Day 1 – 24 Hours On a Plane

I suppose I chose to ignore the basic fact that getting to Australia, by the fastest means possible, would take about an entire day. It did. It was unhelpful that the Delta flight we were originally booked on had mechanical problems. Note to self, when the plane has to go visit the “garage” before departure, just make the call then and there to book yourself on a later, but still viable flight to meet your connections. Matt and I chose to stick with our flight, which brought us to this next and terrifying announcement from the flight crew, and I quote, ” Apologies ladies and gentlemen. We thought we were ready to take off, but an error message popped up on screen. We have a manual here that provides us with steps to get rid of the message, those have not worked. The maintenance crew says all we need to do is turn it [the plane] off and back on again… So we are headed back to the gate.”

Ummm no. NO! I don’t think I can fully explain it but no, a reboot should not be the solution to a broken plane. I require the problem and the solution to be more complex than the troubleshooting steps I would use for my home PC.

Anyway, we managed to meet our connecting flight to Sidney that evening. There were other bizarre occurrences, but I won’t bore you with the details.

We survived our 15-hour flight. Virgin Australia was a lovely airline to ride. Free movies, free games, free TV shows, and each seat had a little gift package with an eye mask, ear plugs and a blanket. I seriously doubt I will go back to United Airlines. Unfortunately, and I think, hilariously, our meals were not just vegetarian, but also gluten and dairy free. Still tasty, but the rice cakes felt more like a punishment, than a starch. A starchy punishment.

Sidney was a balmy 75 degrees when we landed, we caught our lift to the hotel, dropped off our bags and went to explore the surroundings and find a lunch spot.

Since we were trying to stay awake as long as we could to fight off jet lag, we hoofed it over to the botanic gardens and wandered the grounds. While we wandered, we saw quite a few birds.

Rainbow Lorikeet
Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockie
Sulphur Crested Cockie

Seriously, parrots everywhere! I am going to move here and be a crazy parrot lady, wandering the gardens, feeding them, and muttering to myself.

We also saw the Sydney Opera House, which, up close, is tiled on the exterior, which was unexpected. It reminded me of the outside of the space shuttle. By the time we were finished with the opera house, we were both hankering for some refreshment, so we fled the gardens and found a local brew house, Lord Nelsons Brewery or something. Excellent beer, crazy expensive, $9 AUS, $7.92 US.

We called it a day after that and went back to the hotel for dinner and then to bed.

I will post pictures as soon as I get a wifi connection that isn’t powered by sedated hamsters on a broken treadmill.


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