We flew in from Bali, arriving at Sydney airport at about 10h30. We travel with just a carry on size bag each, so we headed straight to the Optus Yes counter for a local SIM card. They set us up and once again Brecht’s customers could reach him (almost) 24/7 with questions and problems. We took the train over to Redfern ($17 per person), an inner-city suburb of Sydney where our AirBnB apartment was situated. We would stay there for five nights (costing us €216) while searching for a campervan that we could call home on our three month road trip through Australia.
We arrived early at the AirBnB apartment, but Darren (in whose bed we would sleep as he was traveling through Thailand) told us we could just ring the bell and the cleaner would let us in. The couple that stayed there before us was just leaving and the cleaner had just arrived. We worked a little while waiting for her to finish so we could freshen up from the journey. The cleaner kind of ignored us, didn’t tell or show us anything, which is probably not a part of her job description anyway. The couple that left, handed us the key and showed us our bedroom, and we found the WiFi password on the blackboard in the kitchen. That was really all we needed to know.
We shared the apartment with Jamie, an Irish girl that stayed in Australia after a backpacking trip with her sister. We, us and Jamie, each had our own room and bathroom while shared the kitchen and living room. I believe we saw her for the first time on our third night in the apartment and only really talked to her twice. She was already off to work when we woke up and already in her room when we came home, so we usually had the kitchen and living room to ourselves. She was really friendly though and told us we could always ask her if we wanted to know something about the apartment or Sydney.
It was mostly sunny when we were in Sydney, so it could get quite hot in the apartment. We were used to having air conditioning in our room from our time in Southeast Asia, so took the fan from our bedroom to the kitchen, the living room and back to our bedroom for some cool air. The porch was cozy and the living room was spacious, with a huge television screen. We used the kitchen to cook our own meals and the fridge to store our food. The kitchen was well equipped, although we couldn’t get the oven to work. The blackboard in the kitchen asked us to water the plants, a small chore that made me feel even more at home.
The bedroom was nice, with a soft bed. I loved it! The bathroom was in our bedroom, quite small but big enough to satisfy our needs. There were no towels and only one roll of toilet paper provided, but we had and bought our own. The WiFi connection was fast throughout the apartment, so we could get some work done and Skype with our family without having to ask “what did you say?” all the time, a nice change from the slow connection in Bali. The location of the apartment is great, it’s close to the Redfern railway station (a 5 minute walk), with a grocery shop (Spar) right across from it. Just buy an Opal Card, top it up with some money, and the train will take you anywhere you want.
We were pleased with our stay at this AirBnB apartment in Sydney and Darren, the owner, was really helpful. We were bummed the apartment won’t be available when we’ll be back in Sydney for a couple of days before flying to New Zealand. Hope our other AirBnB apartment in Sydney will be just as nice!
Dit is echt wel een heel mooi appartement… zo fijn dat het skype goed ging.