Our trip to Australia started off a bit slowly, but after 5 days here we really kicked it into gear. I think the only fair way to retell the story now is retroactively, day by day. It’s pretty chronological since the week itself is worth telling about.
Monday
When we decided to come over here I told Andrea several times that it would be easy to find a place to live, and we’d only have to see a few apartments before we found one we liked, and the rest would be easy peasy. After searching online for apartments all weekend and writing down our favourites, we headed out on Monday to the real estate agents to book appointments. It’s a bit different down here in that real estate agents are plentiful and act as the property managers for the apartments in the area. Usually you can’t book an appointment to view the apartment online, so you have to go to the office in person. This wouldn’t have been a problem for us in Edmonton, but it’s a lot harder when you don’t have a car and have to run around in 26 degree heat and 80% humidity.
We intended to see 4 apartments today, but we had to miss one appointment and we avoided another. The apartment we avoided was textbook ghetto, with location right next to a busy road, bombed out houses on the block, and with a pair of shoes thrown up over the power lines. Since we didn’t travel 18 000km to live on Stony Plain road, we moved on. The other apartments we saw were in our price range, but they were dark, odd, and unclean. Searching all day to no avail left us a bit demoralized, but we booked 6 viewings for Tuesday so we were hopeful.
Tuesday
The big day is here. Andrea and I spent Monday night printing off google maps and devising a clever transit schedule to move from place to place today. Make no mistake, every appointment will be tight, and since Brisbane is a lot hillier than we anticipated, I try and mentally prepare Andrea for a day filled with rushing and sweating. The day starts similar to Monday, with dive after dive. We start to think we might have to raise our price range a bit to avoid these dodgy places, but we soldier on. Finally we move a bit north of the city, what they call the Central Business District (CBD) but what we would call downtown, and we finally find a place that isn’t half bad: good neighbourhood, clean apartment (staged, for a change), and close to shops and transit. With our spirits lifted, we book it across town to the North East of Brisbane to see some apartments that I found online when Andrea was asleep. I had been telling her all day that these would be the places to see. Andrea was a bit sceptical, but hopeful as well.
As soon as we get out of the train station and realize our map is much too narrow to get us to the appointment, so I had to make an educated guess about which way to turn, left or right. Using all my powers of deduction I choose we go left, and we go left. The appointment is at 4pm and it’s about 3:40pm when we arrive, so we are feeling confident we can make it. After walking about 10 minutes we realize that we must be in the wrong area. We ask another real estate agent for directions, which takes about 5 minutes, and she tells us we went the wrong direction. Fantastic. We are faced with missing the only appointment I wanted to make all day, but I told Andrea I could make it the 2km if I could run without our backpack. So we loaded up Andrea with both our backpacks and I started sprinting. If I thought I was sweaty and tired before, I really was now. I finally make it to the place and I look across the street and see a car from the realtor. I mosey on over there real cool like – think Steve McQueen – all sweaty and panting, and I beckon her out of the car. A bit of small talk fills the gaps where I’m catching my breath and apologizing for being late and she shows me the place. It’s by far the best one we’ve seen and is definitely a ‘must have’ kind of deal. Andrea finally shows up just dripping sweat and loves the place. After a bit of talking back at the hostel we decide to make this our final decision and file an application.
It’s our last night at the hostel and life has been good to us here. We have gotten free meals for the past two nights and pitchers of Victoria Bitter are only $12. And these aren’t 12 Euro bucks either, but are actually cheaper than those in Canada! (actually they are about the same price after the banks take their cut from the exchange). Luckily Andrea met some people on her cruise to Greece she said we can stay with for a few days. Just a little forewarning to all those people who make the claim that, ‘if you ever come to visit you can stay with us,’ that Andrea and I are taking you up on that offer. But you could have worse houseguests.
Over here they want you to have all this documentation to support every frickin’ contract you sign. They want references from everyone you’ve ever had a contract with, letters and receipts to support it, the whole nine yards. These buggers won’t even let us sign up for a postpaid cell phone without about 6 pieces of identification and proof of prior contracts. It’s ridiculous. I can’t wait to stiff them for a huge cell phone bill. :P
Wednesday
Today is the day to meet the strangers and impose ourselves on them. Bob and Rhonda are Andrea’s friends and they agreed not only to let us stay at their house for a few days, but also agreed to come and pick us up from the hostel! Amazing! It’s immediately clear that Bob and Rhonda are fun, funny, generous, and great hosts. They have 5 kids who are all married and only one without kids of their own. Bob is an avid rugby union fan and also a fan of the wine, red, in particular. Although I have adopted Australian Rules Football as my sport of choice, Bob agrees not to make fun of me too much as I’m new to the country and don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground.
