Sarah auf Reisen

Me again! After meeting the mentioned evening together with the other Backpackers I moved a last time in Australia from Glebe (western suburbs) to Bondi Beach (sounds more fancy than it actually is).

This is actually the point where I feel that I have to say a few words about the public transportation in Sydney! Catastrophic!

Incredible that you don’t find any schedules at the bus stops plus they anyway don’t go from where they are supposed to. And the tariffs are a shere mystery. Thus, from time to time I needed a little longer than the fastest possibility would have taken. This was also the case when I moved, when it took me virtually the whole morning to go to Bondi. And in the end (I don’t wonder any more) the weather was pretty bad with some showers in between which is why I didn’t go to the beach. But I anyway wanted to reconfirm my flights. But this took waaaaaaay longer than I had expected due to some rather complicated lady at the Singapore Airlines hotline. First of all she told me that I was not in the system. Me e-ticket opposed to that statement and finally she could indeed find me. As I hadn’t a cell phone with me where she could call me back (I anyway don’t know why there would have been the need to do so…) she asked me for my e-mail address. And now the tragedy began… I started spelling my address up to the @ sign which is followed by the word “student” which in my opinion should not be so complicated to write but I was taught different… (Her: “Could you please spell that word for me?” Me, rather confused: “student, like a high school student”. Her: “Yes Madam, would you please spell that word for me”. ME:”S-T-U-D-E-N-T”. Her:”Ok, I repeat: “S-T-U-V-E-N-T”. Well, it took us a little longer but finally we got the word student written with a “d” and after another 10 minutes my complete e-mail address was in the system.), After several breaks where she put me on hold she reconfirmed my flights BUT told me that they didn’t have my passport details and without them I wouldn’t be able to check in which I thought was rather strange as I flew around half of the globe with the same ticket (and I’m quite sure they had my passport details before). Anyways she told me she couldn’t insert them into the system. Finally I found out that I could do that on-line so I didn’t have to go to their office.

Well, the rest of the day I spend with shopping and in the evening I met the guys from yesterday downtown.

As usual the following day was quite rainy but when it stopped about noon I took my chance and went out to walk (or run) down the coastline from Bondi to Coogee. Actually Sydney is quite nice because its suburbs are like little villages and you never really feel like in such a huge city.

After the walk I had to prepare myself for going to the Opera (Ballett to be specific) as I could snatch a ticket for my last evening in Sydney. Here a short summary of the piece “Manon Lescaut”:

Manon on her way to enter a Convent is been visited by her brother. Taking place in Paris a wealthy Monsieur is attracted  to Manon which is noticed by her brother. The two of them – Lescaut and the Monsieur – come to an arrangement over Manon. Meanwhile Manon meets the young but poor des Grieux and when Lescaut and the Monsieur return the two of them have disappeared with the help of some stolen money. Lescaut – rather unhappy – again comes to an arrangement over Manon, this time with GM who is also interessted in marying Manon and as a bonus is quite wealthy too.

While Manon and GM declare each others love for each other Lescaut the obviously quite enterprising brother arrives and tries to convince Manon to marry GM. In the following Manon seems to be quite undecided but finally she convinces des Grieux to cheat when he is playing cards with GM to get more of his money. When they are caught cheating they rush away. But finally they are found by the police and Manon is arrested as a protitute, shipped to America and her brother gets killed (it is not entirely clear to me why). Des Grieux follows her and kills the gaol. The two of them escape into the swamp of Louisianna where Manon dies due to exhaustion (she looked a little greenish since she left the ship).

Most exceptionally it did not rain when the Ballett had ended so I stayed for a while ar the harbour and the Opera building.

My last day in Sydney I stayed in my hostel (with a short shopping trip) for the whole day because it was raining cats and dogs. In the early asternoon I was picekd up by a slightly confused bus driver from Cyprus who should have brought me to the airport. As he forgot to pick up another customer and didn’t find the next one it took a little longer than expected to reach the airport. Anyways at 5 the A380 aircraft left for Singapore. A few details about the flight:

• Christmas decoration in the aircraft
• mouthwater in the bathroom
• Looooots of legroom 
• The most polite flight attendants ever (really polite not the usual:I-am-polite-caus-I-have-to polite)
• Huge wings (looking out of the window I didn’t see anything else)

I arrived in Singapore right before 10 pm after an 8 h flight. Actually the only thing I wanted was sleeping. But first of all I needed some cash so I went to find an ATM. The respective one energically refused to do so cause my card had expired. The respective card instead sayd it was going to do so in 2010. So I went to find another one. But as the third ATM stated the same I started to be slightly concerned. Ok you might say that I could have gotten some cash from the ATM with my credit card. Well, yes, if I would have remembered the PIN…

 Failing to log in my bank-account on-line (thank you McDonalds for the free internet) also telling me that my card had expired at least I could find a phone number to call (at this point I’d like to thank my credit card, without you I never could have made this call, and thanks to the public phones which can be used with credit cards). It turned out that my bank had sent me a new card (which is safe home in my post box I guess) which is why my old one was blocked (although the lady said it still should work. Well I think I proved the opposite). After a 30 minute telephone call (I’m quite curious about my credit card bill) my card was unlocked again (thank you post finance) and I could receive cash the following day. Most unluckily I did not have any til then. Well, almost none, except the 2.80 Singaporian Dollars (thanks dad!). But that actually suffices for alarge Coke at McDonalds and you even have 65 cent left. Lacking money an considering the meanwhile late hour lacking publick transportation to town I slept in the arrival lounge in between several other travellers (not exactly the most comfortable place to sleep but I have slept worse before). Pretty much when the first planes were going I got up and I challenged my luck once again at the ATM. This time got my money without complaint.

As my connecting flight to Phnom Penh was departing early in the following morning I checked in my luggage and went downtown where I spend most of the day (Orchard road, botanical gardens, marina, marina barracks) and bought a new laptop (interessting design and is perfumed. This was not the major criterium to choose this one, though). In the evening I wanted to have dinner at one of the restaurants at the Riverside close to the Raffles Place. At the Metro station I met a girl from Indonesia and we decided to go out for dinner together, where I har my first Singapore Sling (not at the Raffles itself but at least at the Raffles Place. A pretty sticky fluid though…). Afterwards I went back to the airport as my flight was leaving too early for the public transportation. Anyways, I already knew where to sleep…

For pictures please see the German post as it somehow doesn’t work to load them up right now….