Thank you for visiting Emily and Erik’s Australian blog! This is our very first post, so stay tuned for more of our adventures.
After 31 hours of travel across most of planet Earth, we arrived in Sydney – hungry, sleepy, and completely unsure of the local time. American Airlines was fairly good to us for the 15 hours across the Pacific. We were treated to dinner, breakfast, and a middle-of-the-flight snack consisting of vanilla gelato and Stromboli (?). We made quite the cozy little nest to pass the time.
Once we arrived in Sydney, we boogied over to the domestic terminal for our flight down to Melbourne – which ended up being a 15 minute bus ride to an entirely different airport. Now that we were actually in Australia, the reality of what was ahead was starting to unfold – so we spent the entire layover looking up job opportunities for Erik!
The flight to Melbourne from Sydney is quick (about an hour and a half). Fun fact: Melbourne was actually the FIRST capital of Australia. The capital was moved to Canberra in 1927.
We arrived in Melbourne to a lovely surprise at the gate. Emily’s Auntie Sue, Grandpa Shaw, and Grandma Hazel were waiting for us – with a luggage cart and a bag of Aussie sweets (aka “treaties” or “lollies”).
We spent Thursday – Sunday in Melbourne battling some killer jet lag, eating lots of Asian food with Emily’s big and loving family, and exploring Melbourne as best we could given the chilly temperatures (even after three winters in Maine, Em is still frazzled by 50 degree “winter” weather here).
In Aussie fashion, Erik experienced his very first pavlova, meatpie, and bbq shapes! He has been very adventurous in his food-tasting adventures and Em is very proud 🙂
Some highlights of this short week include: a lovely day with Em’s cousin Tanya and Auntie Sue visiting different parts of the city, a FLIGHT SIMULATION landing that Erik and David did, and lots of quality time with little cousin Bella–– who has absolutely fallen in love with Erik.
Today we head to Sydney with Em’s dad and we have a week to find a place to live!! Grandma Hazel has given us lots of recommendations regarding tenancy in Australia so we have at least some idea of what we’re getting ourselves into…updates to come!
Emily and Erik.au 