(Avenue of Stars)
So,`on the 17th was check out from HK hotel - midday check out, not so bad. Woke up ridiculously early again, went online, packed, checked out.. nothing interesting. Then to kill some time I went exploring and decided to go find the Avenue of Stars. Wasn't too far away, I already had a vague idea of where I was going so all was well :D When I got there it was basically on the harbor side and it was so hot! And the sun was so bright as well, and me being me couldn't find my sunglasses in my bag so decided I must have packed them (at the end of the day I found them in the bag I'd had all along, doh!) Didn't recognise many of the stars but went for a wander nonetheless, got a bit lost, ended up by a museum of some sort, sat down next to a water fountain with free wifi and chilled there for a while :D Can't complain at free wifi!
(Fountain where I was sitting)
Back to the hotel via a coffee shop, had several hours to kill, ordered food which
wasn't particularly appetizing. Uck. Went to the airport stupidly early as figured there'd be more to do at the airport than the hotel. Got to the airport around 18:00 and my flight wasn't til midnight, wasn't even on the checking in board! Read one of my books, a Tess Gerritsen one - think I'll be buying a few more of hers. Checked in, went through departures, found more free wifi, chilled out, got on plane.
Fortunately this one wasn't delayed, maybe by like 10 minutes or so but hey. Was a better journey, shorter - only 9 hrs and then also my screen was actually working. At least for half of the journey anyway! I watched (500) days of Summer and The Time Travellers Wife, both pretty cool. And some Big Bang Theory :D And then.. my screen broke. So either I have phenomenally bad luck or Cathay Pacific have shit screens... answers on a postcard.
(Avenue of Stars)
Flight was a lot more bumpy than the other one, especially towards the end. Was a pretty rough landing and I was trying to keep myself distracted by figuring out exchange rates in my head, worked pretty well until we landed and then I started feeling not so good. Loads of people were ill during the landing and it was not nice, not nice at all :/ Off that plane sharpish, through to arrivals!
(Random waterfally fountain thingy by Avenue of Stars)
I planned on writing quite a bit on what its like to come through Australian customs, as when I googled it before I went I couldn't really find a lot about it, especially if you're on a working holiday visa - do they ask you questions and all that? Well, I wouldn't know. I joined the nothing to declare queue, got the the front where they allocate you a queue for an x-ray machine / customs officer and I got waved off down a side queue and just walked straight through, no x-rays or checks or anything! Mental. They'd already checked my visa at passport control so I guess I didn't look any degree of suspicious or worth talking to - my dad did say that would probably happen! Suited me, didn't fancy queueing for another half hour for no reason anyway, besides that I don't *strictly* have quite the amount of money they recommend in the terms of the visa so all was well and good to just swan straight through :D
(Avenue of Stars)
So I'm staying in Base hostel, and on my paperwork it said to ring up to organise a free shuttle from the airport. I ring, and they tell me which bus to get - $14 dollars and they give it back to you at reception when you get there. Except this bus never came, I waited for rather a while (in gloriously hot sun) and then got talking to a bus driver of a different company who said that Base do it all the time - apparently they don't tend to come to the airport unless they know they've got a good few people to pick up, never just for one. To be fair it does sound like a bit of a pointless journey but I should have been told that! Either way, this other company took me instead for the same amount, I forgot to claim it back at reception but I may go down there later and ask - I want my $14 back!
(View of harbour from Avenue of Stars)
After I'd checked in I went to meet Marianna. She is a friend of Jennys, they went to Russia together, but she came over to the UK to visit a few years back and met all of our group, so it was really good to see a friendly face! She was awesome, bless her, like a mini tour guide and we just wandered around for a while once she'd finished work and I asked her a multitude of questions. Went and sat in Hyde Park for a little while, I also got myself an australia prepaid sim card, and it was just generally a pretty chilled out afternoon while I attempted to get to grips with some things i.e the australia DOLLAR as I keep calling it a pound, and the simple thing of not getting lost and knowing where my hostel is!
(Me and Marianna @ Hyde Park)
Later on we went to a place called Erskineville (sp?) to meet up with a few of her friends she's not seen in a while, who also went to Russia years back. Was a really nice evening although I was practically dead at this point from jet lag and lack of sleep, so I wasn't a very active participant in the conversations but was awesome to be around people, either way! I've in all technicality been pretty much alone since I left on Wednesday 13th so it was just like... PEOPLE! PEOPLE! :D :D :D
I got back and chilled out online for a bit - needed to activate my sim card and checked facebook, the usual. The internet is pretty reasonable - $1 for every 15 minutes. A lot more expensive than HK, but hey, what did I expect? I think today, after I manage to drag my ass out of bed and into a shower, I'm going to go and try find a bank - I need a bank account and I need to change over my remaining money! However for the moment its only just 9am and I can't be bothered to move :D
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