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Published: January 21st 2010
I made it!!!! God, the trip was really horrible, but now I'm feeling very chirpy (despite the fact that it's the morning and we ALL know that I'm not a morning person).
London ----> Dubai
This flight was really good, only 7 hours so not long enough to really feel the cabin fever. Plus I had a great seat at the front of the block of seats, which means loads of leg room. I originally had two free seats next to me (I was on the aisle) but then an elderly woman ran and jumped into the window seat. She was thoroughly excitable, and very nice. She reminded me a lot of Granny (maternal grandmother who sadly passed away 2 years ago). My favourite aspect of her was the way that whenever one of the air hosts/hostesses asked her ANYTHING at all, she would reply with "What do you want????" instead of "Pardon?" or any variant on that. I hope that when I'm older I can become that obnoxious. She was going to southern India to visit a friend. When the plane was coming into land, I saw that Burj al Thingy building, the tallest one. I can confirm that it is, indeed, very tall. I had about 15 minutes dash through Dubai airport (very shiny) and then I jumped onto the next one. On that flight (for anyone who cares) I watched Time traveller's wife, and Ghosts of Gfs past. Both of them made me cry, which was awkward.
Dubai ----> Sydney
Was sat next to a girl from Bordeaux who was going to do a masters in Sydney Uni. She was perfectly sweet. Seat was awful, no leg room and the air conditioning wasn't working properly. And it was 14 hours of that. I couldn't sleep. At all. Even if Jesus had been singing me a lullaby, I doubt I would have slept. I spent most of the time trying to get to sleep, but also watched some disney movies (didn't want to risk crying again in front of even more people). When I got to Sydney, I walked outside into tropical heat. It was about 27C or so, and quite humid. Got a cab with a Somalian driver (to be honest, I was a little worried he might rape me but this feeling dissipated after about 5 minutes). He was lovely though, and gave me some good advice for my time here.
I arrived at the hostel, completely and totally disorientated and tired. Went up to the room which I'm sharing with 5 other girls, one of whom was there already. She's from Birmingham, don't know her name. She left at 5am this morning though. There was an Irish girl too, who was sweet. A tiny oriental woman is sleeping in the bunk bed below me and I worry that I may accidentally crush her when I sleep. I think I may have slept about 5 hours last night - I did get to a point when I felt very lonely and sad, and very very far away from home. So I sent sad texts to Jamie and my mummy, and then I fell asleep. Woke up this morning at 5am, like a small child on Christmas Day. I was desperate to go out and explore, but I stayed in bed until 7. Had an ice coffee and pain au chocolat for breakfast. They call them chocolate danishes here. Which is bizarre, as the label even said pain au chocolat. They also put extra warm chocolate sauce on them. I'm feeling good right now. I like this hostel, it's very clean and perfectly nice. I'm glad I booked in advance though, because they are all sold out of rooms.
All the computers here are equipped with mics and webcams so I had a quick chat with Jamie on Skype which was absolutely lovely. I felt very sad yesterday, as I mentioned. This is going to sound a little stupid, but I hadn't quite realisd HOW far away it is. It's basically as far away from home as you can go. But the bizarre thing about that is that about half the people I've met in the hostel so far have been British. Goes to show how much we must love this country, that we're constantly prepared to pay for the expensive flights. From what I've seen of this place so far as well, it's not THAT different from England. The only really obvious difference is the weather. They drive on the same side of the road as us, and even have the queen's head on their coins.
My plan for today is going to be very easy, because I'm expecting the tiredness to catch up with me any minute now. I'm going to buy an Australian Sim card right now (they just opened the kiosk). Then I'm going to do some walking-exploring of this city (after I've put on some suncream). Tomorrow I think I will go up to the zoo which involves taking a ferry. If not, I may go to the aquarium, and toodle around the Sydney Opera House. I'd quite like to work on my tan as well...
Well I'm off, to explore this city.
Love you all xxxx
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Lorna Bown
non-member comment
Well done
This is a great way of keeping both your diary and your mother up to date. XXX