Australian Time Out #4: Never Underestimate the Power of Jetlag

4: Never Underestimate the Power of Jetlag

My first experience of culture vertigo - the 'Etiquette Royal' boxes in the Seoul toilets, which when pressed emit a loud flushing noise, presumably to cover any rude noises! Our three hour stopover in Seoul was spent pleasantly watching Japanese music TV, with one highlight being a girl band with very bad English singing Mama by the Spice Girls; you can guess the rest!

Touched down in Sydney at 9 in the morning. Customs was a breeze, extremely efficient, and we had left the airport in no time. Strangely enough, I wasn't feeling the elation I thought I would feel. It was raining for a start. My backpack was far too heavy for me. I was absolutely exhausted...I got onto the bus to Centre Quay with a heavy heart, and remained so until we got to our hostel in Manly, where I got into bed and slept five hours! (Dan, bless him, spent that time wandering around Manly, which was absolutely deserted due to the rain)

From that day on, my spirits (and the weather) improved immensely! The jetlag, however, remained: we would go to bed at four in the afternoon and wake up at two in the morning - wide awake, we'd wander down to the main square and have a kebab (extremely tasty!), go to bed again and wake up at six in the morning. People say that you should stay awake as long as possible, but when you're walking around like a zombie, you have no choice!

Manly

View from the Manly ferry

Ignoring the weird sleeping patterns, we really enjoyed our short stay in Manly. The beaches are gorgeous, crystal blue water filled with the beautiful people. We had breakfast every morning at Candy's, a little caf� filled to the rafters with books and board games. Their breakfasts are as tasty as they are vast and really set us up for the day.

The ferry ride from Manly into Circular Quay is a must-do for every visitor in Sydney - a chance to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from a unique perspective! It really is breathtaking - as Dan's photos show!

Manly has loads of cute surfing shops and some great bars - our particular favourite is Ivanhoe with three floors and a dancefloor. To give you an example of opening hours here - the neighbouring nightclub doesn't open until 2 in the morning!

Manly view

While Manly had some amazing views and great features, it just fell short of persuading us to stay. The area is primarily a beach resort; if you are looking for a retreat from Sydney, but want to remain within commuting distance, then it certainly is for you. I did see quite a lot of trouble when we went out for our midnight feasts - but I could have been unlucky. I'll definitely go back there very soon for a weekend, but it's just too remote for a city girl like me to live there!

On the move again, we moved into the Captain Cook Hotel on Flinders Street, and finally started to get things sorted. I was very lucky to have been in contact with Sophie Dixon-Box (*wave*) before I left, and she gave me tons of great tips for job seeking and generally not getting ripped off! Cheers! Check out her travelogue.

Horrific Bank Charges

Dan and I brought over a ton of traveller's cheques that we wanted to stick in a bank account ASAP, so we went to Westpac to see what they could offer us. We nearly died when we were explained the charging system - you are charged a fee if you withdraw money from the counter, use another bank's ATM machine, use EFTPOS (Australia's answer to Switch), or if your balance falls below $5000...the list went on and on. Oh, and you are charged a certain fee per month for just having a bank account! Luckily the lady at Westpac sent us to ANZ - they offer free transactions and free EFTPOS for a flat rate of $5 dollars a month, and it doesn't matter how much you have in your account. Other banks have special rates coming out all the time so don't be afraid to shop around. Otherwise you might end up with a huge hole in your savings before you've even done anything!

Just in Case...

If you have a passport from the following countries - United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Malta and Italy - you are in luck, as you can walk into any Medicare office and get your paws on a Medicare card, which allows you to receive free treatment as a public hospital in-patient or out-patient; subsidised medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and Medicare benefits for out of hospital medical treatment provided by doctors through private surgeries and community health centres. If you are from Ireland (sob) or New Zealand you can't get a Medicard, but you can get subsidised medicines and free treatment in a hospital - just flash your passport at the first person you see!

Get a Tax File Number!

Centrepoint Tower

Go to your local ATO office (we went to the one in the Centrepoint Tower building - you can't miss it!) and fill out a form for your tax file number - if you want to work in Australia, you'll need this pretty sharpish. Your employer will give you a few weeks leeway but not more, and you don't want to get emergency taxed...You have been warned! Take your passport with you for ID.

After a few days in Sydney, we'd really got our bearings. It's really easy to find your way around the city, and we found the natives to be very helpful. You'll be surprised how easy it is to get acclimatised! Stay tuned for our adventures with the job and accommodation market!