My 1st hitch off and my 1st day back in Luanda, Angola

My first hitch of days off have come to an end. It was a good time with friends, family, and lots of vacation! After coming back on Sunday from Saudi Arabia, Chelsea had arranged to throw me a surprise party with lots of friends and family to reunite after 10 weeks of being away! It was a great night. Thanks Chelsea!!!  The following day I spent in Bakersfield and got to see our good friend’s babies, Payton and Hudson, as well as many more family and friends. Then on Monday night we left to go to Tulum, Mexico for a week’s vacation with Hillary and Greg, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. The resort that we stayed at was incredible and all-inclusive; needless to say after spending 5 weeks in dry-Saudi, it was just what the doctor ordered. It was great to get to know Hillary and Greg better, but after a week we were headed back to Bakersfield. We spent Monday and Tuesday in Bakersfield, but by Wednesday the itch to travel was starting on us both. We talked that afternoon about going to Paris and by nights end we had booked tickets for Thursday afternoon to make the 5 day trip.

Paris was really fun and it was so cool to see first hand all of the tourist attractions you see in movies and pictures. Chelsea and I visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, the Arch de Triumph and many more places! It was a very fun, and romantic, trip. My only regret/advise is to avoid doing tourist things on Monday, 75% of places are closed on Monday. However, there was a two day pass to most all of the museums that we purchased that was very useful and we were able to use it for more than two days. Also, learn to like bread. I thought the food here was so-so, but the baguettes were incredible (and cheap)! We got back to LA on Tuesday and stayed in Bakersfield for about 2 weeks until I went to Denver for a bachelor party and Chelsea went to Wisconsin for a wedding. (same weekend)

The bachelor party went down without a glitch. There were some funny moments, we seemed to have gotten the only limo still in service that was made in the  1970’s and was literally falling apart from neglect, but we laughed it off and made the best of it, it added character to the trip. After the bachelor party I met Chelsea in Wisconsin for the long weekend and one of her close friends took off a few more days to spend with Chelsea and I. We both had a great time in Wisconsin, it is beautiful there with lush grass and tree’s everywhere and every meal we had was superb! Claudia’s buffalo chicken cheese dip was especially fantastic! While we were in Wisconsin, we got to visit the Leinenkugel’s brewery. The third oldest and fourth largest handcrafted brewery in the country, of course we had beer tastings at the end of it, the Leine’s Berry Weis was Chelsea and my favorite! We brought back 10 bottles.

I was home for another week, and then Chelsea took me back down to LA to drop me off at the airport for what we prepared would be a very stressful day! Since the Angolan consulate only issues visa’s to enter Angola within 72 hours of its issue, it makes the trips and flight paths difficult. At 3pm my passport (and visa) was released from the consulate in Houston, then a courier took it to the airport and put it on a plane to LAX that was supposed to arrive at 8:15pm, and my flight was at 9:00pm. So I was going to check my bags with my second passport, then pick up my passport with the Visa and then return to the airport and try to get through security as fast as possible. Maybe it was all the praying, but the courier was able to get it on an earlier flight that landed at 5:30pm in LAX! Crisis averted! Little did we know…

Chelsea and I love eating at a restaurant called Gyu Kaku. It is a small Japanese BBQ restaurant in West Hollywood. There is a small grill in the middle of the table and you can choose from many meats to grill. The meat is so hot as it comes off the grill and the experience so unique that this has been my favorite restaurant on the planet for about 2 years! It never gets old to me, even though in essence you pay to cook your own meat. Before we ate we got a GREAT parking spot right outside, and since the meter said “monitored 10am to 4pm” we didn’t even have to pay as it was 3:51 and there was 9 minutes left in the meter! Once we were done with a great linner we walked back outside and our car was gone! After walking to the corner we say the sign “Anti-Gridlock Zone 4pm-6pm, No Parking, Violators will be towed.” It was 6pm and since it was after hours, the city would not pick up to let us know which tow company had our car. We started calling every tow company in West LA, and luckily found the car. It was only a block away from the restaurant so we walked it. We were both sooo happy to see our car (with all my work luggage inside) that we didn’t care at that point how much it cost. That didn’t last long. About 5 minutes after we started driving, we realized there was a ticket under the wiper for $170 to the city on top of the $225 (125 of which went to the city) we had already spent to get the car released!! HOW IS CA BANKRUPT!?!

We carried on to Pinkberry, Chelsea’s favorite place in LA before picking up my passport and dropping me off at the airport for an otherwise uneventful remaining trip. I had gotten upgraded on the long flight to Paris (yes, the exact same flight we had taken 3 weeks earlier) to premium, which is basically old-school first class seats, which was really nice.

I had never realized how truly nice the airport lounges were until I took a shower in the Air France lounge after my long 11-hour flight! I forgot to take a picture, but this will definitely be my M.O. from now on when I have layovers in Paris!! I thought that I was going to get equally lucky on my flight to Luanda, I had gotten a exit, bulkhead row with no one sitting in the middle. BIG SCORE. I took a 1 hour nap, then when I woke up, there was this big guy sitting in the middle seat, equally as broad as myself. We elbow wrestled the rest of the trip. Clearing immigration in Luanda was  breeze, but then when I went to get my baggage I waited, waited, waited, then the conveyer stopped! Crap! I went over to lost and found and filled out 15 minutes worth of paperwork, thinking I would never see my bag again. Then when I left, there was my bag sitting like a present right outside the lost and found area. I still don’t know how it got there, and I don’t care.

I went outside and breathed in the unhealthy Luanda air and waited for about an hour for my ride to the staff house. Meanwhile, this Angolan guy was talking to me for about 40 minutes. Ultimately, he was hustling me for a cliff bar, he said he hadn’t eaten for days and he looked like he could be telling the truth. I gladly gave him a cliff bar, then he scampered off…

I had forgotten how crazily the people and drivers are in Angola. When you step into a car, its like you are getting ready for battle to see who can beat who on the streets. Sidewalks with pedestrians, dirt fields with HUGE potholes, or driving into oncoming traffic, anywhere is fair driving grounds. Unfortunately, we drove on all the mentioned ground plus more I think. We also got stuck in one of the huge potholes. I had to get out and help push with 3 more Angolan passerby’s to get the car out. The trip really got my blood pressure up there.

Finally arriving at staff house 6, they assigned me to room 22 for the week. My duffle that I had left was conveniently in this room, but I was sad that my friend, Mr. Patrick was not here, but I was happy to take his room.

After trying to get transportation for nearly 2 hours I finally made it down to the head office to submit my passport to Immigration. I had been instructed that I will remain in Luanda until I get my receipt from Immigration, a process that has taken up to 8 weeks before. The visa lady told me it should only take a week, but we will see. I will lay low and work from the comfort of my room until I get the receipt. At dinner, I was not overly talkative but still this guy from Australia was prodding me to see what I was all about. After a few minutes he said that he was the district manager for Cabinda, my bosses, boss. He told me that he would see me at work tomorrow…