Settling In
After a stressful week of searching for apartments, we finally got one in the building we wanted. Searching for apartments is much different than in the US. The occupancy rate is just over 99% right now, so the market is definitely a sellers market. Thus, it is basically a mad rush in to look at the place and then a mad rush to get your application filled out and place your deposit. It is small but nice and only a block from the beach and a block from the wharf where we catch the ferry for work in the morning. It is also furnished which makes much easier for us.
We moved in wednesday November 26 and spent that weekend getting settled. Moving day was quite an event. We rented a car for the day to transport all of our luggage, but since we had so much stuff we asked for an SUV. We ended up with a slightly smaller version of one of those monster trucks you see jumping and smashing cars on TV, which is a bit frightening given that roads are much narrower here than in the states. Jared did the driving and not only was it his first time driving on the other side of the road it was also rush hour in downtown Sydney.
Needless to say we werent yet settled for Thanksgiving and turkey is hard to get here, so we spent the evening after work at the local Four Pines microbrewery eating meat pies and then went to see the movie Australia. The restaurant is connected to the movie theatre, so they have a deal on Thursdays for $25 you get dinner and a movie. In the US, that might not seem like a deal, but here you almost feel like you're stealing from them. If you haven't seen the movie yet, it is definitely worth seeing. It is set in Darwin, which is quite a distance from Sydney. Maybe like driving from Pittsburgh to southern Texas or something (actually the climate in Darwin is a bit like southern Texas too... )
Over last weekend we spent time getting to know our new neighborhood, Manly. It is a beautiful place and feels a million miles away from the city but it is only a half hour ferry ride. It is so nice to come home at the end of the day on the ferry looking at the beautiful landscape. Manly has a ton of shopping, restaurants, and entertainment to offer. There's an open air market every weekend on the Corso (which is kind of like the main throughway from the ferry to the beach), which has a bunch of local artists and craftsman. After walking past this one guy's stand about 20+ times, we finally decided to buy a picture of Sydney harbor that he painted.
We went for a run on Sunday that ended up turning into a 2 1/2 hour hike into the bushland and across to North Head (which is basically the top gate into the harbor from the ocean). The views are beautiful... 360 degree amazing views of the ocean, coastline, the whole harbor, and the whole city. The migration season is over, but starting in late April/early May there will be thousands of whales making the trek back north to get away from the Antarctic winter. We've been told that you can usually see them passing through, so we're looking forward to that.
We've started to get a list of our favorite restaurants which includes a great chinese place and the wharf bar which is right on the water. At sunset, you can catch the little ferry penguins coming on to the beach to nest. You can't use flash photography so we couldnt really get any pictures.
We managed to catch some things in town before our move too including Opera Bar on Friday night which is right on the water in the middle of the Circular Quay, the Opera House, and the Harbor Bridge. There were even fireworks from the bridge that night. We also took a trip to Taronga Zoo on the north side. The platypus tank was under renovation but we got to see the ferry penguins, baby koalas, and a tasmanian devil along with a ton of other ones.
We're both starting to settle in at work and get our client portfolios lined up. Jared's two main clients are going to be Farmer's Dairy (which is the main dairy company in Australia) and AHL (which owns several businesses including a hotel chain, movie theatres, and a movie production business). Katie's main client right now is Deutsche Bank, which will take her through April and then we'll see how it shakes out for June/July.
We moved in wednesday November 26 and spent that weekend getting settled. Moving day was quite an event. We rented a car for the day to transport all of our luggage, but since we had so much stuff we asked for an SUV. We ended up with a slightly smaller version of one of those monster trucks you see jumping and smashing cars on TV, which is a bit frightening given that roads are much narrower here than in the states. Jared did the driving and not only was it his first time driving on the other side of the road it was also rush hour in downtown Sydney.
Needless to say we werent yet settled for Thanksgiving and turkey is hard to get here, so we spent the evening after work at the local Four Pines microbrewery eating meat pies and then went to see the movie Australia. The restaurant is connected to the movie theatre, so they have a deal on Thursdays for $25 you get dinner and a movie. In the US, that might not seem like a deal, but here you almost feel like you're stealing from them. If you haven't seen the movie yet, it is definitely worth seeing. It is set in Darwin, which is quite a distance from Sydney. Maybe like driving from Pittsburgh to southern Texas or something (actually the climate in Darwin is a bit like southern Texas too... )
Over last weekend we spent time getting to know our new neighborhood, Manly. It is a beautiful place and feels a million miles away from the city but it is only a half hour ferry ride. It is so nice to come home at the end of the day on the ferry looking at the beautiful landscape. Manly has a ton of shopping, restaurants, and entertainment to offer. There's an open air market every weekend on the Corso (which is kind of like the main throughway from the ferry to the beach), which has a bunch of local artists and craftsman. After walking past this one guy's stand about 20+ times, we finally decided to buy a picture of Sydney harbor that he painted.
We went for a run on Sunday that ended up turning into a 2 1/2 hour hike into the bushland and across to North Head (which is basically the top gate into the harbor from the ocean). The views are beautiful... 360 degree amazing views of the ocean, coastline, the whole harbor, and the whole city. The migration season is over, but starting in late April/early May there will be thousands of whales making the trek back north to get away from the Antarctic winter. We've been told that you can usually see them passing through, so we're looking forward to that.
We've started to get a list of our favorite restaurants which includes a great chinese place and the wharf bar which is right on the water. At sunset, you can catch the little ferry penguins coming on to the beach to nest. You can't use flash photography so we couldnt really get any pictures.
We managed to catch some things in town before our move too including Opera Bar on Friday night which is right on the water in the middle of the Circular Quay, the Opera House, and the Harbor Bridge. There were even fireworks from the bridge that night. We also took a trip to Taronga Zoo on the north side. The platypus tank was under renovation but we got to see the ferry penguins, baby koalas, and a tasmanian devil along with a ton of other ones.
We're both starting to settle in at work and get our client portfolios lined up. Jared's two main clients are going to be Farmer's Dairy (which is the main dairy company in Australia) and AHL (which owns several businesses including a hotel chain, movie theatres, and a movie production business). Katie's main client right now is Deutsche Bank, which will take her through April and then we'll see how it shakes out for June/July.
See more pictures at http://www.2yearsinsydney.shutterfly.com/
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