And they told me I wouldn't like Sydney

Sydney Opera House


Me in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge



A view from the pool at my hostel


Well, they were wrong!

My last day/night in Melbourne was marked by a lack of sleep that carried over into Sydney. Not even fatigue though could stop me from taking in the sites, sounds and meeting so many people within the first day.

After finishing work Sunday afternoon in Melbourne I packed my stuff and went to Andy and Oscar's flat (the English blokes I worked with) and we had a few going away drinks before I caught my plane.......... at 6am. Needless to say I didn't go to bed that night as I knew it would be harder to get up at 3am than simply not to go to bed. So I caught the flight and headed for Sydney.

About an hour and change later, and with about as much of sleep under my belt, the plane touched down to an utterly disappointing sight. I would compare the feeling to the one the Mcallister family had in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York when the family went to Florida, sans Kevin, for Christmas and arrived to a very un-Florida type reception. It was pouring rain. So, without much sleep but a healthy dose of excitement I got a shuttle bus to my hostel and settled in. Still unable to get sleep due to preparations I had to make for the next few days (lodging because the hostel was booked for New Years and still is, look for an apartment, exchange formalities with my Canadian, French and Finnish roommates, etc.). Managing to get maybe an hour of sleep in the midst of this I decided to hit the town with a new acquaintance and see a little bit of Sydney. After a late night I was finally going to get some good sleep. It had been somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 hours without REM sleep.

The next day I got to see what everyone comes here to see and doesn't leave without getting tons of pictures of. The Harbour Bridge and the Opera House came into view from behind the skyscrapers as I came closer and then into full view as I entered Circular Quay. To try and describe the amazing view wouldn't do it justice but the pictures would have to suffice. The bridge, a massive mesh frame of steel, arched over the harbor and the Opera House, with its white tile covering, reflected the sun to look like a snow covered field on a sunny day. I felt like the quintessential tourist as I asked strangers to take a picture of me standing in front of the rising structures but everyone else was as well so I wasn't alone.

After some hard searching and following up I found an apartment in Regis Tower on Harbour Street right below Darling Harbour. When I saw the view from the roof I knew this was where I was to live for my stint in Sydney. My apartment is on the 17th floor and the pool and hot tub, yes, pool and hot tub, are on the roof on the 18th floor. The work out room is also on the roof. This aspect of the place easily compensates for cramped space of the room. But before I move in I am in the hostel for another four nights, one of which (New Years Eve) I don't know where I'll be because the hostel is booked solid. But not knowing is half the fun.

One of the best parts about the first few days in Sydney is the people I've met. I went to karaoke with a Finn named Heidi, a German named Christian and some Dutch girls whose names I can't remember. My selection of Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond to end the night rocked the house even if my voice didn't. And of course I added the lyrics so common to every Bostonian singing them at one point or another in bars, concerts of Sox games ('Sweet Caroline.......Ba Da Daaa'). The Germans though are everywhere and about 1/3 of the people I've met are from the motherland. The English and French come in second and the Americans a distant last. I've probably met less than 10 Americans since I've been here in Australia.

Now I just have to find a job and start over again. I don't know how long I'll be in Sydney but if the first couple days are any indication of life in Sydney (which they probably aren't) I'll stay as long as I can.

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

Slowly waking up on Christmas morning, the realization of what day it was took some reinforcing as I sluggishly gained consciousness. It was a round 9am and I did not want to get out of bed due to the fact that in two hours I had to be at work. Needless to say it was a very nontraditional Christmas for me but in my case working was actually better than sticking around the house with absolutely nothing to do. Whatever Christmas celebration I was going to have had to wait until work was over.

The restaurant was strikingly empty for the first few hours of the day but as mid afternoon came around the place got packed. Everyone exchanged 'Merry Christmas' and I actually received the only physical gift of the Christmas season. It was a little jar of Nutella. It is basically a creamy chocolate spread about the consistency of peanut butter. Upon hearing that I had never tried this much-loved spread a French girl (Marine) decided that I simply must try it. So, a jar of Nutella was my Christmas gift and I must say that it was very good.

Later on I met up with some blokes from work (Oscar and Andy) and had a feast of massive proportions. It was actually more of miniature proportions but it was exactly what the doctor ordered. Finger foods and such covered the coffee table in the living room of their 3rd floor apartment in St. Kilda; brie, humus, vegies, crackers, smoked salmon, prosciutto, sausages, stuffed capsicum, olives, caviar..... And while I was hesitant to try the caviar I actually kinda liked it. It tastes pretty much like tuna.

With plenty of food and drink I winded down the evening with a call to the fam at around 4am making it 2pm back in Boston. Overall it was a good Christmas and I enjoyed spending it here in Australia. I did kinda miss the snow though.

Great Ocean Road

This one is called London Bridge because it used
to have an arch to the mainland but it fell.


These are the Twelve Apostles (even though
there's not twelve of them).

My first real dose of some good old fashion Australian flora and fauna came two months into my trip as I travelled the Great Ocean Road. The road was built during the 1920s by returning servicemen from the first World War. The road is 243 K's which roughly comes out to be 150 miles long and stretches to the west of Melbourne along the southern coast of Victoria. The scenery was amazing and could best be described as a mix of the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California coastlines. Tall cliffs rise strait out of the waves crashing against the jagged rocks that seem to be still rising out of the ocean floor. You can almost see the tectonic plates in action as the slabs of layered rock diagonally jut out towards the cliff from the waves.

