Going to the airport was extremely tiring- because the flight was long-haul it's recommended that you get there 3 hours before it leaves! That and a two hour drive to Heathrow from my hometown; that's 5 hours before I'd even boarded!
Luckily for me, it was a relatively painless experience. My tickets were electronic which normally means you hand in a printout to the check-in desk and they print out your boarding passes. However, my dad (who is a seasoned traveler himself) showed me that you can check in online, up to 48 hours before your flight leaves, depending on your airline. I didn't do it until the morning of my flight, but still. It was great, because it meant I could change my seat to a slightly better one! The good thing about checking in early (as strange as it seems) is that you DO have the option of swapping around before you get there- so quite incredibly I was able to select a window seat on both legs of the journey to Australia!
Here it should be noted the airplane debate: Which is better, a window seat where you can lean against the side and look out of the window, or an aisle seat, which means you can stick your legs out subtly to stretch and also get to the bathroom without disturbing anybody?!?! Maybe it's a personal choice, but I tend to have no conscience generally so window seat it was!
Back to the original point: because I had checked in early, I had already printed out my boarding passes at home, so I just had to check in my bag and I was ready to go.
After a last coffee and farewell with my family, I tried not to look too scared as I went through customs! (They can tell when you're scared... like predators... ) I had to do the usual things like almost completely strip to put my things through the scanner, and also take my laptop out of the bag to be scanned separately (cosmetics in a clear plastic bags ladies, and er, gentlemen too if that's your thing), but otherwise I wasn't questioned at all about my student visa, or asked for ANY documentation to prove it. And since I pre-empted the scanning and got everything ready in the queue, I got through relatively quickly actually.You generally have to wait for at least an hour for them to give you a gate number if you get there at the recommended time, but that's okay because they have a bazillion shops, including super expensive ones like Tiffany's which I enjoy gasping at due to the prices. I ended up having an awesome meal at Yo!Sushi. What an amazing place! I could just eat there forever and ever...
I strongly suggest going to your gate as SOON as they give it to you, because some airports are so massive that it can take ages to walk from one end to another, and if you miss boarding then that's it for you! D: It's a lot of waiting around but you just have to resign yourself. Your journey is going to be incredibly long anyway, so what's another few hours...
Plane meals are surprisingly nice! You wouldn't think it, but for cheap food it isn't bad. They usually have a couple of choices (although if you have food requirements you need to tell the airline when you buy the tickets) and they give you a tray full of things including juice, some kind of breakfast as well as a small starter and coffee or tea.
DON'T BUY OVER THE LIMIT IN THE AIRPORT DUTY FREE OR ON THE PLANE!
Just because you got through UK customs, it doesn't mean they won't take it off you at your destination! You can buy any amount of stuff at the shops:- of course they'll take your money from you without telling you it'll get confiscated. And I don't know about you, but I could do without a $220 fine to start my experience.
The journey was incredibly long and boring. They had a bunch of films and programmes on a tiny screen in the preceding seat, but it's the kind of bored that you can't get rid of even if you have stuff you could do. I would have slept more, but I wanted to nail the time difference straight away (which has worked btw)!
My flight left at approx. 10.30pm so it was an overnight flight, but I forced myself to stay awake for as much of the first leg to Hong Kong as possible. This was surprisingly easy until near the end, but a nap helped.
We weren't in Hong Kong for too long, there was about half an hour's gap, which was tricky since we had to get to the right gate and then through Chinese security again. It was a strange experience though! I wish I'd had more time to walk around the shops there (amazing gadgets and electronics) but time was of the essence as I said before. THIS was the leg of the flight I forced myself to try and sleep the whole time! I'd be arriving in Australia at 7.05am, so it meant that hopefully I'd be ready for the day ahead of me when landed.
During the journey there were some absolutely fantastic sights through my little window. I had flown across Eastern Europe, the snow plains of Russia, the top of India, a long stretch of Tibet and then across the whole of China to reach Hong Kong. The stretches of snow were SO vast, and they had mountains and long cracks in the ice that must have run for thousands of miles. The same goes for the deserts- it was hard to tell whether cracks in the earth and shapes in the sand were geographical features or civilisation. Unfortunately, a lot of my journey was chasing the night around the world. But I managed to see a part of the Andes and mountains in China too. When dawn broke in Australia, the sunlight lit up all the lakes before you could see the land. Eventually, I was able to see just how much of it is barren wasteland. The middle of Australia is just red earth and desert with the occasional rock. I distinctly remember wondering how many beasties live own there, unbeknownst to any human!
At Melbourne (SO ready to get off the plane and REALLY excited now) once again I breezed through customs without any problems whatsoever! Maybe I look trustworthy! I was nervous too though, I had no idea what to expect when I got there. I had to find the right driver and get taken to the right place, then find the residences office...
So stay tuned for my next note- 'Conquering social awkwardness with Jenn!'
Approx journey (bearing in mind I wasn't paying THAT close attention to it)
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