Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

It was a long, long journey to Helsinki from Canberra. It started with a bus. Why did we do that? Why did we start with the bus? This is  what my daughter, Beans, asked me?

Anyway, we left Canberra on the 8 am bus to Sydney International Airport. It was a smooth trip and we arrived in plenty of time to catch the flight. The big issue was the amount of luggage we had. So much luggage that we both did trail packs and weighs before we got it right. We had 23 kilo allowance for our checked bag and then because we flew British Airways we were allowed two carry on. A lot of the excess stuff we carried was for the fan fun auction at Worldcon 75 and some more for gifts for people in the UK and Ireland and elsewhere on our travels.

Luggage is not fun. It’s the major downside of travelling. We approached it with humour. What else could we do. Our bags weighed 22.5 kilos each. So close. Carrying around the cabin bags was hard work until we discovered trolleys. Before then I felt like my head was being detached from my body. My daughter swapped with me so she could take my heavy back pack.

We had some time after check in to grab a coffee. We went to one of the cafes which guaranteed city views and had a nice meal. Surprisingly good. I’m travelling with a vegan so finding food that we both can eat can be hard.

There was a view. That is Sydney city in the distance.

I also potted what I think was an Air Fiji plane. I could be wrong.

The first leg of the journey was just over eight hours where were landed in Singapore. We had to take our carry on bags off. Instead of being able to go for a walk and grab a coffee we where shepherded to the departure lounge to reboard. We didn’t even get a chance to pee. There were no toilets in the departure lounge. Do not fall for that again!

The next leg was over 12 hours to London. I had caught Ghost in the Shell on the first leg. That is going direct to the ‘must buy’ DVD list. Beans was laughing her head off and she got me to listen in on Snatched- Goldie Hawn- so I ended up watching that movie too. There was a laugh so hard I cried moment. As Paul Feig had something to do with it, I’m not surprised. Some very funny, inappropriateness there. Then Beans told me there was some very cool X files. I hadn’t seen the reboot so I saw about four episodes. One had a very cute story line about the monster who had been bitten by a human and so became human at the full moon. It guest starred Murray from Flight of the Conchords. Absolutely funny and well done. I also watched Boss Baby, very cute.

The food was pretty good on the plane but I took no pictures so maybe it didn’t happen.

When we were landing in London, the captain said ” I hope you enjoyed the trip from Singapore”. Beans and I looked at each other. Enjoyed should have been endured. You may wonder why us downunderarians come topside and stay so long. It’s because it’s a damned ordeal getting here. And we have to reverse our body clocks and do food gymnastics by eating when our body thinks we should be sleeping and then we pee all night because our bodies think we are awake. It settled down but even after a good night’s sleep my brain feels like scrambled eggs.

So we land in the UK and all is smooth. Really smooth. My five pound notes can’t be used because they have been replaced by fancy plastic ones. That was all right because my ten pound note worked just fine. We had a cuppa tea…we were really hanging out for one while we tried to figure out how to get to the airport hotel next to terminal five. The server at the tea place was able to tell me and we headed to the other end of the terminal. We  had booked a hotel because the connection to Helsinki was over 12 hours later and after more than twenty four hours travelling being horizontal is the most important thing in the world. We had a day use room at Sofitel. The beds were awesome and the shower was good too. Unfortunately the lights didn’t work in the bathroom. They were fixed temporarily but Beans ended up having a shower in the dark.

Then it was time to check out and struggle with the heavy carry on bags to the flight to Helsinki.We had time for some fun.

Here my daughter used her powerful powers of persuasion and made me buy a trolley. It was a stroke of genius. I didn’t have to worry about getting an airport one. This little one could be used on the plane. My head didn’t have to get detached after all.

The flight to Helsinki was nice. The plane wasn’t too full. It was still light. It’s summer in the north of the northern hemisphere.  The sky was glorious. It reminded me of footage I’ve seen of the Grand Canyon, layers of orange and gold. I took a photo but it doesn’t quite capture it.

Also we saw the coast of the England. Man the country looks flat from up in the sky. We arrived in Helsinki near 11.30 pm and staggered to the Airport Hilton. Thank goodness for the Hilton.