Down under in Sydney

Sydney - that place you always see on New year's Eve on TV with big fireworks.. that place that seemed so unreachable.. that was our next destination. And to make things even more exciting my mum and my sister were going to visit us also :)

We rented a nice Airbnb place near Bondi junction for the four of us which turned out to be a cool location. It was so easy to reach from the airport via train and access to Bondi Beach was very painless. Me and Matias got to the apartment earlier and got to sniff the area a bit and do some grocery and wine shopping before the travellers aka my mum the birthday girl and my sis arrived later in the evening :) it was so exciting having them there and seeing them after almost three months was just so awesome!
We immediately introduced them to the world of Tim Tams and they brought me soo much Fazer blue and salmiakki ❤️

Tired but a happy gang

To my surprise the time difference and jet lag was not too bad for mum and Henna the next day and they were ready to head to the beach and get some sun action to their semipale and albinopale skins ;)
We spent some hours at the beautiful Bondi beach and it was so hot. The sun was really burning!

😘

Bondi Beach

After heading back to the apartment I felt chills like i was getting sick. I measured my fever and it was almost 39 degrees! I never get a fever so this was weird and my whole body was burning hot. Me and my sis started to wonder could it be a heatstroke or something more than just fever (assuming always the worst in my family 😁)..
I started to take cold showers and then at two a.m. when I was shivering in the shower and my sis kept me company in the bathroom the night had a nasty twist.. All of a sudden there were baby cockroaches appearing from different places like crazy. Seriously! It was like, we killed one and then another one appeared and then we killed that one and another appeared and we killed that and then.. yea you guessed it, ANOTHER one appeared. I am so sorry to say that we killed at least 30 to 40 of those little motherf**kers in that very short period of time. Luckily this was the only big outburst of cockroaches.. and luckily they were the little ones and not the adult ones. We did however have few bigger cockroach visitors during our stay as it's a normal thing in Sydney we heard.. Yikes 😬

The next day was for chilling as we didn't get much sleep that night and even though my fever was gone, we felt that it was better to take it easy. So Mum went to see the sights at the city center, Matias went to take the coastal walk to Coogee, Henna and i mainly chilled and tried to recover from the killing session. Later me and Matias binge watched Stranger Things season 2 from Netflix after he returned from the coastal walk.

Australia day!

26th of January was a big day for Aussies and how lucky we were that we could experience this right there where the magic happened :)
We headed to Circular Quay that day and got to see the famous Opera House finally! Unreal! There was a lot of people gathered around in the harbour area and no wonder, there was a huge event going on with music and dance performances and the show was broadcast all over Oz.
We were just wandering around, watching people, having snacks and following Ibis birds, enjoying the vibe. Mum was gradually getting really worried that we were on the wrong side of the harbour area as she suspected that the fireworks would be nicer at the Opera House side. We didn't think we had such a hurry and just wanted to take things more slowly.
But eventually when we started to walk towards the other end, there was a sign that the Opera House side had reached it's full capacity already and they had closed the gates to the area. Unfortunate, but luckily we could get back to the other side where we were before. Or so we thought until we saw the gates closing before our eyes. Uh oh.. now that was a shitty moment :( Luckily we started to walk to the right direction and found another gate to the Opera House side which was still open and we got in! Hallelujah! We got to see amazing fireworks and listen to cool music at the same time. Though I must add that it was somewhat difficult to enjoy the fireworks as practically everyone had their cameras high up pointed to the sky the whole freaking time.
Like come on people! Take few pics but put the camera or whatever device you've got and away and enjoy the moment and let others enjoy it too! You can get nice pics from Google so might as well take it easy okay? :)

Aussie Day! 

