Sydney, Blue Mountains and Watsons Bay
Door: Jelle
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Familie
15 Augustus 2011 | Australië, Sydney
Hi everyone!
Hope you are doing well in the Netherlands! I just saw the weather is better where you are, which pisses me off 'cause over here we have to walk around in long pants and sweaters all day. Can't wait to go up north where it's a very nice 28degrees right now.
In the meantime, we have seen some absolutely marvelous shit around here (excuse my language, i'm starting to talk and think like all Ozzies, english and Irish fokes around me already! So i suggest that when you read my story, you picture it being told by someone with a slight Australian accent:p).
Okay, i'll quickly try to tell you what our group has been up to the last couple of days, and I think it's also interesting to tell you about my first impressions of backpackers and australian people and how coming to this country fucks with your mind right from the start. Ofcourse I'll post some pictures so you can see the beauty around here for yourself.
Thursday and friday were mostly days to adjust, get rid of your jetlag, and prepare for our time here. We saw the city center of Sydney, which is really pretty, but at the same time, its just a city. The streets are wide, there's traffic, lots of skyscrapers, it's surprisingly clean on the streets, and its basically a modern western world type of city. There was a bunch of stuff we had to arrange and learn in those first days. We got our own Australian bank account, mobile phone number and a First Aid Medical Card which ensures free aid in case of an emergency. So in those first days, you are getting prepared for your life in Australia without actually doing a lot.
On saturday, we went to the blue mountains, which are just an hour away from Sydney. They are called blue mountains because when you are standing on a high point and look at the forests beneath, you see a blue sort of glow above the trees. This comes from the large amount of eucalyptus trees, which leak an oily substance that scatters a blue light when it evaporates.
We saw some Kangaroos already, really cute animals! (O and I tasted some Kangaroo meat already too, tastes a lot like beef steak, mmmmm!) Theres a lot of waterfalls in the Blue mountains, even some real rainforest is kept intact. Yeah, i think id better post some pictures, its gonna take a long time to mention everything we saw there. It was amazing!
At night we went to Kings Cross, the street in Sydney where it all happens at night. I have to say, going out in Sydney is quite different from where I come from. The girls are dressed a lot more provocative here, with extremely short and tight dresses. A lot of guys tour around in cars which exert a high level of testosterone and overall its quite a competitive scene. Furthermore beers are really expensive here, the cheapest you can get is around 5 dollars. Most people buy Goon before going out which is the only affordable type of alcohol in all of australia. It's a sort of wine, but it tastes even cheaper than it is (in Dutch: smerige bocht!).
Anyway, if you want to have a good party here in Australia, you'd better have a fat wallet..
On sunday we walked to the Sydney Opera House. You have all seen the pictures i suppose! I have to tell you, it's absolutely a special and amazing building, i love the architecture. But when I walked up closer, I couldn't help but laugh my balls off. Because the whole outside of the building, which seems really white, shiny and expensive from a distance, has been laid with common bathroom tiles! (see picture:p)
In the afternoon we took the ferry, from which you could see the opera house and the city skyline. Really nice. But nothing compared to what we saw half an hour later. The ferry took us to Watsons Bay, where you can sit on the cliffs next to the big Gap. That's where the great Bay around which Sydney has been built ends and where the Great Ocean starts. And especially the view on the bay from where you are sitting makes everything else you will ever see for the rest of your life meaningless. (I hope I can take these words back real soon cause it would mean a pretty shitty life from here on out, but right now, I still feel that way.) We have been sitting there for an hour and a half, just watching, taking in the view and feeling blessed you are alive.
I will post some pictures, but I'm afraid you need to go there yourself to know what I mean.
Well, thats the part I was planning to go through quickly, but I see I have been typing a lot already. Anyway, I hope you're not bored yet cause I wanna share something about my expectations of backpackers and what they are actually like. I have thought for a long time backpackers are the kind of people I like. They are adventurous, social and take the most out of life. So far, these things all turned out to be true. But I also expected them to be quite like me. Young fokes, students who want to travel before they get a job. But this is where I was wrong. Most backpackers are close to 30, who have been working for a couple of years. When the time came for them to think about settling down, getting married and start a family, the idea made them shit their pants. So they sell their house, their car, quit their job, leave everything behind and come here. Half of my Dutch group is 27 years old and has been working since they were 16 or 17 years old. Most did mbo in highschool. The prospect of another 40 years doing the same boring brainkilling job every day was their motivation to come here.
I can understand every single one of them. But the majority of the backpackers here, also the non-Dutch, have the same story and background. Most carry tattoos, 90% smokes, and most are older. Which is a sudden change of scenery for me coming from a rather righteous student town like Wageningen.
Australian people are really nice, open and relaxed. They seem to take life a little more relaxed than we do in northern Europe. The nickname for Australia is Oz, and the people you can call Ozzies or Aussies. New Zealanders are Kiwi's. And they pick on one another like they English and the Irish, the Dutch and the Belgians, etc.
