So long Sydney

Sydney is an amazing international city where I could hear multiple foreign languages spoken as I explored. It was very clean and I always felt safe. They have a homeless problem as most cities do these days but I did see outreach workers talking with individuals lying on the sidewalk. In many areas there were buskers and the instrument of choice seemed to be the keyboard, not the usual guitar. When walking down the street I noticed that people walked on the left side of the street as they do when driving. The streets were busy with people from morning until evening. It’s sad that our downtown doesn’t have the same vibrancy.

My apartment was in a great location where I could walk everywhere and the design of the city made it easy to navigate. In 1968 it was the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere according to a plaque in the front lobby. I felt a little anxious being on the 27th floor, especially when the building manager came to test the new fire alarm system and it wasn’t working in my place. The AirBnB host had left instructions to open the window when cooking because if there was a false alarm I would be charged the $1800 fee that is billed by the fire department. There are no screens so two insects flew in one evening and promptly got squished but then I saw a bird fly by and I immediately wondered what I would do if it flew in the window! Although I found most people friendly and helpful, it was apparent that it is not appropriate to talk in the elevator. I made that mistake the first day and got strange looks. One thing I didn’t like about the apartment was the rude awakening every morning around 8. That was when the jackhammers would start up. There is a big construction project down the street but with the single pane windows it sounded like the workers were right in the apartment with me.

My bags were packed and I was out the door by 11. It was moving day!Read more