Light snack

Almost perfect 

We were told that Aussie day is like Finnish vappu (Labour Day), so we wanted to have a beer in the city center and see for ourselves how drunk do these people get :D but actually we were really surprised that the city area was kinda not turned up. I guess taking it easy and having a BBQ at parks, beaches and people's houses is more common around here.
But we went to have beers at Cheers anyway :)

Sightseeing 

The next couple of days we wanted to see more of the sights so we started from the city. We had beers at Darling Harbour and walked from there to the Harbour Bridge and got nice views of the Sydney Opera House. It was a good idea to walk because we got to see more of nice places along the way which you would not see if you were taking public transport. The journey felt longer than it appeared from Google maps. My sister's feet were so busted, but she pulled  it through👍 It was cool to climb up the bridge and the views were awesome! My mum is actually little bit afraid of the heights so it was a bit of a challenge for her. Luckily, with a little help she also survived the adventure :)

The views from the bridge

Picture this :) 

And once you get the climbing going and adrenaline flowing nicely you gotta continue,  right?  :) so the next day it was time to do a day trip to the Blue Mountains. The trip took something like 1,5 hours with the train and then we walked from the train station to the Three Sisters lookout point. (There were busses also, but it's nice to walk: it saves money and you feel better after all the Tim Tams 😅)
At the Blue Mountains there are several walking trails (long and short ones) that you can take and see some amazing scenery along the way. The main attraction is the Three Sisters but we were just in awe of the whole place and took so many pics. There was also this cool ledge that you had good views and you basically stand on..  well.. nothing :) I tried to get mum there, all the way to the ledges outer side but that was too crazy for her this time, but someday maybe she'll do it :)
We decided to walk one 1-hour track before heading back to Sydney. The first part of the trail went smoothly and it was so pretty, but dark clouds started to get closer and closer and then like a switch it started to rain.. a lot.
Luckily we were very close to a shelter so we didnt need to take a shower there and then.
All in all it was a cool place and the little city of Katoomba where the train stops was cute also.  We would definitely recommend the place. Just maybe wake up early and head there earlier than we lazypants did (lazypants team = me, Matias and my sis).

Three Sisters

Two sisters 

One si.. Matias admiring the views

Our crew

Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk

One absolute must that our friends from Brisbane recommended was to do the walk from Bondi beach to Coogee. It is 6km long walk alongside the Pacific ocean and it passes by beaches like Bronte and Tamarama.
Breathtaking views seriously! I can't believe that for some these are just a normal day to day hoods.. we kept stopping and taking so many pics :) we also got to experience a magical moment when we saw dolphins play in the water ❤️
Ah, so nice and so burning hot again! Loved it! :)
After the walk my mum hopped on a bus from Coogee as she went to see an opera and we went to do something fancy as well.. we had burgers and beers near the beach 👍

Sydney "home" 

Our whole trip was a cool, pretty chill stay at Bondi junction :) our place was super close to shopping malls and train and bus stations so we had an easy access to everywhere.
Lovely weather, sun, family, Tim Tams & Finnish chocolate and couple of cold ones.. and so many other things to be so thankful and grateful for ❤️

P. S. Australia is btw also known for its tasty oysters. We hunted them during our stay but it wasn't until the last night we (Matias) got to taste some on the last night. There's many places to get them in Sydney, we chose The Morrison Bar & Oyster Room. If you're feeling adventurous and want to try some it's best to head there on Wednesdays. They have 1$ oysters there between 6-7pm.

The oysters

Our next destination was New Zealands North Island with the same crew! Stay tuned :)

- Sini



Our route so far

Down under in Brisbane

We traveled from Surat Thani to KL to Bali and finally to Brisbane on 9th of January. The trip took almost 24 hours (we didn't get any sleep) and then it was time to meet the infamous Australian border officers at 6 am.. Matias had a wooden souvenir from Bali so first time ever it was time to take  the red line. The process was quick and easy to our surprise. Few questions and sniffs from a cute lab and we were good to enter the country. After some coffee we pondered whether we should get our prepaid sim cards from Vodafone or Optus. Google search didn't give a clear answer so we ended up with Optus which had a better deal at the moment. With 15$ we got unlimited calls and texts in Australia and 10GB data. (It was more than enough, after 3 weeks still had 8GB left 👍)

