We completed our first week in Sydney. It was a good week and a challenging one as well. We had a lot of fun visiting the Sydney Harbour, the Circular Quay, The Rocks and of course the famous Opera House. Sydney is very beautiful! It has a lot of mixes of various places I’ve visited: little bit of Vancouver and of Victoria’s harbours, a feel of Old Montreal and even a little bit of Switzerland!
Although the population here is approximately 4 million people, I still feel my personal bubble is not being invaded. The Australian mates have been very nice to us, although their sense of distance is not always accurate :) Because our transportation means are limited to walking, bussing and more walking, one of our favourite question to ask is How far is it? or Can we walk or bike there? We often get a very optimist reply when in fact the distance is usually a few extra kilometres from their estimated distance... Walking those extra km in the heat?! A real killer. Speaking of heat, it is supposed to be 41oC today. I’m setting my Canadian *ss in front of the TV and not move for the day :)
For the guys at home: yes the ladies here are pretty and sexy as hell! Gen and I are very impressed at how the girls really take care of their appearance here. As for the guys, well I’m still the sexiest man alive hahahaha!
This week we moved into a shared room with 4 other travellers, three from the UK and one from Iran. All of them are very nice. In case you think what Gen and I are doing is impressive, wait til you hear what these guys are doing; a lot of the travellers at this hostel have been on the road for over a year, some are on their 4th year away from home. All have their own stories as to why they travel and what they are after on the road. Many of them work while travelling, this is the only way to sustain this lifestyle. Sometimes, the local businesses are in need for cheap labour and so they come to the hostel to advertise work for cash. Eventually, I think I may have to jump on this bandwagon too... but not just yet, I rather find ways to stretch my dollar than to come out of retirement :)
I would say this has been our main concern this week, to not overspend and to stay loyal to our budget. This is something that is not unfamiliar to us since we’ve been trimming our spending the last year and a half to make this trip possible, but we’re taking this to a new level. Doing groceries consists of reducing the prices to a comparable scale so we can pick the cheaper item without compromising our health. Meat is too expensive, so legumes or beans are cheaper substitutes. We pick items in containers that we can save later to be used as Tupperware once empty because who packs Tupperwares in their luggage?!... And when planning our days, we only look for things to do in the FREE section. We intent to prove that money does not equal happiness, and that we can do lots with very little. We’re happy to say that we are really good at this, for NOW. But don’t feel bad for us in any stretch; this is the only important thing we have to do all day when we’re not beaching, shooting pictures of beautiful places and visiting landmarks. Life is still pretty darn good ;)
Yesterday, we were on a free walking tour of Sydney. Our guide was funny and it was great to get insights on various things about the city from him – did you know that Queen Elizabeth was NOT the first person to cut the inauguration ribbon for the famous Harbour Bridge? An angry protestor was actually the first person to cut the ribbon when he rode his horse into the middle of the ceremony and chopped the ribbon with his sword. They arrested the man, re-attached the ribbons then her majesty proceeded to cut the ribbon, officially. There were a few other funny insights and eye openers like that throughout the tour.
After the tour, we were on a hunt for free internet access – public libraries is a good place for this (note this down future travellers). Although we can access internet everywhere, they all come with a cost. When you’re blogging, this could get pretty pricey. So friends at home, please don’t be offended if I don’t write back quickly. But if you write, I promise I will write back.
Later today, our friend Terry is coming to pick us up. We’ll be staying at his place for the next week. Terry had planned a very generous and filled week with him and his family: using his place as a base, dinner with his family, going to the Taronga zoo, going out to the pub, a coaching session with his club and a trip down south to his family cabin. We’re definitely looking forward to all of it! We’ll finally have a taste of the real local flavour :)
I never got a chance to look up the CFL results, who is going to the CUP?! Man I would had loved to be in Calgary for the Grey Cup festivities, you guys are pretty lucky. How are the Flames doing? Hope everything is going well at home, I’m starting to miss you guys ;)
Funny story: we were in a store and the salesguy said that I had an accent. It struck me: oh yeah, I'm in the stranger with the accent here, not the other way around! Silly me.
