SydneySide - Part 2

Sydney is great IF you have a great job or a pretty hectic full on one where you can save money. A fellow OzBusketeer just worked and worked in a cafe until she didn't know what spare time was so she could save enough money for her flight back to England. Otherwise you find yourself in a city that you're just looking at. And that's what Sydney wants you to do, it's very Photogenic. Getting around is easy enough but it isn't cheap. The public transport system was adequate and fairly reliable(do not live in the Western Suburbs you'll be stuck in your car for days. The trains were double deckers which amused me everytime I went on them, but weren't as good or as clean as those I experienced in Madrid. Other necessities which are surprisingly expensive is Beer. It was so so expensive. Makes one not want to go out for a pint and get 'pissed up' on cheap plonk that comes in boxes instead. Which is what we did.

So my time in Sydney wasn't actually that fantastic. Other people seemed to enjoy it more than me. But I did come away with a few favourite places. One was The Rocks. Oldest part of the city, few nice little cafes, weekend markets, old houses to look at. Another was Queen Victoria Building where I'd window shop and have coffee in a lovely little Japanese Restaurant in a corner on the top floor and watch the clock changing time. Glebe Point Rd was a haunt of mine not least because I lived there in a hostel for a while but because it is one of the 'alternative' parts of the city. As well as Newtown where many students head, a lot of individual shops and creative minds there. Balmain is where I headed one day where I saw a famous AFL footballer pushing his kid along in a stroller and 'Leah' from Home and Away which MADE MY DAY! I'm a huge fan.

If you're a huge fan of H.a.A. then hop on a long bus to Palm Beach north of city where they film it. I walked outside the surf club with Alf Stewart's name above. It was like a dream had come true. I don't care if that makes me sad – I've been watching that Surf Club since I was tiny and I never ever thought I'd actually get to walk along the same beach as Sally Fletcher. But I did. And it was great. Reality 0 Childhood dreams 1.

Bondi Beach actually wasn't much to write home about. My fave beach area was down by Coogee where a couple of OzBusketeers were living. Manly had a pretty good beach but way too crowded for me in summer.

What I enjoyed most about Sydney was getting to know my relatives and spending time with them. That's why I truly came to Australia. And I did that. But the city itself is rather like any other only you've seen it before, on a postcard.

SydneySide - Part 1

What can I say about Sydney? On a bright sunny day it is beautiful. So when a fellow OzBusketeer and I were wandering around on errands (post OzBus) and it bucketed it down with rain I was more than a little surprised. I did not come to the other side of the world only the have a summer of rain. Had I wanted that I would have stayed in Britain. Clearly something was wrong when I returned Sydney Base Hostel miffed with slippy, slidy wet flip flops.

Sydney was not the sun baked city I'd envisioned but a varied urban settlement like many others. It rains, it sometimes has very strong winds, it can be cold (though not as cold as Melbourne which is as cold as England in winter), it can be very hot. The city has a multitude of attractions on offer. It has a beautiful view of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge as you get off the train on city circle line at Circular Quay. It has joly ferries to Manly, Double Bay and Balmain. It has a restored historic district of The Rocks, the Center Point tower to climb and walk around at great height, Botanical Gardens, parks to eat lunch in summer on, shopping rows, Queen Victoria Building for a special shopping experience and a very high cost of living.

And there in lay the first stumbling block for my year long plan of residing in Sydney. It was way more than I was expecting and my budget had already been stretched since arriving in Darwin but I was determined to live a life in this city. Having waved off OzBusketeers from Base Hostel, a flash-packer place, I moved into a cheaper hostel in Kings Cross, on a street that transvestite hookers favoured. They didn't bother me much, and really the hostel didn't suffer because of the haunt. It was small and sociable and many travelers seemed to 'live' there. This was not what I wanted, I was tired after being on the road for so long and especially over Christmas and New year so I eventually found a temporary flat to move into for that period of time. Next on the to-do list was Job.

Unfortunately Australia was not ready for me. And job it did not want to give. I was specific in what job title I was going to have that year and had I been as talented in many job roles as my other OzBusketeer friends then perhaps jobs would have been more forthcoming. The others went to find jobs in the service industry but that task was not without its surprises. First they had to complete a Responsible Service of Alcohol Certificate for which of course there was a fee. It screamed 'taking advantage' of cashed backpackers when I first saw the course advertised but actually it's just a nice little earner for the Government. If there are slot machines or 'pokies' as the Australians affectionately call them in the place of work my friends also had to complete a Responsible Service of Gambling Certificate which cost them another fair few bucks. I guess this is the Governments way of tackling the huge gambling addiction problem the nation is facing. Unfortunately the Government still insists on shoving the things into every drinking space in the country so I don't see how this can really help. I feel sorry for the addicts who are totally being played by the system. (And they think they're playing a game.) All these Certificates have to be completed before gaining employment and if my friends happened to move states as is 90% likely with backpackers they would have to do the certificates all over again as no states except another one's certification.

Fortunately for me I wasn't going to do this RSA thing as I was a bone fide experienced EFL teacher and I was going to gain employment in a lovely little English school where lots of students come from all over the world to learn English and explore Sydney and Australia. And I went to a good lot of interviews and they each told me the same thing – Australia didn't recognise my qualification nor my experience outside of the country or England. Great. So by the New Year of 2010 I was technically unemployable in a country I was staying in until September and I had run out of money. S**t. By Valentines day the only work I had gained was an hour a week with a 3 yr old and it wasn't paying the rent. I decided to move on.