"The rhythm of their day is entirely different; I am foreign." (The first steps in a foreign city)

13th June 2014 (fRiDaY) - tHe ArRiVaL

Goji Berries

First day in Sydney, the amazing city. 

Landed very early in the morning
It was about 7am
Picked up by a friend of mine (Dima, who hosted me for my first week there)
Rich breakfast with him
Hearing for the first time talking about goji berries (??)
Looking through the windows of my friend's flat in Zetland
Buying my first MyBus Ticket (see my previous post)
Catching the bus to get to Central Station and an endless series of meaningful moments.

"Life's all about moments of impact and how they change our lives forever"


ThE mOmEnT I oPeNeD mY bAnK aCcOuNt

"When you believe you can." - Commonwealth Bank of Australia

So we arrived in Central Station and I entered the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Yellow and gray logo, it looked a bit sad as company colours, but I was told it was good. And the Commonwealth Bank actually was a good pick. The part I liked more was that I could "play" a bit with my accounts and set goals of savings and getting somehow "rewarded".

What do I mean by "getting rewarded"? Simply it means that you own a saving account which allows you to move money in and out of your linked CommBank transaction account and at the same time you receive interests calculated daily and paid monthly. So basically you don't have any fee to pay but you receive some extra money every month. Let's say about 20 $/month.

For more details as usual I link you to the following page.

I guess that another useful piece of information you may need is to know how much money to bring with you for the beginning and the expenses you have to face on regular basis.

I arrived there with $4500 (about 3000 €), enough to live for a couple of months. And here below you find a list of expenses:

Pic taken on my first day in Australia
Opera House, 13th June '14

That scarf on the picture got damaged a few
months later in the zip of my bag... sad story ;)

- 230 $/week -- room rental
- 40 $/week -- public transportation
- 50 $/month -- mobile
- 30 $/week -- shopping food

Total per week is about $ 350.

Than it depends on how much you can afford and of course you can find cheaper options or better deals.

That was mine.

If you need more details about expenses in Sydney, just leave a comment and I'll do my best to help you.

See you later :)
VaL

Chapter 1, part 1 - ChinaTown (Dixon Street & Co.)

It takes really a while to stop and talk about this amazing city. You can't believe how much I miss it and how many times a day I think about going back there again. Who knows...

Artist @ China Town

I'm closing my eyes right now, trying to remember when was the first time my feet were walking across ChinaTown. I'm quite sure it was to buy something very cheap :) Because if you need sheets, pillows, adaptator for your mobile, laptop and so on... there... is the place to be. I can't really bet on the quality, but for the first times, it's definitely where you can find all you need.


Okay, now I remember... actually my first steps there were on my very first day in Sydney with my friend Dima, who was so kind to walk me there to have lunch and to arrange the first things such as my bank account and my phone number. Oh... dear... I was so tired with the jetlag that I couldn't really understand where I was. I remember on that day I ate noodles served in a very strange soup inside the court of a shopping mall and I was asking myself "What the f**k I'm doing here?". I never replied to that answer, because that was not the point of my travelling so far and now that I'm writing about that I'm smiling and I guess this was the point :)

To have an idea this is the Paifang in ChinaTown - Sydney

It was in Dixon Street, a pedestrian street mall with many Chinese restaurants, and with a Paifang at each end. At the eastern end of Chinatown there is a sculpture made from a dead tree trunk, the Golden Water Mouth, created by the artist Lin Li in 1999 to bring good fortune to the Chinese community.

At the southern side of Chinatown, next to Hay Street, a large complex called Market City has been built. It contains the famous Paddy's Markets, a Wednesday-to-Sunday produce and flea market where you can really find all you need.

A lady working @ Paddy's Markets

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. - Chinese proverb

Opal Card -- I love it!

One of the first things you need to have as soon as you arrive in a city is definitely a public transportation card.

Sydney is very espensive and public transportation represents one of the biggest expenses you'll need to face during your first days there. It might be helpful to have already from the beginning a few tips which allows you to save a bit of money.

For instance ... you will need to travel to visit the flats for renting a room, looking for a job, making trials and that will take a few weeks during which you will not be working and your money will be very fast to disappear.

So here you are...
You have different kinds of passes according to how frequently you need to travel around.

- MyBus ticket (1, 2 or 3 - it depends on the sections)
- TravelTen (1, 2 or 3 as above)
- Opal Card

The MyBus 1, 2 or 3 Single tickets are valid for one trip only. You cannot purchase a return MyBus ticket. To work out which MyBus ticket you need, first determine the distance you intend to travel, measured in sections and to have an idea on how to calculate the sections, have a look here.

MyBus 1, 2 or 3 TravelTen tickets are valid for 10 trips and offers a substantial savings on the cost of 10 single tickets.

My favourite one is the Opal Card. It's the electronic ticketing system which was launched in Sydney a while ago, but only in September 2011 appeared under the new name of 'Opal'. It is an easy, convenient and fast way of travelling on all transport modes - trains, buses, ferries and light rail - in Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Hunter, Illawarra and Southern Highlands.

Just a small curiosity about its name. It has been chosen from a selection of 665 names (I would like to know which were the other names in the list) and Opal was chosen because it's easy to be remembered and moreover because it's Australia's national gemstone. Personally I think it's a good choice.

By the way... the most interesting aspect of this card is that after the 8th paid journey from Monday to Sunday, you can enjoy free travel for the rest of the week. I think that's all for now about the Opal Card, but if you need more (we all need more ;) ), here the link to the website.

This is my awesome Opal Card - you can get it for free, but you need to top it up.