Sydney, Australia: I turn 24 and take on the ultimate big girl challenge – cooking Christmas dinner
I have Sharon back with me now, and all is good. After two weeks of intense househunting, we move into an unfurnished apartment in Randwick with Bernie, whom we met on Gumtree. Yes, he could have been a total creep, and yes, he actually is. But in a good way. Our flat is a two bedroom apartment right by the junction, a 15 minute walk to Coogee beach and 20 minutes by bus to Bondi Junction and the CBD. We pick up a new hobby: finding free stuff on the streets and dragging it all the way home. From bar stools to heavy coffee tables, we always find ourselves hungover on a hot day, trying to carry heavy stuff home.
First night in the new apartment
Carrying a free coffee table from Coogee to Randwick
We do pay for some things, though. Like we buy our beds in IKEA, which turns out to be a traumatizing experience for me, as a staff member starts verbally abusing me for bringing a prepaid item through the store. We spend an entire afternoon in Maroubra, visiting people who’ve put up their TV for sale, only to have our phones die on us, no idea of how to get home, and no TV – but we find a free foosball table, so it’s all good.
Bondi to Coogee walk
Glebe Market
Darling Harbour fireworks
Darling Harbour fireworks
Work is going well, although I will always have a love/hate for hospitality. One minute I am chatting to regular customers like they’re an old friend, another minute I’ll be insulted by someone because I don’t remember their name.
My 24th birthday is spent in the apartment with Bernie, who’s throwing things at me while I dodge them with a cricket bat we found outside – I wasn’t kidding about the finding free stuff hobby. We fill up water bottles with goon and mimosas and carry them to Coogee beach, along with some music and much needed sunscreen. A bit tipsy and way too hot, I go into the water, where a series of waves continuously knock me over and pull off my bikini until I finally am able to stand up and cover myself up and walk back to safety. We get back home and have a nap, and then a few Mildura people come over for drinks.
The last day at work before Christmas break, one of my regulars surprise me with a really thoughtful present – a note, a candy cane and my favorite chocolate (how does she know!?) and my life it pretty much made. Guess I’m not too bad at this job after all. Later that day, a couple of people from work meet up for few drinks that turn into way too many, and then I dominate at a game of Laser Tag at the Arcade. We go in the bumper cars and play a 3D zombie game and then head off to Scary Canary (yes, really) where I lose the crowd and is being chatted up by a very aggressive Aussie who thinks having a membership to the Randwick races is a proper pick up line. We move on to Star Bar (I think?) and then Macca’s for a late night snack. I’m home at like 3.30, so I would definitely call that progress, since I am usually dead at midnight.
I enjoy a couple of days of beachy weather, resulting in awkward tan lines, before the weather turns into proper Northern European Christmas weather. I go to see the Christmas light projections at St. Mary’s Cathedral with Craig, and we even go inside and light some candles and don’t even go up in flames. Guess I’m alright with God after all.
By the way, I love Vegemite now.
Santa at Darling Quarter
Now, I’ve taken on the ultimate big girl task: cooking traditional Christmas dinner for my room mates. Danish Christmas dinner, that is. If having me running around all the shops in Randwick looking for red cabbage and making cherry sauce from scratch THE DAY BEFORE Christmas isn’t grown-up enough for you, then get off my lawn. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself, pretty much having nightmares about not cooking the meat right.
I get up early on the 24th, MY actual Christmas, and FaceTime my mom’s side of the family. They’re all pretty drunk and cheery, and I have just woken up and put on a Santa hat. I watch some Christmas movies with Bernie throughout the day to get in the Christmas spirit, before I start cooking. Even though I face some challenges along the way, we have our Christmas dinner at around 8 o’clock (because Sharon had to work late), and it tastes pretty much exactly like it should. We have roast pork with crackling, caramelized potates, red cabbage, gravy made from scratch(!), rice pudding and cherry sauce. Well done, Christine.
The empty, wrapped present we found outside our house and put under our plastic Christmas tree.
Trying to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas
Our free cricket bat, foosball table, Christmas cards and some books.
Christmas cooking
It doesn’t look fancy, but it tasted like it was
Wife material
I go to bed and pass out after eating a few Skittles, still wearing my clothes and make-up. I’m exhausted from cooking all day, and actually a bit grumpy. Christmas is stressful. I wake up early the next day to FaceTime my dad’s side of the family, still exhausted, but at least wearing make-up from yesterday. After a shower, a short nap and some getting ready, Sharon and I go down to Coogee beach with 7 ciders each, and no sunscreen.
