My plane in Dubai
It was probably my biggest childhood dream to get onto a huge Boeing 747 and fly somewhere far far away, where the sun always shines and the birds always sing.
About 15 years later, and I've finally made it! I'm currently on the Redcliffe peninsula, QLD, some 30 kilometres north of Brisbane and so far, the sun is shining and the birds are singing.
But the journey here was not as great as my dream foreboded… The furthest away from home I've ever been was Marrakech. Granted, it's outside of Europe, but we flew with easyjet and the 3 hours go by quick when you're sleeping. Therefore, I had no experience of long-haul flights and was actually quite excited about it. My plane, not a 747, but a 777-300ER (who's ever even heard of that?), left Heathrow at half past 10 in the evening. To try and be clever and overcome the dreaded jet-lag, I promised myself to stay awake the 6 hours it would take to get to Dubai and flicked through the entertainment section in my inbuilt computer screen, which was a lot smaller than I'd anticipated. Between the 1 episode I'd already seen (obviously) of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and, at most, 3 Gossip Girl Episodes, I didn't find much else that I fancied so ended up watching Something Borrowed, which was probably one of the worst chick-flicks I've ever seen and Friends.
Brisbane harbour in the distance
Somehow, the 6 hours went by pretty quick but I was happy to get off the plane in Dubai, and away from the super tall Australian rugby fanatic I was sitting next to. I was feeling pretty worse for wear already but had no idea about what was yet to come. 2 hours, a Ice Tea and some facebooking later, I got on another plane. This time, I knew how to use the remote control of my screen and so didn't look like a complete weirdo trying to figure it out, and was more impressed by the choice of entertainment (although no Kardashians this time) and thought I'd be cool for the next 13 hours. Not 5 hours into the flight, though, I felt absolutely disgusting and wanted to cry and be home with Ed or my Mama! I'd tried to sleep for a couple of hours but was woken up every time anyone walked past me and had an annoying child kicking me in the back every couple of minutes so kinda failed. My legs and arms felt like they'd been stung by a million bees, my mouth was dry and I could definitely feel the stress spots on my face (which were even bigger than expected when I looked in the toilet mirror!!) and I still had about 8 hours to go! It was definitely a dream come true, except that it was actually a horrible nightmare.
Wreck on Redcliffe Peninsula
Still, after watching The Tourist, Last Night and about 10 episodes of Gossip Girl (they had the whole box set on this flight), with about 2 hours to go, I finally found something that was truly amazing about this 19 hour trip: Emirates breakfasts!! I got cheesy scrambled egg with ham and hash browns (I ignored the mushrooms). There was a warm croissant and bread rolls and mini Lurpak butter and cheese and all sorts of little crackers and things. For a person who skips their most important meal of the day more often than not, I was, quite literally, on breakfast cloud 9. The flight slowly but finally seemed to be coming to an end and before I could even get my head around the fact, I was already on Australian soil, surrounded by accents I can't seem to stop making fun of in my head! And now I'm here, in Redcliffe, some 30 kilometres north of Brisbane. I've never been this far away from home but I've also never seen the sky so clear or the sea so blue. I'm excited for what this country has in store for me!
It was probably my biggest childhood dream to get onto a huge Boeing 747 and fly somewhere far far away, where the sun always shines and the birds always sing.
About 15 years later, and I've finally made it! I'm currently on the Redcliffe peninsula, QLD, some 30 kilometres north of Brisbane and so far, the sun is shining and the birds are singing.
But the journey here was not as great as my dream foreboded… The furthest away from home I've ever been was Marrakech. Granted, it's outside of Europe, but we flew with easyjet and the 3 hours go by quick when you're sleeping. Therefore, I had no experience of long-haul flights and was actually quite excited about it. My plane, not a 747, but a 777-300ER (who's ever even heard of that?), left Heathrow at half past 10 in the evening. To try and be clever and overcome the dreaded jet-lag, I promised myself to stay awake the 6 hours it would take to get to Dubai and flicked through the entertainment section in my inbuilt computer screen, which was a lot smaller than I'd anticipated. Between the 1 episode I'd already seen (obviously) of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and, at most, 3 Gossip Girl Episodes, I didn't find much else that I fancied so ended up watching Something Borrowed, which was probably one of the worst chick-flicks I've ever seen and Friends.
Brisbane harbour in the distance
Somehow, the 6 hours went by pretty quick but I was happy to get off the plane in Dubai, and away from the super tall Australian rugby fanatic I was sitting next to. I was feeling pretty worse for wear already but had no idea about what was yet to come. 2 hours, a Ice Tea and some facebooking later, I got on another plane. This time, I knew how to use the remote control of my screen and so didn't look like a complete weirdo trying to figure it out, and was more impressed by the choice of entertainment (although no Kardashians this time) and thought I'd be cool for the next 13 hours. Not 5 hours into the flight, though, I felt absolutely disgusting and wanted to cry and be home with Ed or my Mama! I'd tried to sleep for a couple of hours but was woken up every time anyone walked past me and had an annoying child kicking me in the back every couple of minutes so kinda failed. My legs and arms felt like they'd been stung by a million bees, my mouth was dry and I could definitely feel the stress spots on my face (which were even bigger than expected when I looked in the toilet mirror!!) and I still had about 8 hours to go! It was definitely a dream come true, except that it was actually a horrible nightmare.
Wreck on Redcliffe Peninsula
Still, after watching The Tourist, Last Night and about 10 episodes of Gossip Girl (they had the whole box set on this flight), with about 2 hours to go, I finally found something that was truly amazing about this 19 hour trip: Emirates breakfasts!! I got cheesy scrambled egg with ham and hash browns (I ignored the mushrooms). There was a warm croissant and bread rolls and mini Lurpak butter and cheese and all sorts of little crackers and things. For a person who skips their most important meal of the day more often than not, I was, quite literally, on breakfast cloud 9. The flight slowly but finally seemed to be coming to an end and before I could even get my head around the fact, I was already on Australian soil, surrounded by accents I can't seem to stop making fun of in my head! And now I'm here, in Redcliffe, some 30 kilometres north of Brisbane. I've never been this far away from home but I've also never seen the sky so clear or the sea so blue. I'm excited for what this country has in store for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment