Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today, it’s already tomorrow in Australia – Charles M Schulz
I had an amazing few days in Manly with Sarah and Joe, celebrating both New Years Eve and Sarah’s birthday, but I wasn’t too sure what to expect when I left them to join my OzIntro group in Sydney. It’s pretty daunting when you rock up to a hostel not knowing anyone, with not even wifi for comfort. We were staying at Base in Kent Street (everyone I know who has travelled Sydney has stayed here!) which has the added bonus of Scary Canary’s next door. The group arrived from the airport (a few of us just decided to meet at the hostel) and we went straight down to the harbour to go jet boating… this is so so different to just going on a speedboat, by the time we got off the boat we all looked as though we had been dunked in the sea! Safe to say that this is a pretty good way of breaking the ice…
I decided to have a week long OzIntro tour for a few of the obvious reasons… I was going to a country where I didn’t know anyone else who was travelling, so obviously meeting people and making friends (cringe!) were a massive factor, plus they would know the best places to go for a standard Sydney bar crawl. We did so much in one week including stroking a koala and a kangaroo, ate crocodile, went surfing, visited the Blue Mountains (the size of Switzerland, so big that it holds 7 national parks inside it!), walked from Bondi to a smaller beach for a BBQ where we played volleyball, had a bar crawl where we probably ruined a few of the greatest songs of all time in a karaoke bar… and there’s no way I would have known about all of these amazing places without having to do hoursssss of research.
All of the fun stuff aside, pretty much everyone who knows me knows how much of a failure I am at normal human being activities… our lovely OzIntro leader Becca sorted us out with everything we needed…
- Medicare – you think you don’t need it, but with one person swelling their ankle to the size of their face and another one with a suspected chest infection in one week it’s pretty obvious you need it, especially as it’s circa $100 for a few days worth of antibiotics, and $70 to even speak to a doctor!
- Tax number so we don’t have to pay 50% tax
- Help finding a job – it’s amazing how many people struggle to get a job out here despite there being loads around. Not only do they sit there and help with your cv, but they offer support the whole time you’re in Aus… they don’t just bin you when your week is over!
- Help setting up our Aussie bank accounts so that we can get paid when we eventually get a job!
- Claiming back our tax from our work in the UK – an extra few dingo dollars to spend on your travels
- Help setting up our Australian pension funds – this is basically free money from your employers, as they contribute in to it and you can claim it all when you leave the country. Just make sure you do it with someone like the Commonwealth bank so all of your pensions are in one place 🙂
To top it all off Becca did a huge presentation showing us our options for touring the east coast, and then spent hours with us individually and in groups helping us piece together our plan, meaning that I am now set to leave on Friday to head up the east coast with a couple of lovely girls I met this week… BIG UP THE BECCA!
This has been such an incredible experience that I’m going to book on to BaliIntro and ThaiIntro… it really helps to set you up and meet new people when you get to a new country, anyone who is thinking about travelling (especially if you’re going solo or are a complete country bumpkin like me who has no idea about what actually happens in the world) should look them up!
I cannot actually put in to words how excited I am for the next few months… even a week in I keep having these moments when I realise I am half way across the world! I don’t have a clue what day it is here, or what time in the day it is back home, and even though I have a rough plan I still don’t know if I’m going to stick to it… I guess that’s part of the fun 🙂
BarefootBessie 
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