So whenever I start these travel logs I always say stuff like ... if only I'd booked ahead and well it´s no different this time.

I've had a hectic few days I can tell you. Had a very messy night on Friday and ended up having a bit of a fight with the escalator (again!). Typically I now have two rather lovely scars on my temple surrounded by a bruise that's coming up a nice yellow today. At least I won't get robbed as hey it'll look like I already have. Didn't get rid of my room so my bond is looking like missing in action. Still have my fingers crossed as am very skint.

Got most things done but as always leaving things to the last minute has it's drawbacks which I found to my cost. Caitriona you will be glad to know that I did get my uni transfer in - but doubtless disapointed that it is a very bodgy job indeed. And cost me 30 quid to fax from the high st - outragous! Will have to see how that all goes. Am not so confident but hey most likely will have to put myself out to work to pay off this trip as soon as I get back anyhow.

My flight out was at 6.35am and as I hadn't had my boxes collected in time *sigh* I got a cab at 4am to get to the airport. Khalid my cabbie has promised to show me India too "but I'm going to Australia" "No come to India in March with me" Em yeah. Might I mention at this stage that instead of having an early night as planned I in fact did not sleep at all (all fairly pleasurable time spent though). So it was tired Ros carting everything to the airport I can tell you. And then to discover contrary to what I had been told on the phone (24 hours my arse) that the shipping company did not open until 6. I should mention at this stage that my flight boarding time was at 6.05. This is when I started to sweat.

Luck was on my side however and they opened at 5.30 and I was first in the line. Sadly the sole staff member may have started that morning from the looks of things and I have very little confidence that I will see my possessions again. And they were overweight so had to unpack and buy a bag there and get a new reference number - which appears on neither of my bags! So at 6.15 I start the sprint to the plane and thankfully make it and even have enough time to call my folks from the bus to the plane on my mobile which I had sadly forgotten to pack - ooh must post home tomorrow. So it was all good.

Landed in Frankfurt at 9.01 just in time to head to my 9.05 flight. I stayed awake on the flight to Frankfurt as I was a bit scared I'd really crash so you can imagine how pleased I was to find I was sitting in the seat directly behind the babies cribs. I was nasty and asked to move - which even happened! Maybe it's the scars.

Lufthansa has crap planes though. On the flight to Caracas they had one movie in English and a motoring show. I love the fact they have a techno music channel too .. that's the Germans for you. It was a long flight but I slept for a lot of it. It was all good .... well except for finding that as I said I would like vegetarian plus fish meals meant that every meal had to have smoked fish in everything. Urrrh. One of the flight attendants in my section was spunky though which kept me happy!

So now Caracas. It's pretty cool actually but haven't seen too much of it yet. There are loads of American cars on the road and it was sad to see all the slums on the way into town. The outskirts are pretty grim in that way. But a lot of the houses were painted in different colours and even the poverty looked charming if you know what I mean. The city itself is big and modern with amazingly large billboards everywhere. The hotel I wanted to stay in was fully booked (as per usual - will I ever learn) so am stayed in another place I found just down the road which is in a fairly good suburb. I've wandered round the area a bit tonight and am now having a bit of a sit down before heading back for what is here an early night (well for me) but quite late for the time I have just left. Tomorrow I'm going to organise my ride out of town and check out a bit more of town. It really is so exciting to think that I'm really in South America.

ros from URL @ 10:47 pm