The road itself winds up and down and around the cliffs along the coast and is full of long views of distant rock formations stretching out into the water. There were a couple light houses and oddly designed houses perched on the cliffs that look as if they will crumble at any moment. The tour guide was knowledgeable about the road the history behind it but his ability to tell a story was lacking, which he attempted several times. We became buds though as the trip continued and shared our experiences of traveling we'd done, the jobs we'd worked, the people we'd met and yada yada yada. I also had some German friends on the trip as well who came in handy when an extra hand on the camera was needed. They were good company too.

The best part off trip though was easily the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are a group of limestone stacks that rise about 150 ft out of the water. The area is a massive tourist attraction and the fly's love it. I have never been so surrounded by swarming flys in my life and it really tested my patience. Every time I would pause to take a picture and hold the camera steady there would be about 10 flys that would bombard my head. Despite the fys though the views were amazing as we could look out from the overhanging cliffs down to the beach and go down to the beach to view the rock faces from below. And although there is a lot of driving time involved in the trip the Great Ocean Road is a must. And while I leave for Sydney on the 28th it was a good last trip for my time in Melbourne.

Paintball

Yesterday some folks from work and I went on a trip to the local paintball center for a little shoot'em up. Never having been before the only thing I was expecting was to feel a little sting when the ball hits you. I had no idea that the little sting was not so little. It was an indoor course with all the usual barricades and walls to hide behind. We grouped up into two teams and let fly. As much as it hurt getting hit, especially at close distance and repeatedly, it was made up for when I got someone in my sites and pelted'em pretty good.

I had no idea how tiring it was or how out of shape I am. Running around the course while ducking and hiding behind barriers required constant crouching and getting back up which has left my legs in 80 year old condition today. My body might take a week of more to heal the welts but it was all worth it.

Christmas Time In Melbourne

This was during my trip to the Yarra Wind Valley
in front of the Chandon Valley Vinyard.



A view from the Skydeck in the Melbourne city
central


It is now 11 days till Christmas and I could not be more out of the Christmas spirit. It's not that people around me aren't excited or that the city isn't decorated and signs saying 'Merry Christmas' aren't all around. It just plain doesn't feel like Christmas and it is simply because there is no snow. Even in Boston having a white Christmas is usually not so but there is a certain smell in the air that always reminded me of the Christmas season. It is the unmistakable smell of smoke coming from chimney tops. That smell is obviously absent here as no one, in their right mind, lights a fire in 70 degree weather. But Christmas it is, regardless of the weather, and I will spend my Christmas morning.........working. The restaurant is open Christmas Eve/Day and Boxing Day (which is the day after Christmas and a national holiday). I work all three of them. The compensation is that you get paid double time and a half so I guess I cant complain.

I was working the other day though and a little boy decided that he wanted to know everything about the food and started to ask questions about each item on the menu. After he finished he completely changed subjects by telling me that I had the coolest accent he had every heard. For most of the time I've been here I am very aware of how people sound to me but not so much aware of how I sound to them. While I don't think my accent is cool (or even think I have one: "My accent is neutral" is what I jokingly tell people) I get a kick out of people imitating it. The Aussies can do a pretty good American accent while the French and Germans have a very hard time imitating one. I can do a decent Aussie accent but only with certain words and only sometimes. I have to be in the right mood.

As for the Christmas season in Melbourne it will be interesting to have a Christmas morning away from family but I am looking forward to the unfamiliarity of it. And after Christmas I am picking up and moving on to Sydney for the New Year and on. I am excited to see the fire works from the Harbour Bridge as I have only seen them on TV as the first large city on the globe to celebrate the new year. And since the weather will be ideal for beach trips I hope to finally learn how to surf at Byron Bay. The city is going to be packed as travelers from all over flock there for the New Year's celebration and it is sure to be a sight. I just hope I can find a place to stay.

The 411 on Aussie Restaurants

So after working in the restaurant bizz for many years I have found many peculiarities about how the way a restaurant is run and even how customers experience it. And I have found that the basis for way an American restaurant functions vs an Australian restaurant is the system of tipping. From what I can see almost everything about customer service stems from tipping. Waiters over here obviously get paid a decent hourly rate which is why people don't tip here. I should say that there is not a total absence of tipping however but when people do tip it is usually anywhere from 1 to 5 percent (or they are American and don't know they don't have to tip over here, stupid Americans). So the first difference is that I don't even introduce myself to my tables anymore as there is no need to try and establish a personal connection to better your tip. But most of the time when you approach a table there is no time to introduce yourself because you would simply be interrupting the customer in the middle of his/her order. The customer knows there is not going to be a courtship by the waiter and is ready to go. It is very efficient this way but it certainly is something that took getting used to.The second difference is that the only reason you need to maintain a quasi-attentive attitude towards your table is to move along the meal in order to get them out and the next table in. The only reason, generally, to approach a table once they are eating is to clear their plates once they are done or hand them the bill. Most people, unless they are consuming adult beverages, do not get a second drink (maybe because there are no free refills on sodas). Of course sometimes people do order coffee and desert for which I had to acquaint myself with the way coffee is named over here: long black, short black, flat white, long flat white, short weak white, long skinny black, etc. But not too difficult once you get the hang of it.The third difference is that a table is not really yours since there is generally no tip that comes along with it. A table can be interchanged among the staff like a pair of designer jeans among teenage girls. If I have a section of the restaurant and my shift ends I don't have to wait for my tables to leave, I just leave. Someone else takes over and there is no need to update the new server or transfer tables. So, as you can see, especially someone in the restaurant bizz, there is a lot about an experience in an American restaurant that differs that of an Aussie restaurant. And it all stems from tipping.