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Published: April 24th 2009
Hello from Sydney!
We've been here now for almost 2 weeks and have really enjoyed it. Our plan was to come to Sydney and look for a job, but this plan lasted for about four days (I think this was plan C). On the fourth day foxy Roxy from Ski Rider called and said that we had been successful at Ski Rider and that we have got jobs for the whole ski season starting in June..yipee!
So we hatched plan D, go and see more of Australia in the next couple of months but in good old backpacker spirit we've changed our plans again and are now fixed on Plan E haha! We're flying to New Zealand in a couple of weeks to explore that country instead, then back here for the ski season.
Anyway, we haven't only been job hunting, we have also tried to see everything that Sydney has to offer, which is quite a lot. We have been staying in lovely neighborhood called Glebe, in a great YHA hostel.
Glebe has loads of little cafes and restaurants, delis, bakeries, pubs and second hand shops, its a bit like Hedingley but cleaner! It is surrounded
by nice parks and is located about ten minutes from Sydney city centre; it is the new 'it' place from what we have heard. Glebe YHA has weekly BBQ's on the rooftop, movie night, quiz night, friendly staff and a very good Kitchen and TV room, it now feels like a home from home.
On our first day in Sydney we went on an eight hour tourist trek around the city. We went to see the spectacular opera house, walked over the harbour bridge, visited the fish market, the backpacker hub of Kings Cross and the Rocks, where the Europeans first settled. The city was really alive, with street performers, crazy Chinese tourist and a lot of interesting culture and nice food everywhere. We immediatly liked Sydney!
The Lonely Planet recommended a pie stall which we stumbled across on one of our marathon walks, Harry's Cafe De Wheels which is nothing more than a van but apparently a famous Sydney Icon. As we were starving, as usual, we opted for a "world renowned" Tiger which is basically a meat pie with a dolop of mashed potato, mushy pea's and gravy..mmm. It was great and we realised we were
Harry De Wheels
A real icon, nevermind the opera house!in good company with various celebs having enjoyed the same (photo's of the legend Shayne Warne and even Pammy decked the walls, all tucking into a Tiger of course!).
The second day we went for a stroll in the botanic garden, a really peaceful place, except for the masses of huge flying foxes, which look a bit scary at first. Flying foxes looks like a bat, but with a big hairy body, like a fox i guess. They can have a wingspan of up to 1.5 meters!
They're a big problem to the botanic garden because they are ruining the big old trees so the council are thinking of trying to move them to a more suitable place were they won't do so much damage. This is done by driving motorbikes around the tree's in the night with big getto blasters attached, probably playing Nickleback or something! Good thinking, im sure i'd move on haha! In the botanic garden we also saw a giant spider and loads of white cockatoos, they were beautiful.
In the evening we had decided to meet up with my second cousin and his girlfriend, who also happened to be in Sydney. Jon
Amazing view
From the harbour bridge is on a study leave from work and combining his studies with travelling (lucky him!), his girlfriend had come over from Sweden, just for two weeks over Easter.
We went to a Korean restaurant, Koreans eat very strange food. If you have ever had Korean food you know what I mean. You get a pan of raw ingredients and you have to cook it yourself, then you get some side dishes of spicy jelly and potatoes to go with it, mmmm. But we had a really nice evening and decided to try and meet up again before we/or they left Sidney.
We have also tried to visit a few museums here; they are usually free and sometime quite interesting. One day we went to the Museum of Sydney, which was pretty boring and you had to pay $10 to get in. We have also been to the New South Wales Art Gallery, which was free and pretty interesting (not that Steve thought so though "You can take the boy out of Bradford..." haha). We are also planning to visit the museum of Australia one day, because we have heard that it is good and apparently free.
On
Friday nights the hostel put on a BBQ for everyone, you pay $5, this includes a beer and as much bbq food you can eat. We stayed up quite late drinking and talking to some people from New Zealand and Canada. All of a sudden two possums joined us, one big one and a baby possum riding on the back of the big one, sooo cute. After the BBQ we went to the local pub, where you could buy a jug of beer for $7, but they couldn't tell you what beer it was, very suspicious, but a good night.
Yesterday we had a Swedish day, we went on a day trip to IKEA, had a coffee and Daim cake and did some shopping in the Swedish food store. We had also been advised to visit the Swedish church and its cafe/restaurant which organizes a lot of different activities during the week for Swedish tourists and expats. When entering the cafe, it felt like we were back in Sweden again, old women discussing the quality of the cinnamon buns, people playing yatzee and eating Swedish food like meat ball sandwiches, waffles and egg and caviar, I was in heaven.
We took the underground one day to Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world. We'd been told by some locals not to bnother as its too crowded and to go to some other nearby beaches instead but we went along anyway and discovered it was absolutley dead! Now the weather wasn't great but still we'd hav expected a few crowds however we remembered watching an episode of Bondi Rescue the week before which explained things. There's been a few shark sightings recently and one unlucky surfer even got his hand bitten off a couple of weeks ago, oh dear!
Tonight we're off to see Steve Coogan at the State Theatre in town which we're really looking forward to. This is our last night here by the way. Tomorrow we'll go to see the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) remembrance day parade and then we pick up another campervan for 10 days.
The plan is to head upto Newcastle and see our friends that we met in Boracay, then spend some days touring the Blue Mountains National Park and drink our way through the Hunter Valley wine region before coming back here
Opera House
behind the tourists for our flights to New Zealand.
Until the next time...
Maja and Steve x
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Ma
non-member comment
Jealous
Wow - the blog is great as usual. You should think about writing a book Maja. Australia looks fab and I'm glad you're making the most of it. Shame it's so far away cos it's a place i'd like to visit. You both look soooo well. Must've got something in my eye when I was looking at you both - they wouldn't stop watering! Be careful in NZ - I know you want to do some crazy, scarey things, but you need to be fit for your new jobs. Going out to lunch today with mum, Leah and Linda to celebrate my new job. Won't be as exotic as the food you've been eating but will be nice as we're going to Wendy's cafe (Jane's sister) - fab home cooked nosh! Speak soon, Love Mum xxx