Sydney First Impression

I was picked up by my mum's old friend who lived in Sydney for 6 years now. Her name was Joanna, she was 33 years old and was married to Joseph.  When I opened her car's doors to hop in I saw a steering wheel in front of the seat. Then I heard Joanna's laugh "Do you want to drive?" and I realized that Australia has the left side traffic in contrast with Chicago. I was supposed to stay at Joanna's apartment until we would find a host family for me. Her apartment was located on the North Ryde, right next to a Church. It was night time when I arrived at Joanna's place and I went straight to bed after the 20h flight from Chicago. 

Joanna arleady had planned all the activities and sight seeing we will do during the next 2 weeks. The first attraction was the Coogiee to Bondi walk. Coogiee and Bondi beaches are one of the most famouse beaches of Australia and Joanna planned to walk 7 kilometers along the shore line from Coogiee to Bondi beach. In the morning Joanna made a typical Australian breakfast. A bowl of natural yogurt with papaya, mango, passion fruit, almonds and raisins. It was one of the best and most healthy meals I had in the past month. 

It was warm but cloudy outside when we left the house. On the way to the beach I noticed that the roads are very similar to the ones we have in America. Still, Joanna was driving only 40 miles per hour for the whole drive. "Do you see those cameras?" Joanna pointed to a road sign with a camera on it along with a speed limit sign of 40. "Every 5 miles there are speed cameras that measure how foast you are going." Joanna said. Then she turned on a radio "During the Australia Open celebration two men were hit in a head by .... there was no need to sent the victims to a local hospital since their condition was not critical" I was shocked. If the Chicago news would talk about how many people were hit in a haed during a public celebration they would last for at least 4 hours. 

When we arrived at the Coogiee beach, Joanna looked for a free parking. She noticed a man walking towards his car. She asked about his car spot. The men with a towel covering his lower half, with no shoes on his feet jumped into our car with a huge smile on his face. We gave him a ride to his car and took his free car spot 5 min walk from the beach. The roads by the beach were steep and narrow, like in the mountains in Poland. Right when I got out of the car I noticed a group of people jogging up the road. Further away I saw the view that was breath taking (on the picture). Just few streets from the CBD (Central Business District) of Sydney down town I saw one of the most beautiful shore lines in the world. It was amazing how clean and natural was the shore line; it was undisturbed by humans.