My Australian journey (Part 1)

Gday! Hello everyone!😁

The first greeting you will hear in Australia pretty much daily…and if you thought you can speak English quite well, then you maybe haven’t been in Australia, coz here I feel that my English is 10 times worse since I have sometimes problem to understand even a basic conversation of an Australian person, but let's begin today's topic. 

My Australian journey🌏

Going back to the last February 2023, as you already know from my first post, I left my job, because I realised that it was not what I wanted, then I gave myself some time to think what I actually don’t want to do, since it was easier than to know what I wanted haha and then got this thought from the back of my head that a few years ago, my friend recommended me to go for work to Australia and even though I though that it's too late for me to go this far, I still gave it a try and here I am and so far I’m living such a diverse life that seems actually quite nice. But not gonna lie, it wasn't the easiest decision to make, because it meant that I would have to leave everybody here and move very far away, but looking back now, if I wouldn't try it I wouldn't be where I am now, so I have no regrets. 

First challenge came with getting the visa. That’s pretty hard… people were telling me, which made me want it even more and prove them that I will get it. After collecting all the necessary documents for the visa, there was nothing else, then to wait for the results..and? Got them! Pretty wild feeling that, it was actually happening (that was in June), then came all the preparation, the hardest part saying goodbye to my family, friends and my dog and then in October I was ready to go.

First stop Singapore

After the longest flight I’ve ever did, which was about 17 hours (Prague-Dubai-Singapore) I landed in Singapore, where I started my journey, coz I’ve planned to visit my friend, who I met in Italy? Crazy, when she told me I could visit her someday, I said that the probability is not that big since is so far but let’s see, and? Here I was! Stayed here for 5 days and was quite impressed by this place, mostly positive. The only negative things were the humidity? Damn! Never been in such a humid country before and the high prices…other than that I really enjoyed the time here, but I will make a separate post about it, because there are quite some things that I would like to share with you. Here I’ve stayed in the area of Chinatown, which was really nice, a bit far from the bay (where was the most things to see), but the transport was pretty accessible. I met some people at the hostel, and we did some walking around the centre, which is mainly filled with skyscrapers and pretty tall ones! I was lucky that I had my friend that showed me the less touristic spots, so we were biking along the bay, did sightseeing too, and I also tried some traditional street food and the flavours were so different than what I’m used to, pretty impressive. An interesting thing that I've realised is that people here live mainly indoor and come out until it gets dark, also most of the restaurants are located in a shopping malls. Of course it's because of the humidity, but it's so strange to walk around the city which is almost empty.

I've finished my trip with the light show at the Gardens by the bay and then went straight to the famous Changi airport, which has so many things to see, and then it was time to fly to my now final destination. 

Gardens by the bay

Changi airport (The Jewel waterfall)

From Singapore I took a flight to Perth (WA)

First week was mostly about discovering this new place, meeting new people, creating a bank account, getting a tax number, SIM card, RSA card, YES I felt like a total new person, when I had to do all these stuff again haha. I've spent my first week in hostel, where I met some nice people and during this time I was also searching for a place to live more permanent. I had two main goals to start:

One main goal for the first week of me being here: Finding a place to stay! That seemed to be quite difficult, coz everybody was doing the same. Every day I saw the common area at the hostel full of people on their laptops doing mostly the same thing, searching and searching for jobs and places to stay, so it was really just about luck, but I was the lucky one and found a place quite quickly just after a few inspections, It was a shared house near the favourite Scarborough area, which was about 20 minutes by train from Perth. I had in mind to either live in Perth close to the river or a bit out close to the ocean, so more or less I had it about 15 min by bus to the beach.

Second goal after finding accommodation was to find a job: First was the accommodation because then I wanted to find a work nearby. After a bit of time I found a work as a barista in one café, which was about 20 min with bike from where I've stayed. And later on, because this work didn’t give me enough hours I had to find another one, so I started to work as all-rounder in a seafood restaurant about 10 min by bike from my house, which was perfect. I was really happy that I found both, the jobs and the place to stay quite quick, since most of the people were struggling to get it, I was afraid that it's gonna be really difficult, but luckily it was quite quick with everything.

Perth CBD

This is the end for now, because there are much more things to share, and I don't want to squeeze it in one post. 

But here I want to share with you some of the main differences I've discovered in comparison with Europe/my country these first weeks of being here:

The organisation of appointments: For example in my country when I have to do something, I write it down and then go and do it...but here? I wanted to make a bank account, and I came on Friday morning, they told me that they are full today and that I have to come on Monday before 9:30..I came after 9, was waiting in a line for about an hour, then they could give me an appointment for 1pm, and I was waiting until 2pm, and it was all done in 15 minutes...The key is to always come in the morning..then its more possible they give you an appointment. But you can also just come, and they say come tomorrow, and then still won't give you any appointment..this is super weird.

Getting a job here: What I'm used to is to apply online for a job but here, they don't really follow the online world that much, so if you want to get a job, you have to print your CV's and go to different places, drop your CV there and then there is a higher chance that they will contact you. How it works then, when it comes to a causal position. If you're lucky, and they will contact you, they will invite you for a trial, which means that you will work for some amount of hours (for free) and then in the end they decide if they want you or not. What they do here sometimes is that, some bosses find it as a free labour, and they literally invite you for an unpaid trial and then never contact you back, so you basically worked for free. 

The trials - Based on trials from cafés and restaurants. I came to the café, immediately after saying Hi, they said here is an order so go and do it...without explaining me at least the basics of the machine function...also how they make a coffee is different from Czech, so I would appreciate a bit of explanation to start but no. The rule is if you can't do it, then you're not the right for us. I've realised that to get a job as a barista here is quite challenging, because of their high standards, so in the end I took a barista course, to gain more knowledge, about the Australian coffee culture haha. 

Prices here: The prices are in general higher in Australia, food in restaurants, alcohol, etc and as an example the accommodation, which is paid mostly weekly is with range approx between 200-350 AUD, that's in Perth, later on when I met people like from Sydney, they said the rents are around 400 AUD. Which is quite expensive in comparison to my country.

Vibe of people: The last thing I observed is how people here are actually living a bit happier, than what I'm used to (or I just feel like that). Because back home they seem more stressed, as an example in Prague, where every morning and evening I saw people just going to work and back, just like from point A to the point B, without observing anything and with the same expression on their faces (being bored/tired/judgy) and I just felt like this is not a place where I want to live, it honestly didn't make me happy and don't get me wrong, I had a place to live, job and good friends to spend time with, but it was just the vibe of the place, that wasn't giving me the comforting feeling. And here, especially in Perth, people just seem quite happy with their life (even if they are maybe not), you just pass them on the street and they smile at you, even wish you a good day and as much as it can be fake, it just makes your day much better when people just smile through the day. 

In the end, I would like to say that all of those observations are mainly based on me (of course) or on people I've met, which had it quite similar, and also it depends on a place where you stay in Australia. So this is just a point of view from my own experience to show you a bit, how it works here.

That is the end for today. Hope you've enjoyed this post and will see you next week!

Enjoy your days,

Yours Suzy 💙