"A Person at intervals needs to separate himself from family and companions and go to new places. He must go without his familiars in order to be open to influences, to change." - Katharine Butler Hathaway
Why, hello there! My, my, it has been QUITE some time,
hasn’t it? What can I even say to try and persuade you that my neglect of
putting my metaphorical pen to paper has been anything but the infliction of a
nasty case of writer’s block, along with the occasional hiccups of utter
laziness? Nothing. So. Let’s just try and move past my folly and collectively
give me hope that my scattered mind will eventually piece itself back together
long enough to pump out a few entries.
Ok, so, woah, WHERE to even begin? My original plan here was
to talk about my time chronologically, and highlight different Sydney hotspots
throughout each entry, but seeing as how my lethargy has corrupted that plan,
let’s just see what happens, shall we?
When my plane landed in Sydney International Airport at roughly 6:34am (emphasis on ‘roughly,’ here, people, give me some slack), I was full of a boundless excitement that I couldn’t even try to hold in. This intense rush of adrenaline washed over me like a waterfall, each drop of pure elation motivating me to get off of this plane, get out of this airport and see my new home! I didn’t have expectations, because I truly didn’t have any preconceived notion of what Sydney would actually be like. Come to think of it, I had no clue what it would even look like. My naïve American brain just constantly pictured roads and skyscrapers centered on the Sydney Opera House, and that everything surrounding was exotic unknown land (it quickly became painfully clear that I had not done even the slightest bit of research prior my travels).
After Jon and I made our way through the
not-as-tedious-as-imagined customs and impatiently waited for our luggage, we
were reunited with our dear friend, Lacey. I was lighter than air at this
point. I was in an exciting new country with my best friends, there was only
adventure for us to conquer! With the blink of an eye, we found ourselves on a
public train into the heart of the city, typically referred to as the CBD, Lacey,
in her typical fashion, started spewing out information at mach 3 speed,
telling us about life in Sydney and little quips of advice here and there and how
to act when doing this and that… I confess, I wasn’t paying much attention at
this point, I was in sensory overload with the new country I was so eager to
envelop myself in.
So, since I have to catch you guys up to months of my
existence Down Under, I am going to summarize a few things that I have made
acute observations on in this country. Because the first few weeks were some of
the most stressful and scariest of my life, let’s start with the “Things that
Robby hates about Australia” list:
- Public restrooms smell weird. Like, I mean people in other countries may be more comfortable with personal space and such, but woah, there are some overly urinated public toilets around these parts!
- Food is expensive! I mean all food. You want a bag of potato chips from a supermarket? Sure, just give me your left arm and firstborn child. A typical meal out anywhere in Sydney would equate to about A$20-30, not factoring in alcohol. My cheap-ass American mindset had a few conniptions that first week when we went to find places to have dinner.
- Alcohol is expensive! A jack & ginger is, on average, A$8.50… ugh. Once, I went to an “American” style bar and was elated to see they had bottled Corona, so naturally, I order one… A$9.00!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK, SYDNEY?? Are you KIDDING me? You could get a BUCKET of those little fuckers back home for 5 bucks. Blasphemy. Let’s not even begin to talk about cocktails… Basically, I’ve seen people pay more for a margarita than I would on my main course at dinner.
- Rent is expensive! This has been an ongoing struggle since coming over here, and I am still not comfortable with the real estate mongrels of this city stripping me of every pretty penny I earned, not monthly, but WEEKLY. Oh yeah, you will typically pay rent weekly over here, and on average, in a decent area of town, for your own bedroom, in a 4 bedroom house, you will pay roughly A$350… remember, this is weekly. I don’t think I’ve stressed this enough, everyone say it with me… WEEKLY.
- I miss American coffee. I miss my weak, single k-cup serving of delicious Caribou coffee from my impeccably designed Keurig dispenser, complete with a dash of fat-free hazelnut creamer. Long gone are the days of drinking 6 cups of that cheap shit every single day.
- Australia has ruined candy, forever. If anybody knows me even a little bit, they understand my a-bit-more-than-mild obsession with sour skittles. Those decadent sugar-encrusted nuggets of glory have gotten me through times, good and bad. Well, you can imagine my utter disgust when I purchased a bag of my favorite sweet treat and discovered a mutated, weak morsel that should be ashamed to call itself a sour skittle. There was no sour sugar, there was no perfect tingle upon my tongue. All joy was lost in the world that day.
- Same goes for pizza. You know what, I have one thing to say to Sydney concerning pizza. Fuck you.
- While on the subject of the edible, I want to point out that Australian milkshakes are indeed NOT American milkshakes. That thick creamy divine mixture that takes immense straw-sucking pressure and skill to devour is quite the rarity over here. If you want something that closely resembles the American milkshake, you must preface with “I would like a THICKshake, please. Like, extra extra thick. I’m American, does that help you to understand how thick I want it?” (I would be lying to you if I said I did not use this exact line to someone in a café once. Ok, maybe more than once…)
- Sydney apartments are riddled with mold. Ewe. I think I am developing some leprous-like disease from basking in the confines of too many mold-infested rooms over my past few months here…
- Sinks are small. They just are. How do you
expect me to shove my entire head underneath a faucet when I am too lazy to
take a shower? How, Sydney, how?
