A New Day: Australia to Austria

It feels a little strange to be making a fresh entry on this blog given the holiday has now long been over and I'm not with Matt, yet here I am posting and yes it's because I'm on my travels again. Sadly it's nowhere near as glamorous as the previous holiday, in fact I shouldn't be referring to it as a holiday at all, this is pure unadulterated work and I'm not moving about at all, it's 3 weeks in Vienna.

So an early start for me on Monday and I'm off to Heathrow again, this time to the brand spanking new Terminal 5. It's impressive, it really is, but I can't help worrying whether my bag is going to make the journey with me. I am in complete awe of an Audi R8 that is on display, until now I'd only seen it on the TV ad, in the flesh I love it, I'm not even a car-sy person normally but I love this vehicle so much, I'm convinced into buying some expensive raffle tickets to win it! I know I'm being a fool but I simply can't resist.
A minor delay and it's a pretty event less flight, at Vienna airport I'm pleased to see my bag has made it and as a bonus is one of the first off, others on our journey have not been so fortunate. It seems the last load of luggage due on our flight decided on a different destination. A quick transfer to the hotel and then we're off for inductions at work. It turns out the hotel is slap bang in the middle of the red light district of Vienna, while it has been chosen for it's proximity to work, it doesn't feel like a particularly safe place to be out on your own and we're already hearing stories of people from work getting mugged.

The obligatories out the way and we all meet back at the hotel for drinks and food. The emphasis is very much on the drinking, I think everyone has forgotten it's Monday night and that we have training at 9:30am the following morning. Still it's a great night and everyone is in high spirits, I'm bizarrely hungry and have five courses at the restaurant, everyone else settles for 1! The proprietor is very friendly and perhaps a little keen to get our Euros, nevertheless he brings a bottle of Sambuca to our table and leaves it, well it's free and frankly I think we'd offend him if we didn't, so we did.

Much frivolity later (including bouncing up and down on my producers knee) and we return to the hotel, it's nearly 2am, I'm really hoping we can stop and go to bed now, it seems everyone else has different ideas. I'm not actually sure what time I finally made it to bed, but I spent the night in panic constantly waking up fearing I was going to oversleep for work in the morning and thus felt even worse this morning thanks to the lack of sleep. Still at breakfast I seem to have got off lightly compared with some people, a very rough producer sits at our table and has us in stitches as he confesses he didn't actually make it to bed last night, he passed out in the doorway to his room, his legs in the corridor and his head in the bathroom, I feel much better!

Our training today is run by a guy who starts off badly and doesn't really improve, with all the best will in the world instructing people is not really his forte and we're left to try and read between the lines. If I'm being optimistic I think he is probably over-complicating something that's actually not too difficult, the other editors have used this system, I have not, maybe I should be nervous about this unfortunately this hangover is vying for my attention at the moment. At lunch time I did discover this lovely gem of a shop that made me laugh:


So I've not said too much about Vienna as a city yet, the truth is I've seen very little of it and my suspicions are that we're not in a nice part, still I don't want to cast judgment until I've explored a little further. Our security passes for this event grant us free 1st class land travel all over Austria and Switzerland until mid July, plus it seems we are actually going to get some days off so I may have chance to explore, I will keep you posted.

Anyway it's late and I've wittered on enough for now, should you be interested in reading anymore about my journey then please check out my personal blog which is:

gaylordssayno.blogspot.com

where I'll be keeping occasional notes on work & wellbeing. For now ta ta dear reader! x

Day 35: Sydney to London (via Hong Kong)

The day we knew would eventually arrive arrived. It's up at 8am to do our final packing, final breakfast, final everything holiday. I think we're both feeling a little glum about the holiday being over and the prospect of 24 hours in a small confined space together now seems nothing given we've survived 5 and a half weeks together.

So a scuttle in the shuttle up to the airport and we're ready to go (via duty free), we're surprised how few people board the plane, economy is practically empty as is upper class it's only us mugs in Premium that have a full cabin. Despite that it's a good flight and I think we're both surprised at how long you are actually flying over Australia for (about 4.5 hours), the inflight entertainment keeps me amused along with the two camp-as-tits air stewards. 4 movies and we're about ready to land at Hong Kong International. It's 10pm here, we have a short wait while they re-fuel the plane and take on more passengers - the transit here is far more efficient than LAX on the way out, no re-checking of bags or lengthy customs checks - 10 minutes and we're through. There's little to keep me amused, despite the swathes of designer shops, I just want to finish the journey, still Matt has finally scored a free Internet connection and enjoys a wander.

