Chelsea’s RTW Travel Log

We’re on the 14-hour power flight to Sydney from San Francisco (SYD-SFO) on Qantas. So far, I am lovin’ it - free booze, clean bathrooms and a full row of three seats with a window. Neither of us thought the check-in lady was going to hook us up, but she did (at our request, of course). They feed you constantly on this flight and have lots of value-adds that make the choice to fly Qantas easy. We’re using air miles - so I am pretty happy that we even got a direct flight.

They fed us at midnight. We got salmon and fingerling potatoes/veggies or chicken with orzo pasta, bread, green salad, tapioca with raspberry sauce. To compliment my meal, I choose a couple 200ml bottles of sparkling Australian Pinot Noir.

We found the good seats on this flight using Seat Guru. Once we knew what they were, Justin plugged them into his Crackberry notes. I highly recommend using Seat Guru, and it’s free. You just need to know what type of plane and seating configuration you’ll have. Usually, you can login to the airline website with your confirmation code to find this.

The day we left was hectic… there are lots of last minute things you have to do before you up and leave the country for an undetermined period of time such as, canceling insurance, cell phone contracts, etc.

Instead of canceling AT&T (which I wouldn’t lose any sleep over), I dropped the contract to the lowest possible rate of $29.95. Doing this made me lose all of my rollover minutes, but if I am not gone more than 5 months, it just doesn’t make sense since I’d have a $175.00 cancellation fee to eat. AT&T refused to put my contract on hold while I’m out of the country. I guess Americans don’t travel. That seems ridiculous to me. I mean, they are willing to lose customers simply because they are going to be out of the country? I guess they talked me into staying. Hrm, maybe there’s something to their strategy.

As far as car insurance goes, I still owe money on my granny mobile, so I have to carry comp/collision/liability insurance.I decided to increase my deductibles to $1000 each (my lien holder allows this as a maximum) and reject uninsured motorist. This cut my premium almost in half. Had I thought about it earlier, I probably would have just paid the car off so I don’t have to pay any insurance on it monthly.

We still have four hours to go on the flight. I bought a travel blanket and a koosh neck pillow, and Qantas gives you a nice size, firm pillow with a pillow case and a warm blanket. With three seats worth of blankets/pillows and the stuff I bought, we’re pretty set. I slept about 8 hours, but woke up with a stomach ache. I think eating five meals yesterday and then hopping on an international flight made me a little queasy. Ah, live and learn.

The temperature should be 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit when we get there.It’s winter there, so rain is in the forecast.

Our studio is in Surry Hills, right outside of Kings Cross, which is the party hub of Sydney. The district we’re staying in is touted for eclectic cuisine and trendy shops. We’re secured an apartment on the 17^th floor, looking out over the city.This lady named Anne was going to be out of town and she heard we needed a place, so she emailed us about her place. We were contacting all sorts of people through Gumtree, Craigslist, and other databases for short term stays. Yes, it was serendipity that we found each other.

She sends us long emails detailing everything we need to know about Sydney, the culture, political climate, etc. It turns out, she’s from England and used to be a travel advisor at one point in her career. She’s very helpful and her place looks amazing, not to mention the 10-person hot tub on the roof.

I am getting excited about being there… I want this darned plane to land. We’re taking something called No-Jet-Lag (a homeopathic remedy) that you have to chew every 2 waking hours and every 4 hours if you’re sleeping. They sell it at all of the travel stores at the counter, so I figured – what the hell? I will let you know how it goes.

I will get back to this later when I have more details on Sydney and our place.

As a peek, here’s a few photos of our first day in Sydney.