Category: lifestyle

A week in Sydney, a weekend in Melbourne

So, about 15 years ago I was in Australia for the first time. This time around? I am an adult. In New Zealand, I was in Auckland without a plan. I caught a bus from Auckland to Wellington and began my life as a hobbit. My first week in Australia was meant as a mix between vacation and getting things set up for my visa.

Two big things (besides a mullet)

The main goal with spending the week in Sydney was to get a bank account and a tax ID number. This I achieved within two days. That left the rest of the week for vacation!

Hostels are the way to go

My first experience with hostels was back in 2016, when I lived in Mosbach, Germany. I laid in bed for most of the day as I contemplated my life choices. They had a buffet breakfast where I tried some German ham as well as bread and I was sold. Now, nearly a decade later, I’ve stayed at plenty of hostels. Some have been amazing, others dingy. When looking for hostels in Australia, I was surprised how many 8 star and above hostels there were. I settled on one a short walk to the city and not too far from the airport. This hostel had activities, a rooftop, and a free breakfast; the free breakfast I utilized almost every day. To save money, I bought pasta and bread so I’d have food for lunch and dinner. My room had a balcony where I was lucky enough to watch the Sydney marathon!

My room was modest and the only issue I really had was finding an outlet. The pillow was a little bit on the lighter side but nothing folding it in half couldn’t solve. Showers were my least favorite part of the hostel. They didn’t have a spot where I could put my clothes easily. But for seven days, it was a great stay!

The Sydney Opera House

15 years ago I was struck by the beauty of the Sydney Opera House. 15 years ago I didn’t go inside the opera house. This trip, I did my research. If you’re under 35, you can sign up with Opera Australia and get a 15% discount on tickets. That said, it can still be pretty expensive! Luckily, I found a show that was around $90 (AUD, I think). An hour and a half of intro to opera and I was sold. There’s a nice little bar on the harbor, so stop by there if you’re early for the show!

During intermission, you can walk around the cathedral, grab food and a drink, and simply enjoy yourself. After 15 years of waiting, I finally got to see the interior and it did not disappoint. The architecture is like nothing I’ve seen before and it was a true joy to see it firsthand.

Mullet Mike

As you can see in my Sydney Opera House photo, my hair had gotten pretty long! New Zealand had me sporting long hair, mustache, and no ponytail. When I got back home, I sported the ponytail when I started attending professional events. Years before, I did a skin fade when I was in Germany. For better or worse, hair is starting to define my travel. So with that, I knew Australia might be the only chance in my life to rock a mullet. So, here it is, in it’s full glory:

A modern mullet for a modern man

Botanical Garden and State Library

Each state in Australia has its own library and garden. While originally heading for the garden, I saw a beautiful building that I quickly detoured through. Unfortunately, my photos for the Sydney state library and botanical garden are all on Instagram! Fear not, for I saved a few photos from the Melbourne state library.

A few people playing chess on the upper floor
The library in Legos

Absolutely amazing architecture and of the two state libraries I visited, Melbourne came out on top. These are places I feel like I can spend days getting lost in. Check out books, do research, read. On one of the floors, there were chess tables and people just playing; my kind of place!

A Little Rooftop here, a little rooftop there

In Sydney, I had a nice rooftop hostel. In Melbourne, an even nicer rooftop. And I have to say, the Melbourne skyline is absolutely stunning.

The trip was fairly low-key. I spent my time between wandering the city and hitting the live music scene at a few bars. The evenings were spent clubbing and drinking with friends at one of the many rooftop bars. Clubbing was a miss, where I was bored for the first time in a club. I was told later that there are clubs for 25 to 35 year old’s, which is where I should have been! Mornings were for brunches, and one of my favorites was a Korean infused croissant.

A Melbourne coffee

Getting to Adelaide

The simplest way is to fly. I however, went for the train! Sydney to Melbourne has a fairly cheap commuter train and to get to Adelaide, you can take a bus. If you want to see Australia, this is a great way to do it!

The train had a food car, so I had fun eating throughout the trip and enjoying the sights. The journey overall took about 20 hours, so if you’re going to Adelaide from Sydney, make sure you take time to rest in-between by visiting Melbourne!

And that’s it! There will be more to come in the coming months. I’m currently living and enjoying life in my quiet home in the suburbs of Adelaide. My goal is to have a lived in experience in Australia. As always, thanks for reading!

