Touchdown in Sydney!

Trying to make it look smaller...

It was finally time to board the plane. Most of the people crowded around the entrance to check-in, although we couldn't figure out why when everyone has assigned seating. Why rush to go sit in your seat when you will be sitting there for the next 15 hours?

Originally, we were told the plane was really full and we would most likely not be able to move our seats. Our section (economy) was arranged in a 3-4-3 layout, with 3 seats on the outsides and 4 seats in the middle. We had booked an aisle and inside seat in the middle section, but while we were back in the Admiral's Club the concierge was able to move our seats to an aisle and window seat with an empty middle seat. We kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn't be sold. Once we got on board we gave a sigh of relief- the plane was about half empty.

Once again we got pillows and blankets. All of our flight attendants were Australian, so we got our first experiences with asking people to repeat themselves. The attendants passed out menu cards- turns out all of the food and drinks are free on this flight! Our dinners are below.

First true Australian beer

Cory isn't good with pictures. This is supposed to be Massaman Beef with rice

I had roasted chicken. The sides were corn & edamame salad, a sourdough roll,
strawberry cheesecake and a piece of chocolate.

After eating, they dimmed the lights in the cabin and we settled in for the flight. With dinner being served 90 minutes into the flight, this put us at about midnight PDT, or 3 AM back home, making it almost 24 hours since we had slept. We fell asleep pretty quickly. While I didn't sleep too well (waking up about every hour or so after the first 3 hours- I gave up at about the 7^th hour), Cory slept for a solid 8 hours or so, to the point that I climbed over him to get up and stretch several times and he didn't move.

Throughout the night they came around with lots of snacks, some of which were quite odd, which of course means I didn't take any pictures of them. The ones I remember most vividly were the soy rice crackers (didn't like them) and fig bars (figs weird me out, especially after hearing something about how the innards are wasp eggs or something of that nature?). They had some stand American potato chips, so I helped myself to those.

Mainly this time of night was dark and we just watched a lot of movies. Qantas had a HUGE selection available if you took the time to search for them. I watched several episodes of New Girl and then 'The Queen' and part of 'The Social Network'. I'll have to ask Cory what he watched.

Breakfast came around finally. Once again, no picture, but this time it was because I was starving and the food did not stay on my plate long enough for me to take a picture. Except for the oat date muffin. Definitely did not touch that.

First view of Sydney!

It was finally time to land! Our plane had a 'Sky Cam' which was a video feed from the tail wing of the plane. Most of the trip it was just nothingness as we flew across the Pacific overnight. Once we got over Sydney, you could see the lights. Our plane had clearance to land no earlier than 6:00 AM, so we had to circle around once. When we went in to land a lot of people started watching the Sky Cam. Apparently (I was too afraid to look) the plane was going in at a slight angle to the runway until the very last second. We think it was because of the winds, as it was a little rocky going in, but Cory loves telling the story. After skidding on the runway in LA, I didn't want a repeat in Sydney. It was actually an extremely smooth landing though.

We went through customs, wondering why they would send us right through the middle of duty-free shopping on the way out (remember this, it becomes important later!). Considering that Cory was lugging around a huge Styrofoam cooler filled with his injectable medicine that could not be put through an x-ray machine, the process was surprisingly quick. We even got to skip a huge line for the normal crowds and they didn't even make him open the cooler. I would have taken pictures but was not in the mood to be tackled by airport security upon arrival in a foreign country.

Cory's company arranged for a driver to come pick us up and take us to our new home for the next 4 months. He was unprepared for the amount of luggage we had. I think maybe the company forgot to mention there were two of us? We eventually loaded it all into the car after some struggles with communication (his first language was not English). Cory tried to load the luggage on the wrong side of the front seat. Whoops, steering wheel is on the right!

Leaving the airport

Did I mention it was COLD outside? Well, Cory didn't think it was too bad. I was freezing though. It was probably about 50⁰ F outside when we arrived and I was not dressed appropriately.

