These UK - Australia flights are killer. They take forever and is it just me or is airplane food getting more and more inedible?
This one was particularly brutal. Our 11 hour flight to Hong Kong landed, just as we realised we had an 8 hour layover before the 9 hour flight to Brisbane. What are you suppose to do in an airport for 8 hours when you can't leave? Well, I'll tell you....
You observe the way American capitalism has absorbed the local culture.
You find cute signs to take photos with.
You sample the local cuisine.
And you go on an adventure following the enigmatic "hot drinking water" signs.
It was actually much more fun than I had expected, but by the time we finally got into Australia we were totally zonked. Little did we know we'd be going through the most grueling immigration/customs experience yet. It took over two hours... so long that baggage had reclaimed our checked suitcases from the carousel and they were about the be shelved. It involved four separate checkpoints and drug dogs.
Finally we got our car (which was also a strangely difficult endeavor) and made our way to our new flat. Let me tell you, after a flight like that, this was a pretty exciting thing to come home to.
Our new home is in a heritage listed building and has not only a gas range, oven (our last place didn't have one) AND dishwasher, but also has a closet that is almost the same size as our bedroom.
This is by far the nicest place we've ever lived. We were in complete disbelief when we arrived because of how nice it was. How was this possible?
Well, we were about to find out.... it turns out that we actually live in the red light district. And not only that, but we live directly above a salsa club, which on weekends is open until 5am. It is so loud and there are so many drunk morons singing and screaming outside our house, it has made sleep completely impossible on Friday and Saturday nights.
So, yeah, there was a catch, a big one.
However, armed with earplugs and a white noise machine, we are prepared to conquer this weekend, one night a time!