We took an Uber from the airport and went straight to meet our new lovely Finnish friends Solei and Sirpa. We had been in contact for months with Solei but this was the first time actually meeting the sisters :) Also it was so lovely that they had Finnish coffee, cinnamon buns and Finn Crisps (with Salami) there waiting for us. We were in heaven!
We chatted quite a bit and got to hear the valuable local tips on what to do around the area. Thanks to these ladies we also got to experience the local life little bit as Sirpa had arranged us to be housesitters and dog watchers for a week.
Housesitting is quite common in Australia and I hear there is some pages where you can register and you might find free accommodation like that and end up spending part of your vacation petting cute dogs and chilling at the backyard in the sun with a pool. That's what happened to us anyway :)

We had a car in our use for the first week which was great. It was scary though.. to drive a MANUAL car for the first time on the other side of the road. The shift stick was on the left and the signal on the right and window wipers where the signal usually is... So like our new Finnish friend Mika says "the tourists always have the cleanest windows" 😂. Well we sure had it like that. We had some car trouble after visiting Aldi (local Lidl) for the first time.. After visiting the shop and buying all the food, the car didn't start! Oh crap! Luckily the car owner's dad lived nearby so I called him and he came to give some extra power for the battery and he had it replaced so we would not have the same trouble again.

Our street with the quirky car

The north Strafford Island and Brisbane city exploration - week 1 

Solei and Sirpa say that one of the best places to visit (on Earth I think :) ) is the Straddie island. It's easily reachable from Brisbane and especially from Cleveland/Ormiston area where we stayed. The ferry ticket costs total of 14$ or 20$ per person depending which company you choose. You could also take your car there but it's more expensive and there is no point if you are just visiting for one day. The ferry trip took something like 20-30min I think and then there was a bus waiting at the harbour, ready to take people to Point Lookout. The return bus ticket was around 10$ each and the trip to other side of the island took maybe 25min. At first the bus ride gave me a feeling that we were in Ruissalo Turku, with the exception of road signs about koalas and kangaroos 😎 When you get to Point Lookout you'll find a couple of restaurants, beaches and also good public toilets, but the absolute must is to do the Gorge Walk. I mean really, you gotta do it! Even after seeing the pics that Solei and Sirpa had, that could not prepare us for the views and wildlife we got to see.. It was astonishing! We ended up seeing two kangaroos, stingrays, seaturtles and one undefined whale/dolphin/shark creature. We could have spend longer time there, but we were worried about the little doggies so we just spent few hours on the island and went back to our petting and belly rubbing duties :) (these little dogs that were on our watch, Keksi and Pertti*,  were so cute and affectioned! we really fell for them ❤️
*The names of the dogs might have been changed due to protecting their privacy :) )

Doing the Gorge Walk

A roo

The next day we hopped on a train and travelled 50 minutes to Southbank which is the cultural center and quite laid-back urban city area with many restaurants and a beautiful riverside. We wondered around for some time and ended up enjoying some greek food at Zeus restaurant and some live music at a park. It was very nice and with time and more money, we could have stayed longer there. But again the belly rubbing duty awaited us.. or so we though!

We arrived back home around 6pm only to find only one dog in the backyard.. that was weird at first but after looking all over the place, we realized that Pertti had gone missing! OMG! I called the owner's mom and she calmed me and said that Pertti has done it before and we should not worry too much about it or go look for him.. but we worried and went out looking for him and called his name hoping so badly that he would appear from somewhere.. but nothing :( after returning home we just sat by the open front door and waited.. and waited.. and waited. We must have looked so sad and desperate there. I started to search local missing dog sites from Facebook and at first we got nothing, but then at 10pm I saw Pertti's photo on Queensland lost pet registers site!! OMG we found him! Maybe 15 minutes after that Pertti was back home with us. We were so happy! Pertti on the other hand seemed very nonshallant and was playing it very cool. We learned that he had found the tiniest and quite high up hole from the fence and escaped from there and wandered a bit until a neighbour from the nearby street found him. Pertti ended up having great time with the neighbours and enjoyed some BBQ and got lots of cuddles also. Hah.. that little furball! Phiuuff luckily this story had a happy ending 🙏

