I arrived at Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 5:30pm EST on 5/23 and arrived at Melbourne Tullamarine International airport at 6:05pm AEST on 5/25. The journey took 34.5 hours.
Many of you already know that my trip was only supposed to take 25 hours. The difference must be attributed either to the magic of air travel... or to the the four hour delay that I experienced in Charlotte that caused me to miss my flight to Melbourne from Los Angeles. I was very lucky, however. I had booked my LA-Melbourne flight on Qantas and my Charlotte-LA flight on US Airways. The two are not allied in any way, and I was terrified that I would have to pay for a new ticket for having missed my Melbourne flight. However, after having called the Qantas ticketing office from Charlotte while watching my plane be progressively delayed by 1/2-hour intervals, I arrived at the Qantas ticketing desk in LA and discovered that the airline had rebooked me at no cost onto another flight: a plane originating in NY that had been delayed for 6 hours and would depart from LA at 4:30am to arrive in Sydney 13.5 hours later. I would then catch a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and arrive 10 hours late, but in Australia nonetheless.
Despite the 4 hour layover in both LA and Sydney between flights, I had become in those few minutes at the ticket counter a huge fan of Qantas for being so nice to me. And then I discovered that a defective oxygen tank blew a hole in the fuselage of a plane en route from London to Melbourne, and I reconsidered my opinion.
The flight from LA to Sydney was uneventful, mostly because the television on the back of the seat in front of me, the one that I was supposed to be able to use to access over 100 movies and 180 television shows on-demand, never worked. I slept and listened to my ipod most of the way, but it was still really boring because I was seated in the middle of the plane and could see out of none of the windows. To sooth my suffering, Qantas gave me a $50 voucher for the duty-free catalog. I considered buying another Skagen, but thought better of it. Baileys is better.
When I arrived in Sydney, I breezed through customs (despite what I had read about Australian customs being very strict), washed up in the airport bathroom sink, and proceeded to order myself a large mango-passionfruit-pineapple-guava juice at Boost. The drink was nectar compared to the "salmon" and "quiche" I had received on the plane. Strolling through the Domestic Departures terminal while waiting for my Melbourne flight, I observed that Burger King is called Hungry Jack's here (same design to the logo), that they have recently opened a bunch of Gloria Jean's coffee shops, and that the general convenience store candy assortment contains all (yes ALL) of the sinfully delicious British items from Cadbury that are my soul's true weakness.
The flight to Melbourne boarded on time, and I watched the sun set dramatically over the clouds on the way there. Upon arrival, my supervisor met me (at the gate!) and took me to see both the lab that I will be working in (swanky!) and out to dinner with his wife (who works in the same lab) on Lygon St., the nexus of Italian culture in Melbourne. When I arrived at the budget motel/hostel that I had reserved for myself (called the Nunnery), I was more than disappointed. A spartan room, unlike what had been advertised online, confronted me. It was adequate, however, for sleeping. And I did sleep. Until 5:00am the following morning, when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Oh jet lag...
