Sydney

Hello everyone!

The Wonders of Down Under. This is the story of my trip to Australia.

I had sought something new. Living in Portland, I had loved my job, my friends, and where I lived. However, I still felt like I wanted something new, exotic, and different from what I had experienced before. So I decided that I would attempt a trip to Australia. My plan would be to show up, do some touristy stuff, get a job, enjoy a year abroad, and return home. This is where I am at so far:

4900 Slavin

My story starts at 4900 Slavin Rd. After having lived here for over two years, it was hard to say goodbye to that place. This was the last time I saw the front door.

Sunset from Little Mountain Park

Once the nightmare of getting all my stuff moved out was over, we finally got on the road. My aunt Janice and my mother Deborah were kind enough to drive me to Vancouver B.C., where my flight was to depart. Our friend Cassie was nice enough to let us stay at her house in Mt Vernon, so that we didn't have to make the 6 hour drive all in one day. We visited Little Mountain park the night in Mt Vernon, and were treated to an incredible sunset.



I had been super nervous before the flight for several reasons:

1. This was my first international flight
2. I have a very short 1 hour layover in a country who's primary language is not English.
3. I am moving to a new flippin country!

Route from Vancouver-Guangzhou

Once I was on the flight however, I felt pretty good. The jitters were gone and I was able to enjoy flying. I thought our route to china was somewhat weird though, as we passed way up near the Bering Sea before coming back down to Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) where the connecting flight was located. The initial flight ended up taking just over 12 hours, down from the estimated 13.5 hours, and so I was able to not only make the connecting flight but have dinner and a beer as well!

Cockroach (finger for scale)

The bunk bed

Due to jet lag, the first day in Sydney was pretty uneventful. I basically napped, set up my bank account, and ate candy. Yay for vacation! I did meet a young aussie named nick though, he taught me a bit about Cricket, the Australian Football League (AFL, Aussie-rules Football), and Rugby, which are apparently some of the biggest sports in Australia. I stayed in a hostel (although it was on airbnb, therefore untaxed and not legally a hostel) and had a pretty sweet bunk bed actually. The first night in Sydney was also my first encounter with an aussie bug. The picture does not do justice for how big this cockroach really was. And for you observant folks thinking "is it dead? is it in your bed sheets?" I say yes, and yes.



Day two was more interesting. I was able to head downtown to see Darling Harbour, Circular Quay (pronounced Circular "key") and the Sydney Opera House. It turns out that finding your way in a new city without data on your cell phone can be difficult, so I spent a lot of time wandering around looking for free wifi to figure out where to go next. I did take a tour of the opera house which was interesting. Some interesting facts are:

1. Jorn Utzen, the architect, did not consult an engineer before submitting his design to the international competition to determine the design of the structure. This played a factor in later cost overruns as the foundation had begun construction before a building design was finalized.
2.  The initial project cost estimation was 7 million, but in the end cost 102 million and was delivered 10 years late.
3. Jorn Utzen was eventually fired (due to cost/scheduling overruns, as well as the election of a new Premier in New South Wales) and never saw the finished building in his lifetime.

The Harbour Bridge was also pretty cool, although i did not get a chance to do the walking tour to the top. Maybe another time though! Also, it is worth noting that if any of you Oregonians visit Sydney, dont make the classic mistake as I did in the bottom picture of wearing a black t shirt with jeans and no sunscreen. No bueno. 

Day three included a trip to the Taronga Zoo. I met a couple of girls at the airbnb house who were on vacation from the states and decided to join me (they wanted to cuddle a koala, which sadly didn't happen). The Taronga Zoo has a sweet gondola that carries you over the zoo which we were able to ride for free. I was mostly excited about seeing the kangaroos, but they had loads of really cool animals there, including Platypus and Crocodiles to name a few. It ended up raining partway through our zoo trip, which is weird since it is summer here but apparently that is normal. Ironically, I had finally bought sunscreen earlier that morning. 

Be jealous

Day four turned out to be a struggle to figure out phone service, which is not worth describing. However, I did end up walking down a pretty sweet alleyway on my way to the phone store with a ton of cool graffiti. Later on, I ended up going to a pizza place with an English guy who described in detail how much different the English accent is from the Australian accent. They had an interesting selection of pizza, so i decided to go with a half crocodile/half kangaroo pie. Kangaroo tastes way better. (kangaroo is the dark meat, crocodile is the lighter meat).

Manly Beach (I forgot to take pics at Bondi)

Day five included a tour of Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is one of the more expensive places in Sydney, with apartment values reaching up to 20 million. One of the interesting stories the tour guide told was of the origination of the name "kangaroo". Apparently Captain James Cook (the guy who discovered Australia) asked the Aboriginals what this strange animal (a kangaroo) was, and they responded with a word that sounded like "gangrou", so Captain Cook named the animal a kangaroo since that is what he thought he heard. Years later, when the Aboriginal language had been translated to English, they found that the word "gangrou" actually meant "I dont understand what you're saying". 

Day six included a trip to the Powerhouse Museum, which contains a ton of steam engines. Apparently steam powered literally everything in the 1800s from trains to carousels. The industrial revolution may not have been possible without it. The museum also included things like surgical equipment of the 1800s, australian-produced planes, trains, and cars, as well as an exhibit on political activism throughout the world. Pretty cool stuff. Lastly I checked out Sydney's other popular beach, Manly Beach. It was stacked with tons of beautiful and affluent people, and was much cooler than any beach in Oregon. While there, I noticed the nutrition facts on my candy bar listed the energy content in kilojoules rather than calories. The metric system is everywhere!

My last full day spent in Sydney was spent in the Blue Mountains just to the west of the city. I had gone up there to do some bushwalking (hiking). The landscape was beautiful, and really reminded me a lot of trails you would see in the northwest. The cliffs create a barrier from the elements for the rainforest below, and the rich clay layer allows for all kinds of plants to thrive. I saw a couple pretty cool waterfalls and took a picture I plan to submit to "wear in the world". It was probably my favorite of all the Australian places I have been so far

So that is a pretty basic summary of what I have done in Australia in my first week. I have just arrived in Melbourne, and plan to be here for a couple days at least. No real job prospects quite yet, but I am still applying. I hope to keep this little blog thing going on for a couple weeks, but we will see if I will continue to have time. My little tablet is not the best for blogging ;) Thanks for reading!