Sydney
“Either write something down worth reading or do something worth writing down”- Australian proverb written on the black board of the café I am at
I have finally left Sydney. Despite being in Sydney for seven weeks, I feel as if most of my stay was simply preparing to travel the east coast. That’s what all backpackers do in Sydney. They prepare to leave it. Sydney for very few is the final destination. Everyone there only has a job to save money for travel. They only make friends to find travel companions. And they spend their hours talking about their plans. Almost all of my friends in Sydney were British. Which means I know more about the difference between a Northerner and Southerner in England, from their different accents to their different cultures then I do about the difference between any Australians. I did have a couple Australian friends. Notably the night receptionist at Wake Up, who after a night at Side Bar I would join in Wake Up hostel to fold pillows. A couple of my friends witnessed me folding pillows at 1 am and I specifically remember some screams, a couple of groans, probably Sophie going not again, and then they went back down to Side Bar. My other and most definitely closest Australian friend was Rhiannon, my colleague at Strike Force Sales. From working forty hours together for four weeks straight, she knows way more then either of us is probably comfortable with about my life. To be fair, she made the call center livable. Without her I would have drowned in a sea of cold calls, hang ups, and rude women (girls are always the worst to talk to on the phone). We got too many complaints about how giggly we were. I answered a couple calls laughing my head off. One of my favorite things that she did for me was after I booked my trip and was incredibly excited she made me write down everything I was excited for. So there on my desk was a post it note, covered in future plans. I don’t exactly understand how my boss missed that when I told him that I had to quit immediately to head home for a distant family member was gravely ill. But I had to go to Cairns first. Obviously. To be fair he forgot my name (a name he had mispronounced during my entire employment) when he was giving me my goodbye speech, so I don’t think he deserved the truth.
During my last few weeks in Sydney I tried to tick off as many things to do as possible. Because Sophie had decided to kill herself with work, and Emily hadn’t returned yet, Beth was elected as my adventuring companion. We went to Manley, the Blue Mountains and a different beach every weekend together. Aleisha joined in on most things as well. I visited the night noodle markets, the glebe markets and the sculpture by the sea walk. Spent a day at Manley as well as at days at Coogee, Bronte, Tamarama and two days at Bondi. I visited all of the most talked about Nightclubs in the city including a Sash Session at Home Bar (an entire glass club located directly on Darling Harbor). Beth and I spent a night in the Blue Mountains. Which was possibly the strangest experience of my entire time in Sydney. After completing a four-hour hike during the day, we drank milkshakes, showered and went to the only pub in Katoomba. As we were sitting down about to eat our dinner, two drunken Australian guys sat down at our table. One of them demanding to be called Mr. Fuzzy. They had a lengthy conversation with themselves basically describing “real Australia” which as I recall involved a police station and a field of kangaroos. Beth and I escaped the drunken aussies to sit with a quiet group of French backpackers, who were staying in our room at the hostel. Only the guy spoke good English, but the two girls were still very sweet. A French gypsy band began to perform, and the lead singer flirted with one of the French girls throughout the entire performance. At about 10:30 the accordion player stalked off stage into the ladies bathroom, and the male singer followed her. Before long, there were screams and banging coming from the bathroom. Naturally half of the bar got up and went to watch the fight. About 15 minutes later the band rejoined, with the accordion player grumpily playing along looking extremely disheveled. At this point I decided it was late enough to call my parents. As I am telling them about how incredible the Blue Mountains is and this strange night we are having my dad goes “Yes, aren’t they beautiful. When I visited the Blue Mountains about 20 years ago, I was reminded of my childhood in Jamaica as they are just covered in eucalyptus tress and my parents had such a tough time growing those trees. It was quite funny actually”
I have never felt so inadequate so quickly. Despite traveling half way around the world at eighteen years old to hike mountains in the Australian countryside, my dad had still managed to one up me.
