G'day From Sydney Australia Part 1

Sydney Opera House-photo by TYang

Here it is, my first post from Sydney Australia! We are having a blast. This city is beautiful and clean and so far the sun is always shining. Always. Sydney is a great walking city, surprisingly hilly but nothing we can't handle. We arrived Saturday Dec. 10th after a grueling 30 hours of travel from NY. When we left NY it was partly cloudy and 15 degrees with a dusting of snow on the ground, when we arrived in Sydney it was about 87 degrees, sunny and very bright. Talk about contrasts. The little girl was amazingly well behaved during the travel, reserving her worst and angriest meltdown for when we were walking around town on the first day. That was a bit embarrassing though I can’t blame the poor child; she was so jet-lagged that her head was spinning and pea soup was shooting out of her mouth. I know she just couldn’t help it. It was an ugly scene and as I was walking down the street I kept thinking that if I just didn't make eye contact with anyone on the street then they wouldn't think it was my child, at least it didn’t happen on the plane and for that I am deeply grateful.

Moonrise Over Sydney Opera House-photo by TYang

The first leg of our journey; NY-LA could not have been more uncomfortable. Actually it was the second leg of the trip that things got uncomfortable because the first leg was a 2-hour car ride from upstate NY to Newark International Airport and that part was fine. Tom drove, Ellie slept and I worried about everything bad that could happen while we were gone. Anyway, our flight was full and American Airlines had us crammed into a tiny little plane with uncomfortable seats and barely any legroom. My knees were pressed into the seat in front of me the whole flight. Getting up to use the loo was nearly impossible without first pulling on the seat in front and then pushing it forward to maneuver myself out. Bless the person in front of me because he never once turned around to glare or complain. I felt bad for Ellie because we made her sit in her car seat the entire flight and it was very, very hard for her to keep still. It never occured to us to check her car seat when we boarded the plane and let her just sit in her seat like an adult. Luckily it dawned on us to do that for the Sydney leg of the trip and we were all so much happier for it. Live and learn, live and learn.

We flew out of Newark around dinnertime and had it not been for the late lunch we picked up on the way to the airport we would have gone hungry because there was no inflight meal (I did have some snacks packed for Ellie but not much). We were given the option to buy snacks and also headsets for the movie, something which irked me to no end. I am no lover of airline food, but our tickets were expensive enough without adding insult to an already uncomfortable and unpleasant ride by nickel and diming us for every little thing that might have helped make the flight more agreeable. AA gets no love from me.

The LA-Sydney leg of the trip on Qantas was far more pleasant. The seats were roomy and cushy and each seat had its own entertainment unit, something that helped keep Ellie engaged for a cumulative total of 20 minutes out of the 14-hour flight, YEAH! There were a surprising number of children on the flight; I counted 10 children under the age of 12 just in our seating area alone! Given the circumstances, the long flight, the limited movement, the fatigue of travel, I was impressed at how well behaved all those kids were, outbursts were few and dealt with swiftly by parents. The couple in front of us were a little annoying, whenever we wanted to use our tray tables or if we accidently pushed their seat even in the slightest way (and trust me I was very careful not to let myself or Ellie kick if it could be helped, but there were some accidents ) they would immediately whip around and glare at us. At first I thought it was us and that we were really disturbing them, but as we settled into the long flight I noticed that it was ANY noise or movement from ANY person near them. When they weren't glaring at all the unwashed masses and rolling their eyes to each other they were clucking their teeth and sighing heavily. Some people are just never happy. I'm glad they found each other.

We landed in Sydney at 9 am and rather than the tired irritable travelers we thought we were going to be after so many hours and so little sleep we were actually quite agreeable. We breezed through customs, which wasn't hard since we were the last people out of the plane, then we stepped out of the airport and into the sunshine and warm weather. Hello Sydney.

To be continued...

Written by Deb on December 20, 2005 12:45 AM