Well, I'll start off by saying that our flights going to Aussie were a little more chaotic than expected. Our first flight to Chicago was delayed, then Mel and I needed to get on a plane to San Fransisco to catch our flight to Sydeny. Well, because of the weather in Chacago, the San Fran flight was Cancelled! Needless to say, when I saw that I started freaking out a bit..... Mel and I went to the customer service in Chacago and a rep was able to put us on a later fight to San Fran but there were no more flights to sydney for another 24 hrs....so we had to stay overnight. Well, one would probably look at this as a huge inconvenience, but as Mel and I learned, there's always a silver lining!
Because we had to stay overnight, the customer service rep, Mike, upgraded us to 'economy plus' for our 14.5 hr flight to sydney. This made all the difference because we had a bit more legroom and nobody sat inbetween our seats, so we could stretch out. Also, because our flight got cancelled, Mel's insurance covered us to get a hotel room for the extra night. We chose the Marriott! It was perfect, we each had a comfortable bed that felt like heaven after a day of traveling, and the next morning, we ate a nice breakfast, went swimming and used the sauna. Then we went into town and shopped around and had dinner. By the time we went to the airport for our long flight, we were well rested and ready to embark on our next adventure.
The plane ride actually wasn't as bad as I expected. Mel and I were both pretty tired (and I took a few gravol) so we both slept for the majority of it. Plus, it felt like they were always feeding us...there was too much food (and as everyone knows, airplane food tastes gross!)
Once we arrived in sydney our luggage was waiting for us. We got on a city buss and after a few rounds, found out where we were supposed to go. One cute part was when we asked this little old lady if we were going the right way to bondi, she was so helpful and even got off with us and walked us to our next stop. When she left she came up to both of us and kissed us on the cheeks (like a grandma would do....) it felt like a very homey welcome to aussie.
Our hostel is decent. I'm sharing a room with 5 other people (one of them being mel, of course). It's pretty different than i expected though. THere's alot of aussies staying here b/c of new years and it's their vacation time too....so they're not as open to get to know you. Also, there's lots of foreign ppl too, so the language barrier kinda makes it impossible to meet others. BUt, mel and I are having a pretty good time doing our own thing.
It was difficult getting ready yesterday morning. Because of the time change, I'm still not adjusted so by 7pm i'm about ready to fall over, so I go to bed. This means that I wake up REALLY early. Yesterday morning I was up at 3am, but obviously, I stayed in bed till 6:30, even then, all my roommates were sleeping so I felt kinda bad unzipping and sorting through all of my various bags to find my things....I really can't wait to get my own place and unpack my belongings. living out of a backpack is not fun!
So yesterday morning, Mel and I had to go to the commonwealth bank in sydney to open up our accounts. We got on a bus, and I was surprised how easy it was to find our way. The public transport here is fairly easy to follow (but it's way more expensive than kw). We opened up our accounts and then we went exploring the city. There's so many neat shops and places to eat. We had lunch at this really fresh bistro, where i got freshly made watermelon juice...yum!
We continued walking and went to the botanical gardens. It was AMAZING! I took a bunch of pics and we stayed there for hours walking around. The grounds were kept beautifully and we were right on the harbour. This was the first point of the trip when I was actually really happy that I came...the previous parts had been a little stressed and we hadn't had a chance yet to actually enjoy ourselves.
After we left the botanical gardens, we walked by the sydney opera house and then we saw a movie theatre. We went in for our first australian movie: Vicky Christina Barcelona. We came home and by 7pm I was passed out in my bed. I think it's going to take a bit of time to get used to the time difference. Tonight is new years and I'm hoping that i can stay up unitl 12am, but it may be a bit unrealistic.
Mel and I have talked about going into sydney to see the fireworks, our only concern is getting back home to the hostel in bondi. Alot of the busses aren't running because roads will be closed and there's going to be so many people....we'll see!!
