Aussie Christmas

While writing this entry, it’s been 11 days since 2018 started. I’m taking advantage of my layover at Launceston’s airport to share what it’s been a different Christmas for me. Different because it’s been my first time celebrating Christmas away from home, my first time celebrating Christmas with an average temperature of 30 degrees, my first time not having a “true” Christmas tree to show that Christmas is there, my first… my first time celebrating Aussie Christmas! By the way, what am I doing in the second biggest city of Tasmania? If you want to find out more about that, you will need to read the next post 😉

So, Christmas started with my resignation from the Mexican restaurant and with my new job working in another kitchen but, this time, within a “hotel”. Yes, a “hotel”, because here, there are many “hotels” that are everything but a place to spend the night. Here, there are many “hotels” that are basically the typical bars/pubs that you could find in the U.K., for example, but with less floors. You have a bar, you have a restaurant, you have music and you have a gaming area. And, all of these come together within the “hotel” where I’ve started working at. The name of the hotel is “Nelson Hotel” and it can be found next to Bondi Junction.

There were different reasons why I decided to quit my first job but, among the key ones, I would mention: having to pay for your food, the way in which they wasted so much of it, the falseness of some of the managers and the few hours they were giving me. If I was to open a restaurant myself, for sure, I would let my employers order food without having to spend a dime, regardless of whether we serve junkie food or caviar.

I also don’t share some of the food dumping policies they were following. To me, in a world where there are so many people dying of hunger, I think it’s very offensive to throw food just like that. If we can’t leave it on the street for people to take it, at least, I would set up some special containers or takeaway to let my employers get whatever they want (rather than dumping it, for God’s sake).

Politics apart, in the new restaurant I am doing something kind of similar to what I was doing in the Mexican one, I am getting paid more (the salary in the Mexican one was really low), I can order food without having to pay for it and it is closer to my place. So, we could say the new job has been my first Christmas present 🙂

Another “present” was the return of the prodigal son, Cyprien. He came back from his farm work and he spent some days with us. That made Christmas feel a little bit more “familiar” in a way. In an effort to try to feel like home, we decided to go buy some little decoration on December the 20th. Yes, I do remember the date after one lady at Kmart told us: “it’s just 5 days till Christmas, of course everything is already sold out”. Way, what?! Yes, it seems that here Capitalism in Aussie Christmas is even more powerful. We couldn’t literally find a single piece of worthwhile decoration in any of the shops we checked out (Kmart, Coles, Target, etc).

So, looking on the bright side, I decided that, since we were already going to experience a different Christmas, why not make it even more different? And, just like that, we decided to build up our own Christmas tree. So, after checking some Art Attack videos, buying some glue, getting some cupboards from Kmart and dealing with some other subtle details, we were ready to start our own Christmas tree. Like always, Gorka ran away from the task and Thomas didn’t want to take the first step. So, I started to give shape to the cupboards and then, the magic began. I had to go to work and, when I came back at night, we had a really nice Christmas tree built up. Thomas finally showed his artist side and we couldn’t do anything other than congratulate him 😉

With the apartment making us feel like we really were about to start Christmas, we decided that, since we didn’t contribute to Capitalism in buying the Christmas tree, we would have to contribute to it somehow. So, we decided to get each other a present and celebrate Secret Santa. That was different for me as well because, believe it or not, for different reasons, I never got to celebrate it back home. Never ever.

Christmas Eve with a worldwide family

Ok so we had the Christmas tree, we already had the presents (even though we were going to open them on Christmas day, after picking them up by the Christmas tree, like a truly Christmas celebration) and, all it was left was to have some Christmas Eve dinner. To achieve that, we teamed up with Carlos and Cristina (a wonderful couple from Madrid who I met working at the Mexican restaurant) and we were kindly welcomed to their place, along with 25 more people who we had never met before 🙂

I knew (as Cyprien reminded me several times) that Christmas Eve dinner is normally a time to share with your family or, at least, with friends. But, again, since this was going to be a different Christmas, why not celebrate it with several people we didn’t know? I liked the idea of having a multicultural dinner and getting to know new people who were under our same circumstances.

