the Brisbane lot at the beginning of the trip…. So onto a bus over to domestic airport side…had a bit of a wait then off we went into our sardine can where we were repeating told that if our over head bags don’t fit on, as the flight was full they just would leave it behind…my glory what a awful feeling thinking after all this huge trip I might not get all my bags home…plus this time not first on as we weren’t right at the back and to be honest Canada’s boarding process is so much better than ours…more controlled and more relaxed….anyway did manage to get that rotten now very heavy small cabin bag in…heavy as loaded with grog for gifts….and squeezed in to the middle with no TV this time…but bonus free wifi…but to be honest brain is so tried can’t think…they did offer coffee and bonus choc chip cookies to eat…Qantas has really changed its service so much so it makes you wonder why give anything at all now..but I suppose if they are advertising as with food services….it has found they aren’t lying are they…..and if they give a bikkie and a drink….well guess it’s food services isn’t it….the flight was very noisy being so full and all the flight food plus some of those chock chip cookies finished off my already upset gut no end.,….it just wanted off this last flight and through every flight I had been dealing with this massive headache I worked out was from the plane pressure…hadn’t really had this before but it was on every flight and not there while not on a plane….I will also admit I will really think hard about extra long flights in the future…the old body just isn’t coping as well as it used to…

Lessons learned…..Always fly back into Brisbane never ever do a flight back to Sydney or Melbourne if having to flight OS through them…too many flights, too many hoops….so much easier when OS flight lands in your home state….

Would we go back to Canada……No ….it’s somewhere I never ever wanted to go in the first place…but Tim asked us to do the trip with him…have we enjoyed the trip….well yes and nooooo…we have seen some amazing sights that’s for sure….doing close in 20,000 ks has been very very challenging and tiring….it’s been the most expensive trip we have every done because Canada is expensive… food, accommodation and fuel have really been hard to keep costs down …even travelling in Europe for 9 months wasn’t as difficult with food and accommodation costs…

We have done it now and when we get time to look at the amazing pics I am sure we will rethink about the positives of this trip,…for now we are tired and just need to stop and reflect….something that we haven’t had time to do…and won’t for a bit yet too many commitments over the next few weeks before we might be able to just say let’s stop 🛑 breath, think and reflect on the positives of this huge mammoth trip….knowing it was a huge country is so very different to experiencing it’s huge expanse on the road..the roads are truly terrible due to the sheer amount of snow every year which does impacts the car knocking it around and you as a body in it…..with this pounding on your body daily as you travel makes you more tired than you already are when you are doing daily 6,7,8 hour drives….

Not seeing as much wild life as we thought we would was disappointing….Tim’s back yard had more wild life than we encounter on the road…. Which we have laughed about…..

Final Summary

Positives
•Wild flowers have been truly stunning…so many different varieties growing in clusters and often huge expanses of them…
•Scenic views of the Rockies on the WestCoast
•Snow Capped peaks of the Rockies and diversity of Kamloops unreal change of scenery from one rugged scene of the Prairie to the rugged mountains scenes 2 totally different yet unreal sights! If you do the Open view train 🚂 it would take you through all this truly awe inspiring scenery!
•Granite bolder islands with houses on them so crazy to build on tiny areas but liked unreal!!
•Stunning heritage homes in Nova Scotia
•Mind blowing views of Niagara Falls
•Quebec and it’s heritage sights a wonderful city to visit
•Peggy Point in Nova Scotia unreal sights
•The Puffin Cruise 🚢 seeing the wildlife natural setting
•Anne of Green Gables History on Prince Edward Island
•Food finally was exciting and edible in Montreal
•The coffee shops with the light, medium or dark roast coffee ready in hot pots to be able to ask for the strength of your coffee was a real bonus as I am now a black coffee drinker and so many of our coffees are like thick ink strong…
•The squirrels and Chipmunks….at Tim and Jess’s
•Seeing a Beaver 🦫 in his natural habitat!
•Being able to pay for fuel at the bowser not having to go inside the service centres to pay…
•School buses all yellow and black and have a stop 🛑 sign on the outside of the bus in the left hand side if our all cats both ways have to stop
• A lot of motorbike or push bike 🚲 riders wearing Fluro vests so you could see them easier especially on hwys!
• Minimal electric scooters 🛴 or skate board rides compared to our cities that are over run by both!
• Predominately the majority of homes were well looked after and immaculate gardens!
•Floral presentation of flower 🌺pots large and small just everywhere never in our travels have we seen so many flowers in baskets! Truly stunning!
•Cheap spirits so cocktails 🍸 were usually cheaper than a wine which it’s opposite here!!
•Shower Curtain rail bowed out at the top to keep it from attaching itself to a wet body as so many of ours do!! They don’t have just a shower always a shower in a bathtub 🛀 a pain but it’s how it is!!
• Knowing we could 90% of the time getting a good cappuccino for John hot water for me to make my own coffee and s bacon 🥓 farmers wrap for brekkie at Tim Horton’s!
• Free parking and free WiFi in 98% of our accommodation! Not like here where they charge for so many extras! We are finally getting a lot of free WIFi but not in the expensive hotels
• Free brekky with so many of your hotels especially from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia half the time we didn’t even know it was part of the deal! They weren’t amazing meals but it was food!!
• The old sheds and abandoned homes even though very sad I loved from a photographic point of view!!

Negatives
•Not really as many wild animals to see compared to home…..
•The rotten roads…..
•The sheer amount of Street people…
•The sheer amount of Cannabis shops unreal….
•French speaking in some areas wouldn’t try to speak English… The French areas of the country that didn’t want to speak English or have English signs up, menu’s eta…but the rest of the country it was mandated they had to have both languages on everything…very one sided…
•Driving up the wrong side of the street a few times so crazy 😝
•Motel rooms never quite know what you will get regards to coffee making. If a fridge how big the fridge does it have a darn freezer for this darn ice bricks…. Did my head in!
•Cost of Accommodation so expensive
• Food when you bought in cafes, restaurants or shopping centers or anything else like gifts, cloths etc, etc…always not the price on the ticket always add ons at the counter! Taxes and Tips are extra and you have to pay it before you get the service which might actually be really crap! The tipping amounts you had to give as you paid on the machine and depending on the business how much the tipping percentages would be….12%-15%-18% and 20%-25% crazy usually 3 choices you had to pick from the amounts, but it was expected 18% or higher so frustrating!

In between pos and neg:
•Green trees that seemed never ending
•Lake after lake after lake after ….. too many beautiful lakes you just stopped seeing their beauty after awhile as so many!
• Long distances involved if you had the money to fly and hire cars the other end would be preferred! But we did see more of the country than most locals we were told time and time again!!

Regrets..
•Not seeing Sylvia
•Not having a decent camera for the fast shots …

Funny things
•The handles on the loo most on the side I am still after a few days trying to flush the loo from the side 🤪😂
• The weird taps you never knew how to use some of them took sometime to work them out!!
• The fact you can turn right on a stop light unless indicated you can’t this was rare
• The stops signs on every intersection and the first person there goes first always this way
• Have set speed limits but no one not even truckies stick to the speed limits set! Some go so fast it’s like a whoosh going by!

Thanks for following our crazy long journey and putting up with my spelling slips which will be edited when I have time to review them all! Hope I didn’t bore you too much!

Good chance of I’ll add to the last part of this as things come to mind an never ending story 😫😁😃🤔😂 ! If I remember 😂😂Read more