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.

OzBus11 - The End of the Road

90 days, 26 passengers, 17 countries, 13 busses, 12 currencies, 10 time zones, 3 ferries, 3 (politically necarssary) flights, 1 horse ride, 1 scooter and 1 lost earing later; 8 nationalities including one Kiwi leader had made it to being 3 days away from Sydney. We left Coober Pedy heading for Adelaide where we began the begginning of the end for OzBus11.

Our loveable crazy French Canadian was leaving us here to conitnue his adventures alone in Australia. Also our resident 'bogan' Aussie was returning to his hometown of Melbourne which was geographically nearer to Adelaide than Sydney so it made sense for him to say bye to us here also. The crew arrived at our second to last hostel. We settled in and then made our way to a special leaving dinner. It was a flat time for me as I hate anything having to end. The phrase 'all good things must come to an end' has no meaning for me but it could be a fitting description for that night.

Adelaide was a pleasant city to trundle through. Open, green with various parks, pretty, old buildings still in situ thanks to the 80's financial boom not hitting the city. But all too soon we were on the road again with only 24 passengers on board heading for the tiny NSW town of Narrandera. This is where we'd lay our heads, one last night on the road, before our final, 92nd, day.

Is this a good time to reflect? People ask me, as I know they ask my fellow OzBusketeers – “how did you cope for 3 months with the same group of people and a different place each night?” I find it a difficult question to answer. For us, OzBus was a way of life. It had been since we boarded the bus on the 6th of September at Embankment, London. We all did so with different aims but we had one thing in common. We held within us an accute need for adventure. We wanted something different, not the norm, one in a million.

For some of us it was a spur of the moment decision made with a friend because life was so inain at the time. For others it was a 'crazy' idea that suited their 'crazy' personality. For others being on board a bus through strange countries for 3 months was a test of survival that had to be done to prove something either to oneself or other people. For me? - It was a minute part of a bigger plan of action that I still hadn't figured out at the time. Maybe I still don't. I knew I needed that bus, I needed those people around me, I needed to get to Australia. And by the time I had arived in the vast extreme country, I wasn't necarssarily a completely different person. But I had definitely been added to. OzBus is extension of my life and the experiences I have had because of it benefit me as a person. It's another bus story I can tell future friends and ones that are waiting for me to return home.

Day 92. OzBusketeers wake up in Nerrandera. We arrive in Australia's capital of Canberra for lunch. A tour of Parliament house was impressive. The capital city isn't supposed to be much of a looker. It being purpose built and to stop the rival cities of Melbourne and Sydney from squabling over who's the best. But it didn't look that bad to me. I'd live there for a while to get a better feel for the place before completely writing it off. It was post-war pretty and clean.

After lunch it was a final haul to Sydney. I remember going through beautiful rolling hills of countryside. This was in stark contrast to the deathly orange of the outback. And then......... and then......... “Harry Truman, Dorris Day....” our song came on the radio. We were pulling in to Mrs Macquaries Point in the Royal Botanical Gardens which was the official disembarkation point of OzBus11. Those that couldn't contain their excitement/emotion were dancing in the bus aisle, others were frantically waving out of the window to friends and relatives.

The bus parked up, we all rushed off. Some were greeted by those they had not seen for 3 months, 3 years or more. Others rushed off to the viewing point to see the famous Opera House across the harbour. It was the first view of the iconic landmark and it was the symbol that WE HAD MADE IT! I was surprisingly teary just by sharing the moment of arriving with my fellow passengers who were now my firm friends. We all posed, most of us wearing official OzBus11 T-shirts we had made up for ourselves, as a group with the Opera House behind us. It was someone's poor relative who was roped in to taking 20 odd digital camera pictures of us. After a lot of smiles and teary hugs it was time for a fair few of our crew to be taken away to experiences new by their family and friends. There was just one last short trip tour 'Adventure Tours' OzBus had to make. The few of us that were left, mostly the youngens, were dropped off at a decent 'flashpacker' hostel to sleep our first night as non-OzBusketeers. Goodbye to bus was said, a meloncholy drag of bags into reception, payment made and up into our mixed dorms.

A few of us stayed up pretty late as Rob 'Geography Boy' had an early flight to N.Z. to make. I crashed out in my bunk in the evening though. All of a sudden I felt empty and disillusioned. I knew where I was but at the same time I had no idea. Tomorrow was completely uncertain. Everything felt too immidiate, pressing and though this was technically freedom, it was distressing.

When I awoke the next morning Rob was gone already and strange people were sleeping in a few of the beds amongst my friends' bunks. Day 1 of the rest of my life had begun and I decided to go and find somewhere in Sydney to eat breakfast.

From Weymouth to Madrid

So its been exactly one year since I embarked on my voyage around the world without a plane and I think I should take a minute to relfect on what a year it has been. In short I have learn't that the Channel Islands do count as being abroad because my UK mobile network charged me foreign rates when making calls from Guernsey. Secondly Paris is much better with people who can speak French. Thirdly night trains from Paris to Madrid are not suitable for backpacks and lastly that Spanish food is much better cooked by a Spanish family mum.

So when I arrived here I was volunteering on the Spanish version of 'The Good Life' and what fun and games that was (refer back to April blogs). And the plan was to contiue doing this in other areas of Spain until the Summer when I went to Bennicasim festival. However one of the fist things I had to take into consideration when travelling was sudden unexpected changes to plans as my second WWOOF farm fell through. Desperate to get out of solitude I got the whole teaching English thing going in Madrid and moved here at the end of last May. Since then I have lived in three different flats and have learn't the art of the bin liner moving technique and living with only the bare necessities. I am still wearing the same clothes as I did on the Channel Islands with only three added items to my wardrobe since being in Madrd and coming from a room I had in Plymouth with two overflowing wardrobes - this is something to be commended.

Looking ahead quickly my plans have once again changed and I've cancelled Africa Overland for now due to lack of boats going to Oz. However I've found a thing called OzBus which is something of much the same formula as the African thing (converted bus for overland travel with specific group all mucking in on daily activites) and for less time speant on the road (Africa was 6 months, route to Oz about 3). We'll hopefully be travelling through several EU countries before hitting Pakistan and onto Thailand before reaching Darwin to continue down to Sydney.

I am hoping to explore the south of Spain from the end of May to end of August where I shall have decamped from this country ready to embark on a journey to the most southerly continent in the world by the end of August. And yes, hopefully I shall get back to London by any means other than plane (give or take a few sneaky trips inbetween for important social engagements and given I'm not going to be able to make such events for a couple of years after August, I think I deserve that).