The Flight

We survived the 29 hours total travel time from Pittsburgh to Sydney. We were very impressed with Qantas. We flew in a huge, double-decker aircraft. The cabin space is 40% larger than the next largest airliner. The plane can hold over 500 people. The seats were very roomy. Of course it helped that Joe had an aisle seat, I has a window seat, and there was no one sitting in between us. So we had plenty of room to spread out. Each seat was supplied a pillow, blanket, head phones, and a sleeping mask. The 15 hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was a "red-eye" flight - 13 hours of it was nighttime - as we traveled west and across the International Date Line - following the sun. We finally caught up to it at 5 a.m. Sydney time, and saw a nice sunrise over the Pacific Ocean from the plane. On the plane, they served a full chicken dinner at 3 a.m. Well, it was 3 a.m. Pittsburgh time (12 midnight Los Angeles time). Apparently, as soon as the plane took off, we were on Sydney time, which then made sense that dinner was being served at what was 6 p.m. Sydney time. But it was hard to muster up an appetite at what seemed like 3 a.m. to us. While Joe slept through dinner, I decided to partake, realizing that we wouldn't get food again for 11 more hours, when a light breakfast would be served.