555. Day of travel
16.172 km
In Sydney I’ve met a couple of very nice people. It started with my host Jeff, he is an Australian and originally from Queensland. He has a shared house in Surry Hills, that’s very central. In the house lived a brazilian-portuguese couple, a guy from Spain and Tom in a tent in the backyard as well. Tom is from France and he started his cycle trip in Cairns and came down the East Coast. He passed Childers also, where I’ve been on a farm for 5 months. He is working since 2 months as a painter in Sydney. It was nice to speak in French to him, because he always tried to answer in German to me. He did a two month internship in Germany. It’s very rare to meet a French who makes an real afford to speak German, I support this. Tom loves to play samba. The big target on his trip is Brazil. His blog in French www.lemondeenrouelibre.com
Jeff took me the next day, after my arrival, to the beach. It was Sunday morning and the beach was full of people. We did the mistake to take the car, we couldn’t find a parking space. In Berlin at this time half of the people would be still in bed. We turned back another day with our cycles. Jeff’s skills are versatile. He did a couple of long cycle trips in Europe and Australia, more then 50.000 km in total. He likes sailing, painting and he is a good chef. He knows a lot about nature, his job is in biosecurity at the Customs. I like his humor, one morning he suprised me with an own rap song. I was very happy as he offered me to stay for a week. This place, with these nice people, with my own room, in the centre of the city, that’s priceless.
As I checked my e-mail in Sydney, I’ve got a message from an old friend, I didn’t saw him for 10 years (he went to Ireland). His name is Tom. But he is not from France, he is from Berlin. He was in Sydney in the same time like me. He was here for a computer conference (IEEE LCN 2013). We met us twice. He organized that I could go on a cruising boat around the harbour for free. It was part of the program for his conference. I noticed that all the participants have fency name plates. Then Tom suprised me with a plate that he made for me. That was Tom how I knew him, always good for a gimmick. The boatstour was in the evening and took three hours, including an dance demonstration by Aborigines and a big buffet. It was great.
When I discouvered Downtown of Sydney, I was a little bit disappointed. There are not so much of nice buildings. The Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are the most significant monuments. I’ve visited the Sydney Eye, a tall TV tower, to get an arial view over the city. The free exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea” was quiet interesting. I’ve been there with Jeff. We took our cycles and visited Bondi Beach as well, one of the famoust beaches in Sydney.
In Sydney I had to do some paper work, that couldn’t wait any longer. I need a new passport, because mine is going to expire next year. To apply a new passport I need the application (you can download online), the original passport, a copy of my passport, passport pictures and a copy of my certificate of birth. Luckily my mother could send me this certificate per mail. I was born in the German Democratic Republic. So I’m an “Ossi”, that’s how we call former citizien of the GDR in german. It’s funny because it sounds like Aussie, the short form for australien citizien. However, I’ve got an appointment at the German Consulate. I left my documents and fingerprints there and a lot of money as well, I paid 230 $. The process time takes up to six weeks, I will pick up my new passport next year in Brisbane.
There was another great person who I’ve met in Sydney. Her name is Svenja. I’ve met her once about three years ago in Berlin and had only a nodding acquaintance with her. But I was following her blog http://mariellasupertramp.wordpress.com for a long time already, because of that I had the feeling I know her well. In the time when I’ve been working on the farm and reading about her adventures I was a kind of jealous. Svenja gave me the advice to go to Port Stephens, which was very nice. She arrived in Australia in May and works as an au pair in Sydney. We met us twice. She was also in India last November, when I was there. But she visited the northern part while I was in the southern part. It was very interesting to talk about blogging and to hear about her job as an au pair, it’s quiet a hard job. She has to take care of two childrens from a very rich family with high claims. This month her job will end there and she goes on a road trip with a friend towards Cairns. I wish her a nice trip.
On my last day in Sydney, on Friday Tom (the French guy) wanted to go with me to a critical mass. But Jeff was seeking for a crew member for a sailing regatta. So I decided for the regatta, because I’ve never been on a sailing boat. It was awesome. I prepared with Jeff the boat, he told me a lot of sailing vocabulary, words that I’ve never heard before and I wouldn’t be sure if I know them in German. Then all the other members came and unexpected the crew was complete. Finally I didn’t had to sail by myself, but I could stay on the boat and enjoy the race. I saw a splendid sunset over Sydney.
