Australia - Sydney

So after a bit of a shock at the airport - they didn't have my name down for being on the flight which was interesting! - I got on the plane with Grainne and headed to Sydney. For the third time in a row there was a problem with the plane so we were quite late leaving! Made it in one piece though fortunately!! From here Grainne got a connecting flight to Beijing so we had to say goodbye which was quite sad as we'd had such a great time travelling in NZ together. So there I was, in another random country, by myself again!

I made my way to the hostel and spent most of the day just wandering around Sydney to get a bit of a feel for the place. It's quite bizarre to think I'm going to be staying here for longer than a couple of days, and so I think I was a bit bewildered at first - trying to do hundreds of things at once (job, flat, bank account etc), but for my first day I settled on getting myself a mobile phone and organising a few flats to look at the next day. The hostel is full of really young people and everyone seems to know each other, which isn't great when you're on your own. So I decided I needed to get out of there ASAP!

The next day I went on a walking tour of the city and met quite a few people in the hostel who were also on their own, so suddenly I was surrounded by people and chatting to lots of them which was great. The tour was excellent as well as it went round the main areas of Sydney and it was such a lovely day aswell it was great to be out in the sun (and in a t-shirt, no thermals anymore!). Went round Darling Harbour, through the CBD, up to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, through the Botannic Gardens, and lots more places I can't remember!

The following day there was another organised walk from Coogee beach to Bondi beach so lots of us did that one too and met some more people along the way! It was a bit overcast to start with and rained a few times but once we were out and about walking it cleared up and eventually the sun came out! It was a nice walk along all the beaches but it wasn't as pretty as I thought it was going to be! I imagine it would be a lot nicer in the summer though!

I have done a bit of flat hunting here which has actually been a little bit depressing to see how other people are living. Basically the places are a little bit manky or they try and shove as many people as possible into one room. They have these stunning apartments in the city centre and you get access to a (minute) swimming pool and a gym (with about 4 machines in it!) and then there are 8 people living in a 2 bedroom place smaller than my flat in sunny Didcot! So that's interesting!!! Not sure how long it's going to take me to lower my standards or do I just need to accept the fact that I'm too old for this malarky and spend a bit more to get somewhere nice (if it does actually exist!!)...

My hostel standards have gone up too! I checked out of the first place I was staying in as I decided it was too expensive. I went over to Kings Cross (the dodgy area!) and checked into a hostel over there but it really wasn't very nice. I probably could've coped with it if I had been there with a friend but not by myself. So the next day I carted all my stuff back to the first hostel and got a bed in the dorm room that my friends are staying in!! Problem solved!! I started to think I could just live in a hostel for a few months as it would be quite easy, but I eventually found a place to live!

I am living near Newtown which is about 20mins by bus from the city centre (or 45 mins - 1 hour in rush hour I've since found out!). I appear to be right on the flight path so have planes hurtling overhead which was a bit of a surprise as no one warned me about that, but you do get used to that after a while! Newtown is quite a trendy little place - lots of cafes, restaurants and bars and a theatre where loads of live bands play which is cool! There's 5 others in the house - 2 English guys and 3 Scottish girls. Everyone's nice and friendly, but it's a bit like living like a student again, sometimes which is good and sometimes not! I think I just need to adapt - I've gone from living in my own flat in Didcot to sleeping in hostels with up to 20 others in my room to only one bunk bed in the room! And it's not the cleanest place but for a few months it'll do the job! After all the hostels to stay somewhere where only 6 people share a lounge, TV, phone and kitchen is like pure luxury!!!

Next is work. Well, work is work really isn't it?! It took me a while to find something and it involved selling my soul to any agency that would listen to me but I got there in the end! In my hour of desperation I even when to an agency to find out about data entry work but they wouldn't give me anything as they thought it was such a waste of my skills! Well I thought that too but beggars can't be choosers! Anyway, it suddenly all went a bit crazy and I went for 3 interviews in one day and started a job the next!! Good things are - I get to use my brain again and have to think which is always good as it's been a while! And obviously I get paid which is great!!! But being a contractor generally means you get lumbered with all the really good stuff that no one else wants to do!! I think that would be the case anywhere though! The people there seem nice enough though so I think I can hack it for 3 months!!

I appear to have slipped back into the whole working routine and living for the weekend thing far too quickly for my liking but it's good to be in one place for a while and settle (and unpack my rucksack which was very exciting!). Sydney is actually a lot smaller than you first think and I even started recognising people as I'm walking around the place (which is not always a good thing!), but it's nice to have some familiarity and feel a bit like a local!

Seeing as my life is probably going to be entering a dull phase for the next few months whilst I'm working I probably won't be updating my blog for a while, unless something really exciting happens! But I'm sure I'll be back again soon enough...!