Where it began:
I started my journey on Thursday 10th September 2015! I flew from Manchester Airport - Abu Dabi - Sydney Australia. It took a total of 25 hours. I flew with Etihad and Virgin Australia and can honestly say I was really happy with both airlines. The food and service including entertainment were brilliant on both. The only thing that made Virgin slightly better was the I had much more leg room an as a tall girl (5ft 8) this is definitely a bonus!
Who I was with:
I went travelling completely alone, but had already booked with the travel agency 'Oz Intro' so I knew my first weeks accommodation, activities and meeting a group was already sorted. They also help you sort out a Medicare card (if you're applicable) your tax file number and Australian sim card.
You can do all of these things on your own if you don't want to go through a company but i wanted my travels to be as stress free as possible and to let someone else do the hard work. I found 'Oz Intro' through friends that had done it previously and the price was really good for what was included. (post to follow on Oz Intro)
How i felt:
Before: I was so excited to be going travelling. I had wanted to travel for about 2 years but never had the courage to do it. I was very career orientated, I got the job of my dreams and very quickly realised that I had the rest of my life to work but I was running out of time to be able to travel. I lived at home with my parents, had no children and was only paying for phone bill, car etc. I decided October 2014 I was going to bite the bullet and go.
Waiting: I booked my flights in Feb 2015 and started saving as much as I could from my monthly wage. During this time i also paid for things like Oz Intro and backpacker insurance. I had to keep my travelling completely secret from my job so only my closest friends and family knew. Feb - September seemed to take forever to come around.
Leaving: The day I left I wasn't nervous at all! Which surprised me. I was really excited and even being in the Airport alone I still wasn't nervous. On both flights I got chatting to the people next to me and had a really pleasant journey.
