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Published: November 15th 2012
We were nervous, that is right. We were anxious about arriving in the western world. What a weird feeling as this should be the familiar ground for us, like coming back to the roots thing ….Yet we felt awkward when we stepped out of the plane. It just felt so foreign and we really wanted to withdraw back to Indonesia for some reason. Maybe we wanted to desperately hold on to that continent as moving forward meant that majority of our trip was over now. Or maybe we felt more comfortable with Asian culture that we gave ourselves the credit for. Nevertheless it was a big change for us. When we reached the passport control we were back to reality. Suddenly we were not a very welcomed and looked upon tourists but members of ever migrating nation of Poles. Of course we were stopped for questioning. It was a second time that we entered Australia and the story was just the same. Good that we had 4 forward flights booked already (including the one back to London) so they did not keep us long.
If that was not enough to make us feel like we are back to normal then
a coffee shop made it up hahah The minute we appeared out of the terminal we headed to the coffee shop for the
‘real’ coffee on the go experience;-) We did not even mind paying 4$ for a cup of coffee even though we would have never paid that much for it in Asia. Just because this is the way it is here….and 4$ is a spare change not a price of two meals in a local bistro hahaha. We were lucky enough to be invited to stay with our friends so we did not have to embark on the hostel search this time. We hopped on the train and 1h later we were picked up by our friend Renee. I remember literally staring out of the window of a train and admiring beautifully landscaped neighborhoods of Sydney. So clean, so green, so looked after and so wealthy…. As it was early morning people were rushing to work but the traffic was not even a bit of what we expected. European cities are much more crowded, that is for sure. Once again we thought that it would be really lovely to live in a place like that.
Then and
there our pamper week in
Sydney began. Renee and Chris just spoiled us rotten with excellent food and wine and homey atmosphere. After spending so much time in hotels and eating out it was so lovely to stay at home, play with kids and cook;-) They probably thought we were crazy when we gasped every time we had something to eat hahaha Food in Asia can be lovely and adventurous but it is just not the same to what we have learnt to love all of our lives. We cooked some Polish food, drank a lot of Aussie wine and just enjoyed ourselves. We walked around Sydney taking it all in and really took pleasure in our time over there.
We loved the
Harbor and the
Harbor Bridge views as well as
the Rocks area. We had some Aussie pies by the harbor and delicious ice creams. We even managed to walk by the Guinness Beer Carrying competition in the Bavarian Beerhouse in the Rocks. Their contestant was to carry 22 liters of beer over 40m or so and people, radio and TV presenters gathered to view it. It was a fun moment although he did not make it
spilling beer all over the audience. We needed to buy a guidebook for South America but decided to try the exchange first. We traveled to the trendy 'backpackers' area of
Kings Cross and walked from hostel to hostel trying to find one and we finally succeeded. We wanted to exchange it for our SE Asia one as this is much eco/greener way than just throwing it away. And it saved us 50$ so it was worth it ;-)
One day we hopped on the northbound train and arrived in
Newcastle to meet with Tomek’s old work buddy – Roy. He took us around the place, showed us great beaches (with dolphins swimming around, seriously), old sea baths and some great pub time. We had a lovely day with him and similarly to Chris and Renee he was constantly trying to convince us that move to Australia would be a great thing for us. I am sure it would but on the other hand we like our life back in UK and we worked hard to make us feel like at home over there so it would be a really tough decision to make. Newcastle amazed us with its laidback
feel of Sydney’s suburbia, wide spread neighborhoods of stunning,
‘million dollars’ looking villas as well as sociable and outdoor culture of its inhabitants.
Back in Bali Tomek got some nasty mosquito bites that he scratched all over and the wounds inflamed during the flight to Sydney. He had some over-the-counter antibiotics from Bali but took them only for 3 days so it worked only partially (really badly wanted to drink alcohol that is why). In a pharmacy we were told it was probably from the plane’s air pressure and that it was not an infection, so he kept it as it was hoping it would go down. Well, it did not. In a few days we had to go the hospital’s emergency ward to have it checked and cleaned as we had another long, 14h flight to Buenos ahead of us. The service was wonderful and Tomek was really well looked after. He even got ultrasound of his foot done to check for foreign bodies or something before he was send home. We got a bill of 200$ but at least it was done – this is why it is worth to have a travel insurance hahah. We were
laughing later that if he had kept taking these Indonesian antibiotics for a week and had not quit, the bill would have been less than 10$....Every day is a school day;-)
Another thing we had in plan was to visit
the Blue Mountains. Our friends were kind enough to lend us their car so we could have freedom of movement and spend a perfect day out. We stopped in some small villages on the way and just loved the atmosphere of them. Town of
Leura was so charming I did not want to go back. They had this avenue of little boutiques with a mix of vintage and new stuff (clothes, furniture and home accessories) and I could spend ages just strolling through them. The price difference between UK and Australia is sometimes shocking but I guess the wages must match them too. We bought some lovely organic food from a supermarket’s deli and had a picnic overlooking the
Tree Sisters - stunning. It was the beginning of spring so flower trees were blossoming and the smell of fresh grass was just so endearing. The mountains were exceptionally beautiful and if only Tomek’s foot was better we would have
done some serious trekking over there. This time round we only drove from view point to view point and walked a little around.
The week passed by really quickly and it was time to move on. Yes we felt very comfy and we suddenly felt homesick but also we got enough of it all to feel ready for our next adventures in South America. It was a very smart move to stop in Sydney for this long as we could recharge our travel-batteries and get hungry for more. We realized that we were not that ready to go home and not prepared to finish the journey yet, even though this crossed our mind back in Asia. Again special thanks to our fabulous friends: Renee, Chris and Roy and their lovely families for making our stay in Australia special!!!
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Anastasia78
Anastasia78
What a great story!
So glad I sat down to read this this morning with my cup of coffee in hand. Looking forward to all that remains...