For my last night in Sydney, I went around and said goodbye to most of my friends. Once again saying goodbye to Emily and Rob was very hard. Since they got back on Tuesday we had been joined a the hip again. It was like a tease. Remember how well you guys get along? Well sucks because you are leaving again. They and Beth came to Janine and Andrews’s with me on the Friday before I left for dinner. Never have I been so happy. I was eating great food, surrounded by great people in a great city. It was perfect. I said goodbye to Heather, who I definitely did not see enough of in Sydney. So we made plans to meet up in Tasmania on December 4th. I lastly said goodbye to Beth and Aleisha. Which was especially tough because I don’t know when I will get to see them again. Then Sophie messaged, as she doesn’t have a phone, and told me to get to her place ASAP as she had a surprise for me. Enticed and curious I followed her down to the Ives Steps. Our spot we had discovered about three weeks before. The Ives Steps is a small boat dock located directly under the harbor bridge. If you sit on the edge of it you can see the entire Sydney harbor from Luna Park to the Opera House. Out of Sophie’s backpack came a champagne bottle, two champagne glasses, strawberries, a fuzzy picnic blanket and Godiva chocolates. I cannot explain how perfect it was. I could not have dreamed of a better way to spend my last night in Sydney. We laid down on the dock, drinking champagne staring at the emblem of the foreign city we were discovering listening to Taylor Swift and looking for giant bats. When the bottle was finished, we tore out a page of Sophie’s journal, and wrote a message for someone to find. It was mainly about traveling and leaving, a passion every backpacker in this city shares. It encouraged the reader to leave Sydney. It encouraged me too. I left Sophie in Sydney, not sad or homesick or anxious but undeniably grateful, happy and excited.
The Journey:
So this is the current plan. I have just arrived in Cairns and cannot check in until one, which is why I have the time to write this blog post. I am supposed to see Val and Emilie sometime soon, but they are very hard to get in contact with so I don’t know when that will happen or if it will. They are supposed to come traveling with me as well but I don’t know if that’s happening either. So it’s Tuesday the 11th and I have just arrived in Cairns at a very hippie hostel, relying off of maybe three to four hours of sleep.
November 15th-October 16th: Magnetic Island
November 17th: Go to Airlie Beach
November 18th-20th: Atlantic Clipper
November 20th-21st: Airlie Beach
November 22nd: Overnight Bus
November 23rd-24th: 1770
November 25th: Noosa
November 26th-29th: Fraser Island
November 30th- December 4th: Brisbane
December 4th: Fly to Tasmania and meet my Dad
My mom wants to come traveling and meet me maybe in Noosa and I would love her to do that. Hopefully it will work out.
“Either write something down worth reading or do something worth writing down”- Australian proverb written on the black board of the café I am at
I have finally left Sydney. Despite being in Sydney for seven weeks, I feel as if most of my stay was simply preparing to travel the east coast. That’s what all backpackers do in Sydney. They prepare to leave it. Sydney for very few is the final destination. Everyone there only has a job to save money for travel. They only make friends to find travel companions. And they spend their hours talking about their plans. Almost all of my friends in Sydney were British. Which means I know more about the difference between a Northerner and Southerner in England, from their different accents to their different cultures then I do about the difference between any Australians. I did have a couple Australian friends. Notably the night receptionist at Wake Up, who after a night at Side Bar I would join in Wake Up hostel to fold pillows. A couple of my friends witnessed me folding pillows at 1 am and I specifically remember some screams, a couple of groans, probably Sophie going not again, and then they went back down to Side Bar. My other and most definitely closest Australian friend was Rhiannon, my colleague at Strike Force Sales. From working forty hours together for four weeks straight, she knows way more then either of us is probably comfortable with about my life. To be fair, she made the call center livable. Without her I would have drowned in a sea of cold calls, hang ups, and rude women (girls are always the worst to talk to on the phone). We got too many complaints about how giggly we were. I answered a couple calls laughing my head off. One of my favorite things that she did for me was after I booked my trip and was incredibly excited she made me write down everything I was excited for. So there on my desk was a post it note, covered in future plans. I don’t exactly understand how my boss missed that when I told him that I had to quit immediately to head home for a distant family member was gravely ill. But I had to go to Cairns first. Obviously. To be fair he forgot my name (a name he had mispronounced during my entire employment) when he was giving me my goodbye speech, so I don’t think he deserved the truth.
