I was recently commended by a Polish friend on keeping a blog so thorough and up to date throughout this trip. Here I am over a month into my visit to Australia, two weeks into another monumental road trip and not a single word about it all here.

So here goes a lazy half hearted attempt at describing my time in Sydney. Our first shock upon arrival was how cold it was. A clear blue sky with a crisp wind blowing reminded my of Madrid in the winter and what it was like to feel cold. It took me a while to adjust and I even shied away from a shower until it occurred to me that this shower had hot water… Too long in Asia.

We made our way in what seemed to be a extortionately expensive taxi (once again, too long in Asia) to Dan and Holly’s place who had very kindly offered to put us up for our stay in Sydney. They’ have a lovely little house in Paddington which, as I was to discover, is a nice area located very close to the center of the city.

After six and a half months on the road it was a bizarre sensation meeting friends from back home. So much to talk about but after only three hours sleep on the flight over (damn Singapore Airlines and their fantastic in flight entertainment) we were in no state to socialise. Dan treated us royally setting up the spare bed and providing his full dvd collection for us to raid.

That evening it was time for another shock. This time of the cultural variety. We went to a pub called London. This might sound a bit strange but it was so weird being in a pub situation so like home after so long. Believe it or not at first I felt a little uncomfortable but it wasn’t long before the beers sorted that out.

We spent nearly two weeks in Sydney and the time was divided between meeting with friends, sight seeing and looking at camper vans. Not only were we able to celebrate Dan and Holly’s engagement and Holly’s birthday with their friends but Gareth was able to make it up from Melbourne to meet us. We spent two days out on the harbour seeing the sights with Gareth (“local” knowledge is invaluable) and we even manged to squeeze in a beverage or two. We also met up with Gareth and Nathalie for dinner one night were I devoured a huge pork schnitzel, and I mean huge.

It was great to see familiar faces, especially after so long. Think about this for a while, six months without seeing any of your friends. This meant a lot to me.

Apparently we were lucky with the weather. Shortly before we arrived they’d had gales and lots of rain. We were blessed with lots of sunshine and blue skies. We managed to see Watsons Bay and Manly after some picturesque ferry trips across the harbour. We viewed the Sydney opera house from many an angle as well as checking out the CBD, The Rocks, several of the parks and a very hip quay of which the name escapes me. Another sight that is not normally synonymous with Sydney was the USS Kitty Hawk, which was in port for a few days. This huge aircraft carrier is apparently only a small pup compared to some of the newer nuclear powered ships. Still looked pretty impressive to me. During the time it was in the harbour the papers claimed an estimated $180 million were spent by the crew… I’ll leave you to figure out on what most of it was spent.

I didn’t get round to going up the view tower, walking out on the famous bridge, going over to beach or enjoying the nearby coastal walk. They’ll have to wait until I return in September.

As I mentioned the rest of our time was spent looking at campers. Touring in a camper van here is one of the cheapest ways to travel once you add up hostel costs, meals out and bus tickets. We were a bit clueless to start with but some tips from Martin, who we met in Malaysia, got us started and after checking out rental deals and seeing some terrible vans in the Backpackers Car Market we started looking privately. Dan managed to find us a decent selection online and I spent Sunday (accompanied by a monster hang over) and Monday checking out a few. On the Sunday we saw two good vans, both Toyota Hi Ace pop tops from the 80s. The friendliness of the sellers was incredible. Along with being offered tea and biscuits, both owners picked us up and dropped us of respectively at the station and the first chap even gave us a lift from his place to that of the second camper. At the second guys place we were shown around the farm and Espe even ended up riding one of their horses.

The searching for, looking at and contemplating what to do was quite stressful. We were talking about quite a bit of money (in fact a third of the money left for the trip), add to that all the paperwork and the worry of re-sale I wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do. Time will tell.

Personally I was very impressed by Sydney. With its many beaches, green areas, stunning harbour and diversity of restaurants and bars, I could happily live here. I can also understand why Dan among many others decided to come over.

Another culture shock was one of the bus journeys we took. The driver actually counted the number of passengers and stopped letting people on one we reached the limit. A far cry from the passengers on the roof in India and luggage piled up in the isle in Cambodia.

The final shock that I’ll mention are the prices. Coming from Asia I couldn’t believe how much everything cost. Food, beer, transport… all were about 10 times what we are accustomed to paying.

Right, that is enough waffling. I’ll leave you with a question. What is the most photographed building in the world? I don’t know but the Sydney Opera House has to right up there…