Adventures with a backpack
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If I could fall in love with a city...

So Sydney was a great success, no doubt. If I could fall in love with a city I would be head over heels for Sydney right now. Its open spaces, the harbour, the greenery and the fresh air... This is what a city should be like. The weather was not too terribly hot either when I arrived, its still only spring time here but summer is coming I assure you.
Thinking of it, the only bad thing I can say about Sydney is that it is terribly expensive, at least for travelers, which is a shame because you hear a lot about Sydneys fine restaurants, nice bars and some crazy partying. For me as a traveler however, I dont want to spend 25-40 dollars in a fine restaurant or buy a drink for 18-25 dollars in fancy bars so luckily there are some budget alternatives too, though those are probably not the way to experience "the real Sydney" according to some people. On the other hand, most people traveling to Sydney come here to work and if you get a good job you could probably make at least 18-25 dollars an hour, which is pretty good, so in the end its not too expensive living here, its just us poor travelers not looking to work in Sydney who might think twice before heading out for the third dinner out that week.
I should not complain though, definetely not, because I have managed to get by really cheap so far. Thanks to the splendid idea of couchsurfing I have had free accommodation for my stay in Sydney and considering what 9 nights in a hostel would have cost me I have saved soooo much money.
When I arrived in Sydney I was greated by David, a really friendly and funny guy from England who is currently living and working in Sydney and even though he lives in a tiny room in an apartment shared with 8 (or more) other people he let me sleep on his blow up mattress on his floor and he took me sightseeing in Sydney and made my short stay a really nice one. He introduced me to "goon", the infamous Australian wine thats apparently very well known to give bad hungovers but also because it is o cheap, and we walked around Circular Quay, saw the opera house, crossed the harbour bridge, visited Kings Cross and yeah... basically we saw most sights in Sydney that are free.
Two days after my arrival I headed for another couchsurfing experience, I moved out to Hornsby to stay with the Reefman family. Now, Hornsby is a part of Sydney which you reach by train and it takes about 40-50 minutes to get to Sydney CBD so it is basically one of Sydneys suburbs, more like a small town of its own. A pretty quiet place I would say, not very much happening there from what I experienced but it might just be I missed out on all the fun. So far out of the city center it was close to the bush though so one of my days there I went for a bushwalk which was quite stunning actually. It was no bigger deal than just go out in the woods back home really but considering the difference in environment it was quite interesting. And sweaty also, there were a lot of hills and some climbing to be done.
The family I stayed with is called Reefman. Its a nice family of 7 (might even be 8, I dont know if there is an older brother who doesnt live at home) people living right next to the bush in the outskirts of Hornsby. The dad, Peter, was working a lot so I didnt see much of him and the son Nick who was the one I got in contact with through couchsurfing had just started a new job selling wine so I did not see him very much either except from a short time in the morning and a couple of hours in the night. The mum, Donrita, and the youngest son Josïah did home schooling so I saw a bit more of them every day and then apart from those there was Isaac, Jerôme and Mariëtte, though the two last ones were barely at home so I guess Isaac is the one I spent most time talking to, and that was not very much to be honest.
The family was really nice and friendly, they were, but they were so disciplined I felt awkward being there. Donrita and Josïah had bible studies in the mornings and for every meal the family would pray. They didnt ask me to do it, thank god, but I felt awkward not doing it when everyone else did. I would not dare sleep longer than until 7 in the morning because people were walking through where I was sleeping, all of the time and I felt awkward being in the house when they did home schooling because I was afraid I might interrupt. And yes, just so disciplined. During my 3 days there I dont think I ever heard Donrita or Peter tell Josïah anything good or compliment him, it was always just "Josïah, why is your room not tidy?", "Josïah I told you to wash the dishes immediately when you were done.", "Why arent you studying, Josïah?", "Josïah you wont get to watch any more tv because you do not do what I tell you to do.".
Needless to say, however nice the family was that home was no place for me and besides, Hornsby was quite boring when youd had your look at the place. I moved back into the CBD and lucky for me David would not mind having me stay another 4 nights at his place.
So, well, back in Sydney and guess what? I still hadnt visited the beach and since I came back in the weekend when would be a better time to go there? I met up with Shannie and yes, this is a funny story; I first met Shannie on my travels in South America, we worked together in Lima, and then on my second day in Sydney I just randomly walked into her in the streets of Redfern, of all places in Sydney. I knew she would be in Sydney but Redfern is not really a touristic place so bumping into her there was quite a surprise.
Anyway, so it was saturday, steaming hot and a great day to visit the beach. I went to Shannies shared place in Bondi (yes, she lives in Bondi, as do almost every fucking swede in Sydney) where we sat chatting with the other people in the house before we went to the famous beach. And what a beach! People may say Bondi is too toutistic but in my opinion theres a good reason everyone wants to go there. It is beautiful! Marvellous! And when you are a girl of course you dont mind all the hot, tanned guys working out at the outdoor gym right by the beach. Its like a dream! So yeah, Bondi is on the must do-list and Im definetely going there again when I get back to Sydney.
On the sunday I visited Bronte Beach and that one was absolutely stunning too. I imagine Cogee and the other surrounding beaches might be the same and if you really, really dont want to go to Bondi those beaches might very well do instead.
On the monday night me and David were joined by another couchsurfer, a girl named Rose who is the same age as me, studies in Brisbane at the moment and just arrived from a roadtrip from there to Sydney through the Blue Mountains. We went out to see the opera house and the harbour bridge at night, had a drink in the lounge on the 36th floor of Shang La Hotel (or whatever the name was) where you had an amazing view of the city and then we had a short walk in Darling Harbour. Now I am currently in Melbourne and god, if I could fall in love with a city... Is it only me falling in love with every new place I visit or is Australia in general just amazing?
1 December 2012  | Länk | Australia | 0 kommentar


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