During my last few weeks in Sydney I tried to tick off as many things to do as possible. Because Sophie had decided to kill herself with work, and Emily hadn’t returned yet, Beth was elected as my adventuring companion. We went to Manley, the Blue Mountains and a different beach every weekend together. Aleisha joined in on most things as well. I visited the night noodle markets, the glebe markets and the sculpture by the sea walk. Spent a day at Manley as well as at days at Coogee, Bronte, Tamarama and two days at Bondi. I visited all of the most talked about Nightclubs in the city including a Sash Session at Home Bar (an entire glass club located directly on Darling Harbor). Beth and I spent a night in the Blue Mountains. Which was possibly the strangest experience of my entire time in Sydney. After completing a four-hour hike during the day, we drank milkshakes, showered and went to the only pub in Katoomba. As we were sitting down about to eat our dinner, two drunken Australian guys sat down at our table. One of them demanding to be called Mr. Fuzzy. They had a lengthy conversation with themselves basically describing “real Australia” which as I recall involved a police station and a field of kangaroos. Beth and I escaped the drunken aussies to sit with a quiet group of French backpackers, who were staying in our room at the hostel. Only the guy spoke good English, but the two girls were still very sweet. A French gypsy band began to perform, and the lead singer flirted with one of the French girls throughout the entire performance. At about 10:30 the accordion player stalked off stage into the ladies bathroom, and the male singer followed her. Before long, there were screams and banging coming from the bathroom. Naturally half of the bar got up and went to watch the fight. About 15 minutes later the band rejoined, with the accordion player grumpily playing along looking extremely disheveled. At this point I decided it was late enough to call my parents. As I am telling them about how incredible the Blue Mountains is and this strange night we are having my dad goes “Yes, aren’t they beautiful. When I visited the Blue Mountains about 20 years ago, I was reminded of my childhood in Jamaica as they are just covered in eucalyptus tress and my parents had such a tough time growing those trees. It was quite funny actually”
I have never felt so inadequate so quickly. Despite traveling half way around the world at eighteen years old to hike mountains in the Australian countryside, my dad had still managed to one up me.
For my last night in Sydney, I went around and said goodbye to most of my friends. Once again saying goodbye to Emily and Rob was very hard. Since they got back on Tuesday we had been joined a the hip again. It was like a tease. Remember how well you guys get along? Well sucks because you are leaving again. They and Beth came to Janine and Andrews’s with me on the Friday before I left for dinner. Never have I been so happy. I was eating great food, surrounded by great people in a great city. It was perfect. I said goodbye to Heather, who I definitely did not see enough of in Sydney. So we made plans to meet up in Tasmania on December 4th. I lastly said goodbye to Beth and Aleisha. Which was especially tough because I don’t know when I will get to see them again. Then Sophie messaged, as she doesn’t have a phone, and told me to get to her place ASAP as she had a surprise for me. Enticed and curious I followed her down to the Ives Steps. Our spot we had discovered about three weeks before. The Ives Steps is a small boat dock located directly under the harbor bridge. If you sit on the edge of it you can see the entire Sydney harbor from Luna Park to the Opera House. Out of Sophie’s backpack came a champagne bottle, two champagne glasses, strawberries, a fuzzy picnic blanket and Godiva chocolates. I cannot explain how perfect it was. I could not have dreamed of a better way to spend my last night in Sydney. We laid down on the dock, drinking champagne staring at the emblem of the foreign city we were discovering listening to Taylor Swift and looking for giant bats. When the bottle was finished, we tore out a page of Sophie’s journal, and wrote a message for someone to find. It was mainly about traveling and leaving, a passion every backpacker in this city shares. It encouraged the reader to leave Sydney. It encouraged me too. I left Sophie in Sydney, not sad or homesick or anxious but undeniably grateful, happy and excited.
The Journey:
So this is the current plan. I have just arrived in Cairns and cannot check in until one, which is why I have the time to write this blog post. I am supposed to see Val and Emilie sometime soon, but they are very hard to get in contact with so I don’t know when that will happen or if it will. They are supposed to come traveling with me as well but I don’t know if that’s happening either. So it’s Tuesday the 11th and I have just arrived in Cairns at a very hippie hostel, relying off of maybe three to four hours of sleep.
November 15th-October 16th: Magnetic Island
November 17th: Go to Airlie Beach
November 18th-20th: Atlantic Clipper
November 20th-21st: Airlie Beach
November 22nd: Overnight Bus
November 23rd-24th: 1770
November 25th: Noosa
November 26th-29th: Fraser Island
November 30th- December 4th: Brisbane
December 4th: Fly to Tasmania and meet my Dad
My mom wants to come traveling and meet me maybe in Noosa and I would love her to do that. Hopefully it will work out.
RSS Feed