Things were looking good for our big travel. The packing list was finalized and I was ready to start packing.

Then three days before our departure for Melbourne, we had a sewer line failure. It was the first event that felt like time travel – back to the past. The more than 100-year old clay pipes outside of the house gave up; they couldn’t handle the invading tree roots anymore. (The previous owner didn’t replace them when she remodeled the house, and forgot to mention this to us.)

An emergency crew was called. They were quick and efficient: dug a deep hole by the entrance door (removing some of the pavers of the courtyard close to the door), hydro jetted the pipes, and placed a new liner into them.

All this added extra excitement in the midst of final travel preparations! At 1:40 pm, a half an hour after they finished, we were on our way to the airport for the 4:40 pm flight from Seattle to Melbourne, Australia (via Los Angeles).

After almost three hours of flight in United Airlines first class (which included dinner: chicken breast with wild rice and sautéed kale), we arrived in Los Angeles, spent two hours in their lounge, and were ready for our 16-hour direct flight to Melbourne. After flying in business class to Africa 6 years ago, we knew that for this long flight we had to fly in the same way again – even though it’s more expensive – so that we could sleep in lie-flat seats.

Our departure time was scheduled for 10:40 pm. After some taxiing and waiting for take-off, at 11 pm, the captain announced that we had to go back to the gate to unload some cargo. The aircraft was too heavy to fly in the high winds coming from the Sierra Mountains.

Half an hour after midnight, we were finally on our way. After another dinner (probably our latest ever!) we watched a film, then were ready for sleeping.

The promise of United Polaris business class service is “to provide the best sleep in the sky,” provide “elevated dining, and exclusive inflight amenities.” Well, the food was tasty, but nothing extraordinary (dinner: green salad, butternut squash ravioli, cheese, apple tart; breakfast: scrambled eggs, chicken herb sausage, potatoes and kale, yogurt). The “bed” was too narrow, but the Saks Fifth Avenue bedding was amazing, and the pillow was very comfortable. At times, the flight was bumpy, so even though we spent probably a good 7-8 hours lying down, I didn’t sleep too much. We watched another film, had our breakfast, and successfully, but a little bit confused, arrived in Australia.

Why the confusion? We started from home on Friday afternoon, September 6, and we landed in Melbourne on Sunday morning, September 8. This is two days, correct? But we were not in the sky for two days, “only” 17 and half hours. This felt like our second time travel! What happened to September 7? We crossed the International Date Line, which means that we journeyed forward in time. We felt we had lost a day, but we will gain it back on our return home.

Interestingly, for nearly five centuries, the International Date Line confused not only everyday travelers like us, but explorers and navigators too. This imaginary line, which runs down the Pacific Ocean from North to South, is needed because of multiple time zones around the world. It determines where a calendar day ends and the next day begins.

From the airport, we went to our hotel, refreshed ourselves, and a couple hours later, around noon, started exploring Melbourne. We walked a lot to start our acquaintance with this city and were determined to stay awake until around 9 pm. Guess what? We only lasted until 5 pm.

Our first impressions of Melbourne were very positive. We were excited to be in this vibrant city and continue with our discoveries.