Going Down Under Makes For A Very Long Day

On November 26, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman bring Australia to theaters, but the monkey is bringing it to you today. Yep, in today's age of needing it now, needing it faster, and needing it harder, oh wait, do you really need it harder? Okay, so my point is, here it is: Australia 2008.

November 22

A pretty easy flight out of Redmond at 12:40pm, but certainly for the making of a very long day. Sort of ironic, since my first plane headed North to Seattle, before we began going South to the extreme. After SEATAC, the next destination was LAX, and my iPod played the new Lucksmith's First Frost as the serenity of the crimson clouds presented to me a beautiful sunset over the California coast. Ahhhhhh good stuff. Sunsets from 30,000 feet are good indeed.

Of course it was LAX I was heading towards, some Los Campesino's was a little more fitting:

We wait at ease and we wait to see, and we are waiting here for catastrophe.

Why? Dinner at the airport. Las time I was lucky to have Burger King (considering the options) and I really wasn't looking forward to my dinner (considering I had about 5 hours before my next flight and 7 before I would be fed). Well, surprise, surprise, there was a new terminal that I was departing from and it featured a new food court! Score, and since this was California I decided that some enchiladas would be just dandy, and indeed they were. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Not much to report after dinner. Just made good use of some quality phone time before I would be in a location where my cell would serve only as a paper weight.

At 9:45pm the boarding of the flight from Los Angeles to Sydney began. I had already secured an exit row (with the much needed extra leg room). I was very pleased to see that the middle seat was unoccupied as well. On a normal flight it's not that big of a deal to have extra arm room, but on a 14 hour one, it makes a lot of difference.

This was my third time making the flight between LA and Sydney and on the previous trip over and the previous trip back, I was not able to sleep on either flight. No different on this one either, and I would be lucky to say that I took a short nap at times, but mostly I was awake either watching movies, listening to music, or watching the video of the flight progress. Nothing is better than after 10 hours of flying,seeing that you still have 4 hours to go.

I had a chance to watch the newest X-Files movie (which I somehow missed watching earlier in the Summer), Tropic Thunder, and Sex & The City. Yep, since a recent discussion about that film had taken place I felt it made sense to watch it again, in a some what ironic place, since a previous date to see it was broken, I thought it was fitting to watch it over the International Date Line. Mission accomplished.

So, how long was this day? It started Saturday the 22nd, and when we arrived in Sydney at 8:00am, it was now Monday the 24th. So, as far as the calendar was involved, November 23rd never existed for me. This flight stole it away, but since I never really fell asleep I did experience a portion of the day, before we passed the magical line.

November 24

Arrived. Of course the process isn't quite over as you get to experience immigration and customs. Prior to going through the immigration line you are walking for a bit and any other flight that landed on the same side of the airport, joins you for the immigration process. A flight full of Japanese students merged with us as I walked, and by the time I got to the line, I was in the middle of about 300 Japanese students all wearing identical suits. It was hilarious, since I was at least 18 inches taller than all of them, and there was nothing subtle about it, I STUCK OUT!. A few of the students were very fascinated with my height, but their English and my Japanese were limited, but I think we communicated just fine.

After all of the stop points I was released back into the country. I waited a bit to meet my dad, who had flown over on a different airline via frequent flyer miles. We hired a taxi and made our way towards our hotel in Darling Harbor. Seriously, driving in Sydney is a bit intimidating, and it's nice to leave it to a professional, at least fresh off a 14 hour flight and well into being awake for more than 30 hours.

After checking in, we knew that we needed to not fall asleep at 10:00am, so we headed out for some exploring in Sydney (certainly giving us less opportunity to get too comfy). Since this was my second time in the city, I knew some of the highlights and ways to get around. So, to the ferries we went.

Seriously, what a great way to see Sydney. Views, views and more views. This is public transportation at it's finest.

We hit Circular Quay, and then walked over to the Sydney Opera House. Not bad, not bad indeed. Since we purchased a better ferry pass, we went back and boarded a ferry to Manly Beach (which I didn't have a chance to experience last time during Winter). Ahhhhhhh, so a few days ago, I was dealing with frost, and soon I would be on a sandy beach. From almost Winter to almost Summer. Good stuff.

Manly Beach was a great place to check out some surfing, but first some lunch was in order. Fish and chips made sense, so we hunted down a place that served it. Not too hard really, considering where we were. Of course we had to have some Australian beer as well, but when you have been awake for about 34 hours, it's not exactly a wise option. Well, at least neither of us had to do any driving. That was the ferry drivers job.

After our return ferry trip from Manly Beach we headed out on foot for a bit. We were getting a little tired (you know how your legs sort of wobble after being awake for a long period), so we jumped on a bus and headed back to the hotel. After reaching 37 hours of being awake, doing research for dinner options wasn't exactly going very well. We decided on Chinese food, and since it was very close, we thought we could score something decent. On the walk to the place that I picked, we passed many other places that didn't look very ideal. We made it to the place I thought would be the best option, and apparently, so did other people, because it was very busy. Without using our better judgement, we decided on someplace else. BAD BAD BAD decision.

Well, just about anything would have been okay at 39 hours of being awake. So, I ate it and we soon headed back to our room where we made it through about an hour of TV before we both passed out at hour 40. That was a very long day indeed.

keeneye said:
Lyle said: