Australia - Step 8.1: contrasts of traveling

So long time no post due to the fact that traveling here is different than in Indonesia or south east asia. Traveling there means going to different places a lot, from hostel to hostel, discover and explore. Usually you stay somewhere not longer than a week.

Going to Australia with a work & holiday visa is more like moving there. So my activities the first day was not checking out the closest waterfall or beach, but getting a bank account, a tax number and starting to look for job- and flat-opportunities.

Now I am in Sydney since more or less 2 weeks and: luckily my friend of our yoga girl group was here until today and we shared a room for a while.

Biggest change here as well: no cute, nice, vegan, beach cafés. They do have cafés, but everything here is so expensive that it is not really an option to spend a lot of time (or money) here. Thats why now after 14 days, is the second time I am doing this at this moment, to finally write my blog again.

So yes, coming back to my first days here; besides opening a bank account, getting groceries and apply for the tax number - I got into the public transport of Sydney to visit my friend who was staying at a hostel at the beach. My Airbnb was a bit outside of the city center, so I always took the train and buses, which in the end was not as bad as I thought. Honestly, it is really good. The payment is convenient, as you go in and out of trains, buses or ferries, you just tap with your apple pay. Also any transport goes quite frequently and brings you to the place you want to be. (way better than in germany for sure)

On my second day I signed me and my friend in for a free gym pass. It was a fancy gym with some floors, actually nice. The bathrooms looked like the common bathroom of slytherin, equipped with ghd hair straightener and dyson air blow. (wtf)

Anyways after this nice experience we went on a little journey to find cheap yet “okayish” food, to nourish our body after the workout. It is not that easy. Especially just coming from Bali where you have 2944 cafés, restaurants, protein shake places and warungs. (Yes, comparison is the thief of joy, but I am trying my best).

The best we found in that case was subway. Then we walked around to explore a bit. Sydney is like a big european City in some ways, in some ways it seems american and then there is the beach and parks. Yet, I am not sure if I am convinced, but also yet, not in a position to do a final judgement. Of course we passed by the opera house to see this most iconic place in Sydney.

Furthermore we chilled in the park, hugged trees and decided to go to the cinema, as it got cloudy in the evening. We spend some nice time together; discovering places, taking long walks in cemeteries, having snacky-movie-nights, going on late night woolworth-adventure to find vegan B&Js and trying not to die from our cough.

I got my little routines like going to woolworths and I signed up in a gym (which was a waste as I could only go two times due to sickness🥲). At some point me and my friend were actually sitting in a café together - the first time here - and I said to her “we are sitting in a café in Sydney.” Just to realise and acknowledge the randomness of life and traveling. We met in a yoga-teacher-training in Bali, did more exploring and island-hopping in Indonesia and now we are sitting in a café in Australia.

We spent new years eve on a house party with a lot of young people. It was fun we danced a lot but also drank a lot.

Another worth mentioning day was, when I first met a dog for an upcoming house-/petsitting and then had breakfast with my friend. She went on a little roadtrip afther that, so after saying bye to her for some days, I chilled a bit at “home”. Later I met another friend in Sydney, that we knew each other from Bali as well. He used couchsurfing to stay somewhere for 2 nights. The house he ended up staying was actually with a guy, that did a housesitting (with 2 big mainecoon 🥹) at this place.

We met some friends of him and had some beers on a balcony. It was a random but fun evening, with people that are from australia or that moved here more than 10 years ago, that shared their perspectives on life here with us.

Days blurred a bit into each other as sometimes I didn't do a lot, also because I got sick with a cold and cough. I am actually still recovering my cough and checked out of my airbnb today and into a hostel for four days. After staying in private rooms, thats a new adjustment again.

These four days should be filled with being at the beach and in parks as this is the area here. After this I will be 9 days in the housesitting which is kinda far from center. But this will give me the time to decide on the job and flat situation. I have some options, but not 100% sure yet.