Ok, so yesterday we went to Sidney city centre. The plan was to take the train to Central Station, then walk to Chinatown and get an Australian SIM card for our phones, walk to the Australian Tax Office, get a Tax File Number, look for a bank, open a bank account, and then meet up with the guys at the Opera House. As plans go, it was pretty good...
The Chinatown part wasn't a problem. Well, the town part anyway. Try talking to a recently arrived Chinese woman who nevertheless manages to speak with an Australian accent. Between the three of us and the four of them we managed to get to the point where there was a SIM card in each phone. Minor glitches like the lack of a PIN when the phones were switched back on were soon overcome. E.T. phone home for 5 cents a minute from now on.
Getting to the ATO proved to be a tiny bit more difficult than we expected. First of all, walking there was not a good idea. It's a bloody big city, and even the tiny part between Central and the Opera House is quite big. So after what seemed like ages of walking, we decided to take a bus. The only question was which one to take...
When in doubt, ask a nice Australian. We found a lady who was not only willing to explain to us in detail which bus to take, where to get on, where to get off, and where to go next, but who also gave us a map and three cans of coke she happened to have in her handbag... This is a strange and wonderful country.
After that, finding the tax office was a piece of cake. We applied for our tax numbers and then decided to skip the bank, find something to eat and go to the Opera House. Now, trying to find a cheap place to eat in the harbour district isn't as easy as it sounds. We ended up at McDonald's, of all places. But for some reason the burgers taste like burgers here, not like cardboard, so it wasn't all bad.
By the way, the weather is, well, not what you would expect from Australia. Sure, it was warm when we left in Quakers Hill, but then at around 3 pm it started raining cats and dogs, and it cooled down quite a bit. Which we didn't expect, of course... Bad case of wrong clothes.
Anyway, we arrived at the Opera House early, so we decided to have a look inside. And let me tell you, the restrooms in that place are absolutely amazing! It's hard to describe, I'm going to have to go back sometime and take a picture, but it really was great. Marvin and Nico arrived soon after, and after what seemed like hours we finally decided to go look for a bar somewhere. We did eventually find one, where you could bet on sports and there was a video juke box, and we had our first Australian beer. And our second...
The reason we missed the last train back to Quakers Hill was not that we were drunk, because we weren't. We simply lost track of time and got a bit confused by the timetable... Well anyway, the last train was gone, and the first one in the morning was at 4am. Fortunately for us, the bar stayed open pretty late, so at least we had a place to stay. In the end, due to general undecidedness, we ended up missing the first train as well (by a few minutes), so we had to wait at Central for another hour. AND we missed our connecting train in Blacktown, because by that time we were so tired and exausted that we didn't find the right platform on time. But we got home all right, and that's all that matters, right?
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