Once we agreed upon going to their place, on December the 24th at around 15:00, we started cooking (so we could arrive late, like always). The menu was the following:

– Balta: vegetables quiche.
– Gorka: some sort of Chinese-looking rolls with tomato and cream sauce.
– Cyprien and Thomas: some burnt-looking cookies. Vive La France!

We showed up at Carlos’ place like one hour late but, taking into account that we had some Italian friends joining us, even with an hour of delay, we were not the last ones arriving. His apartment was really nice, and so the views form up there. We met different people from France, Spain, Chile, Italy, etc., and we got to taste really nice food.

We were having a great time until the security guard in charge of the residential area kicked us out for being “too” noisy. That’s probably the thing that people complain the most when it comes to Sydney: they are too strict and they have many stupid rules. So, after leaving his apartment at around 23:30, we went to a nearby park to keep on drinking and talking. Incredibly enough, there were some police officers walking around who, after agreeing with me that most of the rules in Sydney (specially the drinking ones) were nonsense, kindly welcomed us to leave the park.

After “leaving” the park, we finally found a quite spot in front of a river, (with some views to Darling Harbour) where we kept on drinking and chatting for hours. Eventually, we tried to get into some clubs but, of course, if normally we are not allowed to get in, imagine on Christmas Eve… So, we danced for a little bit in front of the clubs where they didn’t let us in and finally we went home. It was a different Christmas Eve, with different food, people, music, conversations, etc. Yes, it was different, but I was happy to have experienced a different thing after 28 years 😉

Christmas at Bronte Beach

On Christmas day, because we were not very hangover, we were able to wake up kind of early and, with a child’s enthusiasm, we opened our presents. I got Thomas the latest Naruto comic, so that would force him into watching the anime as quick as possible :). He got me a snorkel set so I could make the most out of it and try to find some sharks while swimming in the ocean :). Gorka got Cyprien a nice t-shirt from Zara and, Cyprien got Gorka… Well, something that nobody but him would have gotten, something… something that has a very peculiar use. We’ll leave it there. It was nice to have that kind of moment with who have been my family since I got to Sydney. Thanks guys 🙂

After having lunch, I convinced Gorka to go to Bronte Beach to, at least, get the typical Aussie Christmas photo with the Christmas hats on. The weather was far from great (as I’ve probably already mentioned, the weather here changes a lot, but a lot, within the same day), but we still made the most out of our Christmas afternoon by the beach 🙂

It was good to go there and see people having fun, even if there were several police officers around. Again, I can’t understand what’s the big deal with having people drinking some beers on the beach on Christmas day. There were plenty of bins around and most of the people were throwing their rubbish into the bins. The music was not super loud and it’s not everyday that you get to celebrate Christmas but… Sydney’s rules…

All in all, we met some French people and we joined them for like an hour, while we tried to drink our beers without been caught. Most of the people we met were travellers just like us and it was nice to share some experiences with like-minded people on that special day. On the way home, we saw some British guys and one Italian girl (ciao Lotti!) who were literally drinking on top of a tree. They asked us several times to join them and so we did lol. We climbed to the top of the tree and, after like 30 minutes “enjoying the views”, we left.

We had agreed the night before upon meeting Mattia and Matteo (the Italian guys who joined us for Christmas Eve, the ones I happened to meet back at the hostel in Bondi Beach) at their place to have Italian dinner. Thus, we went home to take a shower and cook a Basque omelette (Gorka did) and then we headed to la casa dei nostri amici.

Silvia and Andrea (two Catalan girls who we met on Christmas Eve) also joined us for dinner and we had a great time. Our Italian friends were living in a very nice apartment with superb views to the city. We enjoyed some good pasta as well as tons of wine and, after singing some karaoke, we went home.

Newton and Milk Beach

Once at home, we got another Christmas “present” :). Silvia was already there. She came over to spend Christmas with us and again, her visit made our Christmas better. She is also doing her Work and Holiday visa but she just didn’t start in Sydney, like most of us lol.

We spent the days before New Years Eve checking out places we hadn’t already checked and showing Silvia some of the ones we already knew. Among the ones we hadn’t visited yet, we had Newtown.

