Flight to Oz: Leg 2

London-Singapore

When it was about time to board the biggest aircraft in the world, I went to the designated gate. There was waiting for me one of Qantas' gigantic A380s, ready to take me (and more than four hundred other passengers) to Sydney (via Singapore, where I would be getting off). Waited patiently for boarding to commence.

Boarding went very smoothly, through three (yes three!!!) gates!!! I picked an aisle seat. Unfortunately, I was placed at the back of the plane. I don’t like sitting in the back, since I don’t want to see that much plane in front of me during take-off. Told you I am weird when it comes to flying ;).

Had to wait for quite a while before the plane could make its way to the runway. There was a traffic jam, quite a few tiny planes in front of us (at least from the tailcam of this mighty Airbus those planes seemed tiny :P).

And finally there went Qantas Flight 032, speeding for I don’t know how long (how much runway does this thing need??). I decided just to close my eyes when I felt the front of the plane pull up. But it still took a very long time for the back of the plane to pull up as well ;). Shows again how massive this plane is! Take-off was overall smooth, a little bumpy. We quickly crossed the North Sea and entered Dutch territory. I had the flight path/map on at that time. We were flying over Flevoland. I suddenly burst out laughing. There, in the middle of the map stood: Bussum. Bussum, just a small town in the province of Noord-Holland!!! Too funny. So far the flight has been very comfortable, just a couple of minor bumps. Seats are fine, and I absolutely love my own private television screen. Played some games and watched part of X-Men First Class. Also walked around the airplane a bit, to stretch my legs and relax my muscles. Oh and also had a nice salad for lunch.

Now we are more than four hours into our flight. 8 hours and 9 minutes left. That is Amsterdam-Minneapolis lol. It is getting dark outside. I am going to see if I am able to get some sleep.

We are reaching Asia now, almost two hours left to fly. I am watching The King’s Speech for the upteenth time. What an excellent movie. I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep (again on one tablet of dramanine), even though there was quite a bit of (moderate) turbulence during the second part of the flight. Plane almost seemed to crable me to sleep like a baby lol. Apart from the sleeping, I also watched television series and played some computer games (again long live the private touchscreen).

Even though this is almost a thirteen hour flight, time seemed to pass quite
fast (thanks to the sleeping of course, but also thanks to all the “entertainment”). Right now, my butt hurts a little, as does the upper calf of my right leg. But that is not really a surpise after almost ten hours in a plane ;). Service by this Qantas crew has been great. Plenty of snacks and drinks provided by a friendly crew. And yay I have just bought myself my first souvenir :). A beautiful hat, which I am primarily going to use for the 3 Day Camping Trip to Uluru, King's Canyon and the Olga's.

Oh, breakfast is about to be served, and I am sort of hungry . Apparently I am going to have a muesli breakfast. They are all out of scrambled eggs, not very surprising though. Sitting on Row 86D (only one row behind me) I am one of the last people being served breakfast. Ah well, I prefer muesli anyway :D. And it looks like I am going to make my connection in Singapore. If I have time, and find an internet connection, I will try to post the first two legs of my flight on my blog.