There's an ease that I have living in Australia. The best things about Sydney are free: the sunshine's free, and the harbour's free, and the beach is free.
[Russell Crowe]
Finally! We made it to Sydney and first impressions are that all our unrealisticly high expectations are met and then some. This country is simply great. The nature, the weather, the people, the food. We were met by the lovely thick Australian accent - somehow both friendly and a "welcome back". We overcame immigration, rental car chasing, driving on the left side, and navigation, and found outselves knocking on a house door in Freshwater... to greet the family that we were sharing house with the first week in Sydney.
The house was large and modern with a small yard and swimming pool at the back, and the family we were sharing it with (Todd and Jovy, originally from San Francisco) were wonderful. We spent the weekend unpacking a bit, relaxing, swimming in the pool, going to the beach, and getting used to Aussie life.
We also took a day trip to Palm Beach about 45 minutes north of Sydney, where we had a great lunch at the Boat House. Afterwards we walked across the peninsula, where Astrid burned her feet on the hot sand. As we were putting on shoes, Storm said "Look up", and above us hung the largest spider we have ever seen in the wild. A short stressful moment in an otherwise great and peaceful day.
Monday morning we started on "normal life", Troels going to University of Sydney to work and Storm and Astrid in "school" and "kindergarden" (home version). The trip to the university is easy by car, but the parking hard (and very expensive). Alternatively, taking the bus down to the Manly ferry across the harbour is lovely, but time consuming. Being back at the university was great, bringing back fond memories from my stay in 2006!
We took a family trip to the university, so that Storm and Astrid could also see were dad was going every (well, most) days. We held a little school in my office, identifying countries from drawings of them, and afterwards spelling the country name out.
The week ended with Pizza and redwine at Manly beach looking at the surfers riding the waves in the sunset. As we walked back to the car, the first drops of rain started coming from dark clouds, and Friday evening became a cosy indoor one, looking out at the heavy subtropical rain.
We also visited old friends (from 1982 in Greece), Darryl and Clare, for a great afternoon in the pool, and not the least their dog, Jessie, whom Astrid and Storm both loved playing with. It was fantastic seeing what we consider to be our "Australian family" again after many (12!) years, and Darryl cooked a fabolous dinner.
The next day we got up early and started packing our things. It was hard to once again put everything into our suitcases, but finally we had everything including ourselves in the car... and we were free to drive anywhere in Australia. However, for now we were only to go 24km, to our new home in Bronte...