So, my first few days in Australia have been pretty fantastic. I’ve seen amazing wildlife, beaches, mountains, and city. I’ve conquered any jetlag with my mantra “If I just keep walking I can’t fall asleep, right?”
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.
I left from work at 2pm on Thursday to get to JFK. My Qantas flight was 22.5 hours total, which included a 6 hour flight to LA, switching planes, and a 15 hour flight to Sydney. (Planes don’t fly direct from New York to Australia yet, but I hear they are testing them now… I would not want to be on that flight.) I couldn’t really tell you anything more about the time or the time difference I experienced. I’ve surmised it is 16 hours ahead here.
Aside from achy knees (expected), subpar sleep (expected), and a chatty seatmate named Vincente from LA (who unexpectedly at the beginning told me about how expensive it is to buy cigarettes and alcohol in Australia, and also cocaine), the flights were fine. (Update: alcohol is cheaper than in New York. I don’t know what he was talking about.) I watched some movies including the appropriately-themed 1986 classic Crocodile Dundee and made it through, arriving in Sydney around 9am on Saturday.
There’s nothing like the rush of seeing the streets in a new country for the first time. As much as you may try to blend in at the airport and on public transit, you can’t avoid the shock of coming outside from the subway station for the first time. Everything is just a little off, and new. What really did it for me this time was the license plates, which are different shapes (like, there are 3 shapes and at least 3 colors). And then there’s the cars driving on the left side of the road. That one I kept forgetting about throughout my stay in Sydney. I remembered from visiting London my problems with this (like, nearly dying several times), so I tried to be extra vigilant not to jaywalk. Other people seemed a little bolder in their jaywalking, but the streets are still fairly car-centric so it’s not as aggressive as New York.
I pretty easily figured out the ATM and transit – a pleasant surprise was that I could use my contactless credit card to tap in and out of all the trains, buses, and ferries. They came frequently, were clean, and got me everywhere I needed to go in Sydney. I changed at the hostel and immediately started walking around, and thus began my great walkabout. (I don’t think I’m using that term right, but it feels appropriate).
I walked through Hyde Park, a central city park that already overwhelmed me with all the very-different-looking trees and animals. The city creatures included massive numbers of pigeons, seagulls with smooth white skin instead of mangy feathers, and these very exotic-looking crane-vulture things that were not shy (see image). I was even shocked by some big lizards in the park. Outside of the city, later, I saw some wild white cockatoos with yellow feathers, and some other bizarre looking birds.
After grabbing a sandwich at a café in the park and being accosted by more weird birds while I ate (this will be a reoccurring theme in Sydney), I continued on to Macquarie’s point. Here I got my first excellent view of the Sydney Opera House (only built in 1974) and Harbour Bridge. I exchanged picture-taking with a guy from Philly. In my time in Sydney I met lots of fellow travelers, some through photo exchanges (Michigan, California, the Netherlands) and others through the free walking tours I did (California, Sweden, St. Louis, Slovakia). Two I connected with on Facebook and was given the option to join them for a day trip, but I had my own weather-based itinerary in mind. I didn’t really talk to people in the hostel, mostly because some German girls in my room were there all the time and wouldn’t stop talking when I was trying to sleep. They stopped when I shushed them but started up again the next night. That’s the risk of hostels, I guess. Then again, I paid an average of $20/night for my hostels on this trip.
Next, I walked through the free Royal Botanic Gardens where they had a cute exhibition of painted koalas. I noticed the weather, which was in the high 60s and cloudy; humid but not uncomfortable. It started raining later. The days varied a lot, many like today but others very hot and sunny, and some passing rainstorms. It’s late spring/early summer there.
The first of two free walking tours I went on was at 2:30. I’ve been on these donation-based tours in other cities before and really love them as insider-intros to a city. You learn things like how the seal of Australia is a kangaroo and an emu because neither of them can move backwards; yet Australians also eat both of these animals. We also saw some fancy shopping areas (chock full of Black Friday sales – yes, in a country that doesn’t have a Thanksgiving the capitalism holiday is thriving). There was a protest going on from self-described socialists who did not like the late night liquor lock-out laws and wanted to extend the hours. We learned a little about the history of Australia and Sydney as a convict colony for England, and before that the Aboriginal people. (But honestly, reading Bill Bryson’s book on Australia gave me a much deeper and colorful history – highly recommend In A Sunburnt Country.)
I met some fellow solo travelers on the tour from California (formerly NY and thinking about moving to NZ now), Sweden (quit her project management job to drive mid-size boats around in Vancouver and now Sydney), and St. Louis (just spent a week on a fitness retreat in Bali). People are interesting. We also got a brief intro to The Rocks, the old/historic neighborhood that I really enjoyed. I returned for another free tour of this neighborhood on Monday evening, where we learned some shady historic stories, like an old bar that would give out free booze, then when the men passed out they’d open a floor beneath them, drop them down, and when they woke up they were on a ship in the ocean working as indentured servants. WHAT. There was a tunnel where you kick the white wall and dust it up with your feet the first time you walk through for good luck. We also walked through some public subsidized housing which were basically really nice townhouses with terraces. To live there priority is given to people with convict ancestry. Now that’s truly a riot.
Anyway, back to day one. I stopped walking at about 7:30 at dinner (Thai near the hostel), and then it was finally time to shower and crash. And I crashed hard!
I’m going to stop here, as I’m finally writing all of this on my first night in Melbourne and I’m tired. But tune in next time for tales of the foggy Blue Mountains bushwalking adventure, swimming in beautiful Bondi Beach, a night out at the Opera House, and snuggling my friend Rubern the Koala at Featherdale Wildlife Park. Plus, more walking!
travels.of.tara 