We find a nice patch of grass among all the other backpackers wearing Santa hats. Note to self: not only remember sunscreen and possibly a tent for shade next time, get a Christmas tree and a BBQ as well. We are clearly not prepared for this. We just sit in the sun for hours, drinking ciders and talking crap, before we’re joined by Craig, Malin and her friend Hannah.
After 5 hours or so, we are sunburned and tired, so we go to Macca’s, which is the only place open for Christmas, and we eat our dinner on the way home. We bump into some guys that helped us carry our heavy coffee table home the other day, and wish we weren’t so sunburned that we could go back to the beach with them. Instead, we get home, where Bernie’s mom and little brother have arrived. We take cold showers, have a chat with them, and then go to bed around 10. We’ve survived our first Christmas away from home with just a minor heat stroke and an awful sunburn.
Sydney, Australia: I now live in Sydney. Holy shit.
I arrive with 40 kg of luggage weighing me down on a hot day. Despite a long day of flying and waiting in airports and fearing more cancelled flights because of a storm, I still manage to get a train to Central, find and check in to my hostel, Wake Up! once again, with minimal anxiety and loads of pride. After I arrive at the hostel, I throw my tired self on my bottom bunk bed and enjoy the Wi-Fi for the first time in months. I send off a few job applications, chat to my roommates for a while (how did I end up in an all-male dorm?) and then I go out to hang out with Sally. We met two years ago at The Pink Palace, and she’s made it all the way from Belgium to Sydney for the next few days. We walk down to Sydney Harbour and enjoy the view and a cheap dinner, which we reluctantly share with the seagulls flocking around us.
During the next couple of days, I go for a bit of shopping and meet up with Craig at my favorite George Street bar, Cheers, for a catch-up. At Paddy’s Market I buy a fascinator for the upcoming races and I finally buy a UNICORN ONESIE. Unicorns are kinda my thing by now.
Since Craig’s 25th birthday is approaching, everyone from Mildura who’s currently in Sydney get together at the Randwick Races on Saturday. It’s a beautiful, sunny day. Craig, wearing a suit, meets up with Sally and me at YHA Central (since Wake Up! is fully booked for the weekend). I’ve been up for hours, due to a new inability to sleep in, and because I’ve had to try to look decent for this day. At the races, everyone is dressed up, wearing suits or fancy dresses and fascinators and heels. Yep, I am actually wearing heels today.
We get the bus to Randwick and find a table for the group. The three of us get a bottle of champagne while we wait for John, Darren, Becky and her boyfriend Karl. Of course by the time they actually arrive, I am tipsy. I’ve spent 20 dollars betting on horses with funny names on the machines by the food court, and we realize that I’ve accidentally put my money on a race in New Zealand instead. I don’t win on any of the horses.
After several bottles and a few snacks in the scolding sun, I put my last bit of money on a horse at the last race named Danish Twist. It ends in the final three, so I win back my five dollars, and then we head back to John, Darren and Becky’s place in Bondi. We are joined by Becky’s brothers for a few drinks, and then I pass out, way before midnight.
From then on, the weather seems to get worse by the day. Except for a few cloudy days, it’s pretty much raining non-stop. John and I go check out Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi on a vaguely sunny afternoon, but most of the time we stay in the apartment, sheltered from the rain. Yeah, I’ve moved in temporarily while waiting for Sharon to get to Sydney.
I spend my Monday morning applying for around 16 jobs in hospitality and retail – by the end of the day I’ve heard back from three places. I find myself having two interviews on the same day, 30 minutes apart. I try to contact one place to reschedule, but don’t hear back from them.
After an interview and 2-hour trial at The Naked Duck café in Darling Quarter, I officially have a job. I have good hours and nice co-workers, and I feel so lucky to have gotten my life somewhat sorted in a short time. My days of sitting on a couch, playing South Park on Xbox, are over. I now have to get up at 5.30 AM, take a bus at 6.00 and start work at 6.45. By the end of the day I am tired and my white work T-shirt is covered in grease and food and my hair is wet and sticking to my forehead, but I’m happy. I have a sense of purpose again.
