Sightseeing marathon in Sydney - Part 2
After lunch we walked a little further around the bay and bought our Opal-Cards which is a pre-paid card used for travelling with Public Transport in New South Wales. You can compare it with a mobile SIM card where you load money on it and then this is used for every travel you make by simply tapping / swiping the NFC card when you get on a public transport like a bus and do the same when getting off. The system then automatically calculates the correct fare (even when you transfer from one to another public transport) and subtracts it from your balance. Compared to Germany this is a very easy and developed system, although it seems that you miss benefits like day-travel cards or quarter-tickets where you have savings. When we were in the bus we noticed the next difference to Germany: There was no display or voice-system telling you at which station you are. For a tourist with no knowledge of the bus lines and surroundings this can be really difficult. The Australian solution for this is an app where you can plan your travel, choose a route by clicking "Start" and it then shows you on a map where you are and gives you notifications when your stop is approaching and when to get off (that this is not every time working so well will be part of a later post).
So we were trying to ensure that we get off at the right stop to world famous Bondi beach whilst being affected from the consequences of the last night with less sleep.
We actually got off the bus a little earlier than necessary but this offered the opportunity the get some better views on the way to Bondi. The weather was unfortunately a little worse in the afternoon with clouds an a cold wind showing us that it is already Autumn in Australia and Winter was about to come. But not even this was degrading the experience of being at the coast with its smell and amazing waves which you can see on the following pictures.
After we had enough of the view we made a coffee break and Denise tasted the first time Coconut Water directly from the Coconut but was a little disappointed when it did not taste like the well known Coconut milk in cans that we bought every now and then in Germany.
With new powers and some usage of their WiFi we made our way back to the "hotel". During the evening we had dinner at the same bar we had breakfast before and spend the remaining hours of that day with activating our Australian SIM-cards and the first WhatsApp Video calls to our families in Germany.
The next post will be about our travel to Newcastle and the first impressions from our new home.
So we were trying to ensure that we get off at the right stop to world famous Bondi beach whilst being affected from the consequences of the last night with less sleep.
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| I actually had to hold her head that she does not fall from the seat =P |
We actually got off the bus a little earlier than necessary but this offered the opportunity the get some better views on the way to Bondi. The weather was unfortunately a little worse in the afternoon with clouds an a cold wind showing us that it is already Autumn in Australia and Winter was about to come. But not even this was degrading the experience of being at the coast with its smell and amazing waves which you can see on the following pictures.
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After we had enough of the view we made a coffee break and Denise tasted the first time Coconut Water directly from the Coconut but was a little disappointed when it did not taste like the well known Coconut milk in cans that we bought every now and then in Germany.
The next post will be about our travel to Newcastle and the first impressions from our new home.
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