A minor delay on take-off and the journey continues to London, Matt and I have opted for separate seats this time, neither of us fancied being sandwiched between two strangers for 12 hours. As it turns out I end up chatting with my fellow passengers for the first few hours of this leg, a middle-aged lady who used to be a flight attendant herself and a young guy from Bournemouth. The plane is completely full now and I'm grateful for the extra leg room and the bigger seat, I decide to stay awake until I've been fed then I drop a sleeping pill and I'm out. 5 hours later I re-awake "those pills are good then" Miriam tells me "you were snoring away" ooops!

I while away the rest of the journey with a few more movies and before I know it it's breakfast and we're on our final decent into London. It's a fine morning, the airport is relatively quiet and thankfully people don't seem quite as miserable as I was expecting them to be, even our racist taxi driver seems quite jovial in an awkward kind of way. The weather is bright sunny and warm, much how we left Australia in fact, the trees are in full foliage since we left and being back in Britain doesn't seem so bad at all. Sure I'm stunned Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London and the BNP have got a seat, but as we draw closer to home the thought of my cosy bed is consuming me, I feel privileged to have witnessed and seen so much in the previous weeks I'm tired but content, it's over.

Good morning!

Day 34: Feeling Blue

Well it's our last full day in Sydney and our last guided tour, we've organised a conga line tour into the blue mountains. Not particularly because either of us wanted to be locked up in a small coach with a bunch of potentially annoying strangers but mainly through necessity of making sure we made good use of the time on our last day.

It's an early start 7:45am pickup and we're whisked of a wildlife sanctuary (via The Bridge, or 'coathanger' as the locals like to call it - apparently).  Our driver is bit of a Nazi for time keeping and we're told we have 57 minutes to 'enjoy' the park.  Both Matt and I get to pett a few creatures including Koalas and Kangaroos, I'm even allowed to hold a bird of prey (fools). A token nod to all the other creatures (wombats, emus, croc's etc) and 10am sharp we're back on the bus into the mountains.

The driver despite his ponchant for time keeping is actually perfectly nice and keeps us entertained for most of the journey.  We arrive at the Wentworth Falls and this is our first view of the stunning Blue Mountains, so named by the blue haze created by the evaporating Eucalyptus oil.  As with everything today it's a brief nod, just time for a snap and we're of to the Three Sisters, a series of rocky outcrops that are aparently three Aboriginal maidens trapped by their father to protect them from the advances of frisky locals. 12:15pm back on the bus, and we 
take in three 'rides' through the mountain, a skycar with  a glass bottom, a near vertical train and 
a cable car.  It's all very pleasant but I could do without the agressive Japanese tourists. We're 
promised if we're back at the bus by 2pm we're in for a treat - it's a stop at the candy store - great.

A few more tourist spots and we're on the way back to Sydney, rather unecessarily we both feel via the Olympic stadium, it feels more of a time/tour attractions filler than a worthy point of interest. However, we're dropped at the ferry point and have an enjoyable boat ride back to Sydney. Just time for a final Thai dinner (one of the best i've had) and a final blast of Karaoke for me, rather aptly I choose Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time, this seems to best sum up how we're both feeling right now.

Tomorrow, up, up and away.

Day 33: Sydney

Another day in Syndey and we decide to have a look at the little boutiques and glamorous shops that are up in the Paddington area. Rather than a definite area, it turns out that the shops are generally dotted around the place, so we're not sure that we really ever found the main part of it. We did see lots of lovely little areas though.
I'm particularly taken with the style of old terrace house they have here - each one with different coloured walls, but all with intricate iron railings and cornices on the open terraces/balconies. Hopefully Dan has some good shots of these as I usefully left my camera in the hotel.

