Lucky like us

Today we arrived at Katoomba where we hope to spend the whole month of September. Katoomba is in the Blue Mountains and we were greeted with cold mountain air. Tomorrow it's going to be an op shop day trying to find something warm to wear. Such a shock after tropical Cairns where you could run in flip flops year round! The weather in Katoomba is just like Europe in the autumn, so we both feel a bit sorry to have left warm and summery Queensland behind.

Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney

It feels so unreal to be in New South Wales now. This is the first time to travel outside of Queensland, which we already started to regard as our home. The first days in Sydney we kept repeating "Can you believe it, we are in Sydney". Sydney was lovely, but I kind of miss Queensland, identify myself with Queensland because that's where we first landed in Australia. It's amazing how quickly one acquires a new identity. I recently red a book called "The alphabet of light and dark", in which a girl was described as "a mung bean from Queensland, not used to wearing shoes" and that's exactly how I feel right now. In Cairns it's easy to forget about the shoes, burn the bra and be free but in New South Wales it's a bit more complicated. It's cold, it's still early spring and reluctantly I had to cram my feet to runners and actually even start wearing a jacket when outdoors. It's been a while. Hardly ever needed one in Queensland.

We had a bit of bad luck booking the accommodation in Sydney, too. We booked a shared room in a girls' dormitory. there were only 2 other girls in the room but they were the most inconsiderate things I've ever had the misfortune to meet, Or maybe I've had too much good luck with roommates before, everyone's been so nice and it's been a pleasure to meet them. Luckily the ladies stayed only for 3 nights with us and luckily we've been treated with all the amazing things Sydney has to offer, went to see the must-see attractions and we even ate lunch in a lovely vegan Asian style restaurant TWICE. Shocking. The city is full of temptations and it's easy to forget the tight budget.

Katoomba seems like a lovely lively city. Our hostess is very friendly and I hope everything will work out just fine here. I'd like to stay in this region for a bit longer, and  have to start looking for a paying job soon. All in all, I feel very happy again about Australia, and about life. Changing the state was almost like changing a country, the lifestyle feels so different, the landscapes look so different. It's a new chance, a new beginning. Everyone needs one of those once a month, right?

The famous Opera house