(no subject)
The Voyage
I'm not going to list things too accurately in these historical accounts as my memory is already fading.
We left Dublin some time about three weeks ago. The weather had just started to pick up, I know that much, but it seems to have declined in our absence. So that's nice. The flight was to depart at about 10:00am so we had an easy start. Mind you, this means the airport was much busier than I am used to, as I usually opt to fly out at something more like 7:00am. The queues marched along fluidly enough, however, and the bags were checked through to Melbourne with a minimum of fuss.
In eager anticipation of the trip, I had decided to treat myself to a new pair of trousers.
These trousers are special, magical, amazing and unique. By which I meant to say: they have magnets in them. This sounded like a great idea at the time. Magnets holding the pockets closed to ensure nothing falls out by accident. What it seems I had failed to consider was that these same magnets also has the "magical" effect of setting off metal detectors. I was disappointed in myself when I heard the red buzzer (I pride myself on sailing through security) and suffered the indignity of a pat down. I still took less time going through than 90% of the people there.
The initial trip was via Amsterdam, with a quick Aer Lingus hop. I don't really remember it so let's assume it went without incident.
My next major memory was of queuing to go through security again with floor to ceiling windows casting the glorious backdrop of a Cathay Pacific 747. I went through one of those body scanner things this time. And got, once again, patted down. Stupid damned magnets.
Cathay Pacific were nice. Very similar to British Airways actually in many ways. The food on that flight was surprisingly palatable. Ali, who has a profound dislike of aeroplane food, had opted for a "fruit platter" in the meal selection on the website when we booked. This backfired on her though, as the general quality of the meals and snacks was considerably higher than she had expected - as was the number of fruit platters she would be eating over the course of the 11 hour flight. I have never before seen her sick of fruit.
I give Cathay Pacific my hearty thumbs up however. Theirs was the most pleasant flight.
We landed in Hong Kong at...hell I have no idea. I was tired though. Possibly more tired than I have ever been, that's certainly how it felt. This was odd, though, as I had done the Dublin - Hong Kong thing three times before and each time it was relatively ok. For some inexplicable reason I was absolutely scuppered upon arrival. the airport is easy to navigate though, has free wifi and was mostly empty so I got about half an hour of sleep.
Hong Kong to Melbourne was probably the worst flight of the lot. Not because of how tired we were nor because it's slightly heart breaking to get on a nine hour flight just after getting off an eleven hour one but because this particular flight came with the latest innovation in the area of screaming children. Three of them. For nine hours. That was unpleasant.
Upon arriving in Melbourne, several-screaming-children-hours later we were about as refreshed as you might expect. At this point we had to tackle the legendary beast known as "Australian customs". I had been asked to bring powdered custard (that's another post...albeit a short and boring one) and I was a bit nervous as I expected a confrontation with a surly customs official who would question my every motivation in acquiring the custard and it's intended use upon being permitted onto Australian soil. What I got instead was a mirthful Aussie woman who found the notion of someone sending for powdered custard from overseas to be funny. She stamped my form and out we went. Customs officials, in general, there were easy and friendly as it happen. I guess I should watch fewer of those airport caught-red-handed type reality shows on Living TV.
So full of vim, vigour and vivacious venturesome verve were we that it was decided upon that we would just get in a goddamned taxi and go straight to the hotel. Which we did. The Taxi driver was stand offish, handled out cases with little care, drove too fast, tailgated the person in front of him, was speeding on the freeway and swerved suddenly at least twice. Nice to know some things are the same in the antipodes...
We arrived at the Hotel Crossley at about half eleven Thursday night. We had left the apartment on Wednesday morning.
Flights were to the order of 2hrs + 11hrs + 9 hours
Stopovers were about 2hrs + 3hrs
Travel times to/from the airports was about an hour each way.
So...about twenty nine hours of travel all in all. Which was a lot.