I am still absolutely jetlagged from my trip from Santiago to Sydney. it was a 14 hour flight and the time change is also +14 hours compared to Santiago. But I have managed to go around the city quite a lot already. The only thing is that I get tired early in the evening and still wake up early (around 6 am)...
Arriving to Sydney was both exciting and a bit sad for me. I felt a sort of "counter- culture shock" after my months in South America I got used to the slightly messy ways and the possible element of surprise. In Sydney everything is very well organised and I didn't expect it but I felt like I got back to London already, so I tried to fight this feeling very much... I am NOT ready to be back somewhere that feels like home! The difference with South America and how I feel the effect of being back to a "western" country (if that makes any sense) is in people's attitude. I feel like I am back to a world where people don't speak much to each other and they actually don't really want to interact. As a backpacker my first impressions are usually based from the reception staff at hostels. In South America, in most places staff would be greeting you like if you were a new member of a big family, and they would take the time to chat to you a few minutes. Well...in Sydney they barely speak to you to ask your name and give you a sheet of paper with the general info about the hostel which contains a lot of negativity by the way... just a lot of rules which you will be fined for if you break; in other words: the total opposite of friendly which is really bad considering the hostel is probably one of the worst i've stayed at so far. But I was warned previously that hostels in Australia are very poor quality (another very bad thing considering they are also the most expensive in the world!) Well I just hope some of them are good, in Sydney or elsewhere in Australia.
A bit of positive feelings though: the city is very nice, it feels like a mix of San Francisco and London, with a lot of sun. So I think it must be one of the best cities to live in the world. On top of it the atmosphere is quite relaxed, there is not so much traffic jam and the centre has massive parks that really clean. Also the beach is not far away and there is a lot of art/cultural stuff going on!
At the moment i think i am still adapting from one continent to another and i am starting to feel better in Sydney day by day. it is quite comfortable to be able to communicate very quickly and easily with people and therefore easy to get around too. My first concern at the moment is to find a job and my first instinct is to go away from Sydney because as lovely as the city is i would rather go to a smaller place which would be still big enough to find employment but keep a bit of that holiday feeling with me. So I am tempted to go to Brisbane or anywhere between Sydney and Brisbane (except the Gold Coast and all that "Miami-Cancun-style" area because it just isn't what I enjoy0. So tomorrow I will be starting my job search from Sydney but I might be on the move within 2 or 3 days. I need to be quite quick because Australia is mega expensive!
