Sydney – What’s my first impression ?! – # 6 Work and Travel Australia 2018

Tasmania was choppy. Now it was back to Melbourne, but only for a few days. Because the next road trip was already waiting for us, Melbourne to Sydney. Actually, the plan was only a few months to work in Sydney. But a few months lead to half a year to now 8-9 months and still continuing. My experience and to learn about the road trip from Melbourne to Sydney and my first impressions of Sydney you will learn in this blog post.

Goodbye Melbourne !!!

Now was the time to turn my back on Melbourne till indefinitely. In the past months (February and March 2018) I had experienced so much, I had ups and downs and can say that these two months have brought me a lot further in my life. As a person I have already changed a lot, I could just spend time with myself and my thoughts.
Nevertheless, I was also very excited about what I would expect in the next few months! As I mentioned before, I first wanted to come to Sydney to earn some money there. I did not have a job yet. After that it was planned to travel the east coast of Australia. How, where, what and when was still open!

Roadtrip Melbourne to Sydney

For the road trip to Sydney we had borrowed a camper van again. This time not only Mirko and I were on the road, but also two Englishmen whom we had met at the hostel in St Kilda (Melbourne).
Our goal was to be in Sydney in 10 days. By driving through one on the highway it would take about 15 hours of driving time. However, our plan was to drive along the coast, taking with us the beautiful beaches and attractions.

Our camper van

As you can see in the picture above, our camper van was in flower pattern, two people could sleep in the camper van and two people had space in the roof tent, In the trunk a small kitchen was installed with a sink and a small gas cooker, we also had room to store our food.
At first I thought it would take too long to set up the roof tent, but when we first set up the roof tent I noticed that it was really easy!
For the future, I will definitely get a camper van with a roof tent again, because it is very easy to assemble, disassemble and also super comfortable. The only downside to the roof tent is that you can not sleep in private, everyone can see you sleeping, because the tent is set up, If you would just sleep in the car, you could just park on the road and then leave from the car, that was a lot easier in Tasmania. You did not have to worry about a parking space, In Tasmania you can camp anywhere and on the mainland of Australia you can rest only on camper places.

First stop Wilson’s Promontory National Park

Our first stop on the way to Sydney was Wilson’s Promontory National Park, from Melbourne we needed about 5 hours, we had planned two days for the National Park. On the first day we visited different beaches and looked at the landscape. We stayed at Camper van Resort at Wilsons Promontory National Park, cooked and had dinner together,  after we cooked we went to the beach and watched the sunset, It was really beautiful.
The next day we hiked the mountain Mount Oberon which took about 2 hours. The view was just indescribably beautiful, after we were back down we drove on with our camper van and hiked the Wildernis way. There we also saw kangaroos and could even pat them.
Unfortunately, the weather did not play in our favour, well on these two days. Therefore, we could not look at the full beauty of the national park, It was definitely worth a visit, but wasn’t that magical.

No real highlights between Melbourne and Sydney

After Wilson’s Promontory National Park, there were no other amazing highlights on the way to Sydney, their were normal cool beaches and cool places to have a campfire, but nothing about which I would continue to write longer. The next highlights were just outside Sydney, namely Pebbly Beach and Jervis Bay / Hyam’s Beach.

Where can I find kangaroos on the beach?

Where I find kangaroos on the beach is a really good question. That’s what I thought, at least when someone asked me if I knew this place but then we came to Pebbly Beach. On this beach were really kangaroos and you could even feed, pat and take pictures with them, the beach was not the nicest, but not the ugliest. This was definitely a highlight on my road trip from Melbourne to Sydney! I would definitely go back to take pictures with the kangaroos.

Whiter Can not Be The Sand (Hyam’s Beach)

The beach in Tasmania was in my opinion  the whitest beach I have ever seen, but Hyam’s Beach is about 2 hours south of Sydney, Jervis Bay has topped it all off but that was partly because the weather was just perfect, we had a completely blue sky and the sea was turquoise green, so for anyone in Sydney, drive to Jervis Bay for a beach day.
At Jervis Bay there is not only Hyam’s Beach to see, but it is a huge bay in which an incredible number of different places have their uniqueness.

These were actually the highlights of the road trip, next time, I might think about visiting the Wilsons Promontory National Park from Melbourne, then taking the plane or train to Sydney and borrowing a car for a two-day trip to Jervis Bay and Pebbly Beach , The road trip was actually quite boring and apart from these three highlights, there was nothing great to see.

My expectations for Sydney

Sydney. Now I finally arrived in the city that everyone in the world knows, I talked to a lot of backpackers and Australians in Melbourne, the question always came up, which city was better: Melbourne or Sydney. Most have answered that Melbourne is the prettier city. Of course Sydney has beaches, better weather and you can surf, Melbourne on the other hand is more of a European city with a beautiful but normal beach in St Kilda, the temperate weather, no major harbour and landmarks. Sydney has the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, which is known all over the world.
Melbourne should also have more of the more chilled atmosphere, In Sydney on the other hand people live to work and one can notice the tense working atmosphere on the street. All people in suits run the streets and look very stressed out because of these many benefits, I had no good expectations of Sydney and thought I would not like it and I would move away anyway, but in the end everything was different than I expected.