We made our way through the city and unloaded the car in our new apartment. We got there at about 7:30-ish and they weren't supposed to open until 8:30. Fortunately they had a backup plan and we were able to get in and head up to our apartment. Needless to say, we were underwhelmed when we first arrived.

Our doorway is just on the left of this picture

Dorm bathroom? Our toilet has options- half or full flush

No dresser   =(

View from next to the balcony

Where the heck is my oven?!

Early morning view- the work on the construction site 6 days a week for about 14 hours a day

Sunset on a different day

We got all settled in by unpacking and then set off around town to scope out our cell phone options. Data in Australia is devastingly expensive- the company spent an OUTRAGEOUS amount of money for 12 GB of wifi at the apartment AND it's supposed to last us for 4 months. Ummm, we'll work on that. There is also no free wifi almost anywhere, except McDonald's (which I still have not been able to connect to) and the Customs House, of all places, which we found out about the other day and I expect to visit often now.

Anyways, we checked out phone options with the plan that I'd pick them up the next day as our friend Alison had an iPhone Cory could borrow. I will end up getting this fun piece of Android-ism.

And I thought the learning curve was bad on an iPhone.

After we scope out a few mobile store, we realize we are hungry again. (While everything I've read suggests that loss of appetite is a way to cope with jet lag, it seems, for me at least, that the opposite has happened.) We ended up at McDonald's for our first meal. Once again, I have no picture, but this time it was out of shame that we went to McDonald's first when in a new country. Turns out we should have taken pictures because the food was different. I ordered what they called a 'Bacon, Egg, and Tomato Wrap'. Why there was barbeque sauce on it was beyond me, as I did not see that in the description. Also, my bacon was Canadian Bacon, not the bacon we are accustomed to getting back home. Cory got 'The Spain' which was a wrap with eggs and what they called chorizo, although it looked more like a hot dog to us). Are they doing World Cup foods at McDonalds back home? They had all sorts of options for lunch like 'The Brazil' and 'The Argentina' and dessert was 'The Italy'.

Once we eat, we go to the grocery store (saving this for a separate post) and head down to Darling Harbour to walk around because if we go back to the apartment, we know we'll pass out. Darling Harbour is considered the "touristy" area of Sydney, but we don't mind frequenting the place because, after all, we are tourists. It has been recently renovated to have a lot of restaurants, basically, with the inclusion of an aquarium, maritime museum, and a nearby Casino. The area we stuck to was called Kings Wharf, where some of the ferries leave from.

Facing north

Due South

Maritime Museum- Yes, that is a submarine

The sun was very bright and the sky was very blue and cloudless, as you can see from the pictures. While the sky isn't always that blue, the other two weather conditions have been pretty consistent over the last 6 days we've been here. Cory even exclaimed the other day when the sun was partially obscured by a cloud because they are that infrequent right now.

We were hungry again, so we found a little corner bar to eat. The prices kind of knocked us over, but by now we've come to expect it.

The newest Club Loco member at the Slip Inn

Crispy Pork Belly with Sweet Chilli Sauce

I remember my stepmom calling these chicharones- although I'm not sure if I'm remembering the right food item now- it's the fatty part of the belly with actual meat attached and is deep-fried until they are crisp.  Whatever it's called back home, they serve it almost everywhere here. I really think they have some weird obsession with pork belly due to the frequency with which I see it.

Later in the evening after we took a nap (we had to!), we headed over to our friend Alison's place for dinner with the other two people doing the secondment in Sydney. Alison is our Australian friend that did the secondment in the Fort Lauderdale office on two different occasions. She cooked us a very tasty meal and sent me home with the leftovers, yay!

Cory had to head to work bright and somewhat early the next morning, plus the US World Cup game was going to be on at 6:00 AM our time, so we headed to bed as soon as we got home. Sounds like we had the most riveting first day in a foreign country ever, right?