Few experienced vacationers would disagree: unless family obligations demand it, travelling over the Christmas holidays is ill advised. Airports and planes are overcrowded, people are frantic and look slightly demented, and all your flights are destined to be so very, very late. That said, December in Melbourne has never felt – and will probably never feel - like Christmas. Believing we were long overdue for a proper White Christmas, we planned to go back to Canada for the festive season.
Traveling on the cheap meant having to deal with the worst of all possible connecting flights. Although it might sound appealing, we began the first leg of our trip with a 16-hour layover in Fiji. This was just enough time for us to forget to put on enough sunscreen and develop the most festive looking sunburn. That’s right, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer had a very, very, shiny, red, peeling, sunburnt nose. Even before receiving a customary hug at the airport, my glowing red beacon of a nose was the first thing my mom noticed when she came to pick me up. I can't help but feel like tropical cyclone Evans final victim since each and every palm tree in Fiji had been stripped of its lovely shade-giving fronds only days before we arrived (this cyclone hit Fiji pretty badly only 5 days prior). It felt post-apocalyptic to see capsized boats, debris everywhere, shattered palms and resorts with missing roofs and the occasional tree sticking out of a wall.
Anyway, just to rewind back to Nadi airport (Fiji) for a minute, while waiting to board our already late flight there was a total power failure! Not just a brown out or a temporary blip in the service but a full on proper power outage. Left with little alternative we continued our longstanding waiting game in the dark, comforted by the reassuring glow or our mobile phones. Eventually, someone in charge decided it was time to pull out the flashlights and we were allowed to board our flight under a cover of darkness. Needless to say, this kind of event does little to reassure a weary traveler that the flight they are boarding will make it safely to its destination. Additionally, the lack of boarding computers meant that we could only imagine the body-identification headaches that would ensue after our inevitable demise somewhere over the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
As it turned out, our vision of an untimely death at sea was slightly exaggerated and 2 more late planes and a missed connection later, we made it back to the land of maple syrup and snowshoes in one disheveled piece. Although I originally thought jetlag was more of a myth, my waking up at 5 p.m. with a hankering for French toast begs to differ. To top it all off, a couple of days after we arrived a monster snowstorm hit Montreal and meant I couldn’t leave my Dad’s house for several days. Dangerous streets coupled with non-existent public transport meant I could let my imaginary jetlag take hold while I slept in and nursed my sunburnt skin back to its usual freckly self.
In spite of it all, Christmas with family, being home, and catching up with old friends made it all seem worth it, with all the tears and laughter. The missed connections, the sunburnt skin, the sudden power outages and the Himalayan snowdrifts just somehow seemed insignificant. The time I spent back in Canada went by too fast and confirmed that I really miss my hometown and its people. Leaving is always hertbreaking , but hopefully will be back before too long…
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