Vroom Vroom

G’day mates, we’re finally in Sydney, and in case you weren’t sure, we’re 15 hours ahead of Eastern Time. The flight from Honolulu was 10 hours, and went as smoothly as possible. It’s almost spring here, and the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Not Hawaii-gorgeous, but slightly crisp, very sunny, 65-degree-daysgorgeous.

Our hostel, Kanga House, is one of the oldest hostels in Sydney, and is situated in Kings Cross, the self-touted “backpackers” neighborhood. True to its reputation, the streets are filled with young travelers, internet cafes, hostels, and travel agencies—not to mention a handful of cheap bars and restaurants.

The Australian dollar is weaker than the U.S. dollar, with roughly a 1.3% exchange rate. However, after the conversion, the prices here are pretty comparable to New York City prices. In fact, Sydney seems to be a slightly European version of NYC, at least so far.

Yesterday was our first full day here and we’ve already accomplished more than we thought we could. In the morning we managed to order coffee, which you think would be simple, but in fact, it went a little something like this:

Pete (to man behind the cash register at a café): “Two coffees please.”
Man: “Flat white?” (Only imagine that he said it with such a thick Aussie accent that it sounded like he said “what what?”)
Pete: “Ummm…what?”
Man: “Flat white?” (Imagine the same as above, but this time with a slightly peevish attitude.)
Woman (intervening): “A flat white.”
Me: “A flat what?” (I still can’t navigate the accent and continue to interpret “white” as “what.”)
Woman: “No, a flat white. [I understand…finally.] It’s strong coffee with milk. If you want something weaker, we have lattes.”
Me: “Oh, ok. Yeah, something strong, then.”
Woman: “So two flat whites?”
Me and Pete: “Yeah.”

Apparently Aussies don’t drink coffee coffee. Maybe you have to go to Starbucks for that. Now that would be ironic…going to Starbucks for something simple. I guess I’ll stick to the flat whites, which, once demystified, turned out to be cappuccinos. Go figure.

We walked around Kings Cross after that, in search of the Backpackers Car Market, which we’d read about on the internet and also in our Lonely Planet guidebook. Because Australia is so full of young travelers, and it’s such a large country to see efficiently by train or plane, the preferred “backpacker” method is purchasing a car. The car market is located in the basement of a large parking garage, and is run by an extremely helpful and friendly agency that charges buyers nothing, and sellers only $60 per week to park as they attempt to sell their vehicles.

Upon entering we were greeted by lots of depressed-looking young couples who’d been trying to sell their vehicles for at least a few days. It turns out that the average sell takes about a week, which isn’t too bad. But you're still in a basement of a parking garage.

After some looking around, talking to couples, and checking out all of the vehicles, we found our match. She’s a 1983 Ford Falcon, in a lovely shade of poo brown. If you’ve never seen a Falcon, just imagine a hearse that’s gotten a 1970’s makeover. It has less than 150,000 kilometers on it, which was half as many as most of the other cars that were half its age. We purchased it from a young German couple who’d been driving it all around Australia for the past five months. They’d purchased it at the car market as well, and had found it to be an awesome car—so awesome in fact, that they considered taking it back to Germany with them. The only problem they’d had was wit a fuel pump, which they had replaced. They had a clean inspection and an oil change in the last week and the car is registered until next July.

Now we just have to get the registration in our names, which can be done with a quick trip to the Australian DMV (or whatever they call it here), and get property insurance (which is cheap and easy to find). Don’t worry, Mom, personal injury insurance is included in the registration.

I managed to talk them down $500, and they included a bunch of maps, books on free campsites, a tent, a sleeping bag, a camp stove, and various other camping items. The car is much bigger than the modern Falcons, and has a full-size mattress in the back, which is on a raised platform (plenty of pictures to come…this thing is a photogenic beast). Under the platform is lots of room for storage. According to the couples we spoke to, working on farms while traveling around in your car seems to be the main way that people “backpack” around Australia. We were told that at any given free car-camping parks there are dozens of young people all doing the same thing.

Today we're venturing to the DMV and then we’re heading up the east coast (on the left-hand side of the road). I see many great adventures in our future, and the future of our lovely new three-seater beauty.