Jasmine in South Africa: ...and she's gone!

22/08/13

I wrote a blog while I was in Abu Dhabi Airport but it failed to upload and I lost it...so here is a new one! Let's go back to Monday.

Rachael, one of my partners, arrived at my home to stay on Monday night before we left the next evening. Unfortunately for her, she had to witness my emotional goodbyes to my whole family and my best friend. It's quite hard to write about that now, my emotions have settled down and I feel very content & calm.

After an awful goodbye to my mum, dad and brother, we boarded our 8 hour night bus to London Victoria. Reaching Victoria early Wednesday, we had to wait for our connecting bus to Heathrow Terminal 4. Then we reached our first dilemma. I had ripped my leggings on the coach, so had to go change in the bathroom. Thinking we had plenty of time, I walked back into the station with Rachael in an absolute flap...our bus was boarding! No worries, we made it and reached Heathrow in no time. After swiftly collecting our visas and passports from a Project Trust Rep, the early flighers boarded. At 2.45 we were off to Abu Dhabi!

The furthest I have ever been from home is Austria, so you can imagine my excitement. Our flight to Abu Dhabi was so impressive. We had complimentary blankets, food and drink for the whole flight. I watched some films and fell asleep. We reached Abu Dhabi before 1am, but our flight to Johannesburg wasn't until 9.35am. With more than 9 hours in the airport and no Abu Dhabi Currency, most of us decided to sleep.

The rest of the South Africa group arrived before our flight on Thursday morning. We all boarded the flight to Johannesburg together, buzzing for the journey ahead!

There is a post to follow all about my two days in Jo'burg. Here's some pictures of the journey here.