Newtown is a pretty cool hipster neighbourhood, a little far away from Bondi Junction, with a very nice vibe. We went there on a really hot and sunny morning and I have to say that we really enjoyed wandering around. There were plenty of bars, restaurants and shops. From the first step you could feel the atmosphere was “different”. Somehow I felt people were happier in that neighborhood and I’m glad we got some of their happiness with us.

After the tour around Newton, we decided to go to Milk Beach to try to see the “sunset” (it was kind of cloudy). It was long time ago that I wanted to go back there, ever since we (Gorka, Thomas and I) visited it at the very beginning of our adventure in Sydney. Back then, we wanted to see the sunset but it was already too late. Back then also, when we went back to the hostel, we thought we might never saw Thomas again, since he was off to do some work-away outside of Sydney. In the end it seemed destiny wanted all three of us to meet one more time to get things done 🙂

So, Cyprien, Gorka, Thomas, Silvia and I went to Milk Beach, where we met Mattia, who was waiting for us. It’s a very nice place in the Northern area of Bondi where you can get to see the whole Sydney’s skyline while you take a bath. We drank some wine, listened to some music, talked about some dreams and saw some spiders… after which we went home lol.

New Years Eve at Lavender Bay

And so, just like that, 2017 was almost over. And, just like that, 2 months and half had passed since I decided to listen to my mum when she used to tell me: -“no, you are not going to go there (somewhere within my village or close to my village) but to Australia”. (That’s a joke that makes more sense in Spanish but hopefully you’ll get it). With her words in my mind, one day I decided to come to the other part of the world to check what the hell was going on over there.

The year couldn’t finish without Gorka doing what he liked the most: sneaking away. That means that, on December the 30th, Silvia and I had to go by ourselves to buy all the stuff we needed to be ready for the End-Of-The-Year’s Romería. Yes, to me it was like a romería (the religious parties you have on the countryside in Spain, where we don’t put too much emphasis in the religious part but in the music, food and entertainment). Normally, in these events, everything is super crowded and it is not easy to find a spot to place your stuff. The same goes for the New Years Eve celebration in Sydney.

And why was that? Well, because if you wanted to find a spot from where you could get to see the fireworks, you needed to arrive there kind of early. Kind of early means that if the fireworks started at 00:00, depending on the spot, you might needed to get there like 10-20 hours in advance… Crazy right? To find a good spot I used the this website as well as some friends’ advice. I hope it can be useful to you too 🙂

As I was saying, Silvia and I went to ALDI (my favourite supermarket in Australia where beer is super cheap!) to buy tons of stuff (I was very hungry at the time of buying and, as Silvia was suggesting, we were buying too much stuff) and, “luckily” enough, Gorka joined us right on “time”. That night I had to work so I let them take care of some of the food preparation and then, on the morning of December the 31st, we finished the last details together.

We bought a lot of food, snacks and drinks and some sort of thermal bags that, along with ice, we used to keep everything cold and fresh. We left home at around 14:00 and we headed to Bondi Junction to take the train which, after stopping at Town Hall, should take us to “Lavender Bay”, a pretty small beach just in front of Harbour Bridge.

On the way there, we met Eloïse, a French girl who I had met on December the 28th while I was celebrating Secret Santa (yes, from never doing it to do it twice in less than a week) with some Spanish friends. So, finally, at around 15:00, we met Carlos and some other friends to start waiting and celebrating the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018.

Little by little the spot got super crowded and police came now and then to made sure we were not drinking alcohol. Of course not, police officer! ;). At times, it felt “hard” to be there after so many hours, just waiting for the magic to happen. But, with music, friends, drinks, food, some new friends (hello there Sam!) and some more drinks, we made it to to the last night of 2017 ant the first one of 2018.

The fireworks were nice, although I thought they were going to last for longer (I guess like everyone else).

Again, like on Christmas Eve, it was a different way to celebrate the end of the year. Far from home, with a very nice-looking Australian shirt and with shorts on, with people we had just met and with people who were sharing my same feelings… It was different, but it was the end of my 2017 and the beginning of 2018 in Australia, and that’s something I’ll never forget.