Sydney, Day 0.5: flight to Sydney and settling in

Aaand... I am in Sydney!

It’s amazing how you can go through a (mostly generic) airport waiting area, get on a plane, come out through a (mostly generic) airport waiting area, and be in a completely different place. It didn’t really hit me that I had changed cities until I was walking towards customs and there was the Sydney skyline through the window, looking like a postcard but REAL. And then there was the bus trip into the city (no trains because of track work, but the buses were therefore FREE) and staring out the window (trying not to look too much like a tourist even though, yes, I am on an airport bus) at the cute buildings that I shall call garrets because that’s the word that springs to mind. Little terraces with awesome wrought iron balconies. And going past Mt Carmel and being reminded of Looking for Alibrandi (is Mt Carmel in there? Can’t remember) and all the streets and people and old heritage buildings (i.e. those that are more than one hundred years old) and then the towers and EVERYTHING.

Right. Breathe. I’ll try to go in chronological order.  I apologise for long sentences , capital letters and parentheses. Yes, I know this will be long. I won’t come after you with a pitchfork if you don’t read all of it :)

Lots of my family came to see me off at the airport, including my four-year-old cousin who had to leave early to play his FIRST EVER GAME OF SOCCER (awww). Thank you all for coming, and for all the texts and calls! I’ll miss you! You must come over and visit me :D   I did the electronic passport control, where it reads your passport, face-recognises you and takes a picture when you go through the gate. Very Minority Report.

I was in the back row of the plane, and my TV was showing The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest when I sat down (I think the flight attendant was watching it). No window seat, unfortunately, and even the windows closest to me were curtained off for the flight attendants. There was a nice German girl sitting next to me, however, so we talked while we waited to take off and I tried not to watch the movie (I hadn’t seen it and it was halfway through).

In the end I did watch the last half of it and the first quarter (in that order – it’s okay, I’ve read the book) mostly because I couldn’t figure out how to use the remote properly until halfway through the flight. We had fish for lunch, and then (it seemed like just a few minutes later) we’d touched down in Sydney. My phone welcomed me to Oz when I turned it on, and I winced as text messages came through. I can’t remember how much it costs when I receive them, but most were (hopefully free ones) from Vodafone, so I don’t think my credit has gone down that much.

I met my friend The Angel at Central Station. My suitcase-I-found-on-the-side-of-the-road is holding up okay, though I think the dragging handle may not last much longer. I bought a weekly public transport ticket and we bussed back to The Angel’s house (with more garrets! Possibly the same ones... I have no idea where we were). So good to be free of the suitcase... The Angel found out I hadn’t seen Despicable Me, so we got that out of the video store, had beef and vege noodles for dinner and then watched movies and ate mussels and chips. Yum. We also saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (Punk Lawyer Girl must watch it if she hasn’t already, also possibly Disneyland Tax Girl though you may think it’s weird. But it is awesome).

Despite my attempt to adjust immediately to the time difference, I woke at 5.55am Sydney time. I will try harder tomorrow.