I have been here for just five days, so I don't want to go into detail about the feelings this country sets free inside you. I can elaborate now, but maybe I have a whole different view in one or two months. Right now I just feel happy to have the opportunity to be here and see this continent. Thanks again dad!
The group tour is over now, so as of now I can really do as I like. I have met one guy from my group with which I get along really well. We decided to buy a bus ticket together and travel along the east coast to Cairns. We'll do a few more days of sightseeing in Sydney, and we'll leave on thursday. His name is Anko, he's from Friesland. By pure coincidence, we are both planning to stay in Australia for about 3 months and do exactly the same route in Oz. We agreed to do the east coast together, and if we don't start loathing each other in that time, we may continue the rest of the trip together.
Talk to you later fokes! I like to read your reactions, so keep 'em coming:)
Jelle
Hope you are doing well in the Netherlands! I just saw the weather is better where you are, which pisses me off 'cause over here we have to walk around in long pants and sweaters all day. Can't wait to go up north where it's a very nice 28degrees right now.
In the meantime, we have seen some absolutely marvelous shit around here (excuse my language, i'm starting to talk and think like all Ozzies, english and Irish fokes around me already! So i suggest that when you read my story, you picture it being told by someone with a slight Australian accent:p).
Okay, i'll quickly try to tell you what our group has been up to the last couple of days, and I think it's also interesting to tell you about my first impressions of backpackers and australian people and how coming to this country fucks with your mind right from the start. Ofcourse I'll post some pictures so you can see the beauty around here for yourself.
Thursday and friday were mostly days to adjust, get rid of your jetlag, and prepare for our time here. We saw the city center of Sydney, which is really pretty, but at the same time, its just a city. The streets are wide, there's traffic, lots of skyscrapers, it's surprisingly clean on the streets, and its basically a modern western world type of city. There was a bunch of stuff we had to arrange and learn in those first days. We got our own Australian bank account, mobile phone number and a First Aid Medical Card which ensures free aid in case of an emergency. So in those first days, you are getting prepared for your life in Australia without actually doing a lot.
On saturday, we went to the blue mountains, which are just an hour away from Sydney. They are called blue mountains because when you are standing on a high point and look at the forests beneath, you see a blue sort of glow above the trees. This comes from the large amount of eucalyptus trees, which leak an oily substance that scatters a blue light when it evaporates.
We saw some Kangaroos already, really cute animals! (O and I tasted some Kangaroo meat already too, tastes a lot like beef steak, mmmmm!) Theres a lot of waterfalls in the Blue mountains, even some real rainforest is kept intact. Yeah, i think id better post some pictures, its gonna take a long time to mention everything we saw there. It was amazing!
At night we went to Kings Cross, the street in Sydney where it all happens at night. I have to say, going out in Sydney is quite different from where I come from. The girls are dressed a lot more provocative here, with extremely short and tight dresses. A lot of guys tour around in cars which exert a high level of testosterone and overall its quite a competitive scene. Furthermore beers are really expensive here, the cheapest you can get is around 5 dollars. Most people buy Goon before going out which is the only affordable type of alcohol in all of australia. It's a sort of wine, but it tastes even cheaper than it is (in Dutch: smerige bocht!).
Anyway, if you want to have a good party here in Australia, you'd better have a fat wallet..
On sunday we walked to the Sydney Opera House. You have all seen the pictures i suppose! I have to tell you, it's absolutely a special and amazing building, i love the architecture. But when I walked up closer, I couldn't help but laugh my balls off. Because the whole outside of the building, which seems really white, shiny and expensive from a distance, has been laid with common bathroom tiles! (see picture:p)
In the afternoon we took the ferry, from which you could see the opera house and the city skyline. Really nice. But nothing compared to what we saw half an hour later. The ferry took us to Watsons Bay, where you can sit on the cliffs next to the big Gap. That's where the great Bay around which Sydney has been built ends and where the Great Ocean starts. And especially the view on the bay from where you are sitting makes everything else you will ever see for the rest of your life meaningless. (I hope I can take these words back real soon cause it would mean a pretty shitty life from here on out, but right now, I still feel that way.) We have been sitting there for an hour and a half, just watching, taking in the view and feeling blessed you are alive.
I will post some pictures, but I'm afraid you need to go there yourself to know what I mean.
Well, thats the part I was planning to go through quickly, but I see I have been typing a lot already. Anyway, I hope you're not bored yet cause I wanna share something about my expectations of backpackers and what they are actually like. I have thought for a long time backpackers are the kind of people I like. They are adventurous, social and take the most out of life. So far, these things all turned out to be true. But I also expected them to be quite like me. Young fokes, students who want to travel before they get a job. But this is where I was wrong. Most backpackers are close to 30, who have been working for a couple of years. When the time came for them to think about settling down, getting married and start a family, the idea made them shit their pants. So they sell their house, their car, quit their job, leave everything behind and come here. Half of my Dutch group is 27 years old and has been working since they were 16 or 17 years old. Most did mbo in highschool. The prospect of another 40 years doing the same boring brainkilling job every day was their motivation to come here.
