Touchdown to Australia!

Ever since I was a child it had always been my dream to travel outside the country and just be able to explore the world. My trip to Australia is an answered prayer. I never really thought that it would push through. Even now I feel as if I'm still dreaming and that I might wake up any time now.

I left the Philippines on July 2, 2010 and boarded the 8pm flight to Melbourne, Australia. To tell the truth I felt as if I was stuck in a dream like state all throughout the time I waited for the time to board the plane.

I waited here in front of Gate 2 for an hour before I realized that they had switched the boarding gate to Gate 4. Good thing that I was able to pay attention to what was happening around me.
The plane was delayed for an hour. The people at Philippine Airlines said that the plane that came in had some problems so we needed to wait for another plane that was coming in from Hong Kong. It was funny how people reacted to the 'bad news'. Some really got pissed off, some had seen it as an opportunity to buy dinner and I was able to exercise the virtue of patience.
Tha plane ride was short. It was actually eight hours long but since I was able to sleep all the way it felt as if I had just woken up from a really good dream. Before I knew it I was already in Melbourne, Australia.
The first thing I did when they announced that we will be arriving at Melbourne soon was to open the window and take a picture of the sunrise. It was beautiful how the colors blended with each other as the sun rose up and the dark sky brightened up slowly in the horizon.
I arrived at 7am in the morning and was completely surprised at how cold the weather was. It was a complete change since I came from a tropical country where everything seems hot and humid at the moment.
I felt so happy to meet my sister again!I couldn't help but smile a lot when I hugged my sister, Larisa, again. We ate a big breakfast in one of the restaurants inside the airport. When I say 'big' I really mean ' huge'! The meal consisted of sausages, bacon, eggs, bread, mushrooms and a fried tomato. Yum!

From the airport we hailed a taxi and traveled to Ate Larisa and Kuya Neo's house where I unpacked a lot of my belongings and gave my sister and brother-in-law their 'pasalubongs'

When I was a little kid my biggest frustration was not being able to use the bike outside our house so imagine my delight when my sister said that we will bike around the vicinity of their house.

Here in Australia there are bike trails to follow so its not that dangerous unlike in the Philippines where you need to be alert at all times for incoming rabid jeepney drivers. We biked for about 12 kilometers.
A funny thing that happened during the bike ride was that the sole of my boot fell off! So my sister offered to buy me a new pair of running shoes and the old pair of boots was thrown into the nearest rubbish bin.