One heck of a long day.
My day: Wake up in time to start work at 0700, work hard all day long. Rush home from work, jump online to wish a TravBuddy happy birthday, water plants, tick off items on ‘don’t forget’ list: passport, tickets, tour vouchers, accommodation vouchers, money, mobile phone and charger, camera and battery charger, sunnies, MP3, back pack (cabin baggage), suitcase, camera, camera, camera. Ok...
I have a foolproof way of travelling so that if my checked in baggage goes astray it doesn’t affect me too much. I pack in my cabin baggage anything that I would be lost without, mobile charger, camera battery charger, a change of clothes and every pair on knickers I own. My friends laugh at me, but they won’t be laughing if their bags go missing. After working in the airline industry for over 12 years, I have come across one or two people inconvenienced by their bags going missing and they have packed their mobile phone charger or some other necessity in their checked in luggage, the best are the people who pack their life saving medicine in their checked baggage, hmmm.
Lauren finished work at 5pm and swung by my place to pick me up on the way to the airport. Hobart has great valet parking at reasonable prices so we left the car there while we were away. I still hadn’t decided if I would come straight home or stay in Sydney for a couple of extra nights so we took Laurens car.
Travelling as airline staff you never know for sure if you are going to get a seat or not. We had checked the loads earlier and there were 20 spare seats on the flight to Sydney so we weren’t too worried, until the check in staff said, “We have a full flight today, so we’ll see if we can get you on.” I know my mouth dropped open and I turned to Lauren who I imagine mirrored my look of horror exactly.
So, with boarding pass in one hand and camera in the other, we were off through security, “No we have no aerosols or sharp implements unless you count my sharp wit, hehehe”. I took what I thought was a great photo of a Virgin Aircraft through the window from my seat, only to discover after a closer look a man in the foreground picking his nose. Lovely!
The Jetstar flight was very uneventful and after his nasty joke, the man at check in gave us the window exit row, so I had room between the front of my knees and the seat in front. Lauren doesn’t need to worry about legroom; she isn't an Amazon like me.
From the domestic terminal in Sydney, it was a five-minute walk to the Formule 1 Hotel (see review) and it would have taken us 30 minutes to wait in line for a taxi, so we headed off with our bags in tow. If you need an inexpensive hotel for a night at Sydney airport, I do recommend this one. If you want luxury - forget about it, no room service (meals are available from a vending machine in the foyer), not even a telephone in the room. However, there was a shuttle bus for AUD4:50 to take us to the international terminal in the morning. It is also right next to Krispy Kreme donuts so you can get a ‘meal’ at any time. Lauren and I went and got ourselves a donut dinner. Yum yum. While at Krispy Kreme eating our donuts, one of the staff came over to us to ask who was sitting behind us, neither Lauren or I noticed, she (the staff) said, “They have left their shoes behind”.
It was midnight when I finally turned the light out after setting my alarm for nice and early in the morning. It was a long day, and we still need to get to New Zealand.
Good night and sleep tight.
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The hotel is quite new, built sometime after 2001 (it is located in the old Ansett staff car park and Ansett ceased operations in Sep 2001). It is a very stark building, absolutely no thrills what so ever. The check in staff was efficient and friendly, and had us checked in within seconds.
The room... um what can I say about the room? Well, it is a very cheap hotel so I’ll just tell the truth. We were in a room that had a double bed with a single bunk bed above it. In one corner sits little triangle shaped ‘desk’ with a wall mounted TV and clock radio above it. We walked in and cracked up laughing at the set up. I got my camera out to take some photos, and Lauren said she was going to sit in the lounge area and went and sat in the desk chair. Lauren then climbed the ladder to the bunk bed to have a look, she said, “I’m going to have to sleep up here, there is only half a mattress and your legs would hang over the edge”. The bathroom, well the shower with a toilet and basin, is another triangle in the opposite corner to the desk; the door opens into the hotel room because there is no room for it inside the bathroom. There were two towels provided as well as one small hotel soap, nothing else, no little shampoos or bath gels to pamper ourselves; however, the room and bathroom were both very clean.
The bunk bed is a good idea to save space and it has a ‘wardrobe’ at one end. The generous hotel even provided a couple of coat hangers. However, they did not provide a phone and there are no other facilities in the room.
There is food provided in vending machines in the foyer as well as internet access, a phone with a direct line to a taxi and continental breakfast is served in the mornings. There is nowhere else to eat around the hotel except for Krispy Kreme Donuts next door, they are open 24 hours however, so if you are desperate you can get something to eat.
I couldn’t lean up against the wall while sitting on the bed because the bed kept rolling away from the wall, so, it’s not the kind of place you could spend any amount of time in, and there was nowhere else to sit. There was no room to swing a cat but I would stay here again if I need a bed for the night.
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