The Arival

The flights were grand. Here's a summary of events:

• Flying into Dubai, I saw a ship firing sand at a new palm island they are building. the ship was huge, yet compared to the size of the island, it was minuscule... It must have taken ages to get this far.
  
• On arrival at Dubai, we were bussed to the terminal. It was oh-so-hot... thankfully the bus was airconditioned!
• Flying to Bangkok, the lovely South African air hostesses did their best to flirt with me in the galley. Woo! :)
• Was told off by the Thai airport guard for taking one of the complimentary bag things from the plane but not declaring it as liquid. Eeep!
  

Arrived at Sydney airport at around 7/8am. Going through customs was fine, and I even located the queue for the working holiday visa stickers (Thanks Ian/Bex! :D). Quarantine was somewhat more panic stricken. Signs were everywhere saying that no could bring *any* food into the country. I realised I had... teabags* in my case. I told the airport official at the Xray machine my fears and she just laughed... thank goodness! (her colleague whispered loudly to her to ask if 'the paddywaggon was out back for me'... but at least I didn't have to pay the AU$60,000 fine :D

I was driven to the hotel in The Rocks and managed to get my room straight away. The room is good, but was generally confused by:

• the lights
• the safe
• the aircon

Fell out of the hotel and shopped for more biscuits, water and a simcard in one of the Pitt Street Malls. At roughly 12noon, the jetlag hit me right between the thingamys as I was standing in a bookshop. The only solution was food. And fast! Out the window went my plan to eat healthily as I took an emergency diversion to Hungry Jack's (Australia's version of Burgahking) and sat there filling myself with patty-based jetlag begone!

Wandered back to the hotel and had a snooze. Slept through the alarm and fell into the hotel restaurant (couldn't manage any further tonight!) where I promptly ordered a VB (Victoria Beer) and something predominantly lamby.

After dinner, I walked past Circular Quay to the Opera house - so big! There weren't that many people there, but the area reminded me of London's South Bank (if the South Bank was warmer and generally better looked after!)

I don't feel as if I've traveled very far and can't quite comprehend the differences - this is probably the jetlag... however I do appreciate the friendly atmosphere :)


* and maybe biscuits too!