Need to adopt English as my primary langage a.s.a.p., no use sticking to Dutch... Might be a bit unsure in my English idiom at first, but I'm confident that will pass soon enough.
Ok, so I arrived 6:30 am Sydney time, where my dear colleague Scott was waiting for me to show me to the bank, the hotel, the office and the coffee shop. I felt very welcome. The drive from the airport to the Central Business District (CBD) showed me a bunch of boring slapped-together buildings, actually somewhat surprising because I looked around here with streetview and it looked more appealing, even around the airport. The CBD however looks beautiful, bustling, busy, multicultural, inviting... Wow. And this is where I will be working for the foreseeable future. I will take more pictures later, I was too overwhelmed and tired today. Also it was quite overcast. I understand we're up for some better weather towards the weekend.
The air travel was a new experience for me. Never before have I even left Europe, let alone travel to the opposite point of the planet (pretty much). The total trip took about 25 hours. From Schiphol to Dubai I flew with an Emerates service, which was awesome. They were constantly passing with trolleys offering all kinds of free food and drinks and were never too busy for a quick talk and seemed like they actually enjoyed their job. The 7 hour flight was a breeze. Lots of cool movies and music on the per-seat monitor, two very nice very gay guys next to me, aisle seat, all good. Then I stopped for three hours in Dubai airport, to wait for the 13-hour Qantas flight to Sydney. That flight was much, much poorer. There were exactly two coffee runs in 13 hours, only one meal opportunity (and if you are asleep or just not hungry yet, forget about getting it later), way less movies available, tired looking and uninterested personnel, and to top it off a guy next to me coughing and rasping incessantly for 13 hours straight and two babies alternately screaming behind me. It was a nightmare compared to the first flight. Needless to say I was very happy to get out of that plane. Once I walked through the long long terminal hallways however, I was pleasantly surprised by the extremely smooth procedures here in Sydney airport. All in all customs and baggage checks took about 15 minutes (DAFF sniffing dog, quick DIBP interview). Collecting baggage took about half an hour but I was travelling with like 500 people on a huge Airbus so that was actually pretty good time.
It's now half past midnight here in Sydney and I just woke up. I'm going to look for a bite and then go back to sleep for a couple more hours. Tomorrow my rhythm starts.
First orders of business:
1) get a public transport pass
2) get a credit card
3) travel the city, make appointments with landlords and choose a place to move in.
4) meet the guys at work.
... and 5) get a normal USB keyboard. This laptop keyboard sucks absolute ass.
But first... Food and sleep.
Thanks for reading and see you next time. Possibly a Dutch blog then :)
Here's some pretty Dubai Airport interior:
And here's a street view of my hotel "Breakfree on George":
Here's some pretty Dubai Airport interior:
And here's a street view of my hotel "Breakfree on George":
