Sydney!

25 hours of perfect travel and I am in lovely Sydney, Australia. My flight path started off looking a little scary, with potential delays causing misconnects that would have caused me to get a here a day late. The travel gods were on my side though; not only did I get here as scheduled, I didn’t have a single delay. Not even by a minute! The last crew of flight attendants had solid humor and I watched a string of films. I even managed a few hours of sleep! Despite the length of travel, it was a painless and delightful day. Heartwarming highlight of the flight: hearing a string of curses (f!@#ing booze is expensive; that bloke is a f#@!ing moron) in Aussie accents mingled with cutesy phrases in a fourteen-year oldish voice (look baby-the Opera House; oh, baby, you are going to kiss me on the bridge tomorrow). Young love, I thought with a sigh. Isn’t it sweet? They were sitting behind me so I couldn’t see them. So, getting ready to deplane I HAD to see them. I was expecting a great big pile of pink teenage hearts, so you can imagine my surprise when I instead saw a couple that was pushing 50 with both feet.

Is it wrong that I was startled? Don’t get me wrong-I enjoy a well-placed F-Bomb as much as the next person (otherwise known as “channeling my inner Baggatta-sorry again former co-workers and boss) as well as terms of endearment, but honestly. I was watching “Letters to Juliet” and kept getting my heart-tugging romance interrupted. Harumph!

Despite the random flurry of f-bombs, the Aussies are warm, friendly, and helpful. Knowing a few Aussies, I expected nothing less! All the same, it’s a nice feeling to get somewhere and have a cute little old lady offer directional assistance (on the train) and have a lovely girl walk me to my hostel. It’s true! I asked a simple question: “which way to George St?” Her response? “I’m going that way so I’ll walk you.” I have had this luck before (filed under Istanbul travels somewhere) but this was totally non-creepy. Solid!

So! The plan for the day is to shower (I can’t check in for a few hours and this, friends who mock my hostel-staying, is the advantage: public showers) and check out Darling Harbor. It is only a 10 minute walk away, so if I can get the internet to work here (it worked long enough to leave a message for mom & dad and talk to Amy for one minute-poo), there just might be photos of the opera house by the end of the day. Of course, the end of my day will be the beginning of your day, potentially. Sydney is 15 hours ahead of CST. :)