On a warm and cloudy Saturday, John takes me to Darling Harbour, which I haven’t been to before, despite working right next to it. We check out the Japanese festival that’s happening there, have lunch at the food court, and then we go to Museum of Sydney for the LEGO exhibition, that’s opened that very day. In a very small room, the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, a cruise ship and Luna Park have been made entirely out of LEGO, even with little LEGO people climbing the bridge or going for a show at the Opera House. In addition to looking at the impressive sculptures, we get to play with LEGO ourselves. Feeling very uninspired, I only make things like hearts, trees, houses and of course, a Danish flag. I’m feeling very patriotic these days. As we leave the museum, it starts to rain, and we find shelter at the Haymarket arcade. We spend $25 and over an hour on the machines, until I’m so tired, I can barely stand up. We have dinner at Grill’d and then I take the bus home while John meets up with a friend. Even though I am struggling to keep my eyes open, I still don’t fall asleep until well after midnight.
Those are just a few of the things I’m getting up to here in Sydney. There’s a lot more to come, though, and I just can’t wait. :-)
Sydney, Australia: Mom, Dad, I am never coming back.
Going to Australia has always been one of those dreams of mine that I never thought would actually come true. I imagined this Paradise with beautiful people with those amazing accents, new friends on every street corner, kangaroos and koalas, amazing nature – and Christmas on the beach! And it’s only a million hours away from home!
Sharon and I used to work together at The Pink Palace. The year of 2013 was a great year for us, and we immediately decided we would go on the trip that was dubbed “The Husband Hunt”. Of course, there were times when it seemed like yet another travel plan that failed to come through, but here I am, listening to people saying “no worries, mate” and “how are ya going?” as they pass by, and I’m just loving my life.
We arrive at WakeUp! Hostel a bit past noon. My mission for the day is getting a new iPhone, and I need to transfer some money onto my Debit card first. Of course, the internet bank back home in Denmark is closed for the next 40 minutes, so I suggest we go for a short walk. We pass Market City, and end up on the main street (George St), and suddenly, I see the top of Harbor Bridge. We try to follow it, until we end up at the Observatory, where a bunch of brides and grooms are getting their photos taken at the Observatory Hill. We keep walking, and eventually find the Opera House, where a few more couples are taking pictures – and there is even an actual wedding taking place! Since we aren’t prepared at all, we have to rely on Sharon’s phone for photos of the Opera House. By Sydney Harbor, it is warm and windy. People are having expensive lunches with a great view, boarding a giant cruise ship, or watching the street performers juggle with knives and fire with their eyes closed.
As random as it has been to bump into the two main Sydney landmarks on our casual afternoon stroll, we also manage to find our way back to the main road, where we see an Apple store. We go in, and find an Apple Genius and I tell him I want a new phone. He asks me what’s wrong with my old one, and as I explain it to him, he interrupts me to tell me I can get a new one way cheaper if I turn in the old one. We make an appointment to come back 45 minutes later, and rush back to the hostel for my phone. When we come back, we sit down with two older Geniuses, one of them is a trainee. Sharon and I have named the phone Briana, as it seems fitting to name someone who’s about to be buried. So I go up to these guys and say “Hi, Briana died during a tragic accident while swimming with whale sharks, and I need a new one.” They don’t really know what to say at first, but eventually, they make her a coffin (the box for the new phone) and tissue flowers, and we talk about movies about diving with sharks and whatnot. These guys are absolutely amazing and so entertaining. As we walk out of the Apple store, Sharon and I agree this has been so much fun, and so unexpected. I walk out with a new phone, whom the Geniuses name Rihanna, for $300 – that’s way better than the original $900, right?
We go to McDonald’s for dinner, since it’s right next to the Apple Store – yes, I am disgusting, I don’t even care at this point. Then, we head to SideBar, which is a nightclub right under our hostel, and it’s just awkward. The place slowly fills up and groups of 21-year old English guys approach us one by one, and I tell them I’m 29 and from India, which some of them seem to believe. We’re in bed around 2, not from partying too hard, but from exhaustion.
We wake up the next morning, and the sun is shining outside. We are in separate rooms, so we meet up in the lobby and decide to go back to the Opera House and this time I will actually bring a camera. We get lost on our way and end up at the Botanical Gardens, which doesn’t bum us out too much. I get threatened by bird moms, and we learn about different grass species. This becomes a running joke, with us identifying grass and going “this is buffalo grass!” like the true experts we are. Eventually, we do find the Opera House, when a girl wearing bunny ears approaches us and shows us to a venue up a flight of stairs. We hear loud music coming from there and are about to check it out when she tells us that Cadbury is having an Easter event. So, for two hours we sit on the grass right by the Opera House, listening to Hot Potato Band, watch magicians and acrobats, and eat free Cadbury Easter eggs. Heaven.
