A long day... or two short ones?

6am on Sunday is already 2 am Monday in Sydney, so this is a long combined day, with not much to tell. We got up and went for a long walk along the Ali Wai canal and through the “Lei of Parks”, then came back and showered, packed, and got our wordle and duolingos done. Our uber driver was early, which we didn’t mind, and we got to the airport and got ourselves and our bags checked in with very little waiting. Our check-in agent was very pleased to see that we had our Australia visas (Faithful readers may remember that I almost didn’t get mine, have accidentally checked “yes” on the question about domestic violence convictions). Apparently it’s not unusual for people get to the airport checkin and discover that they need visas, and as you might imagine it’s not a lot of fun for the agents who get to tell people they can’t go without one. There was a long line at the regular security screen but not at TSA precheck, so we had a lot of time before our plane was supposed to take off. 

Honolulu airport is weird, big and sprawling, so we spent an hour or so walking around, including a delightful time in their Cultural Garden, which has 3 sections – Hawaiian, Japanese, and Chinese. It was not a particularly nice day and just as it had on our walk it sprinkled on us a little from time to time, but not enough to mind. What a great way to relax at the airport. Our flight ended up being delayed by almost an hour due to security requirements and lack of cleaning crew, but we eventually got on board and into our tiny seats. We had been assigned seats in row 35 but at check in the agent told us that the window seat wouldn’t recline and would we like to change seats? We said we would, especially since it’s Pesach, and ended up in row 24, just one row back from the bulkhead row. Our seats were packed with a blanket, a pillow, and a headset and boy did they feel cramped. There is no wifi on Qantas overseas flights.

In addition to all the bedding, they also fed us a lot – 2 hot meals and many snacks including a melon icecream popsicle. But there’s really no amount of food that can make a flight that long in economy class seats much fun. A high point of the flight was when Dave got out his phone and used the GPS to see when we crossed the equator – I guess that’s when we officially turned upside down. I had been dreading the flight, but in the end it wasn’t too bad. I watched two movies (Blueback and Finding Nemo, neither of which was particularly good) which made the end of the flight go by more quickly. Sadly, it turns out the trtl works better in first class, but it was ok in coach.

Customs/Immigration was easy; you slide your passport into a kiosk and it asks a few questions (I got the one about convictions right this time with Daves help) and spits out a card that you then show people or put in slots; once our luggage came it was only a couple of minutes before we were out waiting for our Uber. We got to the hotel around 9 and got checked in. Our hotel is in the city harbor area but our room looks the other way. We had both made sure our jammies were on top of our suitcases and quickly did our wordles and duolingo (gotta keep that streak!) and were asleep in moments.