Australia. Australia. Sydney: Arrival review

Tues, February 17th, 2009 - Friday, February 20th, 2009

So to recap:
  • departed from Toronto, Canada (Pearson airport) at ~9pm
  • arrived in London, England (Heathrow airport) at ~9am local time (~6 hours of travel, 0 hours of sleep)
    • NOTES:
      • showered successfully
      • bought sandwiches.. and chocolate
  • departed Heathrow at ~9pm (12 hours of waiting, 2 hour of sleep)
  • arrived in Bangkok, Thailand (? airport) at ~? (~? hours travel, 1 hour of sleep)
    • NOTES:
      • very warm -- an unsettling precursor to Australian weather..
      • security officers are "friskier" than those in Canada or London -- was pleased to learn that my groin was not armed
  • departed Bangkok when the sun was near the horizon -- unsure whether it was rising or setting (1 hour of waiting)
  • arrived in Sydney, Australia (? airport)
    • NOTES:
      • forgot aluminum water bottle on plane; attempted to get Baggage Services to retrieve it; failure
      • despite warnings about the severity of Sydney Customs officers they are found to be amiable
      • telephoned Backpackers Headquarters Hostel to make use of their offer for free airport pickup; failure -- no answer on their end; waited 30mins, then redialed -- failure -- no answer; waited 5mins, then redialed -- failure -- no answer; waited 0mins, then redialed -- failure -- no answer; waited 0mins, then redialed -- success (!)
  • departed Sydney airport when the taxi arrived
    • NOTES:
      • Australian accents can be mixed with any other accent to create unimagined hybrids (i.e., aussie-indian, aussie-polish, etc.)
  • arrived at hostel
    • NOTES:
      • reception: pleasant and helpful
      • dorm-mates: nocturnal (i.e., sleep during the day)
      • beds: ~clean
      • showers: separated by tinted glass (first noticed this while trying to determine if I was the unknown naked man in the mirror -- there was no mirror -- I was not the unknown naked man)
After the above, we walked around, felt tired, went back to the hostel, went to sleep while the sun was still high and awoke around 4am.

-Tyler/Jenny

2 comments:

Unknown said...

dear jen/tyler, Feb.26/9, I really like your writing style- it's succinct, funny, 'frisky', covers the important points (eg.getting showers, getting chocolate), and the aspects nobody would notice (aussie-polish)- keep the prose coming!! We'll look for the water-bottles when we come. Why couldn't you sleep during the flight? Did you eat all the granola bars you took on the flight? I still don't understand why they'd have tinted glass in the shower- I mean, what's the purpose in that?
How hot has it been- I hear that 60% of Queensland is flooded-this sure seems like alot.
what are first impressions of Sydney? continue to have a great time, and keep the stories coming, thanks,...lahd

Anonymous said...

Hey guys!!!

ty sorry to hear that you were not the unknown naked man....that was a sad revelation for you i suppose....made me laugh! its been bitter cold here! australia is sounding better and better...maybe josh and i should get married there? :) hope you guys are having a good time. miss you and take care!

Laura & Josh