My arrival in Sydney – Indescribably big

We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon with our camper van, It was rush hour and we really took forever until we arrived at our hostel, which was right on the Central station, we just threw our things from the van to the hostel and drove them immediately to the car wash and then brought to the delivery station.
From the delivery station we had to take the bus to Central station, we noticed that Sydney is much bigger than the centre of Melbourne, Outside the skyscrapers the streets are huge and there are so many shops and large houses, which actually belong to the city centre.

The best hostel in Sydney

The hostel we booked for our first nights in Sydney was a very expensive hostel at $ 42 but we figured it would take the first few days whether or not we liked Sydney, we would treat ourselves to a better impression of Sydney. The hostel was really nice, we slept in a share room, but it felt like a hotel, the rooms were really clean, everyone had electrical outlets in his locker, the lockers were so big that you could put your whole suitcase in there, the kitchen was really big and clean and there was a rooftop area from where you could see the skyline. All in all, the hostel was the best I have ever been to, the name was Bounce Hostel at Central station.

Since it was already evening, we have only just bought something to cook and eat, In the evening we sat down in the roof top area and looked at the skyline, Sydney’s skyline is much nicer than Melbourne’s, as there are many more skyscrapers, creating a wall of skyscrapers, we then went to bed to be fit the following day.
The next day we went on a tourist tour, we started at our hostel at Central Station, walked through the city along Hyde Park, through the Botanical Gardens and to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, From there you have a very nice view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, we went further, closer towards Opera House. I’ve heard from many that the Opera House is very ugly by day, as I stood in front of it, I could understand why so many had said that to me. It has a light beige grey tone and the facade are ugly with big panels.

Tip: Go and see the Opera House at night when it is illuminated, because then it is really nice!

The next stop was the Harbour Bridge, we walked past the Rocks and went under the bridge, the sight was really indescribable, I had never seen such a big bridge.
To get on the bridge on it we would first have to walk a large detour. Because the bridge is so high that it protrudes 100 meters into the city.
On the bridge, unfortunately, you could not see so much, because everything is blocked off with fences, so you can not jump down and nothing can fall. Another option would have been to do a bridge climb, but this costs several hundred dollars and that was too much for us.

After the Harbour Bridge we arrived at the Darling Harbour, this is the harbour where there is a boardwalk with plenty of bars, restaurants, shops and sea life attractions. During the day the harbour looks very nice, but at night, it’s even better. Everything lights up and the skyline is reflected by the water. When it’s still warm, it’s the perfect atmosphere to go out with friends!

Never trust an Irish gipsy

We were in the morning in the kitchen and wanted to make breakfast, the receptionist came to the kitchen and asked if anyone was looking for a job, my friend Mirko and I were on fire immediately because we were looking for work anyway. The receptionist said downstairs at the front desk would be a gentleman who looks for workers for a day at the construction, We came down immediately and talked to the bloke, he said that it is not about construction, but only distribute flyers, we figured $ 28 an hour, that’s easy money, we grabbed our backpack without breakfast and went with him into the car to distribute the flyers, he said we have to download an app so that he can track how many miles and which roads we have walked He wanted to pay after km. Everyone has been allocated an area and should rappel this alone, of course, there was a certain competitive situation, because everyone wanted to do more miles than the other, In the end, I ran 23 km in 5 hours and was completely drenched with sweat. I called Mirko and an Englishman Luke with whom I had worked that day, Luke is a very good friend of ours.
I then met with the two of them and then went back to the hostel. We called our employer and asked how we looking for the payment, he said, “I’ll pay you tomorrow.” The next day we called again and he said, “Yes, I pay on Friday.” Then we called again on Friday He said, “Yes, I pay on Sunday” This went on and on, eventually he told us that he had already paid us.. we than realised this guy has just screwed us!
It was an Irish Gipsy who had just taken advantage of us to distribute his flyers, however, we could not undo our work, we learned a large lesson from this mistake.

Tip: Never trust an Irish Gipsy

Conclusion

My first impressions wasn’t as bad as I had thought, although Melbourne has me wanting to come back, I was by no means disappointed with Sydney, let’s see what else happens! Now it’s time to find a job and earn money.

In the next blog post, I’ll tell you more about job hunting in Australia. How do you find a job? Which jobs are eligible? How much do you earn in Australia?
I’ll tell you more in my next blog post, you can also check my Instagram account @fabianxarnold or if you have questions you can email me. I look forward to your feedback and wish you a nice time.

best regards

 

Fabian