Our Lauda Air Boeing 777 airplane being refuelled at Kuala Lumpur.
The stop lasted only an hour or so, just enough to empty the plane
and then start filling it again.
Gandi and I started our trip to Australia together on Monday 29.09.2003 - Nipsu was to follow a few days later. We grabbed an early bus from Jyväskylä to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport where we arrived about 05:30 in the morning. There was something like 24 hours of sitting in airplanes in front of us.
We arrived in Vienna on time and went on to find our connecting flight to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur. It turned out that there was a total chaos at the Vienna airport with unbelievably long queues to every departing plane and little chance of our flight leaving in time. Indeed, we did depart a little late but fortunately we caught up with the schedule during our long flight.
We had a short stopover at Kuala Lumpur, just enough to get all the people out of the plane and then fill it up again with the same people. Something to do with security they said. At least we got a chance to stretch our legs a bit.
So, we arrived in Sydney after a total of about 35 of traveling in buses and planes. The first funny thing to happen was at the airport when the customs officers x-rayed our luggage and discovered we had BOOTS in our backpacks! They immediately went on to sterilize them in the back room in case we'd bring biological contaminants to the country. Well, at least we got a free cleaning service for the boots. :)
After a while we figured how to get a transport to our hostel in King's Cross and were on our way. We booked in and finally had a nice hot shower. We spent the rest of the evening by making a short stroll around the neighbourhood to familiarise ourselves with the surroundings. Then jetlag and the lack of sleep kicked in and we got some well deserved sleep.
The next morning we set out to explore the city. We walked towards the inner city and tried not to get too wet during the frequent showers. The sun was nowhere to be seen. We found ourselves walking through the Darling harbour and towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge under which we once again spent a while keeping the rain. Once the rain subdued we went on to find some food and returned to our hostel. During the day we also asked around for car prices and availability and found out that buying a car is probably the right thing to do for us (vs renting).
The day started with a fresh cup of President coffee we made in the hostel kitchen. Yes, of course we brought our own coffee with us. :) On the itinerary today was visiting the IMAX theatre. We went to see James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss and it truly was an amazing experience. We didn't do much else that day as it was too cold and rainy to spend time outside. Nipsu also started his journey from Finland today but he wouldn't arrive until early Saturday morning.
*Shiver*. Sydney keeps getting colder and colder. It was colder than in Siberia there or at least it felt so. The wind was freezing. We strolled around the city centre again, this time concentrating on the are of the Royal Botanical Gardens. We took some nice photos of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and of course got up close and personal with the Opera House. Some japanese tourists wanted to have their photo taken with us as we apparently were "exotic scandinavians". Heh. Wonder where our photo is being shown at the moment. We did see some nice birds in the gardens and a couple of trees full of huge fruit bats.
The morning started early (at 5 am) as we got up in time to welcome Nipsu to Sydney. Now that we were all together the first order of business was deciding which car to buy. We went to Traveller's Autobarn and settled on a red 1991 Ford Falcon stationwagon which seemed to be in excellent condition. We'd get the car on Tuesday so there was still a few days to kill in Sydney. Next we dragged the jetlaggish Nipsu to the IMAX theatre and a showed him a quick overview of the city. Later Nipsu retired to sleep his jetlag off while Gandi and I went to photograph the nightly Sydney landscape to a nearby park.
Another sightseeing day. We bought subway tickets to the famous Bondi Beach figuring it would be nice to spend some time worshipping the sun. Only the sun didn't shine. Nor was the weather warm. A big thunderstorm came upon us when we were sitting at the beach and we had to evacuate ourselves and find some shelter. The streets were filled with water and an instant traffic jam was formed. Not much point in spending time outside today, either. Sydney was starting to get boring.