After that episode we weren't too keen on going far from home and it was 37 degrees out so pool and some BBQ suited just fine for us. It was a wonderful place to housesit and the dogs, like I said, stole our hearts a bit. We also felt really good having our Finnish friends and the owner's parents support there as we tried the local life :)

Keksi

Week 2 

I have been in Facebook groups like "Australian suomalaiset" and "Brisbanen suomalaiset" (local FB groups for Finns) and I saw this one guy telling that he rents cars with affordable prices. After chatting with him we learned that he also has a homestay option at their own home, also with affordable price and it includes the nice company of Mika and Elina, the other Finnish travellers and two beautiful dogs :) So with the help of Solei and Sirpa again and after saying goodbyes to the doggies, we hopped on a train on one afternoon and traveled to Kuraby, Brisbane. Mika came to pick us up from the train station so we didn't have to climb up the hill in the heat with all our stuff.
Their place in Kuraby is nice and it gives you a homelike feeling as it is the actual home for Mika and Elina. Mika has helped various Finnish working holiday travellers to get their things going when moving here down under so we highly recommend starting your Brisbane life from here.

We rented an automatic car from Mika and put it in very good use from the get go as we drove to the Gold Coast. Our friend in Finland has said that Surfers Paradise is a marvelous place so we had to see it for ourselves. And it was pretty! Amazingly long coastline, lovely city feeling with restaurants and shops and highrise buildings. We spend few hours there and then continued our way to Currumbin and oh I found heaven there on the beach! Some spots had silky smooth sand so I could not do anything than just lay there for a bit. I was so offline :)

Enjoying the silky smooth sand

Coffee @ Hard Rock Cafe 

The next day it was time to do our duty as Finnish citizens and we drove up to the consulate to cast our vote in the presidential election. It was our first time doing it abroad so it was really an interesting experience. After that we drove to Mount Coot-tha as we heard that it would have an awesome view of the city. I think it would been even better to visit there around sunrise or sunset but the view was pretty cool daytime as well.

Mount Coot-tha lookout

After playing tourists it was time to put the gamefaces on and play some frisbeegolf (disc golf). Around Brisbane area, there are few courses but what was odd was that we were the only ones playing! We visited three different parks and in one of them (Logan) we met a local lady who said that in her 10-12 years living near the park she has never seen anyone play this game.. :o what the heck! I mean it's not easiest to get proper discs here as they don't sell them in the local sport shops (we googled).. but still! Though I must add that the weather was maybe too hot so maybe it's more like a winter sport for the Brisbanites.. well anyway we were amazed but extremely happy we had the courses to ourselves :)

Can you spot the basket? 

Weekend fun at Eat Street North Shore 

We heard from one fellow Finn at Mika's that there is this awesome event that happens on the weekends at the Northshore. It's like a food festival kind of, with something like 70 different stalls and many options to buy food from different parts of the world and enjoy live music and other shows at the same time, maybe with a glass of wine or beer. It costs only 2.5$ to get in. We first walked around and checked what the place had to offer and then decided what we wanted to eat.
We started to get hungry so we first tried small hot dogs for starters and then headed to South American joint where I took a beefy bun and Matias had a plate full of everything. We finished the foods with a nice local Out and a Bout pale ale.
We highly recommend to visit this place!

Huge portions, happy stomachs

how to get there? 

If you have a car then you could drive there, but we definitely recommend the ferry option. I don't remember how much the ferry was because we payed with GoCards, but it was not more than few dollars. The trip took about 40minutes from Southbank and it was a lovely way to see the area. The way back especially was wonderful as you can see the city lights in the dark.

- Sini

Brisbane city lights

Our route so far