It’s not about the destination..it’s about the journey. Eeehhh??!

Writing this at Sydney airport at 2am in the morning feeling slightly unreal after spending the last 48 hours traveling non stop..  I can’t feel my ass anymore! Phweeeh what a journey to finally get here! All flights from Helsinki were delayed due to the snow storms (you’d think that in our sweet home country where winter goes on for 6 months a little snow wouldn’t stop the traffic but…) and along with them was my flight to Amsterdam. My route was going to be Helsinki-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Hong Kong, HK-Sydney and then a day later Sydney-Cairns. Originally we were supposed to have a nice 4 hour-change in Dam but our flight was delayed over 3 h. Finally got to Dam, blood pressure nicely rising, and got the worst service ever trying to locate the right terminal and gate for the flight to hong kong. What made it even trickier was that Finnair didn’t give us our boarding passes for the other flights so you can imagine my panic when there was 20 minutes to get to a ticket desk, get boarding passes and get to the plane. Luckily found the right terminal and right gate after running for 15 minutes like it was the Helsinki City run, sweating like a pig (a sexy pig, that is!) and made it. Unfortunately stress didn’t end there as we had only an hour to change the plane in Hong Kong and the snow was bothering flight traffic in Dam, too, so our plane was waiting to get cleaned etc… Fortunately had some tail wind so our flight arrived in HK earlier than expected and thanks to Cathay Pacific and their amazing staff there were people waiting for all people with connecting flights who took us through fast lanes. Gotta say, I’m not surprised Cathay was voted the best airline in 2008, they really had great service on board and the plane ride was as comfortable as an 11 h flight can be. Each passenger had their own entertainement screen-tv where you could choose from numerous tv-shows and movies (including classics like Pulp Fiction!immediate respect!). I ended up watching 500 days of summer (okay) and Time traveler’s wife which I’m actually currently reading the book about (Eric Bana shirtless, girls, need I say more?). At some point running to the HKI-Sydney plane made me feel like straight from an Amazing race-episode…

So after all the hassle it was no wonder that luggage was completely lost and didn’t make it to Sydney. What makes it even better is that since the plan was  to fly to Cairns 6.30 in the morning, it won’t get to me on time anyhow, and will be shipped to me in Cairns sometime in the evening tomorrow J More sweaty days ahead! I swear I could peel off dirt from my face with a cheese cutter. But, being the amazingly smart person that I am, I had extra pairs of underwear and socks packed to my hand luggage to make traveling more comfortable to my fellow travelers as well. Now is a good time to point out the convenience of having bought the ridiculously expensive super travel insurance, because I get to shop for 500 euros now! “Just purchase the ultimate necessities…”  Of course. But what if American Apparel and Victoria’s secret are the only places open?? He he he…

Since there was no point booking a hotel room for just a few hours before having to come to the check-in at 5 am again, decided to sleep at the airport like a proper budget traveler. And here I am, very much not asleep A doublecheeseburger at McD’s, Vitamin Water and a wifi connection should get me through the night though. Got to witness some hardcore action as well; just a while ago a bunch of police men came to arrest a hobo who apparently had been stealing from people around the sleeping area. Nosy me, had to get closer and heard the guy threaten to take the airport staff to the English supreme court. Ah ahahah! In the end he was hand-cuffed and taken away and my belongins are safely intact. There. My first blog entry actually concerning traveling.

Sleeping at Sydney airport..

Will update once in Cairns. Apparently it’s +30 and sunny. AAAHHHH! Merry Xmas to meeeeee!

PS. Representatives of American Apparel, Victoria’s secret and Glaceau Vitamin Water can contact yours truly directly for sponsorship deals. Great media exposure guaranteed.