My Travels to Cairns, Australia

Fourteen hours is an extremely long time to be on a plane. I was very lucky to be flying at night so that I had the possibility to sleep, although it wasn't as easy to sleep as I thought it would be.

Everyone who talked to me about international flights talked them up big time-saying they take care of you and make the trip exceptionally comfortable. For some reason this made me picture a first class situation for a flight, with moving room and chairs that laid back farther or something. But, it turns out that the plane is actually just a really big version of a normal airplane. You still had tight leg room and seats that only reclined about 3 inches backward.

That made things a little less exciting, not that I wasnt still excited to be getting to where I was going. The airline made us as comfortable as they could with meals, TV and even hot towels. We had two really great meals, some snacks, and a million TV shows and movies to choose from on our personal monitor in the headrests of all the seats which were all free of charge. These monitors even had a flight map in which you could follow along to how much longer we had in the plane and where we wer ein the sky at that very moment. It was nice to follow along and see how far we have gotten from time to time. I sat in the middle room which was a little uncomfortable considering I didnt have a wall or side to lean on to sleep but thats alright I still made out just fine. This being my 3rd plane right of the day, I knew I would make it just fine. I was sitting in the second to last row on the plane in between two girls, Amy and Hannah, who actually were part of my Australearn program so it made the ride over a lot less boring.

We left LA at 10:30 and arrived in Sydney at 6:05am after crossing the international dateline so on our way over we lost a day. By now 8 of us that were all going to La Trobe were all traveling together, so it was nice to have the company and meet the people I have been eagerly talking to on facebook without actually meeting. Our next flight didnt leave until 9:30am and it was only 6:30am when we landed.. but Sydney was a very confusing airport and took alot of time, so it was good that we had the three hours to spare. As we all got off the plane we and everyone else on the plane headed directly into the line for Customs. We all waited in the line and followed it through just so they could check our passports and make sure we were elligable to arrive in Australia. Then we had to grab our checked luggage from the canveyor belt and proceed through another line that was the line for Customs. I was very surprised because looked at all my new friends and their luggage, I packed VERY light and I was worrying and hoping that I didnt pack too light although now I think of it, I think I did. After grabbing our luggage we went through the customs line and put our checked luggage back on the conveyor belt after it went through Customs. We then continued through security again. After everyone successfully went through Customs and Security we all got on a tram/bus that took us to the correct terminal of where our next flight was going to leave from.

We finally got to gate 4, where our flight was leaving from and had about 30 minutes to spare before we had to board another plane. I took this time to call home to let dad and my big goon know that I had successfully made it to Australia. Trying to get my international US phone card to work on an Australian pay phone was a trip in itself. Eventually finding out that US phone cards dont work in Australia- so buying them from the US was a waste of money. As I was trying to figure it out a guy came over to me and asked me if I needed help. He then told me US phone cards dont work because they have an extra number on them. He had been in Australia for a while and was now traveling to Tailand. From then I had to make the call using my debit card which in the end costed me about $60 for a 10 minute call. But, in the end it was worth it because I didnt know when I would be able to make a call next. I called dad, and I called Ryan so they knew that i was safe after that 14 hour plane ride. It was 9:30 where I was, and 7pm where they were in the states.

We boarded the last plane of the day to Cairns (pronounced Cans). It was a short one, of only about three hours. Just enough time to watch Blades of Glory for the 3rd time! It was a nice ride and an exciting one since we knew we would finally be at our destination when we arrive. We arrived in Cairns at 12:30 pm/noon (which is about 10:30 pm in the states). We followed around to baggage claim when we arrived to the airport. Walking out through the terminal was gorgeous as it was all glad doors and you could see out to gorgeous Cairns. It was REAL hott and I of course was wearing flip flops, jeans, a tshirt and sweat jacket. But I didnt want to carry anything more than I already had so I left it on.

Once we got to baggage claim, there were two guys in red shirts holding a sign titled, "AustraLearn" which was the program that we were going through for our study abroad program. We were told to sign a sheet of paper so they could count us in of being here and after getting our baggage proceed to "The big green bus". After I got my baggage, I went to use the bathroom excited to see the toliets flush the other way. To my surprise this didnt happen. Here they have either a half flush or a full flush to save energy and the water doesnt spin it just splashes up and flushes down. I thought it was soo interesting to find that out, since even since I could remember people have told me, "In Australia the toliet flushes the other way" when in reality that is not true.

Ok, so I headed out to the "big green bus". There were about 90 students in the program - so they had to fit us all on the "big green bus". We were told to leave our luggage with the driver so he could fit it all in the bus cubby. Just my luck, my handle on my large suitcase brakes- I guess it was just being held with too much weight. Kinda sucks because it was expensive luggage- oh well mom will find out when I return in November. Anyways, after we dropped our luggage we were handed a landyard with a name tag attached to it and we got on the bus. It was about a ten minute drive to our hostel- "Gillians backpackers".

On our way there I was so surprised with things around especially how they drove on the wrong side of the road and cars drove on the wrong side towards us.. it really did amaze me.

I've got more to say thats going to have to wait until next time, because I'm exhausted and probably will just fall asleep soon. But, I promise to get you completely updated by the end of the week! One cool thing that has stuck out to me is that instead of saying "your welcome" here, everyone says "no worries mate." It's sweet.