I can understand every single one of them. But the majority of the backpackers here, also the non-Dutch, have the same story and background. Most carry tattoos, 90% smokes, and most are older. Which is a sudden change of scenery for me coming from a rather righteous student town like Wageningen.
Australian people are really nice, open and relaxed. They seem to take life a little more relaxed than we do in northern Europe. The nickname for Australia is Oz, and the people you can call Ozzies or Aussies. New Zealanders are Kiwi's. And they pick on one another like they English and the Irish, the Dutch and the Belgians, etc.
I have been here for just five days, so I don't want to go into detail about the feelings this country sets free inside you. I can elaborate now, but maybe I have a whole different view in one or two months. Right now I just feel happy to have the opportunity to be here and see this continent. Thanks again dad!
The group tour is over now, so as of now I can really do as I like. I have met one guy from my group with which I get along really well. We decided to buy a bus ticket together and travel along the east coast to Cairns. We'll do a few more days of sightseeing in Sydney, and we'll leave on thursday. His name is Anko, he's from Friesland. By pure coincidence, we are both planning to stay in Australia for about 3 months and do exactly the same route in Oz. We agreed to do the east coast together, and if we don't start loathing each other in that time, we may continue the rest of the trip together.
Talk to you later fokes! I like to read your reactions, so keep 'em coming:)
Jelle
-
15 Augustus 2011 - 09:21
Dad:
G'day sonny,
Mooi verhaal weer! Je taalgebruik gaat er wel op achteruit. Let op: opa en oma lezen ook mee, haha.
Er bestaat ook beschaafd slang. Doe er je voordeel mee!
Ace! - excellent!, splendid!
You found it? Ace!
Ankle biter - small child
Bring your ankle biters to Australia
Barbie - barbecue
Throw a steak on the Barbie
Beaut - terrific, fantastic
The movie was a beaut
Bities - annoying biting insects
Buy some repellent for the bities
Captain Cook - look
I'll give it a quick Captain Cook
Chook - chicken
Have some roasted chook
Coldie - beer
Let's stop in and have a coldie
Cut lunch - sandwich
I'm hankering for a cut lunch
Good on ya - well done, good for you
You won? Good on ya
Joey - baby kangaroo
The joey peeked out of the pouch
Pommy - Englishman
The Pommy likes our beer
Ripper - sensational, fantastic
It was a ripper game
Seppo - American
A busload of Seppos disembarked
Sheila - young woman
A sheila broke his heart
She'll be apples - it will be all right
Forget your error, she'll be apples
-
15 Augustus 2011 - 10:35
Mamma:
Hey mate,
Good to hear you're having so much fun. You're picking up impressions you won't forget for the rest of your life!
I was also impressed by the amount of dirty laundry you left for us in your room! I hope I will have recovered from the shock by the time you get back....
No kidding! Enjoy yourself and take care. -
15 Augustus 2011 - 10:39
GewoonHerman:
Supernice dudo, wel jammer van het weer. Hier is het nu 35 graden dus alle tentamens worden buiten afgenomen, jammer dat je dat moet missen! En even serieus, dat je geen 30 bent kan je niets aan doen, maar dat van die tattoos wel! Laat het opera-gebouw op je arm tatooeren, ik trakteer! Rest mij nog de vraag of er al gewerkt is aan het kratje bier? If so, nice, if not, doen! Kerel, geniet ervan! Gods Zegen!
xxx je lekkertje -
15 Augustus 2011 - 12:18
Annemarie:
Good start!
Nice to see you took some pictures at the same point of view we did years ago!
Enjoy! -
15 Augustus 2011 - 15:49
Renate:
Hi there,
The old cliche travelling broadens the mind is quite true. When you compare your life with those of others you meet you realise you are very fortunate Jelle (if you didn't know already).
Enjoy your time and have a wonderful trip with your new friend! -
15 Augustus 2011 - 18:07
Brother:
Hey man,
Nice to hear thet you are enjoying yourself that much. Quite a joke indeed to see that the Opera House actually consists of bathroom tiles. Allthough I think your level of English overall is quite impressive, I am truly afraid I have to bring up that fokes is actully spelled folks. Didn't pay enough attention in high school I guess :p.
Kidding, of course. Enjoy the trip with Anko and the rest of the time as well
Regards from your nitpicking brother -
16 Augustus 2011 - 12:25
Tim:
Ha, wereldreiziger! Prachtige verhalen, en toffe foto's! Duidelijk dat je knetterhard aan het genieten bent daar! Hier gaat ook alles nog wel z'n gangetje, zal er binnenkort ff wat meer over vertellen in een uitgebreid mailtje! Enjoy! dikke smakkerd x
-
18 Augustus 2011 - 10:00
Richelle:
Jellee!! wat een topfotos en een topverhaal, ik kan nu niet wachten om ook te gaan! geniet ervan! xxx
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