In the last four hours…

My volcano tour guide offered to take me to the beach (in a non-tour guide capacity), arranging to meet me at my hostel since I had no phone, but failed to show in the following two hours. I may or may not have been stood up.

While sitting in the hostel lounge at the tail end of those two hours an older woman asked me about myself. She offered to drive me to the beach, but since she hadn’t otherwise intended to go I declined. It was incredibly generous of someone who had spoken to me for all of five minutes.

I was ravenous, so I went to a café for brunch, where a lady stopped on her way out to ask me where I was from. I had only been reading at a table so I was a bit confused by the question, until she said she just wanted to tell me I was very pretty.

I bought a packet of Reese’s Peanut Butter Pieces, ostensibly so that I would have the correct change for the bus, but really because this peanut-butter-as-lollies business is growing on me, perhaps too much. The lady serving me was delighted and said they reminded her of E.T.

I could find the bus stop going west, but not the one I needed going east. A firefighter said hello to me while I looked, so I asked him for help. He and his friend weren’t sure, but they chatted to me about where I was from (Bells Beach seemed to be the correct response when they asked about surf near Melbourne) until I missed my bus.

I decided to walk the 2-ish miles to the shopping centre. On the way a guy walking just ahead of me yelled “Where is a taxi when you need one?!” He let me pass, but when he realised my dress was blowing up in the wind and I was struggling to prevent it, he laughed and said he’d go ahead. He introduced himself, decried American culture with me and invited me to a block party next Friday. We parted ways at the shopping centre, but he offered to give me some phone numbers of girl friends of his in Honolulu. I am not brave enough to make friends that way, so I declined.

I am flying back to Honolulu at 6.30pm, where I have met no one.