May 30, 2017. Exams finished the day before, kids cuddled goodbye, bags packed. My travels always begin at the local train station where I catch a train to Melbourne to head to the airport. This lets me relax, knowing there are no more emotional goodbyes to be had and I can stop thinking about all the things that I constantly have to think about. Once I am sitting on that train, my travels begin.
I haven’t yet mastered packing light but what I can brag about is packing lighter than I used to! My carry on backpack is all technology. My laptop and camera go everywhere with me and weigh a tonne. I love my green trimmed High Sierra. I’d love to be able to manage with a smaller one, but hey, one day, maybe. Still room for growth there.
We don’t have a lot of trains each day so my plan invariably includes killing a lot of time in Melbourne. I had planned to spend some of it in the city but it was winter in Melbourne and a particularly cold day so I went straight to the airport. I’m getting used to killing time at airports. It generally involves food.
On my first trip to Europe I met a lovely couple from Florence at Melbourne airport and spent so much time talking to them that we ended up planning to meet again once I got to Florence, which we did! So you can even find opportunities in the most potentially boring circumstances.
This time it was mostly food.
I had a 2 flight itinerary to get to Athens. Stopover in Dubai. It was a long stop over this time and I planned to get out of the airport and actually have my first look at Dubai.
The flight was about 14 hours. I’ve done a few of these now and although they are not fun they are bearable. This one left at night so I had paid a little more to get an extra legroom seat knowing that I would be tired and probably able to stretch out and get some sleep. I was fortunate to sit next to a lovely Scottish man who I had great conversations with for the first few hours but then was able to stretch out and arrive in Dubai feeling somewhat refreshed.
I will cover Dubai in my next post.
See the World with Me 
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