What a Journey!

I won't lie to you and tell you I was too enthusiastic about coming home!  Last year I flew the long, 24 hour journey, as budget as you can get, stop overs were plenty and anything luxurious was in short supply!  Gotta love Air Asia for the lack of..... everything!  But cheap it most certainly was.  So, with memories of the UK feeling over crowded and everyone seeming a little miserable, I was finding it hard to conjure up the excitement of the journey I had ahead.

All that said, there were obviously a few good reasons to be coming back!  First of all, let's not forget the reason I was coming back at all!  Leia's wedding!  Since I have been away Leia has met Graeme, had a baby and is about to get married so a bundle of fun to look forward to there!  And with important duties of bridesmaid/ring bearer/witness, this event is not to be missed!  There was also my little detour; Holland!  If anything was taking the sting out of my Australia departure, it was looking forward to my week in Holland visiting Ron!

So I began my journey, drunk, thanks to my send off from Ben and Riley!  Sitting next to an Irish guy on the plane then only encouraged the drinking, so needless to say, I flew off to Singapore in good spirits.  I had just enough time to grab some very rank food on my way to the next flight to Kuala Lumper and by the time I reached my Malaysian destination the food poisoning had set in nicely and I managed to faint and throw up at the airport, before finding a nice row of plastic benches to sleep on until morning!  So after snoozing for a few hours I then had 10 hours to walk around, sit around, crochet, read and generally feel a bit rough.  I could have locked my bags up and gone into the city but having passed through KL 5 times now, I didn't really feel a great desire!  I was soon bum on seat and en route to London Stansted, and can confirm that I pretty much slept the WHOLE way!  I woke up to eat and then back to sleep, waking up just a few hours before Stansted to ensure I slept well on the floor of the airport before my morning fight to Amsterdam!

As I walked through the airport in Stansted late a night with plans to find a shower, I expected to find a load of over-worked, miserable staff, but instead I found some really helpful, happy people and I started to think "maybe this isn't going to be too bad"!  The London accent seemed really exaggerated after being surrounded by "Gday's" and "How's it goings for 2 years!"  And more good news - A flight to Ibiza had been cancelled so I had company in the hundreds on the cold stone floor that was to be my bed for the night.

So after a lovely long shower, clean clothes and an average night sleep, I was onboard to my flight to Holland.  I am pretty certain that the plane started the landing process about 5 minutes after take off so I didn't have much chance of digesting what was about to happen!  I was just about to see Ron and Fleur and as the plan landed and I walked through to baggage collection, I was finding it pretty difficult to keep the lid on my excitement.

The week in Holland was great and every place I visited I loved!  With a mix of beach and city, bike rides and chilling and a day with Fleur each side, I felt like I'd unwound nicely, ready for the UK.  After a 4 hour delay and an emotional goodbye with Ron, I was on my way again to my final destination!

Poor Laura was waiting for my delayed flight at Stansted and at 2am, I walked through the arrivals gate to see her lovely, smiley face waiting for me!  I was home!