So, the first logical step of any trip preparation is to handle the logistics. And if Dorothy was swept by a tornado and taken to Oz, why shouldn't I get there in a similar fashion? Well, not by a tornado, obviously, but by air, the fastest way to travel nowadays. Even so, it took me and my friends 2 days to reach Sydney.
We left Bucharest on the morning of November 2nd, 2012, at 8 am and we landed in Sydney two days later, on November 4th, at 7 am, with just two stops on the way: Istanbul, Turkey and Abu Dhabi, UAE. Maybe we could have achieved a better time, but we were pretty stressed out about missing our flights, so playing it safe seemed like a good bet. After all, we were going eclipse chasing, not on a mere holiday and getting there was of the essence!
So, a one and a half hour flight from Bucharest, a pit stop in Istanbul for eight hours with a quick tour around the city (and I mean quick - as quick as a city tour double decker can take you), a three and a half hour second flight, a five hour short stop in Abu Dhabi's terminal and off we were on our last portion of our trip: the fourteen hour long flight to Sydney. And that's a looong flight. You can sleep for a few hours, eat about three meals and watch at least three movies, all while checking your progress on the map. And trust me, sometimes it can feel like you've made no progress above the ocean, although the airplane is moving at fantastic speeds.
I'm not sure how Dorothy felt in her house while up in the air, but I grew restless at one point and I couldn't wait to get there, to finally stretch my legs, smell the fresh air, feel the breeze and catch some sunlight. :)
In the end, we did land in a faraway place: so similar, yet so different from anything in the Old World, so new and yet so old... And just so you have an idea how far away a place it is, look at these numbers...
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| Directions from Sydney |
Next time, I'll tell you all about my first day in Sydney.
