Yes, my lack of updates is quite inexcusable. I will say there are a lot of things happening in my life nowadays so I’ll just use that as an excuse, although it’s inexcusable…oh well!
I wanted to write about my trip to Australia, because it was quite an adventure. This country is so far from Canada that when I was a kid I never even dreamed of visiting it! So last year, around February, a heart-broken me decided that she would leave Korea for good, but that before that I should visit a country. I wanted to travel, but also I needed to vent all that negativity my recent break up caused. So I thought about South East Asia, but then because I’m allergic to all kinds of nuts, I didn’t think it was safe for me to go there alone. It might sound silly, but food allergies can really poison your daily life :( So Instead, I chose Australia. It seemed like the logical choice for me: it’s closer to Korea than it is to Canada, my sister recommended it to me…but it’s definitely not affordable to everyone. I was lucky enough to have gathered money to go all the way down there. After a lot of planning and shopping I booked my ticket for April 6th, departing from Seoul in the evening. A night flight, which was a first for me.
A view of Korea as I left
Day 1
The flight was long and I couldn’t get myself to sleep; I almost never can sleep on an airplane. Luckily enough, the seat beside mine was empty so I could stretch a little more. I was very excited when on the map of the plane screens we crossed the equator. My first time in the southern hemisphere! At 6AM, when the sun slowly started to rise, we arrived near Australia. We flew above Sydney and it was just crazy to be able to see the Opera House from above. I got excited and forgot how tired I was. Getting out of the airport wasn’t hard either, for the customs I was an easy person compared to all the Korean men and women who had never been abroad (they were a group of 50-60 years old and I understood from their guide that they had never been further than Jeju Island). Most of them didn’t speak English and the Australian customs really didn’t have patience with them. Of course, many of them got their food confiscated. The one thing you should know about travelling to Australia is that you really CAN’T bring food in. Their laws are very tight about that. So I got noticed by a fat custom lady and she put me out of the long line, noticing that all I had was a backpack.
I found my hostel, Sydney Central YHA, very easily, but I was exhausted. I couldn’t access my room until noon so I just sat down on the lounge couch of the hostel until I could check in. After checking in, I didn’t want to make the mistake of going to bed, so I showered and went out to visit Sydney. I went through Chinatown (where Big Bang’s 마지막 인사 was playing loud…I just got out of Korea lol), Central Station and ended up at Hyde Park, which is beautiful and so clean. It was also full of couples smooching on the grass!
I guess if you’re confident enough to show off your chess skills!
Travelling alone means “self-cam”! Very tired but amazed to be in Aussie
I quickly realized that food in Australia is very expensive, especially coming from Korea where you can have a really good meal for around 5 bucks. It’s a good thing there is no tip in Aussie! I found myself to be very lonely even on the first day. Travelling alone has it’s good sides but many times you find yourself wanting to share impressions with people but you can only think it. It’s completely different. On the evening of the first night, I met a girl from the UK in the hostel lounge and we decided to have diner together on the next day. I went to bed early and “enjoyed” the nice 8 people bunk beds room.
Day 2
I couldn’t sleep well the night before because of all the noise in the room, the sudden rash around my mouth from the airplane ride and just normal travelling stress. So instead of waking up at around 8am like I had planned, I stayed in bed until around 10am. The guy cleaning the room even came in, but I was too tired to even care. I knew I had another alone day ahead of me so no need to rush. I took the Sydney subway and went to Circular Quay where I saw the very famous Opera house.
Picture would have been better without the unknown couple!
I took a ferry leading to Manly, which is a stretch of island at the south of Sydney. There are nice beaches there and a lot of shops. It was nice but definitely a place you go with friends to swim in the sea and have a glass of beer on the side of the beach. The ferry felt so nice and I spent a lot of time texting my friends in Korea, especially the ones who had lived in Australia before. I guess I really felt alone surrounded with all these families and couples. In Manly I simply walked around, took pictures of my face and went back to Circular Quay. A bit boring I would admit, but it’s better being bored in Australia than back home haha!
Manly…and my eyes which do not look the same size o.O
The bridge, and some angry dude
I hung around for a little while but went back to the hostel, I just waited for diner with Sara, the girl from the UK. We both didn’t have a huge budget for food but still decided to eat at a restaurant on the side of the water, on a terrace. The only problem is that it started to rain. We finally found a place which had tables outside but covered by a huge concrete roof that was part of the building so even if it rained for a while, we were fine. The place had pastas and was pretty good, but again, very overpriced as always. It was nice talking with Sara. We both briefly summarized our lives and realized that we were both into Buffy the Vampire Slayer so it was easy to just talk about it for a long time. After diner we went around the Opera House to see it from up close. There is even a restaurant inside of it and it looks very classy. If only… Thanks to the rain, my picture of the Opera House at night came out pretty nice!
It's much better looking at night
That night I had a very embarrassing moment at the hostel…So this place is so big that you have magnetic cards to enter rooms and even bathrooms. So in the middle of the night I feel this urge to go to the bathroom so I get out of the bedroom but when I’m about the open the bathroom door I realize that I do not have my card and that I cannot get the card now that it is inside the bedroom, which is locked…So I did what an embarrassed person who needs to pee has to do; I knocked on the door and apologized a lot to the girl who opened the door. I was so angry at myself. I could have gone downstairs and ask the front desk clerk to make me another key…but I didn’t think about that then.
Day 3
The weather was awesome on my third day so I woke up early enough to go all the way to King’s Cross which is the military/entertainment/sketchy town of Sydney. Since it was daytime, I thought it was very nice and walked around a lot. There were many interesting houses and sights. I saw MANY Aussie sailors and stopped by the famous Harry’s Cafe de Wheels where I ordered some soda and sat down a while next to some sailors (they didn’t talk to me :(
Notice the drawing of the sailor kissing his girlfriend on the right!
After that, the Victorian era lover that I am went to visit Elizabeth Bay House, which was the house of Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay in the 1830’s. Back then there was nothing around the house except trees, the sea and apparently A LOT of flies enough to drive these little noble ladies crazy! The house was gorgeous; I could stand in a room more than 5 minutes just to appreciate all the details of the furniture. That’s when travelling alone is nice, because I doubt if I had a boyfriend he would love looking at Victorian furniture for so long!
"Oh my god I feel like in a Jane Austen novel!" girly girl...
Visiting this house definitely brightened my day, for some reason I felt like I’ve had a constructive day in which I learned something. I had to go back to the Hostel to check out on time and prepare myself to get to the airport because I was taking a flight for Adelaide where I would start my Outback tour the morning after.
When I got at My Place Backpackers in Adelaide I was extremely annoyed because the door was locked. It was after 9pm and I guess they don’t expect backpackers to arrive this late…fortunately for me, some guy was in the entrance and opened the door for me. They tried to get someone to help me, but no one could be reached. After talking to the people who were sleeping there some girl offered me her bed, because she was sleeping in the room of her boyfriend. It was very kind of her, if it wasn’t for her I probably would have slept on the living room couch. The room had no window and felt very stuffy…the bed sheets looked old and kind of smelly. In all, I wouldn’t recommend this backpacker place to anyone. Also, the group of people talking loud in the kitchen really didn’t help me to fall asleep. I had to wake up at 5am to be picked up for the Outback tour…Which would be memorable.
