I spent the whole month of September 2017 in Australia. I had been overseas for over two years, and I remember telling everyone that I would be in London “six months to a year, max”. Two years, two months and twenty-five days later, I went back for a holiday. It was a great month and a highlight of this year for sure!
My flight back home was a long and horrible one. I was delayed in Heathrow over four hours, with the plane gearing up to take off on the runway only to pull off and have the engineers come and look at it. That was a scary experience. Then we couldn’t get another take-off slot. So by the time we’d left London, I had already missed my connecting flight in Kuala Lumpur to Sydney. The pilots tried their best, but in the end we ended up missing the Sydney plane by about an hour because they couldn’t hold it any longer due to the curfew in Sydney. So that meant a long wait in Kuala Lumpur….
The airline was giving out free hotel rooms, but the hotel was about 30 mins driving away from the airport. I didn’t want to go through all the fuss of going through security and check-in again, so I argued my way into the airport lounge with another fellow traveller, where we had hot showers, free food, free drinks and there were even long couches so that we could stretch out to have a sleep. Honestly, it wasn’t the worst way to kill time. I would have liked to keep flying and get there on time, but in the circumstances, it was ok. 12 hours later, we had a connecting plane. and honestly, I’ve flown into and out of some spectacular airports, but Sydney takes the cake – it’s so beautiful from the air! i was trying to work out where we were so I could go back to explore these little turquoise beaches and hidden spots in the bush!
I finally arrived in Sydney, half a day later than I’d expected, overtired and just so relieved to be there. Thankfully, my best friend was at the airport to pick me up and whisk me back home, even though my plane had been delayed and our plans messed up…. I’d planned to do Palm Beach today originally, but it was not to be, as I was just too exhausted to bother. So we went the day after.
Palm Beach is one of my favourite places in Sydney. It’s so beautiful there. I’d never walked up to the lighthouse but we did it, and were afforded the glorious view of the surrounding glittering ocean. I’ve seen some sights over my years of travelling Europe, but going back to Sydney made me realise that I come from a pretty special place!