Come lunchtime, Dan went off to Bondi to meet an old friend and I perused the shops heading back into the CBD. Bought many exciting things including a catering standard piping bag. Oh yes, stand back in awe and please don't try to keep up!

It was really nice to just wander the streets and it was good to be able to get a sense of how all the streets actually nit together and be able to navigate around. I looked in at the QVB - the Queen Victoria Building, which is a renovated building dating from around 1880. It takes up an entire city block, and it now a shopping mall - but a very posh one. The upper levels and carpeted for heaven's sake.


In the evening we head to Darling Harbour again for a nice dinner - I go for the soft shelled crab, which is nice but unfortunately has been breaded then fried, which wasn't on the description at all. This means that the meal ends up being a lot heavier than we thought it would be. Also the portions of the side orders are absolutely ginormous. The little salad could easily feed four people and the wire basket of chips is difficult to see over.

Tomorrow: we get a bit blue in the mountains.

Day 32: A bridge too far

So back in Sydney and it's Sunday.
After transferring to our final hotel, we head off in to town.

We go to Circular Quay (by the bridge and the opera house) and hunt out the market at The Rocks. The aim was to find some spectacular holiday gifts that sum up the experience of the holiday with some amazing displays of local crafts and production.

Mainly we just find bits of old tat that could be bought on any market stall anywhere in the UK, but there are some really nice bits too.

They have a 70s weekend going on nearby to commemorate the conservation of a terrace of old houses, so we get to listen to some really terrible rock and abba bands.

Neither of us is particularly good at heights so we decide to forgo the harbour bridge walk that takes one over the top of the bridge supports, but we do walk the length of the bridge at car level and very impressive it is too.

We stop for a spot of lunch on the other side before heading in to the funfair. This is the terrifying looking place that I mentioned on our first visit here. No less terrifying close up, it turns out.

Tomorrow: We're off to find Paddington

Day 31: South again

Check out of the apartments this morning.
Run by a lovely couple but good god does she like to chat!

We have some time before the car is due back, so we go to see another local attraction: the Cedar Creek Falls. Lovely sounding place, evokes the idea of, I don't know, waterfalls for one.

It's kinda on the way to the airport, just turn off a bit before and head down several dusty dirt tracks. We clock what must be I think our 5th kangaroo of the trip, sadly so far they've all been 'resting' by the side of the road, rather than boucning through the bush.

We arrive at the pool, only to find that due to lack of rain recently Cedar Creek Dribble would have been a more apt name. Still it's great fun watching some other tourists braving their way into the water a millimetre at a time, shrieking whenever they stumble on a pebble. It takes them about 10 minutes to get fully into the water, so we don't quite believe them when they insist that really it's lovely, and we really ought to go for a swim.

The car has to be back at 12.30, which is ages before the flight, but we aim to use the time to catch up on the blog which is rather out of date (as Simon has pointed out). We arrive at the perimeter of the airport to see nothing but a red-dirt runway and a corrugated iron shack. It looks like something from the Flying Doctors.

Pushing on, we're relived to see that the airport actually does eventually have a proper runway and an actual building, but it turns out no internet, no real shops apart from a cafe, and no car-hire agent to return the car to. Turns out we could have had a few more hours. Still we get to sit outside with a sandwich and some cold beers, enjoying the incredibly hot sun whilst Dan writes quiz questions for the Eurovision party later in the month.

Flight back is good, and we've got seats in the escape row, so have tons of leg room.

After a slight kerfuffle with the hotel - they've lost our booking so we end up shifting to another hotel tonight. They also told us the hotel we were going to next had never heard of us, but thankfully they'd got the wrong one.

Finally we headed out into chinatown for a nice meal and, after all that, a relatively early night. We've been on the move a lot, with a lot of early mornings and broken nights and we're both done in.

Tomorrow: back in Sydney and across the bridge.

Day 30: Great Barrier Reef

Our second sea excursion today, and another early start - leave the apartment at 7.10 for the bus journey to Shute Harbour.

Not going to be quite such a gentle experience as yesterday, we are going on one of the huge catamarans that drew derision from all of us when we saw one yesterday at Whitehaven.

We are in some luck though as the numbers are very light - about 40 people as opposed to a couple of hundred.