We submitted our application and we were ensured that the apartment would be ours and that we could move in by Friday! How incredible is that to go from total morale devastation on Monday after seeing dive after dive to having a great place to live on Friday? It’s also incredible what looking presentable and showing someone your bank account will get you in this town. The location is just great too since the Toombul shopping centre is close by and is not up or down a huge hill like all the other units we saw. Fresh seafood and fruit markets are about 2 minutes walk away, along with many yoga studios, pizza places, Maccas (McDonalds to the Auzzies), and Racecourse road, which has tons of shops and restaurants. It’s not the trendiest of neighbourhoods, but for a couple of homeless Canadians, it’s home sweet home.
Thursday
You never realize how great it is to have a proper bed to sleep in and home cooked meals when you are traveling. We are definitely missing our families, but we are being treated as family by Bob and Rhonda, and that act is just so comforting when you are surrounded by strangeness and without a home, furnishings, phones, internet, vehicles…All that stuff gives you a lot of security when you have it. You feel established, ready for the challenges you regularly face and even those you don’t anticipate. When you have none of these trappings to fall back on you feel quite naked and helpless. Now, obviously, we have savings and resources to call on, but they are not so extensive that we can say that money is no object. Once you can do that life is without challenge, and I think we call that heaven, or a wealthy retirement. A huge part of this trip was to push ourselves and put ourselves outside our comfort zones. Well, consider us there, and consider us succeeding. We picked up our keys today and Bob heartily suggested we celebrate with a drink. That of course led to more drinks, and after several bottles of wine later, a great day concluded.
Friday
Golf is cheap in Australia. That might not mean a lot to some of you, but it means a lot to me. I’m sick and tired of paying +$80 for a game of golf on an overcrowded and poorly kept golf course. Golf memberships here can be so cheap, as little as $500 a year, and you can golf all year long and each course looks like you’re golfing in South Africa. Well, technically it looks like Brisbane, but I didn’t realize they looked so similar before.
Bob took me out golfing to his course today, which was a pretty good day weather wise, about 23 degrees at 9am and a few clouds in the sky. From the first tea I debated which club to take, but then realized I hadn’t picked up a club in 7 months and hadn’t practiced, so what did it matter. The hangover from the night before wasn’t treating me so well either, but I lined up and swung and lost total sight of the ball. Not a great start to my day. Luckily it was in the fairway, as were many of my shots that day, and I did quite well…on the course, anyways. By about the 8th hole I was about to vomit from the hangover combined with the heat and the sun, but we only played 10 holes, as Bob needed to get to his dentist appointment, so I narrowly escaped heaving into the tropical bushes.
After recuperating at our adopted home, Andrea and I took the car our for an afternoon at IKEA. Andrea had the whole trip google-mapped out and assured me that we could do it. Naturally, 3 turns into the trip we took the wrong road and were lost, heading for the CBD of Brisbane. We’ve developed a rule from traveling that if you think you’ve gone the wrong way, just got a bit further just to make sure. Be confident. So I ambled along the road hoping that Andrea would pull a rabbit out of her hat, so we pulled over to see where we had to go and we looked up and saw the overhead sign that pointed us directly to Logan (IKEAs location) on the Pacific Motorway! Score one for beginners luck.
IKEA was fruitful, and after weighing the pros and cons of shopping for furniture in Brisbane at the Salvation Army, Gumtree (Auzzie version of Craigslist or Kijiji), or garage sales, we decided that the allure of having the furniture delivered to our house in good condition was very advantageous on our minds, our time, and even our wallets. We headed home as victors. Place to live – check. Furniture – check. Naturally, upon our arrival, Bob suggested this was cause for celebration and time for a drink! I still can’t believe they were insistent we use the car to help us around town. I’m not sure I’d be so trusting in their place, but we were very thankful.
That night Bob and Rhonda had one of their sons and their daughters over for supper and we all had a great time. After the wine got into us, Andrew forgot Andrea’s name and started calling her “Stranger girl,” which we all thought was pretty funny. We watched a bit of rugby union and called it a night, but Bob told me about the Pittsburgh/Ottawa game on FOX at 1:30am and set it up for me to watch if I was interested. Obviously I was so I woke up and watched the third period and the sped up overtime (as the game was a replay). What can I say, I miss my hockey.
Saturday
The day of the big move is at hand. We are so fortunate that Bob’s son Andrew has a truck and is willing to help us move. We are even more lucky that Andrea’s uncle is lending us his old fridge and TV for the apartment. I knew there was a reason we chose Brisbane over Sydney. Starting off is hard, but starting with a bit of family around makes it loads easier, which we are terribly grateful for. Moving went off without a hitch, delivery guys eventually showed up, and we started building. We got finished the bed and sofa before we tired out, and then we headed to Uncle Errik’s for a fantastic dinner and a bit of footy. Sadly, the Brisbane lions took a real shit kicking, ruining their undefeated record. That’s alright, we’ll get ‘em next time.
Sunday
Today is Sunday, which is ANZAC day, so it’s a huge holiday in Australia and almost no one is working, which means nothing is open, which means we have to live off the meagre groceries we picked up on Saturday. We have been so busy it’s crazy, but it feels good to get this first mega hectic week out of the way. I think this will prove to be the hardest week we have to suffer here, and it has been great. We’ve made new friends, had great times, and feel truly thankful to all those who have helped us get started in Brisbane.
