Thursday, January 3, 2008

I am a Princess & Down Under Day 1

Well today you are going to get a double dose of my adventures but I have decided to post them in 2 separate blogs b/c they are distinctly different.

First off, my flight. . .my beautiful flight! I can't begin to tell you how great my trip down was. I was thankful to see that I wasn't the only one up front who took pictures and was giddy upon boarding. My understanding was that there were 25 cabin crew for this flight and I would say that at least 10 of them were dedicated to first class. The service was 2nd to none and they treated everyone like royalty. The only downside was that the bed wasn't really that comfortable. About 7 hours into the flight I found an amazingly comfortable position and spend the rest of my flight like that. Basically I felt like I was sitting in the palm of someone's hand.

Before I boarded the plane, I set my watch to Sydney time and I managed to stay awake until about 9pm Sydney time and got about 7 or so hours of sleep and arrived with NO jet lag! Yeah!
(This is the self-serve bar on the plane - there was always something to snack on and drink)

I managed to find where I was staying rather easily. I took a quick shower and then went out exploring Newtown (which is the area of Sydney that I am staying in). A few things that I have noticed - it is bloody expensive here. At the chemist aka drug store, mascara is $27!!! Crazy isn't it?! When I did finally find a Starbucks - a venti, non-fat, no-whip mocha is $6.70! That is enough to cure me of my coffee habit!

After touring around Newtown for about an hour I decided to get on a bus and see where it took me - fortunately I hoped on one that was going into downtown Sydney or the CBD (central business district) as they call it. From there, I came across an information booth and got myself and map and got oriented. The info booth happened to be in front of one of my favorite things - a church! There is some truly amazing architecture down here! From there I went to Darling Harbour and spent the better part of the afternoon just walking around - taking it all in.

The other thing about Sydney is the shopping!!!! And the shoe stores! I saw so many shoe stores and started to get really excited when I quickly learned that people here don't seem to enjoy where quality footwear. Everything is synthetic (hello foot sweat) and is made in China. In fact, all of the clothes are made in China and the chances of an XL fitting over my ta-tas is next to none! So, I have been spared from shopping at least.

I loaded up on Australian sunscreen yesterday - the strongest they sell is a 30 (at $15/bottle) but it seemed to do the trick as I didn't fry like I thought that I would - hell - I didn't even get any colour!

All in all, my first day was good - I survived and I am still having a hard time believing that I am hear!

Now on to day 2. . . .

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