Day 1 - Thursday, October 7th

How exciting, this is my very first post to be written for this blog! Despite the fact that I technically arrived yesterday, and today is actually October 8th, I'll make this entry specifically about my plane trip here (which averaged around 20 hours) and my first few moments spent around the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, the first day I got here I had a lot to do and didn't get a chance to write up anything, but writing it today shouldn't be too different! :P

At around 8:25pm on October 5th (Edmonton time) I boarded my very first plane on the way from Edmonton to Vancouver. I was, as you'd probably expect, EXTREMELY nervous. Just going through security and getting my bags scanned for the very first time completely terrified me. I was sad to be leaving my family and my home and my city, despite the fact I knew I was about to do something completely exciting and adventurous. I did feel happy, but the first few moments leading up to actually boarding the flight were filled with tension and anxiety. I honestly did not know what to expect. I've had so many dreams about flying, and the planes always moved rather roughly in my visions, so it was a complete surprise that our takeoff was so easy and smooth. It was night time and pretty dark outside by the time we started to increase in altitude, but I did have a window seat and could somewhat make out the landmarks below me. It felt very different to know my feet weren't on the ground anymore, and other than a bit of pressure in my stomach from tension and the takeoff I felt just fine. I am glad I was chewing gum as we took off though, my ears really did pop constantly.

That first flight was very smooth and happened so quickly I barely had time to process the fact I wasn't dreaming it all before we had arrived in Vancouver. I could see the lights from the city from far away, but as we got closer and lower in altitude that's when I really realized that I had actually made it through my very first plane trip and arrived in this beautiful, gigantic city. At that point, that was the farthest I had travelled in my life, and I was pretty happy to have made it there safely. I was also glad I could see it in the dark, I thought the window seat would have been scary but it was actually really nice to be able to watch everything come into focus. It made me appreciate the plane ride even more.

Once we were in the Vancouver airport, all we had to do was walk directly to the next boarding gate in the domestic transfer area where we sat and waited for about an hour for our next plane to arrive. We had a lot more time than I imagined as we didn't have to go through security or any sort of luggage checkpoint. On an unrelated noted, I really enjoyed riding on these moving walkways, similar to escalators except completely flat, that were created to help you reach your destination quicker. When you walk on them as they move you go at twice the speed, almost like you're running. I had never seen these before, but they really did make a huge difference in us getting there. We had to walk across a few of them since Vancouver has such a large airport and the domestic and international terminals are not close to each other. Anyways, once we were at the gate for our next flight (the international one from Vancouver to Sydney) we sat down and just tried to keep ourselves busy. I used Cameron's computer and was able to talk to my mom and dad, and there are no words to describe exactly how much better it made me feel to be able to communicate with them halfway through my trip. I know they were wondering how I was doing, and it was terrific to be able to let them know. We also had something small to eat at one of the little bar restaurants inside the airport. I just had a fruit salad and a water to hold me over until the next plane. When we did start to board for that, there were a HUGE amount of other passengers joining us. That plane was by far the largest of the 3 I had to travel on, and it was completely full very quickly. We got on, found our seats, and prepared for an EXTREMELY long trip, around 17 hours straight in the air! I was so glad to be wearing my most comfortable clothes, otherwise I can imagine how uncomfortable it would be to sit there for that long in something you couldn't relax in.

That plane ride to Sydney actually felt quite a bit shorter than the 17 hours it took, if I'm being honest. Maybe it was because it was completely dark outside and they turned on this relaxing blue lighting which put everyone to sleep. Even though I didn't think I'd be able to sleep on the plane, I did get a few hours when I decided to lean my pillow up against the armrest that we didn't have put down. I can't say it was comfortable at all, but I think even having a few hours was better than nothing, as it meant I would still have energy for that day. It was pretty confusing being on that plane though, it was constantly dark for about 15 hours since the entire time we were passing through time zones that were experience night-time. My mind couldn't determine what time it was and night felt like it dragged on forever. I did enjoy this flight actually, as long as I didn't let my mind drift off into thinking about the fact I was in the very middle of the ocean the majority of the time. Whenever I thought of that for a moment, and what exactly that meant, I would get butterflies in my stomach. Luckily there were no problems and everything worked out just fine, I'm here now!