We browse through the literature and see that they offer introductory scuba dives, which interests us both. We complete a lengthy medical questionnaire, only to both hand them over and then start adding a litany of medical conditions that "we though we'd better just mention, but didn't think we needed to put on the form". Amazingly we're both fit enough so we're on.

The catamaran absolutely stonks along, and as soon as we are past the islands and hit open water, there is spray being thrown up several decks and soaking the back seats, out in the open. And on several decks, various passengers are behaving in a similar way.

After about an hour, we arrive at [fanfare] ReefWorld. Or two pontoons, anchored to the Great Barrier Reef. I can't get the idea of the movie Westworld out of my head, and just hope that Yul Brynner doesn't show up again and go mental.

We take a cruise in the semi-submersible that goes around the reef, with a massive viewing chamber underneath which is fantastic, then we head off for the dignified experience of getting ready for the dive.

For me, this first consists of trying to find an optical diving mask that I can actually see through, then on to what to wear! We go for the full length lycra one-pieces (see the stinger suits from yesterday). Having learnt a little bit, I avoid the yellow, pink and panelled suits and score an all-black number. This goes on, followed by a short wetsuit that, though it fits around the middle, is about an inch too short and I can feel it compressing my spine quite nicely.

Dan has been struggling like mad to get his stinger suit on followed by the wetsuit, only to be finally told that as he has a full-length wetsuit, there's no need for the lycra.

We go to get fitted with tanks and weight belts.

This diving lark must be a fetishist's dream come true - first lycra, then a rubber suite. Next you are told to bend over whilst someone comes up behind you and fixes a heavy belt around your middle; then you are strapped into a heavy tank harness, then finally as you walk into the water, someone hands you a pot of vaseline to smear on your moustache so that the mask will form a seal (which it doesn't really anyway, but I digress).

We go into the moon pool. which is basically a metal walkway submerged under the pontoon so that we can go through all of the procedures and get used to the idea of breathing under water - an idea that our parents spent years teaching us not to do.

This does take quite a while to get sorted, and it is pretty uncomfortable at times, trying not to breathe through your nose which is sitting in a pool of water. Visibility is poor to the sides, the air dries out your mouth and everything feels very constricted due to the tightness of the suits and the tanks strapped around you. Unfortunately it is a bit too much for Dan, so he opts to just go through the training and not out into the open water.

Hi Dan here, I've had to add to this post. Matt has been far too kind and generous to sum up 'what happened under the platform' in one sentence. 'A bit too much' is an understatement, the fear had started to hit me long before getting into attire! However, I try to rationalise with myself - god know how other people do it (Matt I applaud you) every fear of water I ever had when I was little has come flooding back. As we sit underwater breathing unaturally, anything that could give me the fear does. I can't see the bottom, I think I'm going to sink, I have water in my nose, the instructor thinks I'm okay, stop making the 'okay?' symbol at me, why can't I remember the 'no' symbol?, why is he continuing? No, this is full on panic attack central. The fear has struck me bad, when Matt finds me later with said 'Gin & Tonic' I tell him I can't even begin to tell him everything that frightened me. I'm told by the instructor later 'it's very common' and given a partial refund, which I have to say is very generous considering!

We eventually head out into the water and pull ourselves along the ropes strung in the water. Once I eventually get used to breathing, it is a great experience, getting to look all around, seeing probably thousands of fish. The dive instructor even brings us various bits of wildlife to interfere with such as a giant clam, a sea cucumber and a star fish. A bit further on he starts shaking fish food around to attract fish. This is great at first until he then proceeds to throw food at our masks - cue an explosion of fish around your face. One even nipped my ear. Relaxing.

We also got to meet Wally, the male wrass on this bit of the reef. Absolutely huge - about 1.5m long. Not the biggest fish though, that goes to George who is 3.5m long. He stays under the other end of the pontoon, so we don't get to see him. We both later try to get photos of him that will in anyway show how big this damn fish is, but we're not sure it's going to show.

At the end of the dive I go to find Dan, who is in the bar, draining a gin and tonic. He goes off on the sub whilst I go for a snorkel around the reef, then it's back on the cat for a high-speed return to Airlie Beach.

Tomorrow: Back to Sydney and the final days of the trip