New Zealand, New Mike: Avocado toast and other things

So I’ve been in New Zealand for a couple months now! And I’m still alive! In fact things have been going quite well as I fall into routine. I’ve been attending professional meet ups, cooking, and getting ready to join a community garden as well as learn about repairing bikes.

What have I been Cooking?

When push comes to shove, I usually adapt and New Zealand has proven no different. I have been baking quite a bit, so below I’ll show off some of my creations:

Flatbread!
Peanut butter cookies!
Bread!
Cheese Puffs!

Flatbread! Why, you might ask? Because it requires 3 ingredients: flour, salt, and oil (plus water). Easy, cheap and healthy. Cookies? I made 60 and it was fantastic; literally ate cookies for three days. Homemade Bread? For a first attempt, it tasted delicious and also looked fantastic. Cheese Puffs? I took my love of cheese to the next level and learned how to make snack food with it!

What have I been doing?

What a great question. I have mostly just been enjoying my time off. I worked a little bit at a stadium serving food and this last month have been attending professional meet ups. The one I found most interesting was on becoming a business analyst, so now I am trying my luck as a consultant to those who need business advice. It’s fun and exciting, and I haven’t felt this motivation since I graduated college. I’ve been doing a bit of writing here and there and just recently got back into coding. I also recently attended a toast master where I got to practice my public speaking and since those are hosted weekly, I’m going to continue to attend more. I might not have a steady job right now but I’m hopeful if I focus this month on finding work, I’ll be able to find something I’m happy with.

Finally Doing ACA

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve been doing a few ACA (Adult children of Alcoholics) meetings while I’ve been here. I’ve now been going twice a week and it’s been really fantastic for my mental health. Not easy but I’ve felt a lot of personal growth and really feel my mindset shifting. My problem before is I always tried to tackle everything on my end, now I have a support network where I can openly talk about just how fucked up my childhood really was. It was the missing piece in my self confidence journey and has allowed me to be more vulnerable on the whole, not just in the meetings.

It’s interesting taking this journey overseas but the distance from home really does help quite a bit. I am completely vulnerable over here and I can truly see who I am. I’m proud of how far I’ve come and know that I’m at the finish line.

Travel?

Travel? What travel? I am simply living as I’ve said a couple times before. I have done a bunch of day trips but outside of that, not much else. Since travel is hard to write about, here are some photos instead:

A visit to a lighthouse after a long day of hiking
Rock formations carved out from glaciers, one of the most majestic things I’ve ever seen
Just a normal view around the Wellington area

As you can see, it is absolutely gorgeous here. This trip is exactly what I needed for this chapter of my life and I’ve really enjoyed just traveling around the Wellington area.

Tips and Tricks for Survival in a Foreign Country

I think the biggest recommendation I can give is to simply save up for the trip. Do proper planning and have a piggy bank from back home so you can spend happily. I’m happy that I chose a country where the US dollar is strong, so all the saving I did back home goes a lot further. By saving ahead of time, you take pressure off of “needing” a job and free up time to grow as a person. If you’re working a job just for the money, it can be tough to feel inspired by the experience. I’d also recommend breaking up your trip into markers and my favorite is to break everything up into three month increments. Ask yourself how you’re feeling and if you feel overwhelmed, know that you can always go home after 3 months. If you feel ok after 3 months, push yourself for 6 months and don’t underestimate how much you can change in a 3 month period.

What are Kiwis like?

They are nocturnal. Jokes aside, I’ve found them to be overall pleasant. I had the impression going over that they’d be some of the nicest people I’d ever meet and overall that has been true. But I also realized everyone is simply human. Living with up to 28 people (yes, you read that right) I’ve met a lot of travelers in the last couple of months. And while some cultures I quite admire, I realized that back home isn’t as horrible as I thought when I was leaving. It can always been worse. That said, there is little I have to worry about over here. Kiwis are relaxed individuals that prioritize social interactions over work. I’m hoping in the coming months, I socialize with the kiwis even more and start to really feel like I’m one of them. I have a mustache and long hair now, so I very much fit the aesthetic style of the kiwis.

A Nice Showcase of my double chin

More insight to come

The longer I am here, the more I’ll learn about myself. I am slowly regaining a long lost confidence and it feels really good. And just, yesterday, I touched Thor’s hammer! If that’s not a sign of good things to come, I don’t know what is!

May I one day be worthy.