It’s a pretty lazy day today. We spent most of it building our table and chairs, bar stools and computer chair. Did a bit of exploring and a bit of surfing the net on our pirated wifi connection, made some supper and generally chilled out. Like Andrea said our lights are out, but the rest of the power is on, so it looks like we’ll have a bit of work to do tomorrow before we head to the Gold Coast for a few days.
Tomorrow we would like to arrange for some dry cleaning for my suits, since I start my job next week, take care of some more paperwork for my internship agency (argh!), do some shopping, book our hostel, and maybe see about buying a used washing machine. Maybe the hard stuff isn’t over yet…
Also, read Andrea's first post below this one!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
I give in
I guess it's about time that I wrote a post instead of relying on Chris to do it! I don't even know where to begin. We've been gone less than three weeks, but it feels like we've been gone so much longer. So many things have happened in the past little while and I don't think we've given ourselves much of a chance to sit back and really take everything in.
I know Chris already wrote about it, but Hong Kong was amazing. It far surpassed my expectations (even though I tried not to have any when travelling) and when I saw signs posted around the city saying that this train station or this public site was sanitized 'x' number of times a day, I felt like this was a place that I could live. A beautiful, vibrant city that sanitizes all the time...that's my dream! All jokes aside, all I can say is that you should take any chance you get and go to Hong Kong. It was well worth the 14 hour plane ride!
Brisbane has been great as well. And our (few) friends and family here have been overwhelmingly helpful and supportive. We basically spent the first week and a half running (at times literally) around the city from apartment to apartment trying to find a place we'd be happy to call home for the next year. Let me tell you, some places are less than desirable! But after long, sweaty days of searching, we found our place! We moved in yesterday (thanks to the help of some wonderful friends) and spent most of yesterday and today putting together our Ikea furniture. I love Ikea...really!
We had booked ourselves into a hostel in Fortitude Valley (the Whyte Ave of Brisbane) for a week and really loved it there. It was definitely a well run hostel! It was called BUNK in case anyone needs a place to stay in Brisbane. And, they had this great pub attached called Birdee Num Num...I think I took every chance I got just to say the name...haha! But it was great after a long day of apartment hunting to go down there and have some FREE supper and a taste of Aussie beer!
As our week came to a close, we got in touch with some wonderful people that mum and I had met on our Greek tour back in 2008. My mum has stayed in touch with them since then, and when they found out Chris and I were coming to Brisbane, they were really excited to see us (though they'd never met Chris). They so kindly put us up for 3 days and really made some wonderful memories for us in that short time. We would sit out on their verandah (you don't say deck here) for dinner and be out there for hours talking, laughing, and drinking too many bottles of wine! It was wonderful!!!! During the days, Chris and I would be out finalizing details for our apartment. Once we had confirmation that we had our little place, Bob and Rhonda so kindly offered us their car so we could drive down to Ikea (~30 min from Brisbane) so we could shop for furniture and everything else you need for an apartment. It didn't seem to faze them at all that Chris had spent about a total of 5 minutes driving in Brisbane. They'd gladly handed over the keys and supplied ample information on how to get down there. I have to admit that I did grab onto the door handle a few times, but no disaster! And, no one even honked their horn! I take that to mean we could pass as Aussie drivers...well, at least Chris could!
After too many hours in Ikea, we bought a couch, table/chairs, bed, pots, pans, glasses...the list goes on. It really is like starting over again. We had nothing...we still don't have anything! But, we aren't complaining!
But, the journey hasn't been without some bumps. Right now we have no lights. We were cooking dinner tonight when all of a sudden all of our lights went out. We checked the breaker, but none of the switches are off...maybe a fuse busted? Oh well, our fridge, stove, tv, plug ins still work. Just no lights. We'll figure it out tomorrow! I told Chris we could have our dinner by candlelight (thanks to cheap Ikea candles), but we have no matches! So we sat by the glow of the TV.
Tomorrow we have a few more errands to run...I want to get cleaning supplies. Big surprise there! Plus we have to figure out insurance and hand in our apartment checklist to our agent. But hopefully we'll be able to make some time to book a few nights at a hostel down in Surfer's Paradise. We told ourselves that would be our reward for landing an apartment and getting ourselves somewhat settled. I think we could both use a few days of beach time. Our feet are tired!
Don't know if there is much more to add. Our apartment is lovely and we have an extra bedroom!!! Pack your bags and give us a call to let us know when you're coming to visit! Oh, and we have cell phones...which is funny because only my uncle calls us. Oh well...in case you want to know: (07)0466814551 to reach me and Chris is (07)0466814550. Hopefully we'll get a call soon with someone wanting to come visit! We haven't been here long, but we'd love to show you around...or at least explore the city with you!
Andrea
I know Chris already wrote about it, but Hong Kong was amazing. It far surpassed my expectations (even though I tried not to have any when travelling) and when I saw signs posted around the city saying that this train station or this public site was sanitized 'x' number of times a day, I felt like this was a place that I could live. A beautiful, vibrant city that sanitizes all the time...that's my dream! All jokes aside, all I can say is that you should take any chance you get and go to Hong Kong. It was well worth the 14 hour plane ride!
Brisbane has been great as well. And our (few) friends and family here have been overwhelmingly helpful and supportive. We basically spent the first week and a half running (at times literally) around the city from apartment to apartment trying to find a place we'd be happy to call home for the next year. Let me tell you, some places are less than desirable! But after long, sweaty days of searching, we found our place! We moved in yesterday (thanks to the help of some wonderful friends) and spent most of yesterday and today putting together our Ikea furniture. I love Ikea...really!
We had booked ourselves into a hostel in Fortitude Valley (the Whyte Ave of Brisbane) for a week and really loved it there. It was definitely a well run hostel! It was called BUNK in case anyone needs a place to stay in Brisbane. And, they had this great pub attached called Birdee Num Num...I think I took every chance I got just to say the name...haha! But it was great after a long day of apartment hunting to go down there and have some FREE supper and a taste of Aussie beer!
As our week came to a close, we got in touch with some wonderful people that mum and I had met on our Greek tour back in 2008. My mum has stayed in touch with them since then, and when they found out Chris and I were coming to Brisbane, they were really excited to see us (though they'd never met Chris). They so kindly put us up for 3 days and really made some wonderful memories for us in that short time. We would sit out on their verandah (you don't say deck here) for dinner and be out there for hours talking, laughing, and drinking too many bottles of wine! It was wonderful!!!! During the days, Chris and I would be out finalizing details for our apartment. Once we had confirmation that we had our little place, Bob and Rhonda so kindly offered us their car so we could drive down to Ikea (~30 min from Brisbane) so we could shop for furniture and everything else you need for an apartment. It didn't seem to faze them at all that Chris had spent about a total of 5 minutes driving in Brisbane. They'd gladly handed over the keys and supplied ample information on how to get down there. I have to admit that I did grab onto the door handle a few times, but no disaster! And, no one even honked their horn! I take that to mean we could pass as Aussie drivers...well, at least Chris could!
After too many hours in Ikea, we bought a couch, table/chairs, bed, pots, pans, glasses...the list goes on. It really is like starting over again. We had nothing...we still don't have anything! But, we aren't complaining!
But, the journey hasn't been without some bumps. Right now we have no lights. We were cooking dinner tonight when all of a sudden all of our lights went out. We checked the breaker, but none of the switches are off...maybe a fuse busted? Oh well, our fridge, stove, tv, plug ins still work. Just no lights. We'll figure it out tomorrow! I told Chris we could have our dinner by candlelight (thanks to cheap Ikea candles), but we have no matches! So we sat by the glow of the TV.
Tomorrow we have a few more errands to run...I want to get cleaning supplies. Big surprise there! Plus we have to figure out insurance and hand in our apartment checklist to our agent. But hopefully we'll be able to make some time to book a few nights at a hostel down in Surfer's Paradise. We told ourselves that would be our reward for landing an apartment and getting ourselves somewhat settled. I think we could both use a few days of beach time. Our feet are tired!
Don't know if there is much more to add. Our apartment is lovely and we have an extra bedroom!!! Pack your bags and give us a call to let us know when you're coming to visit! Oh, and we have cell phones...which is funny because only my uncle calls us. Oh well...in case you want to know: (07)0466814551 to reach me and Chris is (07)0466814550. Hopefully we'll get a call soon with someone wanting to come visit! We haven't been here long, but we'd love to show you around...or at least explore the city with you!
Andrea
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
A couple in transition
Hello all!
We are very much in a transitive state, as we are in the process of leaving our relatively awesome hostel and rooming with some friends in Australia, with the hopes that our application for our new apartment will go through with no problems. We plan to make the offer tomorrow, and hopefully we could be moved in by the weekend! This whole week has been spent at a frantic pace trying desperately to arrange lodging for this canuck couple. Finally, after seeing nearly 10 units, most of which were basically ghetto fabulous without the fabulous, I had to run full sprint about 1.5km to make our last appointment of the day to see this great apartment. It's a great location and not too far away from Uncle Errik! Here's hoping for the best!
Last weekend the sun was shining, so we decided to head out to Lone Pine Koala reserve and try our hands at cuddling some adorable koalas! You can view our official photo here - http://i.koala.net/1804121485.htm - and just to assuage your concerns, Andrea did let me hold the Koala after this photo. I basically had to pull her claws away from the cute little guy who is seven and named, Gandalf, of all things. :) We also walked amongst, and petted, many other animals including KANGAROOS and wallabies! Very cool stuff.
Well, posts may be a bit haggard for the next week or so. Hopefully we can arrange this apartment without a hitch, and then arrange internet, furniture, cutlery, moving Uncle Errik's fridge to the new place, a bed...but after that we've decided to indulge ourselves with a week at the Gold Coast before I have to start work for the Queensland Government...for free. :)
Andrea says to start packing your bags for a visit, as basically every place here has 2 bedrooms, and this place we like has 2 as well. Though, I'm sure you'll come and visit just as soon as she writes a post on blogger. :)
We are very much in a transitive state, as we are in the process of leaving our relatively awesome hostel and rooming with some friends in Australia, with the hopes that our application for our new apartment will go through with no problems. We plan to make the offer tomorrow, and hopefully we could be moved in by the weekend! This whole week has been spent at a frantic pace trying desperately to arrange lodging for this canuck couple. Finally, after seeing nearly 10 units, most of which were basically ghetto fabulous without the fabulous, I had to run full sprint about 1.5km to make our last appointment of the day to see this great apartment. It's a great location and not too far away from Uncle Errik! Here's hoping for the best!
Last weekend the sun was shining, so we decided to head out to Lone Pine Koala reserve and try our hands at cuddling some adorable koalas! You can view our official photo here - http://i.koala.net/1804121485.htm - and just to assuage your concerns, Andrea did let me hold the Koala after this photo. I basically had to pull her claws away from the cute little guy who is seven and named, Gandalf, of all things. :) We also walked amongst, and petted, many other animals including KANGAROOS and wallabies! Very cool stuff.
Well, posts may be a bit haggard for the next week or so. Hopefully we can arrange this apartment without a hitch, and then arrange internet, furniture, cutlery, moving Uncle Errik's fridge to the new place, a bed...but after that we've decided to indulge ourselves with a week at the Gold Coast before I have to start work for the Queensland Government...for free. :)
Andrea says to start packing your bags for a visit, as basically every place here has 2 bedrooms, and this place we like has 2 as well. Though, I'm sure you'll come and visit just as soon as she writes a post on blogger. :)
Friday, April 16, 2010
Brisbane: Beautiful one day, perfect the next.
That is the unofficial slogan of Brisbane. Today, we found out why.
Now that we have started actively searching for an apartment, we have come to some harsh realizations. Firstly, there are many, many units to choose from, but many of them aren’t fully furnished as we had hoped. This isn’t a massive problem, as there is an IKEA near Brisbane that delivers to the city for a small charge, and there are also many second hand shops to find furnishings. We intend to search a bit more tonight and tomorrow, and hopefully see some units on Sunday and early next week.
Today Uncle Errik was gracious enough to take us down to the Gold Coast, which is more or less the trendy beach area in Queensland. The amount of development down there is just amazing. There is a small city of condos, apartments, and hotels along the beach. Restaurants, shops, casinos, markets, you name it and it’s there. The area is of course very affluent, and as this is ‘winter’ it is the off season, so the traffic is minimal. Not that it would matter, as the beach is more than 30km long and is full of fluffy sand. The water is just gorgeous and even with strong winds it was very warm, as was the water. We just had a blast jumping into the waves and walking on the beach.
After our beach time we had lunch at a nice café with a great view. I had myself a kangaroo burger and it was pretty darn good. Tasted a bit like elk and buffalo mixed together. I also had some Bundaberg ginger beer. Once again we were mistaken for Americans, but no worries. No one seems to care either way. The Yanks don’t seem to make it down under too often. Backpackers do make it down from time to time, but family vacations or sun lovers seem averse to the trip. I’m glad they are, but they are suckers for sticking to California, Miami, and Mexico. The Gold Coast is like the best kept areas in California but always warm with great waves for surfing.
Lunch was followed with a car ride to more seaside sights, and we even got a bit into New South Wales. On the way back I was informed that Uncle Errik needed me to drive his car home from the mechanic, where he was to pick up his daughter’s car. That’s right folks, day three and I was driving in Australia! I had been trying to figure out all the ways cars can come at you on the way down to the Gold Coast, but you can never fully understand the beast without diving right in. Suffice it to say I rocked the challenge and no one was any worse for wear. The hardest parts of driving in Australia are: looking to the left for the rear view mirror, shifting with your left hand, keeping your car on the right hand side of the lane, and right turns into the left lane! It’s not for the faint of heart, but as Uncle Errik says, it was “No drama.”
Now that we have started actively searching for an apartment, we have come to some harsh realizations. Firstly, there are many, many units to choose from, but many of them aren’t fully furnished as we had hoped. This isn’t a massive problem, as there is an IKEA near Brisbane that delivers to the city for a small charge, and there are also many second hand shops to find furnishings. We intend to search a bit more tonight and tomorrow, and hopefully see some units on Sunday and early next week.
Today Uncle Errik was gracious enough to take us down to the Gold Coast, which is more or less the trendy beach area in Queensland. The amount of development down there is just amazing. There is a small city of condos, apartments, and hotels along the beach. Restaurants, shops, casinos, markets, you name it and it’s there. The area is of course very affluent, and as this is ‘winter’ it is the off season, so the traffic is minimal. Not that it would matter, as the beach is more than 30km long and is full of fluffy sand. The water is just gorgeous and even with strong winds it was very warm, as was the water. We just had a blast jumping into the waves and walking on the beach.
After our beach time we had lunch at a nice café with a great view. I had myself a kangaroo burger and it was pretty darn good. Tasted a bit like elk and buffalo mixed together. I also had some Bundaberg ginger beer. Once again we were mistaken for Americans, but no worries. No one seems to care either way. The Yanks don’t seem to make it down under too often. Backpackers do make it down from time to time, but family vacations or sun lovers seem averse to the trip. I’m glad they are, but they are suckers for sticking to California, Miami, and Mexico. The Gold Coast is like the best kept areas in California but always warm with great waves for surfing.
Lunch was followed with a car ride to more seaside sights, and we even got a bit into New South Wales. On the way back I was informed that Uncle Errik needed me to drive his car home from the mechanic, where he was to pick up his daughter’s car. That’s right folks, day three and I was driving in Australia! I had been trying to figure out all the ways cars can come at you on the way down to the Gold Coast, but you can never fully understand the beast without diving right in. Suffice it to say I rocked the challenge and no one was any worse for wear. The hardest parts of driving in Australia are: looking to the left for the rear view mirror, shifting with your left hand, keeping your car on the right hand side of the lane, and right turns into the left lane! It’s not for the faint of heart, but as Uncle Errik says, it was “No drama.”
Thursday, April 15, 2010
First night down under
I’m not sure it will ever be possible to get used to flights that last over 9 hours. Even if you were in first class it is a thoroughly disagreeable experience. For those of you who are under the impression that flying a top notch airline, like Cathay Pacific, makes the trip less painful, you are wrong. Straight up wrong. Although the flight experience on Cathay isn’t bad compared to, say, Air Canada, it is dwarfed by the experience of flying Luftansa, which also, without question, sucks.
After we were graciously transported by Andrea’s Uncle Errik from the airport to his apartment we had a nice lunch, called our parents at home, and gabbed about our plans for the next week. After catching up he dropped us off at our hostel and we got our keys for our huge loft room we just flopped down on the bed and passed out. Exhaustion, it seems, catches up to even these experienced travellers. :)
Upon waking each of us had a much needed shower and we headed down to the hostel’s pub, Birdee Num Num’s, for some fish, chips, and beer. We were laughed at for trying to use 30 year old Australian money donated to us by Andrea’s mum, but after a quick trip to the ATM we were back in the game and the beer was flowing…down our gullets. Although many of our friends warned us about the bad quality of Australian beer, we can say first hand that you are wrong and it is tasty.
Just before dinner I started to feel anxious for some reason. Maybe it was a combination of my lack of a good night’s sleep, the heat, and the time pressure I began to feel about setting up an apartment, phone, internet, learning the new transit system, finding a reliable grocer, bakery, market, learning where the good neighbourhoods are, and so on. Not to mention I cannot get my Xbox 360 to work, even though I was assured I had all the necessary parts to make it work properly down here!
But seriously, I began to think, what the hell am I doing? I just dropped my entire life and flew completely around the world for a working holiday, an unpaid internship, and no apartment! But Andrea reassured me of our plans, reminded me that we aren’t under any pressure to do anything, and thoughtfully kept fetching us more beer. After a few pints, some good food, and a great local live duo playing several North American indie rock jams, my enthusiasm for this adventure was renewed and good times were had.
In a strange place, sometimes a little reminder of home can make all the difference to stop that nagging voice in your head that tells you to play it safe. That feeling in your stomach that tells you that you are making a mistake is an enemy of change and is a guard against adventure. But I believe this feeling is truly a signpost to your mind and body that you are doing something challenging and exciting. Someone once said that if something isn’t hard it’s not worth doing – I’m not sure if entirely believe this, but I do believe that something is gained by pushing yourself to do something challenging or out of your character, and that is what this trip is all about.
Hopefully Andrea and I can blend Aussie and Canadian attitudes together to achieve a mindset that is definitely one to life by – No worries, mate, just give ‘er!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I am looking for copy watch, copy handbag, suits, Indian food...
Hello and goodbye. Wam bam. 5 days and it's all over. Although we only had 5 days in Hong Kong, we definitely made the most of them. Our feet are sore, our shoes are worn, and we are covered head to toe in sweat. Who knew this place was 98% humidity at ALL times? :)
We started our trip kind of off on the wrong foot, as Cathay lost a piece of my luggage...the piece carrying the Xbox360...yeah...But all was well later that morning when they returned it to us at the hotel room, more or less in one piece. I guess they stored my luggage in the engine by mistake. :(
We walked, ran, trained, bused, boated, flew, trammed, and taxied all over the Pearl of the Orient. I even got Andrea to try many different kinds of Asian foods she had never tried before, but not without some light resistance. Every man loves a little challenge. I will have to say that when I started ordering left, right, and centre at dim sum she got a little concerned. Perhaps no more concerned than when I ordered some chicken feet. Mmmm...tasty suckers!
