A Solo Travellers Mind

Two months living and working in Sydney. The longest I’ve stayed in one place in over 6 months. The city of Sydney is incredibly beautiful, and it was an experience and a half living there.

Working in Sydney, and Australia in general as a nurse is a sweet sweet ride, (especially in comparison to the NHS). The pay is over double, similar to the doctors pay, shifts are generally shorter, and your workload is considerably smaller. There are of course still busy and challenging days, however these are more manageable. The ward based support is more prevalent and with less patient load, having what nurses deem as a “sick” patient is easier to handle. You’re able to give this patient the time needed, due to the lighter case load. The difficulty experienced for me, and the stress I, and a lot of other agency nurses in Sydney have felt is the lack of shifts available. From what I can gather I have been quite lucky with the weekly hours I have got, but this won’t save for a 4 month road trip around Australia! With so many people emigrating over to Australia, and mainly landing in Sydney to work, the supply was bigger than the demand. 

A month into life in Sydney, I  experienced what I’d like to describe as the “post travel blues.” The blues are real. And it was made worse by being in a new city where I didn’t know all that many people. I was feeling disconnected from the world around me. So, I set out to complete a Sydney Bucket List. It was a fun activity to do on my days off to boost those slowly dropping serotonin levels.

● A sunset at Sydney Wharf. A place I hadn’t seen the sun set yet, and it soon became my best spot to go as the day reached its end. 

● Sunrise at Coogee Beach. I’m not usually a sunrise person, firstly because it’s so early and because I feel it makes the day a little too long. Little did I know this would be the beginning of a new sleep schedule for me. 

● Australia Museum. Very cool and free. 

● A date with a traveller who I’d never see again, and a date on the beach with a nice Dr. Neither dates progressed anywhere. But getting myself out the door to chat shit to random strangers again, something I used to pride myself in, was vital.

● A day at the beach with housemates. The 38-degree weather called for it. 

● Paint class at Bondi beach. It was a very wholesome and very nice evening. Thoroughly enjoyed.

● Sunrise Social, followed by a beach day with Josh. Sunrise is pretty incredibly on this side of the world. 

● Botanical Gardens. Again, it is very pretty and very wholesome. 

● Spit Bridge to Manly walk. A 10km walk along the coast. Followed by a further 13 km walk around the coast of Manly, North Head, then to Shelly Beach. It’s potentially one of my favourite walks. This did result in blisters on my toes for 2 days, but the pain was worth the veiws! 

● Sunset at the Wharf, easily the prettiest sunset I’ve seen so far! 

● A spontanous road trip along the Great Pacific Road. I was due to work the weekend, but my Saturday shift was cancelled at the last minute (you see, irregular). Josh coincidently had a car that weekend, so we hopped in to explore the South East Coast.

Along with the little bucket list, normal life continued. I worked when I worked, I saw my friends, rang those back home, and tried to go to gym when I had the motivation. Part of the post travel blues means accepting that “normal life” can sometimes be boring. 

One thing I have also had to remind myself about my move to Australia is that not every city I go to will feel like home. And ultimately I’m still young. Most of the people I’ve met while living in Sydney have been 26 or older. And although that is only a 3 to 4 year difference, that gap makes a huge difference in relation to your connections, your work experience, and your life experience. Part of the beauty of moving here alone, means that if I found myself feeling disconnected somewhere I could just move. A luxury not many have. And with each new place I visit I learn a million lessons.

Although I do love Sydney as a city and the beauty it has. Ultimately, I needed to be working full time in order to have the 4 months of freedom me and my travel bug within wanted! So I took the opportunity to travel to the outback to work. It will have a completely different vibe to Sydney, but for now, my priorities in life are earning some more pennies and some reflection.