On the long trip from Vancouver to Edmonton, we got 2 meals on the plane as well as 1 snack. I wasn't prepared for amazing quality food, considering it isn't exactly fresh coming from an airplane, but I was pleasantly surprised. For dinner, which was served about an hour after takeoff, I ended up having chicken and pasta, cold vegetable salad, a bun with butter, and a brownie. The bun was fun to work with, as the butter was rock hard and only came out in huge chunks on my bun. I guess it makes sense, what else do you do with butter on a plane? It's not like it can just sit at room temperature the whole flight. Either way, I thought that dinner was quite good. For a snack, which we had about half-way through the flight, we got a roast beef sandwich and 2 large chocolate chip cookies. I thought this was a pretty decent snack although a lot of people were still asleep when they brought them around so they missed out. It was funny because the flight attendants were trying to hand out this food while going through quite a strong section of turbulence, and you could tell one of the younger and probably newer flight attendants did not enjoy it very much by the look on her face. For our final meal, breakfast, we had a choice of an omelet or waffles. I chose waffles which was a good choice, and they came with fresh fruit salad and a bun with jam. Honestly, the waffles were better than the frozen ones we've bought, so I won't complain!

Speaking before about turbulence, that was a lot different than I had expected as well. Sure, there were some bumpy patches along the way, but it felt like nothing more than driving over a gravel road. I managed to feel very safe the whole way, despite the random movements. I'm sure I even slept through some of it as well. The main thing was to just stay in your seat and not get up while it was really bad and it usually went away in a minute or two.

On the flight I ended up watching about 2 movies and maybe 4 episodes of TV shows. I didn't read any of the books I bought for my flight whatsoever. There was a pretty long period of time where I just sort of laid back against my chair with my blanket and pillow and just relaxed. Most other people were doing that too. I think that having the flight take place during night time made it a lot more comfortable for everyone, including myself.

The most interesting thing to happen on that flight was probably when the woman on the end of our row of 3, the lady sitting next to Cameron, got thrown up on by a sick little kid sitting in the row beside us. The grandmother was patting it's back, and he looked very ill, and all of the sudden he puked and it shot out and hit two of the passengers as well as getting all over his grandma. It was pretty disgusting, and I was just thankful that it wasn't me sitting there because I don't know what I would do. It definitely would have ruined my flight, especially not being able to shower for about 15 hours after it happened! Some other interesting things were 'the dancing man', a guy in his 20's with long hair who was so antsy to go to the washroom every time that he would spin around and do dance moves as he waited to get one of the toilets, and the man in front of me who was in his 60's, bald and tough-looking, who watched both Twilight and the Sex and the City movie during the span of the plane ride. Otherwise, since everyone else was sleeping, the trip was pretty uneventful (albeit exciting for me!).

When we got to the Sydney airport, it was BOILING hot! I was wearing my sweater on the plane before, but it was such a drastic change from Vancouver. The whole place was humid and I was completely overwhelmed by the heat. I wanted to change clothes to something less warm, but unfortunately we were extremely short on time and the Sydney airport is the largest of them all. We actually had to take a bus from the international terminal to the domestic. Luckily we just caught the right bus and passed through customs and the baggage check quick enough to make it to our gate on time. When I went through customs, since I had to declare the food I was bringing over, I actually got slightly questioned by one of the officers. They had asked me what the tin I was carrying was, but I couldn't recall having a tin in my baggage and I sort of panicked (I thought maybe someone put something in my bag). The customs guy just popped open my bag and then I realized it was just the hot chocolate I was bringing over. He really was the nicest guy, he kept calling me 'mate' and he even wished me a happy early birthday. I had never expected someone at customs to be so friendly, but he really cheered me up after being so worried about getting in trouble.

We made it to our final gate for the flight from Sydney to Brisbane with literally 5 minutes to spare before boarding. We rushed through that entire airport, and considering I was already tired and hot, it was an extremely good feeling to finally board that flight. The Qantas plane was much older than the 2 from Air Canada, and I would definitely say that it was the shakiest ride. The pilot kept doing all of these turns where I was literally on my side looking straight down out of my window at the ocean. However, when he wasn't making me feel like I was going to fall into the ocean, it was a really lovely view. I got to see the whole coast from Sydney to Brisbane. There were lots of beaches, I could see the tops of their hills and cliffs, some of the farms... it was really beautiful. That plane went quickly as well. All of the sudden, the plane had landed at Brisbane and it was already time to head home. It was a good feeling to step down on the ground and know that's where I'd be for the next few weeks. It was an even better feeling to realize I was finally, actually in Australia. After waiting for such a long time, and dreaming about it for even longer, I was exactly where I wanted to be!

I'll write more about my first day there tomorrow, but for now, I've got to be getting to bed!