Three months have passed since I moved to Australia, and aside from the obvious fact that living here is an adventure in itself (hello spiders!), I have unfortunately not spent much time adventuring. Instead I’m feeling pretty good keeping busy in Sydney — meeting people, drinking heaps of coffee, shopping, exploring the city, and planning for the day(s) I can use up some of my vacation time to go on a road trip up the Gold Coast or along the Great Ocean Road. But adventure is calling so I need to make some time for it soon.
Anyhoo. I think I’m a little really overdue for an update here, and since I don’t have many travels to speak of, now is probably a good a time as any to share a few of the things that have been making me happy (and keeping me busy) in Sydney these last couple months.
I had my first visitor
About a month ago I welcomed my first visitor. A good friend of mine came all the way from Winnipeg to do some traveling in Australia so I had a few days to show her around Sydney and have some much needed girl time. She also brought me a sweet little care package that, among other things, consisted of the camera battery charger I’d forgotten to pack in February (oops), and ingredients for making s’mores. Yay!
I may have to ask her to come back ASAP because, um, there’s a good chance these supplies may or may not be gone now… *shifty eyes*
I went to my first rugby match
Australians love rugby so much that there are three major rugby leagues in Australia: the Australian Rugby League, the National Rugby League, and Rugby Union. The match I saw was between two teams in the NRL, the Sydney Roosters and the Sydney Rabbitohs. I have yet to figure out why the one team is called the Rabbitohs rather “Rabbits”, as it’s very obvious they have a rabbit as their logo.
More importantly, I have yet to learn all the rules of rugby. To make matters more complicated I think they are different from league to league…
I found out moving isn’t so bad in OZ
… Just kidding. Moving SUUUUCKS no matter where you do it. Especially if you just did it only two months before. Ugh. There’s a removal service (that’s what they call movers in OZ) in Sydney that has a strawberry-coloured truck so we went with them over a different company. That truck alone made the process quasi-bearable.
I bet no one’s surprised I did some exploring
Living by the beach was awesome and I still miss it sometimes, but a big plus from the move is that I’ve essentially cut my commute time by 90%. Which means I now have 90% more time before and after work to explore my new home. I’ve taken heaps of early morning walks to scope out the area and in doing so found a bunch of cool-looking buildings, beautiful parks, and some amazing little hole-in-the-wall cafes, bakeries and restaurants.
I saw mysterious fireworks
For a few weeks after the move, my roommates and I wondered why we could see fireworks going off every night by the Opera House (we can just barely see the top of the roof from our balcony). We also wondered why we would always see them at exactly 9:20pm. As it turns out, until recently there was an opera performance that was playing most nights on Sydney Harbour… and there is a part in the performance where a fireworks display goes off at exactly 9:20pm. Mystery solved.
I wish the opera was on all year round. Or that they continue to set off fireworks for other occasions. Like my birthday, or Mondays. I also wish I’d gotten a photo of them in action as though they were brief, they were really pretty. Instead, you can look at this photo of the sunrise I took from the balcony.
I celebrated remembrance day… in a pub
Aussie Remembrance Day, or ANZAC Day as it’s known here, honours the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) that fought at Gallipoli in World War I. Not only is it a national public holiday, but I also learned that it is equal parts paying respects via services at dawn, and booze-fuelled gambling sessions with strangers at the pub. Many pubs, in fact.
I did some other things too
Some highlights include a trip back to the beach, finding awesome Indian takeaway near the new place, finding random art in the park near the new place, going for a run on the footpath by the Opera House (and almost taking out a few tourists checking their phones, oops, lol), checking out a student exhibit at the Art Gallery of NSW, and going to the zoo.
Oh, and I found out Vegemite comes in a tube
I didn’t know Vegemite in a tube was a thing until recently. There’s also “Cheesybite” — a (terrifying, IMHO) combination of cream cheese and Vegemite for you to consume on toast. If you’re the kind of person that enjoys Vegemite, I guess this is for you. I’m still on the fence about trying the regular kind. I’d much rather have some fairy bread. 😀
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So yeah. No traveling to speak of, unless you count all the walking I’ve done. But I’m still finding new things and having fun so I can’t complain!
-C
