AUSTRALIA- SYDNEY

Toni and I lived in Sydney for 2 months, of which 7 weeks we had various jobs; so as you can imagine I have got quite a bit to fill you in on...

When we first arrived in Sydney on the 28 of March, we were amazed at how much Sydney was like London, and to be honest it was a welcomed surprise after spending the previous 3 months in very foreign and unfamiliar countries; with all of the language barriers, hustle, bustle, overcrowded conditions and poverty...

The weather in Sydney was very warm, which surprised us as it was meant to be the start of the winter in Southern Australia; luckily for us they were having an 'Indian' summer.
When we arrived here we were fortunate to meet up with a friend from back home, Stephen, who was also travelling and he had been in Australia for a few months. Stephen booked us into our first nights accommodation in the YHA hostel on George street in Sydney's CBD (City Business District). YHA is the more expensive chain of hostels all over Australia as we were soon to discover. But to be honest the hostels in Oz do range from between $20-$35 per night each for a 6/8 bed dorm; and due to the recession and bad exchange rate this is about 14-25 pounds per night... Which as you can imagine was a complete shock compared to the prices in Asia and this was also a complete strain on our all ready low budget....

After our first night in Sydney, Stephan thought it might be best if we moved to Bondi beach for a week as the weather was nice and it was not as overwhelming as the big city so Bondi would be better for us whilst we were settling into Australian life.


Bondi Beach

This famous beach is about a 20 minute drive from the CBD or about a 40min bus and train journey.. We ended up spending a whole week on Bondi Beach and stayed in a hostel called Noah's which was $27 per night for a 4 bed dorm. Noah's was very clean, modern and comfortable.. It had its own bar attached that had happy hour and done $6 meals every evening... Our week in Bondi consisted of Sunbathing during the day, and drinking lots of 'GOON' (very cheap boxed wine) whilst having evening sing-a-longs on the beach with the many Irish, German and Dutch people we had met at our hostel... However toward the end of our week we realised it would be best to move more toward the city in order to find jobs which we desperately needed to do if we wanted to stay in Australia... So once we updated our CV's, opened our Australian bank (www.ANZ.com.au) and applied for our tax file number (www.immi.gov.au) we packed our rucksacks and headed back toward the city.

Kings Cross

As the name suggests, King Cross is very much like the Kings Cross we have in London; very busy with bars, restaurants and shops, in addition to strip joints and drunk people everywhere. So why did we decide to stay in this area? I hear you wonder.... Well firstly we happened to hear about a good, cheap hostel that was only $22 per night, which included free breakfast, dinner and Internet- so obviously this drew us in as our funds were low, so this place seemed ideal- even though it was called the ASYLUM!!!

Secondly, in all honesty, Kings Cross is not that bad at all. It is very central, relatively safe and everything is in walking distance. We could walk to the famous Botanical gardens, Sydney Harbour bridge, China town, George Street, Oxford street and Darling harbour. We were also only a  2 minute walk from the tube, so could reach anywhere in Sydney in under an hour.

We lived in the Asylum for 7 weeks in total, it is a relatively small hostel, with the maximum capacity being about 70 people; it is also not the cleanest or most modern hostel we could have stayed in but it was cheap and cheerful and we liked it... Our weekly rate was also cheaper at just $125 each and as mentioned we got free breakfast, dinner and Internet... As we lived here for quite a while we treated it like a home and felt really comfortable here which was also due to the other long term tennants here that we grew to know and become friends with.... Every Monday at the Asylum there was a pub crawl called 'Mad Mondays' which was not only fun and cheap but it was also like a bonding session for all that stayed at the Asylum so it was a very friendly place.... It was sad saying by to everyone but they gave us a very good send off.... If you are staying in Sydney for a long time I highly recommend this hostel....

JOBS

Between us, Toni and I had many different jobs in Sydney.... Firstly we joined a Promotional agency in our first week (www.staffing.com.au). Through this agency we both received several jobs which paid a minimum of $20 per hour (12 pound). Our first promo job was for 9 days at a Caravan and Camping Exhibition show promoting a government based website... At this job we met 2 south African sisters- Sarah & Jacqui who are lovely and became firm friends, they have moved to Perth now but we still stay in touch with them. Toni also got another job handing out flyer's which also paid $20 per hour, she also gained a Call centre job through the agencies admin department, this was in the evenings and paid very well at $21 per hour... One weekend we also got another job selling Rugby League magazines at a televised Rugby match, this was our best paid job- receiving $140 each for 2 hours work. On top of all this promo work I also had a full time office job for a communication contractor as an appointment setter- this again paid well at $20 per hour.... So as you can tell we both worked very hard for these 7 weeks in Sydney in order to get back on track with our finances, there was a point were I worked 17 days straight without a day off. But in all honesty working so hard was worth it as we met some great people who we will stay in touch with... However don't be fooled, even though we worked a lot and earned a fair bit,it is so expensive in Sydney that we didn't have much left to save and take with us on the rest of our travels...

Toward the end of our stay in Sydney, the winter weather had kicked in and it was very cold and wet most days. So as you can imagine Toni and I were ready to move on to warmer weather. We had always planned to do the east coast of Australia so we decided to fly north to Cairns and then work our way down back toward Sydney where we fly out of to New Zealand in October...