Off to Eastern Europe

We are now sitting in the Singapore Airlines Lounge, awaiting our second flight to Istanbul departing at 1am. Everyone is resorting to their choice method of staying awake, whether it be showering, eating, caffeinating, or catching Pokemon. 

The day had gone well. Our original plan of catching the train to the airport was tranformed to a lift in, courtesy of Michael! The Singapore Airlines staff member who checked us in was so helpful. He checked our bags all the way to Sofia, Istanbul on account of Turkish Airlines being a Star Alliance partner, even though our last leg was purchased separately and on economy. He also checked us in for all our flights and printed our boarding passess for all legs. This was important for 2 reasons, the first was that we didn't have to collect our luggage and recheck in Istanbul, the second was that our luggage should be one of the first to come out once we arrive in Sofia as they will be tagged "priority" from our initial business class flight. Score! Once airside, we had a chance to explore the new American Express Lounge before our Sydney to Singapore flight. I was quite proud of my 3.5 movie effort whilst onboard!

The famous "green" wall of the Amex Lounge. Now much bigger

So much more space...and seats!

Didn't take them long to get comfortable and discover the "order and it will get delivered to you" milkshakes

Time to move on to the Singapore Airlines Lounge for food and boarding announcements

Now we're ready to fly :)

Let's eat!

The meal declared the yummiest by Elliot. Chickenn soy sauce noodles

Time for G&T

Cookie dough ice-cream

Our second near mishap on arrival at Changi was averted again due to the kindness of a stranger. We were directed to go through immigration in order to visit the Jewel. It was our fault for not thinking of filling in the arrival card. We had been to Singapore a few times...Our hearts sank when we realised our error upon reaching the immigration officer after lining up for half an hour. Our last encounter with a Singapore immigration officer was not rated highly! To our surprise, he was so kind and understanding. He showed us where the forms were available and told us to cut back in and go straight to him once it was done. No need to line up again. What?! Did I hear that correctly?!?! After we filled out our cards, the stress set in. How were we (as a family of five with a very tall man-child looking teen) going to weave our way to the front without being told off? Or annoying other passengers? Images of us getting arrested and getting caned in public flashed through my mind...We were rescued by a second stranger who obviously noticed our hushed discussion and asked how she could help. We explained what had happened and she took us to the front. True to his word, once the immigration officer saw us, he waved us forward! Phew!

The Jewel

Fake snow...yeah over-rated. It just felt slimy...

Canopy Bridge. Not a good idea if you are afraid of heights!

The view looking down...

Discovery slides

The next few hours were spent exploring the Jewel, a dining and entertainment district at Changi Airport. I won't bother going into the details as there are so many great blogs about it. We had fun and I would highly recommend doing the bouncing nets if you have time. It was perhaps not the wisest attempting to do it with lungs that are still recovering from smoke related illness...

Tiredness is setting in so I will finish this post here. Wish us luck for our flight to Istanbul. Will check back in once we hit our final destination of Sofia!