Yes, all things come to an end and I can barely begin to explain the feeling when all the good bits of the trip are all but done and dusted and you find yourself on the other side of the world with several days of airports ahead before that joyous moment when your head hits your own pillow in your very own bed.
When we had arrived in Dubrovnik off the ship, we had caught a local taxi to the old town as we had ALL our luggage in tow. You can imagine the dismay we felt when we learnt that we'd bed to navigate our suitcases on our own through the town as it was a pedestrian-only designated area.
I'm sure you can also imagine the dismay at the reversal of said journey to catch a taxi to get out to the airport for our morning flight. We'd arranged for the same taxi driver on our first day to meet us in our final morning, to ensure that we'd make our flight.
Now let your imagination extend to the lovely image of me running (yes, I do run on occasion!) with my sports bag on wheels and sundry bags of souvenirs and dirty washing through the streets of the old town at 7am, (man, those tourists make an early start!) exhorting Sequoia to run ahead to let the taxi driver know we were indeed on our way and to please please wait for us.
It was with utter short-breathed relief that I limped up the rampart of the Pile Gate to find Sequoia standing like the unruffled fashion model she often emulates, next to our anticipated taxi.
I quietly died as the driver efficiently deposited my luggage and we made our way towards the airport.
Now, I was well aware that the Dubrovnik airport was a little way from the town, but as we made our way along some of the most breathtaking coastal scenery, I was starting to worry. 10, 15, 20 minutes passed and I started hoping that we weren't going to find ourselves at an airport in some other country.
The language barrier between the driver and us allowed for an agreement of airport and the set fee (there were signs advising the price from city to airport) but I was a little concerned that perhaps 'airport' really wasn't specific enough to be at all certain where we were headed.
Fortunately, at about the 40 minute mark, we glimpsed the airfield and a sign in English telling us that we had in fact come to the correct airport. Yay!!!
We checked in and had enough time to have a local pastry before we boarded the first of many the trans-planet flights ahead of us.
Dubrovnik Airport:
First stop was Barcelona for the day. We had discovered that I had in fact left my iPad in our cruise cabin and had arranged to head back to the port to retrieve as the ship was docked in Barcelona on that very day, boarding for the next lot of cruisers.
It was quite fun to relive the excitement we had felt only a short 2 weeks prior as we made our way back to the ship. We retrieve the forgotten iPad, but unfortunately lost some items that had been left in the cabin safe that the staff assured us were not there. There wasn't a lot in there, but i was quite disappointed that out cash for our stop in Japan had now been taken and kept. Not pointing fingers, but there would have only been a few people with access to the safe so someone had our stuff!
Oh well. Not going to let it spoil everything. We made our way back to La Fonda, our beloved restaurant from our fist visit, and made sure that we filled up on the deliciousness before we flew away again.
One of the small delights as we travelled through Southern Europe. Supermarkets in various countries are known as merkats. I know. Well, my favourite, though, would have to be in Barcelona:
After our fabulous meal, we headed back to Barcelona Aiport and made our way on to Amsterdam again:
Arriving after midnight, we decided to do the 'sleeping in airports' thing. We are such adventurers! Yes, it was as fun as it sounds:
We then boarded the crazy long flight to Narita. By this stage we were both almost crying with fatigue. As we made our way through the exit gate at the airport, we were greeted by a film crew who wanted to know what we were doing in Tokyo.
Sequoia informed them, in Japanese, that we would be heading to the local shopping mall for something to eat and to pass the hours before our onward flight home. We must have looked half dead and surely they would have seen that we were completely done in for. No fun trip into Tokyo for us. We Hau didn't have any energy left! I have since learnt that often these film crews ask visitors if they can follow them around for the day for a popular tv show over there. I don't know why they didn't want to come to the local mall with us. Hahaha.
Before we knew it, we were homeward bound and then touching down in Cairns. One of my favourite things with travelling is flying back into the lush, gorgeous little city that is our home.
What an amazing trip we had had! And it has been my pleasure to share some of the highlights here with you. I hope you've had as much fun as we have had making it!