Now there are more, but these remain to be the forerunners of what come across my mind when I’m in a “screw you, Sydney!” mentality.
However, after those first few weeks dissipated, my mind was able to find a nice equilibrium between the chaos of a new lifestyle and how to support myself within it. I found a job about a month into arriving, which was in the nick of time, because Robby’s already joke of a savings was dwindling fiercely at this point. After life balanced itself out, I was able to really appreciate this vibrant city, instead of panicking each time I paid A$7.00 to step into it (oh yeah, public transportation is expensive!).
So, here we will have the “Things that Robby loves about Australia” list:
- EGGS! Oh my god, ok so yeah, at first, I admit I thought it was weird to not refrigerate your eggs, but they must be onto something here, folks! The clandestine cluckers of this country successfully churn out the most delicious eggs with yolks of pure gold. Give me a poached egg on toast, and you will find yourself with a happy Robby.
- JUICE! Let’s talk for a moment about American orange juice. You know, we have the high pulp, low pulp, pulp free, blah blah blah, and yeah its oooooook, but nothing to exalt over, right? Now, orange juice in Australia, is ORANGE JUICE. I don’t know how else to explain it. Over here, so many cafes and restaurants use fresh produce and juicers to create these delicious concoctions that are foamy and pulpy and delectable. They usually contain some sort of plant you would never consider ingesting for general fear of eating trees, but somehow they manage to blend fruit and foliage into perfection in a glass.
- THAI FOOD!!! So, I was first introduced to the ethereal flavors of Thai cuisine during my time at Penn State (random that a tiny little college town smack in the middle of Pennsylvania would host a delicious Thai establishment, but hey, I will not complain). Since then, I have been in love with the myriad of spices and flavor combinations that Thai food has to offer. When I moved to Orlando, I was sorely disappointed that decent Thai was few and far between. However, upon landing in Australia, with its impressive Asian influences, Thai cuisine is not only present, it's heavenly abounding!!! I have had the pleasure of enjoying some delicious Thai food, which is only fueling my desire to travel to Thailand during my travels on this side of the world.
- This is a strange one…. But stop lights. Let me explain this further. So, you know when you have the teeming throng of people waiting for that little red man turn into the jovial green man? Well, they have managed to add this quirky little sound effect each time the light goes green for us pedestrians. The closest sound that I can relate it to is one that would symbolize the start of an obstacle course on a game show. Each time I am poised to cross the hallowed gravel of the path ahead, and once the signal ignites in a green blaze, I am off and away! (Interesting what little observations you can make when you have a fair bit of extra time on your hands)
- Even though public transport isn’t wonderful here, it is fairly simple to get around in Sydney. It doesn’t take more than 20-30 minutes to really get anywhere, even in a higher-than-normal traffic situation. And they have brought the brilliance that is Uber to this country, so that’s always such a breath of fresh air.
- Sydney has a little bit of everything. You want to go to a beautiful beach? Great, take your pick! You want to frequent some trendy hip shops? Awesome, just pick which suburb. You want to get wrecked all night and into the morning at a club? Wonderful, we have a fine selection for you to choose from. Not only that, but I have successfully discovered a new place every single day while being here. Just by taking a slightly different way home, I would run into a cute coffee shop, or get into some nerd life and discover Sydney’s eclectic libraries. Today is a perfect example of this. I wanted to buy a book, so I stumbled upon my new favorite bookstore/café/general loner hangout spot that I am writing to you from at this very moment.
- I know that the locals don’t necessarily agree
with this, but people really are nicer over here! Especially when they find out
I’m “foreign.” (I still can’t help but smirk when addressing myself as such… In
fact, I went on a date with a guy over here that told me my accent was “exotic.”
I almost choked on my drink from laughing so hard) People are so curious to
know my “story” and why I decided to drop my life and jet across the world. It’s
true, Australia has a very prominent “backpacker” culture, but for some reason,
Americans are still rarer than other travelers, so I still get a bit giddy when
people fawn over me like a magical being from another dimension.
So, there you have it. That is a VERY rough overview of what I have observed throughout my time in Sydney. Now, of course, there is so much gap that I need to fill you in. I hope you enjoyed reading through my wandering musings on my life so far, and I am genuinely thankful for all that take the time to read. I have to say, what an amazing feeling it is to be writing once more! I cannot wait to include you in on the drama, stress and sheer beauty I have experienced over these past few months across the world.
I plan to go into more depth on where I lived and how I survived the new abrupt change in lifestyle throughout the course of my time here, so hopefully you can understand my life here a bit better, and of course get to experience and understand a bit more of Sydney, since this is indeed a travel blog, after all.
Look at how long my hair is now! Oh yeah, and there's the Sydney Opera House.
As always, it has been a pleasure letting you in on my life, so until next time, my friend.
With renewed inspiration,
-Robby
P.S. The bookstore/café just converted to a bar and has live Latin music... I love this place!