The cricket finale is on today – Australia vs. New Zealand – which sounds like a big deal. We’re all about doing very Australian things and meeting locals, so we head over to Three Wise Monkeys Bar. On the way, just by Queen Victoria’s building, a little guy with a big guitar is perfoming Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. His name is Ky Baldwin and he is 13 years old and he is amazing. We give him some money and watch him perform cover after cover, until he puts down the guitar, and his sweet, sour-faced little sister puts on an instrumental on the computer. It’s Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, and he starts dancing like Michael Jackson and encourages people to join in. At first, no one does, but then a Lance (code for hot guy) jumps in and go crazy. They dance so alike, the crows goes even crazier! That concludes Ky’s set, and everyone leaves with a big smile on their faces. We even run up to him to shake his hand. And we’re late for the cricket game.
Obsessed with this
There is no one at the bar, despite us being two hours late for the start of the game. Bored by it, we finish our beer and head back to the hostel for a nap. 3 hours later, we wake up and go to Cheers, and the game is still on!! We have dinner at Cheers as well, and it is so good. Go get the chargrilled pork loin, if you swing by. It’s Heaven.
Our 3rd day, Monday, is when I get the travel orientation that was included in my Kilroy package. The Swedish travel agent gives me a SIM card and applies for my tax file number. She points me over to a working agency that I can use when I’m ready to find a job, and Sharon and I head to Westpac bank to set up accounts. It takes 15 minutes, and you’re good to go. Then, we meet up with Fransisco, a guest from The Pink Palace that I don’t remember to have ever met, and he takes us to The Rocks for drinks. As we get drunker, we realise that we’re hungry, and try to squeeze in at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant. That can’t be done, so we go to the Mexican place right next to it and eat the least Mexican food I have ever had. Still good, though. As it is Monday, Scubar is the place to be, and it is PACKED. After a few drinks, I start troll dancing, my new favorite activity. As I am dancing up against this guy without his knowledge, suddenly we’re doing the moon landing together. We turn around, and that’s how I meet Craig from England. A new friendship has been made, even though I tell him I’m from Kenya. We dance up against these Israeli girls that find out, and I think I’m about to get punched in the face. I explain what troll dancing is and demonstrate on someone standing around a table, and the girls start laughing and join in. We stay out till 3 AM, drinking and dancing.
The next day, Sharon, San Fran (Fransisco’s new nickname) and I go for amazing breakfast in Newtown. It’s raining, so we nap most of the day and then go to the Opera House for sunset. I also meet Chris Hemsowrth.
We buy some souvenirs and have meat pie for dinner – another aussie thing checked off the list! On the way back to the hostel, we go to Angel Place, an alley with lots of birdcages hanging over it, and we are disappointed to find that they’re not lit up.
We invite Craig for goon in my 6 bed dorm, which has been empty all day. Side note: my Colombian roommate, Felipe, finally checked out earlier. He has been sitting on my bed all the time, touching me, trying to give me massages and things like that, and he doesn’t understand what “no” means. It got to a point where I kept saying “No, you are weird and I don’t like that” every time he asked for a hug after he just got out of the shower, naked, or when he tried to wake me up from my naps so we could cuddle, or touch my face when my alarm rang in the morning. Well, back to my oddly empty dorm, where Craig has now joined us. We sit there with music playing from an iPhone, play our favorite card game, Wham Bam Slam!, when security knocks on the door. It’s two guys, a Lance and a Kevin (I don’t bother to look at him, because I am so occupied with Lance), and they tell us we’re being super loud and ask us to keep it down. I ask whether they are talking about the music or us, and they reply “what music?” and start laughing. They are obviously just there to see if we’re drinking in the room, but I hide the goon under the bed really quickly, and they don’t find anything.
We decide it’ll be fun if Sharon climbs up one of the bunks and pour goon into our mouths. So Craig and I take turns kneeling by the bunk beds, and Sharon pours the wine and it hits our mouths, our eyes, our clothes. We are covered in wine, and laughing about it for a good half hour, when 5 Germans burst in. Fuck.
On Wednesday, Sharon and I go to Paddy’s market. It’s so massive, we get lost several times. We buy Karen and Koko, a kangaroo and a koala handpuppet. They are both male.
We decided to bring them with us to Bondi beach. We see the life guards that are featured in the TV show Bondi Rescue, and one of them is being filmed. Sharon tells me about the show while we stare at the camera crew. We eventually just roll over and fall asleep. When we wake up, it’s 3 PM – it always is when we check the time – and we go to buy some water before getting back to the hostel. We don’t realise that we’re walking in the middle of the road with 3 cars behind us, as we think we’re on a pedestrians-only boardwalk. Embarrassing.
Later during the day, we visit Craig at YHA Hostel and meet all his roommates – it’s a big male dorm – and his travelbuddy, Andy. We drink some goon with them, and I fall into a goon coma, so we head back pretty early to get some sleep.
It’s Thirsty Thursday and we do nothing all day. I move into Sharon’s dorm finally, though. We have dinner at Cheers with San Fran – once again pork loin – and invent Flip Coaster, where you try to flip the coaster from the top of one pint glass to the other glass.
We go The Royal George to meet his friends, and then go to Ivy, which San Fran describes as a super club. We stand in line for everything, including toilets, so Sharon, San Fran, Tom and I decide to back to The Royal George for more drinks, and finally we have a late night.
It’s Good Friday, which we’ve renamed Goon Friday. The bottle shops are closed, so we have previously restocked on goon, and today, we go to Woolworths (“Woolies”) and shop for dinner. We make pasta with chicken, cream and garlic, because we’re so healthy. We sit in the common area with our food, sipping on goon and talk to our roommate Jess. We got our bank cards in the mail earlier, so we open the letters and activate the cards after dinner. Because of a sleeping girl in the dorm, we sit in the hallway and play cards, and meet some English guys, who give advice on traveling up the East Coast. At 1 AM, we go to bed, exhausted from all the relaxing we’ve done today.
We’ve officially been in Sydney for one week. And we’re going to stay longer! Our hostel is fully booked, so we head to Base Hostel, one kilometer away, carrying all our stuff, in the rain. It fucking sucks. We go to Woollies and buy some chicken and sauce to throw on our leftover pasta, and it tastes horrible. We decide this is one of those bad days, so we head to Cheers, which by now has become our favorite bar. We go to Scubar, where we meet Craig, Andy and Tom. At 2 AM, Tom drives us back to Base, which we’re so grateful for, as we can’t be bothered walking 1 KM anymore. We’ve come so far in one week, huh?
On Easter Sunday, we grab some sandwiches from Subway and sit at the Botanical Gardens and look at the opera house. All the birds are staring at us hungrily, waiting for us to feed them. A plane writes †=♥ and a little kid walks over to us and tries to grab my purse. Cute.
We are so tired for no reason at all, that the walk back to the hostel is so long and weird. We have no idea what we’re saying or where we’re going, but we do it anyway, mechanically. We throw ourselves into bed and have a nap, before going to dinner at Cheers. Yes, a nap and dinner at Cheers, just like we always do now.
At Cheers, we meet Craig and Andy for what was supposed to be a travel meeting, but ends up being us watching footy, and me almost falling asleep on the couch. The beer has gotten to me.
The next day, it’s Sharon’s BIRTHDAAAY! We eat a shitty homemade breakfast and go to the Greyhound Office by the old hostel to buy a pass to Cairns. On the way back, we look for mimosas, which we finally find at Three Wise Monkeys. We have two each, and then we get hungry. We walk around for a while, not really finding anything to eat, so we settle for the McDonald’s right in front of us. For dinner, Sharon has her favorite meal, chargrilled pork loin at Cheers, and the staff today is more talkative and friendly than the Irish guys who are usually behind the bar. We talk to them, get harassed by old, drunk Irish men, and convince the bartender to make Christineth shots – an old favorite from The Pink Palace. It gets us all nostalgic, and we tell the bartender, Ceci, all about it. She must be sick of us by the end of it, but gives us her Facebook for when we get back to Sydney anyway.
We head Scubar, as Mondays are usually crazy. We see a crab race, have some gin lemonades, and then a whole cricket team approaches us, ages 20-28. A bit overwhelming, to say the least. They keep trying to get us to go to a casino, so I fake interest and write the address down and tell them we’ll go after we’ve met up with our friends. Instead, we decide to head back to Cheers, which is now closed. Bummed, we go back to the hostel and pass out.
Our very last day in Sydney, we just wait around for the bus, which leaves at 6 PM. We sit in the comfy sofas at reception and use our last bit of WiFi – which you have to pay for here – and we go buy snacks for the trip. At 5, we put on our backpacks and do the horrible walk to the Greyhound Office, and get on the bus and try to get some sleep. Byron Bay, here we come!
