The Longest Day Of My Life

Most days are 24 hours. That’s just how days typically work. Well, let me tell you, that was not my experience of June 23rd, 2023. Allow me to explain how I experienced this pivotal day.

23/06/23 8:00am I woke up in my flat in Wellington at 8:00am with a lot to accomplish. I had to finish packing all my stuff from my room and fit it into my luggage, wash the sheets, vacuum and wipe down the room, and say goodbye to Everton. I worked busily all morning so that I was ready at 11:00am for my scheduled room inspection. I had cleaned well and the room was approved and then promptly locked.

I said goodbye to my flatmates at varying times that morning based on when they had to leave and just before heading out, I went over to Everton Hall to walk around one last time. While I was there, I dropped off a copy of Kylo Kangaroo in the study room with a little note. At this point, it was around 12:00pm and that seemed like a healthy time to depart.

23/06/23 3:45pm After checking my luggage under the plane, running into my flatmate Oliver (he was heading to Queenstown), getting something to eat for lunch, and just waiting around, I was on the plane flying away from Wellington. It was hard to leave but at the same time, it felt like the right time and I’m sure I’ll make a triumphant return one day! On the plane to Sydney, I tried reading a book I had purchased earlier in the week. I want to become a novel reader again. This book checked all my boxes. It was short, realistic fiction, contemporary, and had accessible language. Even so, once I started reading, I wasn’t very enthralled by it.

23/06/23 6:00pm I landed in Sydney and had a three hour layover. I bought an açaí bowl (remember when I got these with Owen in Sydney??) and a cheese and spinach borek for dinner. In Wellington, the time was 8:00pm but with the time change I gained two hours. Near me, there was a school group waiting to get on the plane. The kids were playing cards in a circle on the floor and it reminded me of my Denmark Exchange trip. Pretty soon, we were all loading onto the plane bound for Honolulu!

06/23/23 10:00am This is where it gets weird! I was cleaning my room at 10:00am on the 23rd and then suddenly I was in Hawaii and it was 10:00am again. Time travel is real! The flight had gone fine. I had an aisle seat in the middle row and had managed to get some sleep which was good but I was still exhausted. It took a while to get through customs but I finally exited into the real world. I was back in the US but still on an island in the pacific!

06/23/23 1:00pm After going to a store at the mall that would hold my big suitcase for the week so I didn’t have to take it to Maui (I arranged this through an app called Bounce), I made it over to my hostel (with the help of ubers) and tried to check in. I was too early unfortunately but they at least let me leave my stuff there. I was pretty hungry so my next stop was the ABC Store (its kind of a general/souvenir store chain) and bought some Lychee berries, melon and shrimp. I’m aware it wasn’t the most filling but its what I could find.

I hit the beach and ate there on the sand. It was quite a busy beach and the iconic one people think of in Honolulu. I am staying in Waikiki which is apparently a very happening part of the city. I was boiling with all these heat (It was winter when I woke up that morning but then it switched to summer) so I jumped into the water! It was very refreshing but not too cold. The annoying thing though is that the UV index is very high here so sunscreen is a must.

I went to a cafe and got a burrito (I was still hungry) and then I decided to walk to the Diamond Head Crater. It was a long walk but I saw some cute birds on the way. I also stopped at Honolulu Cookie based on a recommendation from my friends Lauren and Jennifer from Brandeis.

I learned when I got there that you need a reservation to go to the crater. That was so disappointing. Luckily, I’ll have some time in Honolulu on my way home so I booked a reservation to go on the 29th before my flight.

06/23/23 4:00pm At this point, I ubered back to my hostel and it was past 3:00 so I was able to move in. The guy at the check-in was in a fun mood. One woman named Mariah was checking in so the dude started playing a song with the name Mariah in it. When it was my turn to check in, I joked that I didn’t have a song and then he found one and started doing the same thing for everyone there. I got my linen pack and headed to my room. The room I’m in has eight beds but they are partitioned into two rooms with four beds in each. I chose the back room because no one was in it. While I made my bed, I talked to Elina on the phone which was very nice!

06/23/23 6:00pm If you were looking for me at this time, you’d find me in a dressing room of a Hawaiian shirt store trying on a red shirt with flowers on it. I sent a photo to Elina to see what she thought and we both agreed that maybe I’d go with blue instead. I then ubered into the downtown area to check it out. I saw the palace that is from back when Hawaii was a monarchy! I had no idea it was a monarchy. I also found the University of Hawaii.

06/23/23 8:00pm I had a lot of trouble finding something to eat for dinner. Turns out the downtown didn’t have a lot of restaurants. I got my mind set on getting pizza so I went to one place but just as I was ordering, the dude at the front learned that the kitchen was out of dough. So, I found another pizza place which was outdoors and I got a pizza there. I was so hungry, I basically ate the whole thing. The waiter was surprised.

06/23/23 10:00pm After dinner, I returned to my hostel and met a new roommate who had moved in while I was out. He was a software engineer from the bay area who is off to Japan during his paid time off. We got along great! At 10:00pm, I was exhausted from my very long day and was just about to go to sleep when a seventy-year-old man wearing a fanny pack arrived and announced to us how he was riding a boat full of a lot of hot women and how he was taking them back to the hostel but they lost interest when he couldn’t remember his hostel key code.

There was a good amount of time when I wasn’t even convinced he was checked into this hostel. I’ll spare you the details but this man apparently was good friends with Muhammed Ali, owns a acre of land on the Big Island for $295 a month, has made millions using AI, is too poor to go to Maui overnight, has a very strong laser pointer in his pocket and doesn’t like to sleep too much. He also might be hanging out with Tom Brady soon. Get the picture? Not well… Luckily, he shut up eventually and I tried to get some sleep.

So the longest day of my life started with me cleaning my flat in Wellington, New Zealand and it ended with me sleeping on a bunk below an unwell man who said the person at the front desk of the hostel didn’t even want to let him in. Life is wild.

Next time on David Upside Down: David runs away from Oahu and begins his life anew living in a tent in Maui.