| Laura - 26th of
September 1999 |
| It is my 18th birthday
today, and Mark and I are slowly getting more and
more nervous about the trip to come. I hope that
our stomachs will settle enough to allow us to
enjoy some birthday cake. We have spent a long and
hectic week having lots of fun with lots of
different people, sadly every evening had to end
in "goodbye". We will be flying out on
Wednesday at 07.25 and arriving in Sydney on
Thursday at 15.10, where we will hopefully be met
at the airport by some friendly faces who will
help us to start our adventure.
Unfortunately
the weather in Sydney right now is about the same
as here, so it's not exactly surfing-sunbathing
weather just yet. But it is only the beginning of
spring so we have another long summer to look
forward to!
|
| Laura & Mark - 27th
September 1999 |
05.30 - Buzz buzz buzz, the
irritating sound of the alarm clock awoke us from
our peaceful "night-after-big-birthday"
slumber. Today is judgement day: CAN WE GO TO
AUSTRALIA?
06.38 - Chugging slowly along on the train to The
Hague, we sit and wonder what would happen if we
didn't get the visa. We wonder what the quota for
1999 is and if it's already been filled or not:
is there any more room in the vast open mass of
Australia for more European backpackers?
08.11 - Well, we made it to The Hague, quite an
achievement in itself for this time of the
morning, and our reward? Rain! Lots of it!
08.45 - The Australian embassy is finally in
sight after the Egyptian, Yugoslavian,
Swedish........ etc (a few wrong turns)
We hand over our form, our passport and lots of
money and are sent back out into the pouring rain
to amuse ourselves for 2 hours while the shops
are shut, the cinemas are shut, the bars are
shut, and it's raining!
10.35 - We sneak quietly into the Embassy, a
little early and very wet! The money must have
done some good because our visas are already
waiting for us!
The rest of the day:
Back to Eindhoven, where it's just beginning to
rain, buy some last, last, last things and go
home to our families to spend an evening of
excitement, fun, anticipation, nerves, fear and
goodbyes.
|
| Laura - 28th September
1999 |
Well today is the last day
that I see my parents for almost a year, and to
top it off, my sister, brother, sister-in-law and
some other relatives have also all gathered this
weekend, s a lot of goodbyes lie ahead today.
Thankfully there's plenty to keep me busy like
cutting Mark's hair, playing Scrabble, buying a
padlock to replace the one I lost and just
generally running around in mad, random panic.
At 15.00 I say my last goodbyes saving the crying
for later, and Mark and I head off to buy food to
cook a last dinner for his family tonight.
Dinner was lovely, so was the football (although
the score was not) and the evenings conversation.
A last bit of relaxation and mingled panic,
before going to the airport in the morning.
|
| Mark - 29th of September
1999 |
After not sleeping the
entire night, it suddenly came to me that I'm
leaving today, and leaving everything and
everybody that's part of my life behind.
With this in the back of my mind it's very
difficult to check if I've got everything that I
need for the entire year. As well as me, my
family seem to be feeling the stress because
everybody's busy trying to find things that I
have to bring or do.
On the way to the airport I'm really glad that
I'm doing this together with somebody who's part
of the life I leave behind.
Today's also going to be the first time that I
fly, which doesn't really help with my nerves.
Looking back at it now, it's really fun and I'm
looking forward to doing it again (but not on the
1st of January).
|
| Laura - 29th September
1999 |
I think that the very few
hours - or minutes - sleep I managed to catch
tonight have done more harm than good. I can feel
myself getting excited, but all that goes through
my mind is everything I have to say goodbye to,
and hoping that everyone knows what a big role
they play in my life and how much I'll miss them.
At the same time I'm wondering the same stupid
things I've been thinking for weeks: what will
the sky look like in Australia, what kind of
trees do they have, will it rain the same way,
what colour will the buildings be. Small things
that still quietly make up your world and home.
I can see Mark and his family feeling the
pressure and I realise how much they're giving
up, and how brave they all really are, and this
of course makes me remember my own family who are
already far away. I'm proud of all of them and so
glad for the brave and encouraging faces.
|
| Laura & Mark - later
on the 29th of September, or is it the beginning
of the 30th? |
The flight to Milan went as
smoothly as can be expected, with the predictable
30 minutes delay, which we didn't think much of.
However when we arrived in Milan, there was one
woman who was quite stressed out by this measly
delay. So the next ten minutes were spent
sprinting from one gate to another, what seemed
to us like the full 26 mile marathon, to catch
the plane to Australia.
This plane of course, following the good example
of the first plane, was also then roughly 30
minutes late as they'd very cleverly set all
families on opposite sides of the plane, all
couples in opposite isles, and Mark and Laura on
opposite wings!
It was only with the friendly co-operation of the
people themselves, that everyone ended up within
shouting distance of each other. Mark and Laura
were very lucky, and ended up directly next to
each other, and for this our thanks goes to one
man who moved at least twice within a few minutes
just to help accommodate everyone's needs.
After a short but welcome stop in the very humid,
but clean Singapore, we made our way slowly to
Sydney, enjoying a wonderful view over
Australia's outback, and of course Sydney itself.
|
| Mark & Laura -
definitely the 30th of September |
We've
arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A very friendly man called Jamie met us after
we'd battled our way through the luggage
collection area. He took us and 4 others for a
short tour of the city and we caught our first
glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour
Bridge and lots of other interesting (tall)
things. Thankfully we were then dropped at our
youth hostel, a welcoming site indeed. After a
slight mix up with our booking (we can't expect
everything to go smoothly) we made it to our
room.
Unfortunately it was only 18.30 so we couldn't
really go to bed yet. A quick explore was the
next thing on the agenda – and, yes, we
found dinner: MACDONALD'S (pathetic, we know -
but wen you've been sharing air with 450 people,
in a little space with smaller leg room for the
last 24 hours, Macdonald's feels like a very good
idea - compared to the aeroplane food anyway).
We'd found the cinema district, but just to
disappoint anyone who knows us well, we weren't
even tempted (well just a little)(well quite a
lot, but we would have fallen asleep in the film,
so it's a bit of a waste).
Instead we invested in a $3 (f4.50) ticket on the
monorail that goes around the centre of Sydney
and enjoyed the views of Darling Harbour, and
lots of other stuff.
A quick e-mail home and it was off to bed.
|
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