Here we go...

Ok, so this is it. The Big Adventure. The Great Unknown. The... Oh, what the hell, we're in Australia, not at the end of the world. Although...

So anyway, getting here was... well, basically pretty boring. Long, long flights with an even longer stopover in Shanghai; crappy airplane food; chinese in-flight movies; and the wonderful staff at China Eastern, who apparently speak English, but in a way that drives non-Chinese speakers up the walls. The Chinese officials in Shanghai looked scary, so we mainly stayed in the terminal and tried to get some sleep on the extremely uncomfortable benches in the waiting area. We did however change some money (20 Euros, I think), and ended up with more Yuan than we could possibly spend in such a short amount of time. You can only eat so many packets of crisps in 7 hours...

Also quite scary: the architecture of Shanghai airport,
especially if...



...you are sitting in the departures hall.



Everything that's happened since the landing in Sydney has been pretty cool. The Australian customs officials were joking around - unlike the Chinese ones, who seemed constantly to be on the verge of arresting someone - and the whole overall atmosphere was just extremely relaxed.

We'll be staying at my aunt's brother's place for the first few days; him and his wife were kind enough to pick us up at the airport and give us food and shelter. Also loads of helpful advice.

So tomorrow we're going to start exploring. Apparently the train fare is cheaper if you start your trip after 9:00 am, so that's what we`re going to do. We're in a suburb, Quakers Hill, which is approximately 30 km outside of Sydney, but the train station is only about 3 minutes away. Getting into the city shouldn't be a problem.

I guess this is it for now, it`s a quarter to two in the morning and not that much has happened yet. Need Sleep. More updates when I have something to tell.
And by the way, this is my first ever post in a blog, so I hope it will get better with time.