Day 1: Airports & Hostel
After a whopping 30 hours of travel from Pittsburgh to Sydney, I have finally reached Australia. I left PIT at 3:30pm Sunday the 30th , and landed in Sydney at 7:10am on August 1st. I'll just start off by saying that the "Signs" in the Kingsford Smith Sydney Airport are terrible, which meant I spent 10 minutes wandering around trying to find customs, and then the train station. However, when I made it to customs (called "Baggage Service" ??), it was unlike anything I've ever experienced when traveling into another country. Rather than wait in the long lines, I was directed to the front of the line because I only had one piece of luggage (most others had 3-4 suitcases for some reason). I handed the Australian Border Control agent the Customs questionnaire that I had filled out on the plane prior to landing, and without even looking at it he dropped it into a bin and told me I was good to go. No eye contact was made, no questions were asked, no X-rays wer...