New Zealand, New Mike: Expect the Unexpected

So when I left the United States, I was in a fantastic spot. I had a job that paid ok, I was in a relationship, paid off my student loans, ran a half marathon, and was spending most of my time with friends. Now that I’ve had a month in New Zealand, how am I doing? Well…

Things unplanned

So for this trip, I had spent a year planning. I asked myself if it was feasible and figured I could make it work. It is a growth opportunity. My biggest oversight was that it is the holiday season. I wanted a year of two summers and a year where I could celebrate Christmas in the Summer and New Year’s Eve in a foreign country. And… It was fine. It was nothing crazy and honestly it would have been better to have spent that time back home. I could’ve had an extra couple months to nurture my relationship and I think the holidays are always better spent with friends and family. That is the difficult part about this trip, being completely on my own. It does not matter how much charm you have in this world, it is hard to completely uproot everything and take a risk. Good decision? Bad decision? Impossible to say. Everything has a trade off, last year I did not expect to be such a good year for me but it was. So to leave that behind was difficult but New Zealand is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So we’re here now. My biggest obstacle has been everything is closed for the holidays, which has made finding work extremely difficult. So you take an already big change and add sitting around in a foreign country for a couple weeks while eating into your savings and it can add a bit of stress; I’ve been mostly holiday on this holiday working visa and my hope is in a month I’m a bit more settled. Hence, if I could do it over, I would have left mid January; a chapter turning in a foreign country sounds great on paper but it’s a lot messier than you’d expect.

Looking Forward

So this year is going to be a year of looking forward. If the last few weeks have taught me anything, it’s that I have a lot of insecurity. What better place to work through my insecurities than abroad? I’ve had to adapt and life seems to be moving forward, slowly. And hindsight is 20-20. A “proper” relationship was new to me before I left, so I shouldn’t be too hard on myself if it ended so that I could pursue this dream of mine. My birth defect hasn’t bothered me too much since I’ve been here but if I take photos I tend to get really self-conscious. This will also be a year of not being too hard and just going with the flow so we shall see how that goes. I just need to have faith in the decisions I make and not so worried about making the “wrong” choices.

Dumb Things I’ve done while I’ve been here

Speaking of not being too hard on myself, I thought it’d be fun to go over some really stupid things I did.

  1. The first would be taking my phone out in the middle of a rainstorm! Guess what happened. The charging port got water damaged! And thus I got to watch my phone’s battery drain as I got ready to hop on a 12 hour bus ride from Auckland to Wellington. The good news is I was able to barely make it to my address. I bought a wireless charger to keep my phone going for a bit longer and then I officially retired my phone after purchasing a new one. The bad news is I had to buy a new phone. And it was the Fan Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S23, which basically means it is prone to scratching, which I learned the hard way. Albeit, the scratches aren’t horrible but I went a week without a screen protector and even being careful, scratches were unavoidable. If I could do it over, I’d buy the S22 and go with a lower data phone plan; I lose the special contract bonus but in the long run it would’ve been a better deal.
  2. I drank too much in Auckland. And by drank too much, I mean a lot. I spent with reckless abandon and that cut into my savings like there was no tomorrow. I also ate out quite a bit, which did not help my wallet. It was fun but I wish I had done a little more planning into doing more day trips and maybe only eating out once a day rather than twice a day.
  3. I kept my phone plan with an international add-on. Seemed smart at the time. Keep the phone plan and worry about cancelling overseas. Not so. It would have been better to have transferred my number to google voice and just relied solely on wifi to access the internet. A vacation, international plans could work just fine, but living abroad I should have done a bit more planning as it could have saved me a headache when I got here. I had to buy a vpn to access google voice and then port my US number from Verizon and even now I do not know if it’s fully cancelled as it is a lot more difficult to call overseas than at home.

Insights Gained

A few key takeaways from the trip so far:

  1. No plan is perfect, so don’t fret if the plan changes
  2. Don’t dwell and always ask for what you want, you won’t know if you don’t ask
  3. Be proud of the decisions you make and there are no wrong choices
  4. Believe it will all work out
  5. Be grateful of every moment you have, life is about doing, not thinking.

The Goal

The goal is to find myself. Even when I was doing well this last year, I felt like something was missing. And while my last couple weeks have been far from perfect, that is exactly the point. I have spent so much time trying to make my world perfect that I have forgotten how to simply live and experience life. So for better or worse, I am here now, on the road less traveled, and I can only hope that will make all the difference.

Expect more articles on the way. My writing has slowed down as I take an easier approach to life but I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about such as my visit to the shire and what it’s like living with a bunch of other people. Stay tuned and as always, thanks for reading!