The most eventful memory of the trip would have to be our ride on the 360 skyview tram up to see the Tian Tam Buddha on Lantau island. I told Andrea it might be better to wait for another day since it was so cloudy at the top of the island, but we were 'assured' by the ticket attendant that the Buddha was visible. So we alighted aboard this chariot of death up to the summit. We noticed it was windy at the bottom, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. That tram was a shakin' and a swayin' like a leaf in the wind. We were riding with a young Chinese couple who seemed to be enjoying the rough ride, but then they started popping motion sickness tablets like ravers popping uppers at a rave. They generously offered some to us, though we declined. Once we got near the summit we were enveloped in fog. It seemed like a scene straight out of 'The Mist.' Although I assured Andrea of the solidity of the tram and downplayed the severity of the wind, I was more than a little worried myself. ;)
We made it to the top amongst a sea of fog, we walked up the many stairs, we saw the big guy, we took photos, my sunglasses were ripped off my head in the wind...good times were had.
We would have written more blog posts during the trip, but after long days of traveling and walking in the +25 degree heat and +90% humidity, we were obviously low on energy. Not to mention it's nearly impossible to find an internet cafe in this town. Our local i-cafe was populated with late night gamers, who sit solemnly in their chairs, chain smoking cigarettes and ordering fast food while playing some form of online game. Not how we would ideally spend our nights in Hong Kong, but who am I to judge?
Perhaps the best thing about Hong Kong is that Andrea loves Hong Kong. There are not too many cities in the world that get the Andrea 'I could live here' stamp of approval, but HK has made that list. I always told her that it is the New York of the Orient, and although she didn't believe me, she certainly does now. Despite the mugginess, crowdedness, the hustle and bustle, and the non-stop pestering of the local street salespeople, Hong Kong has greatness in it. The humidity allows year-round foot traffic and night drinking and eating. The city is cosmopolitan and energetic. You can walk on one block and find Coach, Burberry and Louis Vuitton and on the very next you can find a night market to sit and people watch and maybe even buy a few trinkets for yourself, friends, and family. The city is obsessed with cleanliness - everything seems to be cleaned or sanitized many times a day, often with an attendant standing guard at each public place, protecting us all from unseemly germs. Transport is easy and cheap, sights are terrific and plentiful, and the alcohol can be as expensive or as affordable as you like. Hong Kong is truly a beautiful city and we can't wait to return at the end of our trip, and we urge everyone who reads this blog to consider a trip themselves.
We started our trip kind of off on the wrong foot, as Cathay lost a piece of my luggage...the piece carrying the Xbox360...yeah...But all was well later that morning when they returned it to us at the hotel room, more or less in one piece. I guess they stored my luggage in the engine by mistake. :(
We walked, ran, trained, bused, boated, flew, trammed, and taxied all over the Pearl of the Orient. I even got Andrea to try many different kinds of Asian foods she had never tried before, but not without some light resistance. Every man loves a little challenge. I will have to say that when I started ordering left, right, and centre at dim sum she got a little concerned. Perhaps no more concerned than when I ordered some chicken feet. Mmmm...tasty suckers!
The most eventful memory of the trip would have to be our ride on the 360 skyview tram up to see the Tian Tam Buddha on Lantau island. I told Andrea it might be better to wait for another day since it was so cloudy at the top of the island, but we were 'assured' by the ticket attendant that the Buddha was visible. So we alighted aboard this chariot of death up to the summit. We noticed it was windy at the bottom, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. That tram was a shakin' and a swayin' like a leaf in the wind. We were riding with a young Chinese couple who seemed to be enjoying the rough ride, but then they started popping motion sickness tablets like ravers popping uppers at a rave. They generously offered some to us, though we declined. Once we got near the summit we were enveloped in fog. It seemed like a scene straight out of 'The Mist.' Although I assured Andrea of the solidity of the tram and downplayed the severity of the wind, I was more than a little worried myself. ;)
We made it to the top amongst a sea of fog, we walked up the many stairs, we saw the big guy, we took photos, my sunglasses were ripped off my head in the wind...good times were had.
We would have written more blog posts during the trip, but after long days of traveling and walking in the +25 degree heat and +90% humidity, we were obviously low on energy. Not to mention it's nearly impossible to find an internet cafe in this town. Our local i-cafe was populated with late night gamers, who sit solemnly in their chairs, chain smoking cigarettes and ordering fast food while playing some form of online game. Not how we would ideally spend our nights in Hong Kong, but who am I to judge?
