Getting There is Much Less than Half the Fun

There's nothing like leaving home at 8:30pm, after rushing through a Seder and a full day, to get a trip off to a hectic start. As it happens, I needn't have rushed quite so much; though we boarded the plane on time, we were delayed by nearly an hour while they verified that the right amount of fuel had been loaded into the tanks. Even though I was eager to set off, I thought it was worth making sure we had enough fuel -- it's a long way to the next gas station. But we finally took off at midnight Pacific time on Sunday -- 5pm Sydney time.

Hours passed...slowly. I didn't sleep as well as I'd hoped, or really as well as I sometimes sleep at my desk on shorter trips. But after 14 hours or so, we finally got the first glimpse of land (at least, I think that's what I was seeing):

A few minutes later, I was sure:

And eventually, it became pretty clear (take a look, if you like) and we finally landed at Kingsforth Smith Airport, Sydney.

After the usual nonsense with Customs, I reclaimed my bag, queued up to check it to Brisbane, and then got on a very long queue to wait for a bus to take me to the domestic terminal. I was lucky; the travel agent had scheduled me for the 8:50am flight, which was easy to make -- most people who'd come on the same flight from San Francisco had been booked on the 7:50am, which left before we got our luggage. But eventually, all of us got onto the flight to Brisbane, and I took more pictures enroute:

• Sydney freeways
• A weird racetrack
• The coastline

Eventually, we landed in Brisbane; even more eventually, my luggage came down the carousel; and even more eventually, I arrived at my hotel (the Conrad International), to find out that they didn't have a room for me yet, because it was just barely 11:30am, even though I felt as though I'd been wandering for 40 days and 40 nights, though it wasn't even quite 40 hours.

But in less than an hour, they found me a room, and it's quite a room. They confused me with someone important, because they gave me a huge room -- almost a mini-suite, with 15-foot ceilings and absolutely wonderful furniture.

Tomorrow: Brisbane, as seen through a haze of jetlag

The trip, day-by-day: