I am in love with Sydney. It is the most beautiful place on Earth; at least to me in this moment. I feel like a six year old again, waking to the freshest smells and a dawn chorus punctuated by the insane calls of the local birds.
Landing in this city was definitely the surrealist experience of my life. I've always imagined what Sydney would be like again, and had dreams about it that touched upon the reality I remember from living here 14 years ago, but I have never really thought that I would ever see it again.
I'd like to say that I had the "flight from hell" on my way over, but it wasn't; I am just rubbish at sleeping. Lesson learned #1: Never, ever, get an evening flight to Australia. I landed at 6:00am on Saturday morning, and had to spend the rest of the day awake in order to beat jet lag.
The flight itself was fairly average, or as average as any plane journeys that last 12 and 8 hours can be. I watched two films: Bolt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Both were a bit crap. One thing I'll say about Virgin - every single one of their staff was extremely good looking. Is that part of the requirement to be one of the cabin crew for them?
There was a nice moment on the way to Hong Kong which made up for the painful drifting in and out of consciousness. By that point all of the lights were off so that people could sleep, and the window-shutters were all closed too. I had stirred out of my daze and wasn't about to fall back to "sleep" anytime soon, so I decided to have a look outside...
I opened my shutter a slither and the most beautiful light filled my tiny corner of the plane. As we were flying over Kirov, East of Moscow, we had caught up with the dawn light, and at 36,000 ft seemed to be soaring above the sun as it hovered in its pink and orange blanket. It was nice, and took me away from thoughts of hours of flying...
Hong Kong has awesome coins. Incidentally, I can't remember the last time I saw HSBC referred to as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. While the plane was being refueled I walked aroud a bit, listened to music (thanks Chrissie and Helen), bought an SD card that doesn't work in my camera (woops), and watched the sun set. After reboarding the plane and making friends with the old lady sitting next to me, we were on our way to Australia.
My plan was to sleep so that I'd be fine when I arrived, but that failed. My elderly neighbour watched at least 5 films in the meantime. And before I knew it, the pilot had started the descent into Sydney.
It really is difficult to explain the emotion I felt as we flew over Sydney Harbour. I've always associated Australia strongly with my life, even if 1 year there hardly counts for anything. Seeing the Bridge, and the Opera House, and the rest of the city, reinvigorated feelings I hadn't felt for years.
It took about 10 minutes to get through all of the checks after leaving the plane (speedy!); maybe it was lucky that we were one of the first international flights arriving at that time. I met my...second cousin, or first cousin once removed...or something - Wendy - once I got out, and I'm staying with her for the time being. The weather was perfect too. Grey clouds gave way to vast blue skies for the rest of the day, which was great considering I'd be visiting the city in a few hours.
As we landed next to the ocean that morning, it felt just like coming home, and even now I still can't really believe that I'm here.
Landing in this city was definitely the surrealist experience of my life. I've always imagined what Sydney would be like again, and had dreams about it that touched upon the reality I remember from living here 14 years ago, but I have never really thought that I would ever see it again.
I'd like to say that I had the "flight from hell" on my way over, but it wasn't; I am just rubbish at sleeping. Lesson learned #1: Never, ever, get an evening flight to Australia. I landed at 6:00am on Saturday morning, and had to spend the rest of the day awake in order to beat jet lag.
The flight itself was fairly average, or as average as any plane journeys that last 12 and 8 hours can be. I watched two films: Bolt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Both were a bit crap. One thing I'll say about Virgin - every single one of their staff was extremely good looking. Is that part of the requirement to be one of the cabin crew for them?
There was a nice moment on the way to Hong Kong which made up for the painful drifting in and out of consciousness. By that point all of the lights were off so that people could sleep, and the window-shutters were all closed too. I had stirred out of my daze and wasn't about to fall back to "sleep" anytime soon, so I decided to have a look outside...
I opened my shutter a slither and the most beautiful light filled my tiny corner of the plane. As we were flying over Kirov, East of Moscow, we had caught up with the dawn light, and at 36,000 ft seemed to be soaring above the sun as it hovered in its pink and orange blanket. It was nice, and took me away from thoughts of hours of flying...
Hong Kong has awesome coins. Incidentally, I can't remember the last time I saw HSBC referred to as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. While the plane was being refueled I walked aroud a bit, listened to music (thanks Chrissie and Helen), bought an SD card that doesn't work in my camera (woops), and watched the sun set. After reboarding the plane and making friends with the old lady sitting next to me, we were on our way to Australia.
My plan was to sleep so that I'd be fine when I arrived, but that failed. My elderly neighbour watched at least 5 films in the meantime. And before I knew it, the pilot had started the descent into Sydney.
It really is difficult to explain the emotion I felt as we flew over Sydney Harbour. I've always associated Australia strongly with my life, even if 1 year there hardly counts for anything. Seeing the Bridge, and the Opera House, and the rest of the city, reinvigorated feelings I hadn't felt for years.
It took about 10 minutes to get through all of the checks after leaving the plane (speedy!); maybe it was lucky that we were one of the first international flights arriving at that time. I met my...second cousin, or first cousin once removed...or something - Wendy - once I got out, and I'm staying with her for the time being. The weather was perfect too. Grey clouds gave way to vast blue skies for the rest of the day, which was great considering I'd be visiting the city in a few hours.
As we landed next to the ocean that morning, it felt just like coming home, and even now I still can't really believe that I'm here.
No comments:
Post a Comment