Tuesday to Thursday- Amy left Colorado Tuesday evening, skipped Wednesday, and landed in Australia early Thursday morning
The trip didn't start without panic. I received a text message from my United app saying that my original flight to San Fransisco was going to be delayed 2 hours. That wouldn't work because my flight to Sydney left the same time my first flight landed. So in a panic, I called my dad. He was able to switch flights for me, so then I would be leaving out of Los Angles instead. It also happened to work out that it was in the same time frame that I was originally supposed to land. However, with all the confusion and hustle, my bags were still on the SFO flight. The service desk people tried to get them on my plane, but we're not able to because of the short time frame. But with luck, I crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. The bags ended up on my original flight, and I retrieved them as soon as I landed in SYD.
The flight itself was very enjoyable. I was in first class, thanks to my dad's status.
The two main flight attendants were Laura and Beth. They took very good care of me, and they even called me by name. Dinner was as delicious as it could've been for airline food. I started out with a hot towel to wash my hands; then a small dish of warm nuts and Sprite were brought to me. From then on, they brought selections of warm bread and salad for the appetizer. I opted out of the sushi appetizer. The main course was next, and I choose the grilled chicken and rice selection. Finally, dessert was either a cheese platter and wine, or ice cream with your choice of toppings. Since I'm lactose intolerant, the ladies brought me raspberry sorbet.
From that point, I was very tired; it was about 3 am my time. I popped a sleeping pill and slept on the "bed" for about 7 hours. Once I woke up, breakfast came about 2 hours later. The choices were either corn flakes and milk, or an omelette. I choose the omelette, which again was very good for airline food.
Once we landed, I turned on my phone and called my dad. Immigration went smoothly, and I retrieved my bags where a nice lady named Annie was waiting for me. My dad had arranged for someone to help me find my bags, since I didn't know if they were there, or where they were. Annie was very kind, and helped me through the express lane in customs. From that point, we said our goodbyes and I found my dad. We got a taxi and went through heavy traffic to get to our hotel in the Circular Quay area.
Since it was early in the morning, and since I was trying to get over jet lag, we dropped my stuff off at the hotel, and went for breakfast. After that, we walked down about a block or two to the Opera House. It was overcast weather, so the area was mostly empty. We took a few pictures, and parted our ways because dad had to go to some meetings which meant I was on my own for the morning and afternoon.
Once I was on my own, I got a ticket to go on a double decker bus tour of Sydney. Before I went on the tour, I went back to the hotel to change clothes and get ready for the day.
The bus tour was fairly empty, partly because of the weather and it just being Australia's winter. I sat on top, and had to zip my jacket all the way up because it was a little chilly. The tour itself took about 90 minutes to drive by all the main parts of Sydney. You received headphones at the beginning of the tour that you then plugged into the seat in front of you. The tour guide could guide you through the city through headphones. The weather warmed up near the end of my tour. Once I finished, I got a sandwich for lunch and went and sat in a park.
The botanical gardens was a giant park that had a lake and pathways throughout. One of the entrances was right next to the Opera House. I walked through a little bit of it before I met dad at an entrance. He was on a short break before his next meeting. After a quick snack, I ended up going in a taxi with him to his next meeting. While he was in his last meeting, I walked down to Darling Harbour to explore. By this point it was about 5 o'clock, and the sun was starting to set. We took a ferry to Circular Quay and were able to see the sunset from the boat. We quickly went back to the hotel to drop off bags before we went back out in search of dinner. We found a pizza place in the basement of a nice hotel.
Once dinner was finished, we walked around the city looking at some of the Vivid sites. Vivid is about a 3 week event that Sydney puts on. It's where buildings and light structures and places around the city are lit with projectors on them making cool designs and games. The main attraction that Vivid does is the Opera House. They have a huge projector that constantly shows different designs and pictures. We didn't get to see the Opera House the first night because I was too tired to do much else. So we went back to the hotel, and I promptly fell asleep around 7:30 local time.