Hard to be a Bahamian

The beach WAS great! Didn’t relax enough there, so I went online in the hotel room. As always, I check the news wherever I go, and I had to do it here as well. The local news sites are depressing, with the murder count reaching almost 100 for the year. And the prime minister fears the country would run better without him around. Of course, it's hard not to lose the motivation when you have the responsibility of more than 300 000 people. You know, everyone can't be satisfied. Well if he does a good job, I hope he will get get the motivation back again. But he's not the only one who lacks motivation, 12% of the Bahamian inhabitants are unemployed and feel unable to search for a job. And that's a serious problem! It must be hard to get a job if so many have given up. Well, the government should deal with that, I'm going back to relax.

Relaxing, Eating and Sleeping

So today we went to the beach, or more precisely Cable Beach. It is a fairly long beach with beautiful blue, clear water and white sand. Our hotel, along with many other hotels, are located by the beach. Along the beach we can also find plenty of restaurants, fishing boats and fishing sheds. Today we ate lunch at one of the restaurants, and we ate a plate of pasta with mussels. We were told the mussels were fresh, and that local fishermen had fished them up six hours ago. So long, preservatives!

The rest of the day went by by taning, listening to music and sleeping. Both of us were rather exhausted after the plane trip, and it was very relaxing to have a day where you basicly didn't do anything. I'd say the weather is a bit more temperate here. It's less desert and more tropical weather, and therefore the climate is slightly cooler.

Fish and crabs is a central part to Bahamian culture and daily life. Typical Bahamian dishes can consist of crab and rice, steamed fish, baked macaroni and cheese aswell as potato salad. I was surprised it's common to eat boiled fish for breakfast. I ate it in conjunction with some local-made island bread, and think I'll stick to something more firm for next breakfast. My mouth approved, but my stomach didn't.

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Leaving our mates and fellas behind.

Throughout our adventure we have met some great Aussies called Jack and Oscar. They’ve showed us Sydney and even though we haven’t mentioned them, we owe them a great thank you for the past days! Goodbye guys, talk soon!

But… we aren’t broke yet, so now we’re heading for the Bahamas! We’ll be staying on the capital island Nassau, more precisely at the Hotel Riu Palace Paradise Island. I love the picture of the beach that we found on the hotel website, can’t wait to just relax and forget the world like one’s supposed to do on vacations!

To The Wilderness!

So today we are leaving the cars, pollution and asphalt in favor of dirt roads, dust and sweat. We are going to the Australian wilderness! I hope we see kangaroos, dingos, various types of snakes, and maybe even spiders! Well, from a safe distance hopefully. We are going on a safari- like tour of north western New South Wales. Our tour guide is an aboriginal and I'm sure he can tell us a lot of things about surviving and hunting in the wilderness.

The Indigenous Australians have been living in Australia for about 50.000 years, even though some estimates date back to 125.000 years. There are about 517.200 self- declared aboriginals in Australia, which makes them make up about 2,5% of the total population. To be declared an aboriginal you must have a certain percentage of aboriginal "blood" (meaning that even if your grand-grand aunt was an aboriginal, it doesn't make you one). You must think of yourself as one and also be accepted as an aboriginal by the community you live in.

A bit off topic, but the food here is amazing! Much of it is simple because of the hunter-gatherer diet of the aboriginals, but there's also a lot of South-European, Asian and British inspired food. A lot of variety, as you can see. I could even buy kangaroo meat in the local store! It felt kind of weird eating a kangaroo, so I decided not to buy it.

 

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Poverty in Sydney, do we care enough?

I take it back; Sydney may not be as beautiful as I thought. As for every city, it’s only a facade. So we’ve been getting to know the city for the past days. No, not only the opera and the downtown Sydney, but also what’s around. The ghetto, yeah, there are ghettos in Sydney too. And one report from the Australian Council of Social Service is all over the news right now. It states that one of eight Australians live in poverty, that’s over 2.2 million people living below the poverty line for wealthy countries. And this includes every sixth Australian kid. I know it feels like ‘’yeah yeah, poor poor people, I can’t do anything about it.’’, and I feel that way too! That, alone, makes me feel bad for not caring more. Should I? Why would I? Would I feel good if I did, or would the thought of it depress me all day long? And if so, why would I do something depressive? … I guess I want to care more, but don’t see the reason why. I can’t picture myself spending my time helping these people. Does that make me bad? Or does that just make me normal?

How do you feel about yourself? Do you think you should care more?

Check out the article here: http://www.news.com.au/money/cost-of-living/what-life-looks-like-for-22-million-australians-below-the-poverty-line/story-fnagkbpv-1226498551944

If anyone, the Australians should be the ones to take care of the poor. Is the governmental budget prioritizing the main population too much and not the poor population enough? I believe a first world country, such as Australia, has the possibility to give structure and a much better sustainability to the ghetto. And over a certain period of time lift the poor up and out of poverty. It’s not easy, I understand that, but I’m sure it’s possible.

First day!

After a good night's sleep we decided to visit the Sydney opera. It is located near the harbour, and we can't say we had any problems finding the building. It's architecture is... special, to say the least. Anyway, for breakfast we ate bacon, eggs and cornflakes with milk. I must say i got suprised over the similiarites between  Australian and British people. Even though most Australians have British background I kind of expected their eating habits and personality to differ more. They live on different sides of the world, afterall.

Well, to be fair there is one rather large difference. Everyone here appears a little more relaxed. Oh, there is a huge spider on the wall? Better remove it instead of screaming "OH MY GOD SPIDER!" Same goes for the box jellyfish, salt water crocodiles, blue ring octopus, stone fish, brown snake, tiger snake, great white sharks and the funnel web spider. Personally i prefer to run rather than the two posibilites mentioned above, if anyone wondered.

 

 

Pictures from:

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So we finally made it to Sydney, after staying at various cheap hotels without wifi. That means we've got money left to stay at the great hotel The Grace! We have only been in Sydney for a few tiresome hours, but I'm already convinced: This is a beautiful city!