Australia, are you ready?

After so many months of talking, writing,  day dreaming about our Australian  adventure, we finally started our journey on Friday. 

Packing went (relatively) smooth even tho it was a bad idea to leave it to the last minute (no shit Sherlock!). It seems that I’m not a happy packer at midnight (after late packer, say hello to grumpy packer. Never a dull moment in this packing business) but my sister and I left quite proudly the house with only 9 kg on our backs!
  
To save a couple of hundred francs / euro,  we had decided to fly out of Milan and on top of saving money, we had a lovely road trip to the airport with maroon 5 in the background. What more can girls ask for? 

To reach Adelaide from Milano, we decided  to have a few hour stop over in Dubai. Our layover was grande, pretty relaxed. I highly recommend you to try the dumplings and the sashimi at Cho Gao in terminal 3, close to the shuttle stop that drives you to the gates B and C. Tasty and affordable? yes please!
 Both flights went well as I could sleep a lot on the planes. I’m a big fan of long haul flights: I love watching movies, sleep, read. Repeat. 

We are now safe and sound in Adelaide (time difference + 9 1/2 hours with Switzerland. Temperatures at 9:30 pm: 35 degrees. A bit chilly to my liking) where we were welcomed by our sweet Australian boys and my lovely M after passing the Australian customs without any major incident*. 

* Customs reminder of the day: Customs regulations can be tricky on what you are allowed (or not) to import so always play it safe and declare any food item you carry. The consequences of declaring the products we intended to import were very positive:  

1) A lovely and relaxed officer who was opened to discussion. She explained us why Swiss cheese was allowed but not the dry meat (something to do with heat treatment). It was definitely better than to face an officer who was in a dangerous ‘YoMotherFuckerYouTriedToSmuggleProhibitedGoodsIntoMyCountryAndYouThoughtWeWereStupid’ mood! 

2) No fine, no deportation, no rubber gloves treatment. Glad we avoided any crisis… Imagine the trauma for my sister, they would have treated her like a criminal and maybe deported her (what? I didn’t have any space in my backpack so she had to take one for the team haha). Pretty fun times for a first backpacking adventure but I’m afraid that it would have been her last one. Oops! 

3) We got to keep 50% of what we intended to bring to Australia. Hooray! Cheese party is on!

After relaxing on a quiet beach tonight, listening to the waves and catching up, we are ready for tomorrow’s first adventure. 

Volume 1: once upon a time, wine tasting in South Australia or when 2 Canadians, 1 Swiss, 1 American, 2 French and 3 Aussies pretend to be wine connoisseurs for a day. 

Stay tuned!

Happy trails