SYDNEY

Finally I landed in Sydney! It takes 3,5 hours from Wellington directly. It's really nice weather! I am so excited to see this city since I've never been here before. Can't wait to walk and captured all the beautiful scenery this city had.  The domestic airport reminded me to the airport in Rome and Surabaya International airport. It's so busy busy until I get out and get in to Sydney's airport train. 

From the airport, we stopped to Central station and we transferred to platform 22 go to Redfern. It's cloudy and the sun already set. We walked about 6 blocks to our airbnb apartment in Darlington. Right on time in front of our landlord house, the rain came! 

Our apartment is behind the landlord house (actually is on top of the garage - to be precise!!).  It is a one floor studio apartment with a double bedroom on the side of bathroom. Even the washroom  (shower and toilet) is old but it's really organized and clean. On the other side,  a little cozy living room connected with the kitchen (open space). Finally we got kitchen! Everything is there include the oil, sugar, salt, pepper.  

When morning come, I can hear the bird singing from outside and pretty quite in the neighbourhood. 

From the outside (the back of the house) the alley is remind me of the house in Indonesia! Even the house building is totally different than a house in North America!! I was like .. hmm .. is it Sydney? or is it Indonesia??? totally remind me of my grandma neighbourhood!!! The smells of Frangipani  (kamboja) flower is fragrant and mysterious at the same time, especially after raining. 

One thing that I don't like it about this apartment, they didn't provide us with wifi as wherever we travelled usually wifi is standard. Even though we're not in the apartment the whole day but if we got home we need to catch up with the news and so on.  Luckily, we can rely on Starbucks! As long as I got my cup of tea, I got an hour free wifi! 

The next morning, we woke up in the morning and ready to scroll down town. We left apartment @ 8 in the morning and still quite on the street. Totally different than in North America, people go to work as early as 7 so they can go home early as well. Not in here, street busy after 8 a.m! I did not see "coffee culture" in the morning as well in here. However, I love to see a lot of people walking!!  The ambiance in Sydney as one of the biggest city in Australia, is similar as Toronto and Vancouver.  They're really conscious with their style! Totally different than New Zealand that is very laid back! 

I love the weather in here, it's just perfect. It's not too hot, it's not cold, it's not dry and it's not humid also! Damn. The second things that I love in here, the food! Yessss .. since it's too close to Asia, so the food is unbelievable!! There are Indonesian cuisine, Thai cuisine, Malay cuisine, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and all of them are all over the block!! Even in their mall, the food are so damn good!!! Nothing to compare to Calgary or Vancouver even. It's just amazing!!!!  They had Thai town, Korean town, China town, exempt Vietnamese - it's not a lot!  They even had a Japanese bookstore : Kinokuniya!! I love this bookstore!! Can't describe it how awesome it's inside this store the whole day!!!  

One more thing that I love about Sydney ... Bondi beachhhhhh, Bitch!!!! Not too crowded. The golden sand is so soft and clean. Love to see the water and the sky! It's not too hot for suntan also. It's a lovely!!! 

Everything is perfect in Sydney, except the transportation! The train is quite expensive, damn expensive! In here, I paid the c-train $3 for one way, over there I paid $6!!! except if you're senior (60 yrs old) you got half price! Dang. The food is about the same or a little bit more compare to Calgary, not bad compare to New Zealand with too many choices!!!  That makes the minimum wages in here a bit here $20 per hour - that's what I heard from my friend. Don't ask about the property in here! It's so damn expensive compare to Calgary!! Yup. 

Sydney is one of the biggest tourist destinations, especially from Asia and Middle east! Every time I am walking, I heard people is talking in my language, lol! Even one time I went to Malay restaurant, all the worker are Indonesian! hahahaha. It was nice as they are really helpful and friendly as they know am from the same country with them.  They let me know which dishes is the good one or not! hahahaha.

Time flies, 4 nights gone like a second!! Going out in morning and back to apartment when the sun set come. I do really enjoy walking daily in Sydney since I did not have time to go swimming this holiday. Even I am so damn tired after walking 8-10km daily but walking is one of my fave after swimming! Especially in this kinda weather!!!  I always wish to live in the city that I can just walk every where. I used to it when I lived in Toronto. I love the rhythm of walking. It's healthy and it's cheap at the same time. Felt so good also when you're walking at the same time with people from all over the world without seeing you are poor or rich! basically we're all a human being and we're walking in the same path!

My last journey in 2014. See you in different journey in 2015!