Hey everybody!
So here is our new blog. I say 'our' because both Stu and I will be posting in order to keep everybody informed, updated and in the know. We are not sure how often we will be able to reply to emails so we figured this is the best way to go.
So after waking up at 4am on Wednesday morning (1st October) in Adelaide, Australia, I was somewhat of a mess. I barely slept and when my alarm went off at 4, I was feeling nauseated and somewhat nervous. I'm not sure why, because I was really excited. But I guess I was stressing more than I realized. Everything was loaded into the car and we headed off to Adelaide Airport. We breezed through check-in after passing the Adelaide 36ers Basketball team, also checking in and made our way into the terminal. I tried to force down a blueberry muffin and a cup of tea in an attempt to settle my stomach which by now was almost unbearable, but I couldn't do it. Dad and I went in search of a travel pillow for Stu and I and then we went through the customs screen point. Just as we were passing the screen I asked if this was as far as mum and dad could come and the customs official said yes. :o(
So we said goodbyes that were too hasty for my liking and passed into the gate which was zoned off by massive glass doors. So we called mum and dad and talked to them through the glass on our phones :oP
So here is our new blog. I say 'our' because both Stu and I will be posting in order to keep everybody informed, updated and in the know. We are not sure how often we will be able to reply to emails so we figured this is the best way to go.
So after waking up at 4am on Wednesday morning (1st October) in Adelaide, Australia, I was somewhat of a mess. I barely slept and when my alarm went off at 4, I was feeling nauseated and somewhat nervous. I'm not sure why, because I was really excited. But I guess I was stressing more than I realized. Everything was loaded into the car and we headed off to Adelaide Airport. We breezed through check-in after passing the Adelaide 36ers Basketball team, also checking in and made our way into the terminal. I tried to force down a blueberry muffin and a cup of tea in an attempt to settle my stomach which by now was almost unbearable, but I couldn't do it. Dad and I went in search of a travel pillow for Stu and I and then we went through the customs screen point. Just as we were passing the screen I asked if this was as far as mum and dad could come and the customs official said yes. :o(
So we said goodbyes that were too hasty for my liking and passed into the gate which was zoned off by massive glass doors. So we called mum and dad and talked to them through the glass on our phones :oP
Us at Adelaide airport, waiting to board the qantas flight.
We boarded qantas which took us to Sydney, and were pleasantly surprised by the food offered to us on such a short flight. I got diabetic breakfast food with special K cereal (**which by the way, I'd never tried before!**) and fresh fruit. The hostess was really nice when I explained that I needed more carbohydrates and she slipped me several extra rolls and later, two pieces of toast with apricot jam. (**stoked!**).
We arrived in Sydney's International terminal to find it undergoing rennovations, which was a bit inconvenient but no dramas ensued. We decided to exchange our cash there (**we got RIPPED off bigtime... 0.76cents for one Aussie dollar.. pff... and got a smaller amount exchanged for our stopover in Taipei, Taiwan. We loitered around a very boring terminal for just under 2 hours when we were paged to the gate, because Stu's passport didn't read when we checked in for our boarding passes apparently. The older male attendant at the gate told us it was because Taiwan has rules about entering the country unshaven. haha! I think Stu and I both thought he was seriously for about 2 seconds before we realized he was just playing, but it was one nice last dose of Aussie humour in a terminal filled with Asians. It wasn't hard to pick out the Aussies coming with us to Canada, basically because there were only about 10 westerners waiting in the terminal to board the flight.
We were lucky enough to be seated in an airbus 330 - 300, which has a seating design of two-four-two, so we were in the back section of the plane about 6 rows from the loo. No smells!
Unfortunately, to get the cheapest flights, we had to fly with China Airlines.. not to be confused with Air China... (**crystal clear, no really..**) which meant that we had to endure the longest in-flight announcements known to mankind, in both Chinese and English. The flight attendants were much nicer than I was expecting, especially since I was sick after the meal. They let me stretch out on the back row 4 seats and sleep, waking me up every half hour to monitor my blood sugar levels. The food was all asian and most of it was quite bland but everybody was in the same boat (**or.. plane..?**) so you just dealt with it. One upside was that I don't think I've ever eaten so much fresh fruit in a 24 hour period of time. Every meal came with fresh kiwi, watermelon, pineapple, rockmelon, peach, grapefruit etc, so that was good.
We landed in Taipei at approx 9pm Sydney time and had a stopover of about 4 hours. We got subway.. I chose a very bland turkey sub, my stomach was still very iffy, and after eating that and getting to know the aussies we were travelling with, we tried to catch some sleep in the very uncomfortable terminal benches. We boarded again, Vancouver-bound, and I barely kept my eyes open for the 11 hour flight. I felt bad for Stu though, he seemed very uncomfortable with the lack of leg room and I know he didn't sleep much. I tried to stay awake and keep him company but my eyes just would not stay open.
Good news on the flight over, I finally got to watch Sex and the City movie after being a little sad I missed out on seeing in on the big screen. It made for entertaining watching on the first leg, and I watched Baby Mama and the incredible hulk on the second. (**Note: both movies are not worth the time of day!**)
When we were flying into Vancouver we were greeted with the most epic scenery of mountain ranges and harbour ports. Then finally, finally, we touched down in Vancouver International, only to be given the run around by airport "helpers" who obviously didn't have a clue. We stood in a line for 30 minutes only to find out we'd been told the wrong thing, and were then sent to go through immigration, which was yet another massive line. Luckily some of our new Aussie friends let us cut in with them, saving us about an hour by the looks of the long line, with only 2 customs officials working on it.
Taipei Airport, Me and Ash, a fellow Aussie.
Sprite... We think..?
This one's for Schultzie!
Speaking of customs, Vancouver has none. We didn't even have our bags screened or anything. We literally just got our work visas printed, and walked out of the terminal. We could have been the biggest drug mules ever, and nothing.
Anyway, we taxied to our hotel, dumped our bags, and I had quite possibly the longest-anticipated shower ever, before heading out in search of some standard WESTERN food... sorry to my Asian friends but flat rice noodles with shredded chicken and beans is by no means a sufficient breakfast for this aussie girl. We finally found it.. the mecca of western food society... McDonalds. (**Don't judge me...**) and I practically inhaled the smallest McChicken burger I've ever seen. Went back to the hotel, crashed out and slept like a log. Vancouver could wait for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment