On October the 19th, at around 11:30, I landed at Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney. There was no “Welcome to Australia” sign, but, still, a new adventure in a new continent was about to start. It was going to be my third time living abroad (after Sweden and California). In the previous times, I went to those countries to study and to improve on my English. This time it was a little different: I wanted to get to know Australia, look for work and prove myself I was able to survive in the other part of the world 😉 I think what you feel when you see yourself carrying 2 big suitcases, kind of lost, wandering around, excited, tired… is what people define as “wanderlust” :). The excitement you have as you walk towards a new part of your life is indescribable.
Philosophy apart, going through the airport security and the immigration area was way smoother than what the Border Security show wants us to believe. I wasn’t asked many questions, other than the common ones. Neither (unfortunately and sadly) I got a stamp on my passport :/. The paperwork related to your visa does not need to be shown either. Showing your passport is enough.
After leaving the airport and overcoming the grief of not having anyone with the “Welcome to Australia” sign waiting for me, I started to walk straight to find the train stop.After getting onto the train, stepping off the train, getting onto a bus, stepping off the bus and walking 10-15 minutes, I finally arrived to what, for the following two weeks, was going to be my house: “Bondi Beach YHA”; a 5-minute walk hostel to the (in)famous Bondi Beach.
Settling in Sydney
I had already spent sometime in hostels while travelling, but never more than 3-4 days. I didn’t know it just yet but, eventually, like many other rookies in Australia, I would start to think about hostels like places where you can (or have to) spend more than a few days…
The good thing about living in a hostel is that you get to know tons of people from everywhere in the world. Hundreds of stories from people who have just arrived (like you) or people who have been in Australia for years. People who were almost 31 and decided to come to OZ before it was too late to apply for the Work & Holiday visa. Other were youngsters who had just finished college and wanted to grow before loosing their happiness in an office, etc.
Not everything is perfect when living in a hostel though. People can be very rude and noisy. Sometimes it even seem like people don’t know the concept of “common sense”. I remember thinking many times, what will these people do when they have kids, how will they raise them? Unfortunately I never got a “good” answer. Other than having issues with people you can also have issues with the hostel itself.
If you have travelled in Europe or South East Asia before, don’t expect anything close to that in Australia. Australia might welcome you with other cool stuff, but nice and cheap hostels are not within is welcome package. In Australia most of the hostels are very expensive. Unfortunately, the amount of money you pay doesn’t reflect what you get. Most of the hostels I’ve booked throughout my time in Australia were not super clean. Sometimes, you even had the feeling the building was about to tumble down. As far as what I’ve seen while travelling, the accommodation business in Australia has a great room for improvement.
All in all I’m happy I spent those two weeks at Bondi Beach YHA. That allowed me to meet many people sharing my same situation, which made things easier. Eventually, some of those people would become my future roommates. I remember it was super sunny the day I arrived and then, next day, of all a sudden, it started pouring. It was also “pouring” in my head due to the jet lag. Thus, while trying to overcome the urgent need of falling asleep over the table, I started to discover my new city and I did some “mandatory” stuff.
I went to “Westfield” to buy my SIM card so I could have internet everywhere. I also did some grocery shopping there, with very good prices, specially compared to what you can find in Bondi Beach. The mall is not too far by walk from Bondi Beach. But, if you don’t feel like walking, you can take any bus that stops at Bondi Junction. From there to the mall is just a couple of minutes by walk.
Then, I decided to go check Bondi Beach which, to be honest, let me a little bit disappointed. Yes, the beach itself is alright. It is kind of beautiful and the promenade with the graffiti is nice. That being said, I’ve seen tons of better beaches in the world, many of them in Europe and South East Asia. All in all, the vibe and the quality of the waves make it ideal for surf and chill lovers.
One point I forgot to mention about Bondi Beach or about many beaches in Sydney was the barbeque setup. You could find barbeques nicely placed at some places on the promenade, which were free to use. It was a good way to have some food and drinks with your friends but also to go meet new people. Since it was very close to our hostel, we checked the ones at Bondi Beach quite a few times.
One of the best things I did during those first days was checking out the “Bondi to Coogee coastal walk”. There are plenty of different itineraries to choose from. The one I did was not a very long one but had some nice views. You should give it a try!
I had time to go to the “city” a couple of times to feel like a tourist and get some nice pics of the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and the surroundings. I would walk or take a bus to Bondi Junction and from there I would either take another bus or the subway. Bondi Beach is somehow isolated from Sydney’s downtown. The same goes for other beaches like Manly, Tamarama, etc. Bondi Junction is the perfect compromise between the city and the beach.
I had already visited some big cities in the world like New York, Los Angeles or Bangkok. Nevertheless, I still remember today the feeling of hugeness I got when I first saw Sydney. The city (or downtown) itself is not that big, but the surface that it covers, including all the sea around the different neighborhoods, make it tremendously big!
The Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are two of the highlights of Sydney, and once I first saw them I understood why. There were other highlights in the city kind of beautiful: Hyde Park (with its amazing St Mary’s Cathedral), Darling Harbour (with its nice views, restaurants and clubs), the neighborhood of The Rocks (with its market, paintings and beautiful views of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge), etc. But, the Harbour Bridge itself (and the feeling of walking over it) and the Opera House were at another level. I guess that’s why they are two of the most common icons to welcome people to Australia. You think I’m exaggerating? I will just show you and you can decide yourself 😉
How to look for a room in Sydney?
After a week or so getting used to my new time zone and after having arranged some basic stuff, I started to look for a room. My expectations before coming were kind of high. I knew that renting a room in Sydney, specially close to the beach, was not easy. I thought it would be similar to renting a room in the center of Barcelona (not an easy task). As time went by though, I had to change my mind. Remember when I said that hostels were not within the welcome package when you first arrived in Australia? Well, the same goes for rooms. In the beginning I was looking for a private room. Up till then I had never shared a room with someone before. I almost got through that situation when I went to California but, luckily enough, I ended up living with Sergio and Isa ;).
It took me sometime checking the typical accommodation websites (Gumtree, Flatmates and some Facebook groups) before I realised that Australia might would be my first time sharing a room with someone. I went there for adventure and that was what I was getting. Prices for private rooms were very high. And when I say high I mean anything starting at 300 or 350 AUD per week. Yes, you heard right. In Australia most of the stuff are paid weekly. 350 AUD per week!
After realising I wasn’t rich (I’m working on it) I decided to embrace reality and look for a shared room. Thus, I started to team up with Gorka, a guy from the Basque Country who I had met as soon as I arrived at the hostel. I also needed to look for work sooner than latter, but I decided to start looking for a place to live first. I met people who did it the other way around and I think it really depend on you and your expectations.
The problem we found was not a lack of rooms, but thousands of people wanting the same as us. So, sometimes, we would see a nice ad on Facebook. But, a lot of people would also saw it… Thus, when we went to the inspection, along with us, there would be 20+ people fighting to get the room. That reminded me of the good old days in Barcelona, when trying to get a room would turn into a TV show. So, renting a room was no longer a matter that depended on you, but on other factors.
To escape from the frustration of the room-hunting we decided to go on a small excursion. We headed to a beach that apparently had some nice views of the city of Sydney. The name of the beach was Milk Beach and to get there we took a bus from Bondi Beach. The signs were not very clear but with the GPS we did just fine. The beach was just a small piece of sand but the views were… another thing.
Eventually we changed the strategy and started to look for whole houses/apartments. Like that, we could rent the house the two of us and then look for whoever we needed to fit the number of beds available. Every morning, as I was having breakfast in the hostel and checking for rooms/houses, I could see plenty of sad, anxious and desperate faces. Those faces belong to the people staying at the hostel. I had the feeling (and pretty much everyone was sharing it as well) that finding a place to live in Sydney or, more specifically in Bondi Beach, would be the hardest part (even harder than finding a job).
We found an apartment!
Eventually (I knew it would happen sooner or latter, even if things didn’t look very promising in the beginning) we found a very nice apartment 5 minutes away from Bondi Junction. It wasn’t easy. We spent days and days checking the websites I mentioned above trying to find something. We went to different agencies in Bondi Junction but most of them were asking for a half or full year lease, which was something we couldn’t afford. In the end, we got the deal through Gumtree.
I felt a little bit disappointed in the beginning because I wanted to stay as close as possible to the beach. I wanted to learn how to surf and enjoy being close to the beach. But, as time went by, I felt pretty happy about the location of our apartment. It was 5 minutes to Bondi Junction and 20-25 minutes to Bondi Beach. While we couldn’t see or smell the sea from our balcony, we had a pretty good connection to the city. At a walkable distance we had several grocery shops, supermarkets and bars.
Things that (specially grocery shops) if I was living in Bondi Beach would not be that easy to access to. Of course, I could always take the bus but, unlike in Spain (at the end Spain seems to have some good things even though the politicians are destroying the country), they are pretty much always late and their prices are far from cheap.
The chosen ones to live in the amazing apartment on Bondi Road were three guys: Gorka, Cyprien and myself. We just knew each other for about 2 weeks and suddenly we found ourselves sleeping in the same room. Yes, you have read well. Three people sleeping in one room.
At the beginning I also thought it was crazy. But, after spending the first two weeks at the hostel, I realised that sharing the room with someone else was very common here. We were paying around 1000 AUD per week and the apartment had just two bedrooms. So, we couldn’t afford sleeping in different rooms. We needed to find someone else to fit the other room and that became our task for the days to come. That, and buying stuff for the apartment, which was nice but empty.
The apartment was far from cheap. The prices of rental in Sydney are the 1st or the 2nd most expensive in the world, so, there was not much we could do. That being said, the minimum wage when we arrived in Sydney was 18.29 AUD per hour. So, yes, the prices of rental are super high and the ones of public transport are not cheap either, but the wages are not too bad ;). By having a casual job you can make your life here kind of well. Also, even though rentals are super expensive, grocery shopping, clothes and some other common stuff are not that expensive (at least compare to Barcelona).
Looking for work in Sydney
Once I knew I finally had a place to live, I started to hand in some resumes. As I said, finding work is easier than finding a place to live. Looking for work in Australia might be slightly different compared to other countries. Most of the Work & Holiday visa holders will look for non-qualified jobs, so, the following applies for most of the people.
I basically spent some days checking several bars/restaurants and asking to see the manager to give him/her my resume. I got three trials in three different restaurants. In most of the venues you won’t see a hiring sign. Regardless, go for it. It doesn’t matter if there are hiring signs or not. Just relax, smile, go inside the venue and ask to speak to the manager because you are looking for work. In some you’ll get positive answer and in some you won’t, but this is like life itself 🙂
You can also use Gumtree (which is used for anything in Australia), Facebook groups and/or the websites of the business where you want to work. Since most of the time people with W & H visas are not really taken seriously for qualified jobs, I would say walking to the venue and asking to speak to the manager is your best option. Of course, if you happen to know someone who can recommend you to the manager, that’s even better! You might consider as well registering yourself with some employment agencies. If you want to look for a qualified job you should use websites, as in pretty much everywhere in the world nowadays.
My first restaurant was a messy place with a nice chef but with a not-that-nice old lady, who happened to be in charge. I spent three hours there making some burgers patties and preparing tons of poached eggs, along with other ingredients, to get customers their breakfast. The place was right on the promenade of Bondi Beach. They told me they would let me know whether they wanted me or not but they never did lol.
The second restaurant was a Mexican one, way tidier and way closer to my experience at UCI Catering. That one was on one of the streets perpendicular to the promenade of Bondi Beach. The chefs were nice and so the colleagues. In that one, I have already worked a couple of days last week and hopefully, I’ll get more hours (hopefully because I like the place and the environment).
My third trial was at a high cuisine Asian-Australian fusion restaurant where I felt kind of not in my place. I think there was a mistake and they though I was a chef (rather than a chef assistant). So, after spending some of the most embarrassing 20-30 minutes of my life trying to cut some chives (they realised my knife’s skills were not that great), they got me into preparing dumplings for a couple of hours. I got to try one crazy-looking dish. It consisted in something like a black burger bread filled with a fried crab, some vegetables and some mayo. Eventually, I told the chef that I felt like I was bothering more than helping. And so, after shaking hands and thanking him for his time, I left.
As you can see my first weeks in Australia were a mix of having to face reality, awing and meeting new people everyday. Looking for a place to live was by far the hardest part. Some people have “luck” and they find it sooner than you. The same happens with jobs. They happen to be at the right place at the right time. That is not something that happens to everyone and that is not something you can control. The closer you can get to that situation is by trying and trying and keeping on trying. Because, what eventually happens to everyone who fights for their dreams, is that they end up making them true.
So, if you are hesitating between starting a new life in Australia (or anywhere else in the world) or staying where you are, doing something you don’t like, don’t hesitate anymore and jump into the unknown. Eventually things will fall into place.
