Awesome Australia

I finally see what all the fuss is about. Australia is awesome. Maybe it’s my hightened sense of desire for western organised society after 6 weeks of south asian poverty, maybe it’s the warm spring sunshine as opposed to oppresive monsoon humidity, maybe it’s the varied, tasty daily meals, or maybe it’s simply the pleasurable company of Alex, Dorota and Amy; whatever it is, i’m having a very nice time!

Alex met me at the airport and we headed via the big double decker train to Town Hall station in central Sydney, and on to Alex’s flat in Darling Harbour. It was still early at around 8am and consequently the city was peaceful and calm in the crisp blue spring air. On the way we passed the harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera House which are less than 20 mins from the airport – such a change from, for example, KL, which is about 1 1/2 hours from the Petronas. We met Dorota walking the other direction to work. It was like being home; walking down the street meeting friends unexpectedly as I walked. Alex’s flat is lovely. It’s in an old wool factory which has been renovated into contemporary flats. There is an enourmous roof garden with big outdoor kitchen and barbecue area – how Australian!

We headed out on the short walk around Sydney’s CBD to the Circular Pier next to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. After some standard tourist photos, we jumped on a ferry to Manly Island for breakfast. Manly is a bit like the seaside town Brighton aspires to be (it’s even got hotel named ‘The New Brighton Hotel’). A row of restaurants and bars line the beautiful cream coloured sandy beach where beautiful people frolic in the sun and athletic looking men play around on surf boards on the rolling waves. After Breakfast and a brief stroll through the sand, we headed back to Sydney for a tour around the Rocks (the first australian settlement in Sydney Harbour built by the English convicts) and on to the delights of the Sydney bars.

There are some really cool bars in Sydney – and I mean really cool. The Argyle has a massive permenant outdoor bar and a glass DJ box which hangs above the main entrance. It’s the little touches I liked, such as the toilets, which have these little egg shaped pods as urinals. Next we went to a Belgium Bar on George Street serving large glasses of Leffe. Again, its a wide classy bar with hundreds of tables and a raised glass floor, displayed under which are the old walls and steps of the building when it used to be a school. The old school clock still sits above the bar.

Invariably, the subject of colonialism and the Aborignals is all around – with Aborignals playing the digery doo opposite the ferry terminal, loads of signs trying to push home the subject of integration and old colonial buildings alongside or in the case of the old Scottish Church on George Street, part of a modern concrete and glass city. My first impressions of Oz are of a warm, sunny, prosperous, happy England, with a short but colourful history. I think I could see myself living here for a while. Maybe I won’t end my travels in February after all!