Day 1: The long flight that is Melbourne to London

I have finally arrived in London!!!! I left home at 5.45pm Melbourne time on Monday 11th May and arrived in London at my hotel at 3pm London time on Tuesday 12th May (midnight Melbourne time). Door to door it was a total of 30 hours and I am exhausted!

After spending the last 17 months planning the trip and having the last 3 weeks at home getting ready for my trip (and lazing around the

house) I was excited that the day was finally here. My parents drove me to the airport and after we said our goodbyes it was time to walk through the International Departures gate alone. Even though I am excited to be traveling by myself, being stuck waiting for your plane at an airport by yourself is boring! Especially if you are like me and hate shopping so looking at duty free wasn't an option to waste time.

My first leg of my trip was Melbourne to Dubai. Even though it was a 14 hour flight it went fairly quickly. I think that being an overnight flight certainly helped as I was able to sleep for a couple of hours. It was my first time flying with Emirates and I was very happy with the service. I got to fly on an A380 and it certainly is a massive plane. Unfortunately my budget is quite tight so a first class ticket wasn't an option for me so I was stuck in economy. It was hard walking past the signs for first class where they get their own private compartment and business class where they have flat bed seats to the economy class. Saying that though, the seats in economy were fairly comfortable and I had plenty of legroom (that may also be because I'm not that tall).

During my flight to Dubai I had a lovely lady sitting next to me for the flight. She was in her 70s and was traveling to Western Europe for 6 weeks. She said that she spent her younger years raising a family and since her husband passed away that it was time to do things for herself and so every year during Melbourne winter she travels overseas for 6 weeks. What a great way to spend your retirement!

On arrival at Dubai airport I was so glad to stretch my legs and it was a good thing that I wanted a walk as getting from the arrivals gate to my departure gate was a decent walk. The duty free shops and cafes just kept on going!! My stopover in Dubai was only 2 hours so by the time I stopped to have some breakfast/lunch (I cant decided what it was as my body clock was so confused) there wasn't long to wait until my flight. When it was time to board it was quite funny as the Emirates staff member who was announcing which sections of the plane were to board had such as strong accent that no one knew if he was saying B, D or E. I could overhear people saying 'Did he say D or E?", "No he said B". I think the Emirates guy eventually gave up and just let everyone board the plane.

Given that the 14 hour flight from Melbourne to Dubai wasn't as bad as I thought, I was expecting the 7.5 hour flight from Dubai to London to be easy. Yeah, I was wrong. I think the combination of lack of sleep and having an unsettled stomach meant that the flight just dragged. I was definitely glad when we touched down.

Arriving at Heathrow I was expecting long lines to get through immigration and customs but within 45 minutes of the plane landing I was already on my way to the train station. Oh and on that note, getting to my hotel was so easy! Melbourne, pay attention - have a train that goes straight from the airport into the city - it is so convenient and easy! I was able to get the tube directly from Heathrow Airport to Russell Square station which is just around the corner from my hotel so that within 1 hour from clearing customs I was checking into my hotel.

Anyway I have now checked into my hotel and am about to go explore the streets near the hotel. My goal is to stay up as late as possible tonight so as to avoid jetlag - lets see how I go.