As I hugged Mum goodbye, I was off on my first big solo adventure, ready for the long haul from Melbourne - Sydney - LA - Denver. After 3 flights and 27 hours of traveling I arrived in Downtown Denver. With only 4 hours sleep on the flight over to the US, the hotel bed was a welcomed sight. I better enjoy the 2 nights of luxury as the rest of my trip is hostel rooms. It was only going to be a quick stopover in Denver, just long enough for my body to recover from the flight and to acclimatize to the change in altitude.
All the travel must have taken it out of me because the next day I woke up at 12pm, only because housekeeping came in to make up my room. I discovered that my hotel was directly across from a shopping so that was my day mapped out. I usually have no problem spending money in H&M but was well behaved and left empty handed. 'There will be plenty of time to shop in New York' I kept telling myself. Besides my pack was full before I even left Melbourne and I still have plenty more bus trips and flights to come. The hotel was in a very handy location, one block back from 16th Street where there was plenty of restaurants and shopping. The best part was the free mall bus. The bus came every few minutes and stopped on every street corner which made it really easy to get around.
After a few hours wondering around 16th Street Mall, I headed down to the Pepsi Centre to the NBA to see Denver Nuggets take on OKC Thunder. The Pepsi Centre was smaller than I expected so my seat was closer than I thought. I contemplated buying a cap to wear but as a Knicks fan, I wasn't even sure who I was going for. It was a pretty close game but OKC drew away at the end to take the win. The atmosphere was lacking (compared to the Knicks v Bulls game at Madison Square Garden earlier in the year). It surprised me when an OKC player just dropped the ball with about 10 seconds to go and no other player moved to get the ball. Both teams just walked off court and fans got up and started leaving the arena with 5 minutes to go. I got extremely confused walking out of the venue so my instincts told me it was best to just follow the crowd. With absolute luck I managed to find my way to a street that I recognised, avoiding getting too lost.
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| Catching an OKC win against Denver at the Pepsi Centre |
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| Russell Westbrook getting it done for OKC |
I was all set to go to bed after I got home from the basketball as I would need plenty of energy the next day, to lug my pack and board from bus to bus to get to Aspen. But the jet lag kicked in and my body clock was clearly still on Melbourne time. At 2.30am I got up and packed my bag, as I thought this was the most productive use of time. By 3.30am I was starting to doze, then finally I fell asleep, dreaming of fresh powder on the slopes of Aspen.
