June 25th – 27th, 2018, on the flight to Australia, you lose a day, so even though we left on the evening of June 25th, we didn’t arrive into Sydney until the morning of June 27th.
We left Austin around 6 p.m to fly into Los Angeles, where we had a 3 hour layover, before we board the long flight to Sydney. All flights were on time, so with United that is a big plus right there. We always travel United, because of the status and perks that we have with them, but to be honest, I mostly have a hate relationship with United Airlines. This time, they didn’t do anything to piss me off, so we have started our travels on the right foot!
On the flight over, it went fairly quickly for a 15 plus hour flight. I was actually surprised, since I had been dreading and having anxiety over this long flight for months now. I was able to sleep for a few hours, which I am seldom able to do, and I watched both Molly’s Game and I, Tonya and started watching the Netflix series, The Staircase. Molly’s Game was really good, and I enjoyed it a lot, I, Tonya was a little corny, but the bodyguard character kept me laughing and entertained, he definitely reminds me of someone that we had in our life at one time. ;). The Staircase is also very good and kept me wanting to watch more, which is exactly what I look for in a series when traveling. Since I don’t watch a lot of tv, I want to find something that I am able to easily binge watch on long flights and so far, this is doing the trick. True crime stories are my favorite, and this is proving to be right up my alley!
The food on this flight was awful. I was severely disappointed that on such a long flight, the options were so bad that I didn’t even really eat anything and was absolutely starving by the time that we got to Sydney. Not cool United!
We got into Sydney at 6:45 a.m. and like I said, I was absolutely starving when we landed. We had a private driver waiting for us when we came out of baggage claim, so that was nice. Rich exchanged money for our 3 1/2 weeks and we were off. The driver was very quiet, not friendly at all and he was either not awake yet, or just a horrible driver. More than once he almost smashed into the car in front of him after they put their brakes on, because he wasn’t paying any attention and had to slam on the brakes. I was not only starving, I was getting car sick and thought I was going to puke and I couldn’t close my eyes and relax, because I had to keep my eyes on the road to make sure I was able to scream at him to stop, if he doesn’t notice the traffic stopping in front of him. Ugh!
We get to the hotel, over an hour later, of course we came in during rush hour and traffic going downtown was a complete nightmare. We are staying at the Park Hyatt Sydney right on the harbour, so we are in a great location. As soon as we got into our room, we immediately headed downstairs to eat breakfast, so that I don’t starve to death. This is a common theme with me, and you would think that I was in fear of wasting away, as often as I am in a state of starvation, but, somehow my clothes keep fitting snug! lol. They had a mimosa stand set up outside of the restaurant and by the looks of it, they take their breakfast drinking seriously in Australia (we will soon find out that they just taking drinking seriously in Australia!). The food was pretty good and I found the even though I don’t care for coconut, with the right amount of honey mixed in, coconut yogurt is not only good for you and dairy free, but tastes pretty good as well.
After breakfast, we went straight up to our room, which over looks the Sydney Opera House, very sweet view, and promptly laid down to rest up before our massages and facials that we have scheduled at noon. After an hour or so “nap”, we headed down to be pampered in the spa. We had a 90 minute deep tissue massage and then a 60 minute facial scheduled and I was excited! Unfortunately, my massage therapist thought that firm pressure meant lightly touching, and even though it put me to sleep, the massage was not very good. By the time she started my facial, I was just not enjoying this (I know, serious problems, right?!) and by the time we were half way into my facial, my back started to hurt (odd, since I just had a massage, that should be a clue) and I was having hot flashes, starting to sweat profusely to the point that I just wanted to jump off of the table to cool off and then I started coughing and couldn’t stop. It was not a pleasant experience and I was relieved and thankful when it was all finished. I was probably the most squirmy client that she had ever seen!
Went back to our room, cleaned up, took another nap and then went down to the restaurant in the hotel to eat dinner, because let’s face it, jet lag is in full force and we are too tired to even go downstairs, let alone leave the hotel to find a restaurant to eat at. The waiters were complete dipshits. I wanted the French Onion soup for a started, so I asked about the size and was told that it was a little bowl, not too big, so I ordered that, along with my main course and when I got the soup, it was in a serving bowl, full, with enough soup to feed a family of four! It was good though, and I ended up eating a majority of it and then wasn’t hungry for my main, which I didn’t find to be that good anyway. By this time, I am two cosmos in, and combined with jet lag and food in my system, I am starting to fall asleep at the table and decide that I have about two minutes to get up to our room or I am going to be sleeping in the restaurant for the night. We head upstairs.
I am out for the night at 6:20 p.m. and up and wide awake for the day at 3:30 a.m. Welcome to our 2nd day in Sydney!
