Goodbye Clouds of Gray, Hello Skies of Blue

View from a pool in Cairns

A couple of things to start:

• I apologize for using The Bachelor’s favorite words like journey, adventure, experience, etc. I will be using them A LOT.

• This post was written during my flights and layovers to get to Cairns, Australia (first of three major trips for me)

• I apologize to my Midwest readers who may be freezing with the tundra wind- I hope my pictures bring warmth to you.

It is finally February 8th and I am sitting at MSP airport waiting to embark on my journey to the other side of the world. I have never traveled without a family member or without a friend's parent. I bought my airplane tickets on my own, then made travel and accommodation plans with the help of two other Cyclones whom I will travel with before University starts. It's a new experience for me and has made me grow up quickly. But before I make this seem like a glamorous traveling experience, I want to make it clear that it was not.

I arrived at MSP airport three hours before my flight was to take off at 6:05pm and was thankful that I did. Turns out that I used my nickname Annie instead of my real name Anne for my boarding pass. United Airlines feared I wouldn't be able to make it into Australia with the wrong name, so we started our two hour long quest to see if I can change my name. Turns out, we couldn't. I exhausted all of my options: calling my booking agent, then every airline I am traveling through, but no one was able to change my name because they were fearing that it would cancel all of my tickets.

I'm not going to lie, I cried. It was 5:45pm and tears were flowing like no other. It was too late to get through TSA and board the plane so the rest of my hope was gone. As I was ready to pack up and go home with my mother and brother, one of the United Airlines ladies that was helping me contact other airlines gave me two pieces of information that immediately put a smile on my face: our flight was delayed two hours for poor weather in San Fransisco and I should test my luck the whole way to Australia because my nickname is only one letter different than my birth name. I got through TSA and actually started my trip to Australia.

We previously had a two-hour layover in San Fran, but since our MSP flight was delayed, we were looking at a 3 minute difference. Luckily for us, there were 7 people on our flight that was connecting to Sydney so they held the plane as we all sprinted across the airport. We landed in Sydney, got through customs and a problem that I thought was going to be major turned out to be minor because many sectors in the travel industry have the same exceptions for similar nicknames.

Another flight later and I arrived in Cairns, Australia. My 30 hour traveling nightmare/sleep-fest came to a close and I officially can say I am in Australia.

P.S. Check out my pictures as I will be added them pretty regularly.

P.S.x2 This was posted a couple days late so my apologies on that.

P.S.x3 My next blog will be about my week in Cairns and Sydney!