Perhaps the best thing about Hong Kong is that Andrea loves Hong Kong. There are not too many cities in the world that get the Andrea 'I could live here' stamp of approval, but HK has made that list. I always told her that it is the New York of the Orient, and although she didn't believe me, she certainly does now. Despite the mugginess, crowdedness, the hustle and bustle, and the non-stop pestering of the local street salespeople, Hong Kong has greatness in it. The humidity allows year-round foot traffic and night drinking and eating. The city is cosmopolitan and energetic. You can walk on one block and find Coach, Burberry and Louis Vuitton and on the very next you can find a night market to sit and people watch and maybe even buy a few trinkets for yourself, friends, and family. The city is obsessed with cleanliness - everything seems to be cleaned or sanitized many times a day, often with an attendant standing guard at each public place, protecting us all from unseemly germs. Transport is easy and cheap, sights are terrific and plentiful, and the alcohol can be as expensive or as affordable as you like. Hong Kong is truly a beautiful city and we can't wait to return at the end of our trip, and we urge everyone who reads this blog to consider a trip themselves.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
T-minus
The only thing more stressful than anticipating moving to another country is the last two days before you travel. We decided to stay for the Easter weekend so we could appropriately say goodbye to family and reap the rewards of Easter feasts. This was generally a terrific idea, but this also means that it's very difficult to get anything done because everybody seems to be closed during holiday weekends. Go figure.
So the past two days have been a flurry of activity. Finalizing seat arrangements, getting our hair done, desperately trying to find Andrea's misplaced backpack, packing, repacking, weighing.
The weight of our imminent departure and the magnitude of our journey has finally dawned on the both of us. It's very hard to pick up and leave all that you've known for the unknown. This, however, is part of the reason we are embarking on this trip. We hope that pushing ourselves to try something completely different and more than a little challenging will reap it's rewards in some way. Perhaps new careers, perhaps new outlooks on life, or maybe, simply, new friends and new memories. In any event, we aim to return changed.
Tomorrow morning we leave the Great White North and by the end of the day we will be in glorious Hong Kong. Tsim Sha Tsui, Victoria Peak, Nathan Road, Macau and Lan Kwai Fong await us. I'm not sure if this trip will be as epic as my earlier trip with the MBAs, but I think I'll remember more of the trip this time through.
So the past two days have been a flurry of activity. Finalizing seat arrangements, getting our hair done, desperately trying to find Andrea's misplaced backpack, packing, repacking, weighing.
The weight of our imminent departure and the magnitude of our journey has finally dawned on the both of us. It's very hard to pick up and leave all that you've known for the unknown. This, however, is part of the reason we are embarking on this trip. We hope that pushing ourselves to try something completely different and more than a little challenging will reap it's rewards in some way. Perhaps new careers, perhaps new outlooks on life, or maybe, simply, new friends and new memories. In any event, we aim to return changed.
Tomorrow morning we leave the Great White North and by the end of the day we will be in glorious Hong Kong. Tsim Sha Tsui, Victoria Peak, Nathan Road, Macau and Lan Kwai Fong await us. I'm not sure if this trip will be as epic as my earlier trip with the MBAs, but I think I'll remember more of the trip this time through.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Where to begin?
It all starts off with an idea. "Hey, let's go to Australia for a year and travel, work, and generally just have a good time." Slowly you begin to amass the proper documentation: visas, passports, health insurance, immunizations...the works. As the months go on and you get closer and closer to your lease expiring, you quickly realize that life moves very slowly at the start of a journey and terrifyingly fast towards the end. Getting ready to move to Australia is as much of a journy as the adventure itself. Slowly, but surely, we are making headway.
We are both living a meta existence right now. Living with parents, without jobs, we are basically vagrants. Procrastination, our old friend, has reared his ugly head once more and we are both scrambling to get the last few travel details finalized, such as: visiting friends and family, procuring international drivers licenses, finalizing bank details, calling credit card companies, playing hockey games, packing, packing, packing...
The packing part isn't as ominous as it sounds. We learned quickly on our first trip to France that packing everything you own is not advisable. Not that you want to underpack either, I mean, who forgets to bring more than one pair of shorts to Nice? Probably the same person that forgets to bring a swimsuit to Australia! I am looking at you, Andrea! :P
It is easy to move to another country, but it is also very difficult. If you are not prepared for all the little things that need doing, you will quickly be swarmed by the enormity of the thing. The emotions are running a little high, and the nightmares of giant spiders haunt me nightly, but in just a few short days we will be in glorious Hong Kong eating hot pot and dim sum, and then on to Australia, where the shrimps and the barbies will greet us with open arms.
Chris
We are both living a meta existence right now. Living with parents, without jobs, we are basically vagrants. Procrastination, our old friend, has reared his ugly head once more and we are both scrambling to get the last few travel details finalized, such as: visiting friends and family, procuring international drivers licenses, finalizing bank details, calling credit card companies, playing hockey games, packing, packing, packing...
The packing part isn't as ominous as it sounds. We learned quickly on our first trip to France that packing everything you own is not advisable. Not that you want to underpack either, I mean, who forgets to bring more than one pair of shorts to Nice? Probably the same person that forgets to bring a swimsuit to Australia! I am looking at you, Andrea! :P
It is easy to move to another country, but it is also very difficult. If you are not prepared for all the little things that need doing, you will quickly be swarmed by the enormity of the thing. The emotions are running a little high, and the nightmares of giant spiders haunt me nightly, but in just a few short days we will be in glorious Hong Kong eating hot pot and dim sum, and then on to Australia, where the shrimps and the barbies will greet us with open arms.
Chris
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)