People romanticize solo travel and I am also joining that bandwagon to say that it is romanticized for all the right reasons. The confidence, freedom to explore, the chance to meet strangers, getting a brand new perspective on mundane things can be sought by nothing better than when you are by yourself in a strange land. Early on I was able to make two trips to Vancouver by myself and I loved every minute of it, but it was still in Canada and culture was more or less the same. However, this time I got the chance to explore a new country. Even though I was not alone for my entire trip and had great company after first few days – the initial pleasure of being a tourist and be able to explore a brand new land was unmatchable. Australia is the first country I traveled to, for the sake of travel, and I loved it for several reasons. I had experiences here which I will remember for a very long time. This could be a grown up core memory, which means it is very likely I will start forgetting things in the years to come, so putting the details down will be a way to safe it all and not have it lost to time.

North America to Australia

Day of my flight started with me getting all my laundry and sheets done before leaving. Nothing like coming home to a clean space! Later that day a friend dropped me off to Calgary airport. As per usual, I was there 5 hours before the flight. My anxiety will never allow me to go only 3 hours earlier because ‘what if something happens and I cannot make it to my first flight’. Checking in was fairly smooth and so was security check. Now that I have learned all the details about how to pack toiletries, what to put in the security bins, when to take belt and boots off – it doesn’t take too long to be ready for scans. Post security, now I was sitting in the lounge for 4 hours to catch my first flight to Vancouver. I was both excited and nervous about it, mostly excited. First one was a short 1.5hr flight but the next will be a long 16 hours+ flight but I planned on sleeping. Did I sleep? Mostly, no. But I managed to watch Barbie and The Last of Us when I was airborne though.

Arriving on the Land of Kangaroos

Before taking off from Vancouver, I didn’t realize that this entire flight will be over the ocean. Open waters. The closest little Island I could see on the map was Honolulu but it is also kind of far, just in case. If you are also someone who enjoys watching plane crash investigation shows, I assure you it is not a pleasant information to discover right before taking off. Anyhow, flight was good. Surprisingly I was not served with weird Vegetarian food in the name of Muslim Meal, there were no babies crying and, as a bonus – the middle seat was vacant which made the journey even good.

We landed safely in Sydney where it was fairly humid and hot that morning. After waiting in a queue to get self-service passport scanning for about 10 minutes and 3 failed attempts, I realized I travel on the Green Passport and I have to go see airport staff instead. Self Service is for selected passports only…a little annoying as always but what can we do. As I leave the never ending queue of people who were all there for manual scans, I realized that my flight’s conveyor belt had already stopped and my checked luggage was no where to be seen. A little panicked I talked to the staff there who told me to exit and go to Air Canada’s office. This was the most frustrating hour I spent at the airport. Air Canada office was closed as it was Boxing Day (Dec 26th) per Canada time and it is a stat holiday. Very frustrated going from one office to another, I was finally directed to the correct department who can find my luggage for me. Losing your luggage, not knowing where to go and then being in hot humid weather do not go hand in hand. One thing I learned here was that I should have bought a sim first thing because as soon as I went online, I could see where my bag was thanks to the AirTag in it. This helped me and the officer who was tracking my bag for me. AirTag for the win here. 2 hours since landing, I was able to finally make my way to my hotel.

King Smith Airport to George St.

Sydney has a great network for public transportation. One of the things which is really impressive is the infrastructure. While it seems ‘convenient’ to take an Uber to your hotel, it really is not when you are traveling in a huge metropolitan. Road traffic will take more time than the public transport and the charges are significantly high as well. After getting my luggage, I made my way to the trains. A nice lady showed me way to the correct platform and I embarked on the train to my hotel. I have not seen most of the world obviously and Calgary Transit system is not ideal at all, witnessing a transport network so strong and efficient was a wonderful experience for me, and this is just the first train right now. Trains are amazing and fairly fast. It took me around 30 minutes to reach my desired station and from there my hotel was right across the street. For my first few days I picked up a hotel which is right in the middle of the city. Walking distance to Harbour Bridge, Opera House and other famous streets and landmarks of the city. While being a bit on the pricey side, it was a really good find and a very nice stay there.

While ‘plastic money’ is considered unsafe pertaining to various conspiracy theories, I find it easy to carry cards than carrying cash. Thanks to some advice I got, I was able to open a Global Bank Account from Canada and I made arrangements with the bank to pick up my debit card once I was in Australia. Second thing after checking into my hotel was to go pick up my card from the branch which was no more than 400m from the hotel. Planning done right! Now I was stress free and instead of going back to hotel I decided to take a ‘short walk’ just to go take a look of the Opera House which was only a 10 min walk from my accommodation. Ironically my short walk ended a couple hours later when my legs were too tired to carry me anymore. Looking at Opera & Harbour Bridge I had the same surreal feeling which I felt when I walked in the streets of Calgary, an almost disbelief am I really here? I am thankful and grateful, and almost always get emotional when I get the assurance of how blessed I am, Alhamdulilah. It was beautiful! The first time I laid eyes on these landmarks, I still have the same image engraved in my memory, even though I looked at it a hundred times after as well.

First Time and First Impressions

Safar waseela-e-zafar is something I find very relative now. Despite having company for the rest of the trip, it was really good to see and experience things there first hand. Experiencing a different culture, a different environment and a very different accent. It was hard for me to understand the Australian accent the first time. Almost everyone I communicated with had to repeat themselves at least twice. My stay in Australia was really short and this time I did not have time to visit several places. During this very limited time I figured that there are things that I like, and things I might never like. Australia has a very amazing vibe of its own and despite being another Colony, it is very different from what I have experienced here in Canada. First thing that I absolutely loved about the country is the way they have made efforts to preserve their heritage. A Heritage Protection Act is in place which forbids demolishing cultural heritage architectures and this preservation gives the city, and the country, so much of a character. The history and the modernism, combination is just brilliant. Since my first city when arriving in Australia was Sydney, most of my firsts in the region are associated with it. I loved Sydney so much that I can consider moving there and living there at least for a bit.