Living in Australia Sydney Pros & Cons Tips on food, transport & more! A GP’s journey from the UK

hey everyone so I'm dr. legiere I'm a GP that has moved from the UK to Sydney to see what life is like on the other side I thought today I would talk a little bit about what it's been like living in Sydney a little bit of the social side of things rather than just work-related so I've been here for six months now and I thought it'd be a good time to give you a little bit of insight into what it's like I got a couple of sections to go through so we'll just see how we get on from here so first of all the weather now the weather is pretty amazing in comparison to the UK I haven't quite hit summer yet and I'm a little bit worried about it apparently things are getting hotter you were talking about 4045 degrees in the summer which is pretty scary I'm currently mid-november and it's a beautiful day it's like 23 25 degrees like when I went through the winter I think I wore my puffer jacket for probably about two or three weeks which is incredible when it rains it's basically just last about a couple of minutes and then it's gone and so majority of time was basically just well what it is extremely windy though which I did not expect now bush fires are very big issue here something that I also wasn't on at all so for example one morning I woke up and there was just everywhere was full of smoke so there's two kind of fires just one that's the preventative fires that the government puts on and the second one which are the actual bush fires themselves and apparently those are starting even earlier and also even coming in but more in lunch than usual so that's something pretty scary and it's really bad for my ass and locations as well also what's interesting is that I had maybe a little bit of hay fever when I was in the UK and here it's completely rice so I'm having to take all forms of medication rather than none whatsoever so just a word of warning to you so next is kind of like about the general people here so I have to say that people are really laid back just generally laid back they've very chilled out they're more than happy to make conversation with you and it's just like this none of that rush mentality like you would have for example in London it's just a totally different vibe which is nice okay food in Australia is amazing but it's very expensive in comparison like I don't know if I can genuinely say this completely but if you were to go to your standard supermarket here probably say that things were about 30% more expensive on average to like your big brands in need basically now organic food is pretty much out of question for me if I bought organic food I probably before so for example at my local in Willie's or Woolworths which is totally different to what we know it to be in the UK or what it was to puppets cost like twelve dollars which is absolutely mental so yeah it's a big no-no if I were to go shopping I've managed to find two places that I really like the fruit and veg so one is going to Paddy's market and towards the end of the day they actually do like really good sales like a whole basket of stuff for like a dollar so the you know whenever I go I apparently those aren't money treats by the way if you can hear them yeah okay so at the end of the day they'll do like a sales or a basket for a dollar and I've literally like saved like thirty dollars every time that I've gone which is absolutely amazing there's another market that I'll go to otherwise if I missed out on the Paddy's one and that one's right next to the Woolworths Central Metro just a couple shops down and they're basically open till 8:00 9:00 p.m. and their prices are pretty comparable although you're not gonna get your one dollar deals but that's fine if you are a food fanatic you're going to absolutely love it here though because there's so many cool quirky foods there's so many health food shops they are gonna be a bit pricey but they also do have sales on as well like you know when food is basically throw a golf but if they are really lovely and there's loads of them here there's so many likes lovely cafes and restaurants as well however the cafes they do tend to close at around sort of 3:00 4:00 p.m. so just bear that in mind hence the laid-back mentality situations when you buy things here as well there's that opportunity to buy loads of eco friendly environmentally friendly or toxic free things which is really really cool and I didn't see that much of that okay for example it's something simple but like on eggs they'll even tell you how many hens are like in the farms themselves per hectare and that's really cool so they're very conscious also a lot of the cafes and restaurants they're very proud to be using free-range stuff so that's also a really big plus here there are quite a number of food markets and we're talking your regular markets as well as really big markets that are centered in different parts of the city now those ones normally have other things going on like selling other things or just events as it were so I just found another one recently which is actually the pure Billy Market now normally the markets they tend to close at around 1:00 p.m. so that's not been ideal especially to go to them from different places but the carrier Billy one is open on the Sunday pretty much till 5:00 p.m. which is really nice and they sell everything from like secondhand stuff to brand new to doodlee of which you can meet the jeweler's this goes from most of the markets now let's talk about outdoor stuff I'm just going to talk about wildlife issues on here so for example you know like in London you've got parrots which is really cool so here they've got parrots but they've also got things like cockatoos Bush turkeys like here for example again on cue this little fella the really nice time eating my Apple didn't you yeah anyways and then for example the lady that showed me around all the different properties she said that there was a wombat stuck in her chimney as quite a conversation starter seriously that was a a little bit for biggie for me oh yeah and the other day when I was in one of the northern beaches it was beautiful because I saw dolphins swimming with the surfers in the waves and that was absolutely beautiful the only scary thing though just yesterday I saw some jellyfish and a stingray in Sydney Harbor water I haven't gone swimming yet in any features and now I'm absolutely terrified so it's gonna be a full body suit for me I'm afraid oh yeah there's loads of bats I've not been bitten by any of them which is great but for example like at the beginning of November it would like thousands of them in the sky just migrating obviously from would have been here somewhere else but I was really really bizarre a little bit about aboriginals but in my own Aboriginal stuff so there's quite a few different Aboriginal activities that you can get involved with there's the Aboriginal event that happened recently that lasts for a couple of days or a week even but alongside that there are different sort of walks and talks and native experiences where they show you how to do different crafts and to about native medicines as well so there's lots of different things you can do and that it's not just goes for Sydney obviously now when it comes to the art scene I know this is really sad to say but in comparison to Melbourne and definitely London like there's not that much going on here you've got your own sort of small independent galleries obviously you've got the big museums but you know if you're a big on art gallery hopping it's it's I personally don't think that it's the right place to go to definitely more male born or hundred percent more London oh yeah barbecue now guys I know I had this very typical view about sort of Australians loving the barbecue but seriously it's real now you're getting barbecues on beaches in parks on rooftops majority of those are free as well and it's really awesome and to all of those that have like gym all class fanatics there's so much to choose from like I've just been using my own sort of gym that's in my block of flats I don't even know where to start when it comes to all different classes because there's so much available but yes it's plenty to choose from if that's your thing okay load shopping now I'll be honest with you when I was in the UK it was all about the TK Maxx for me it's a one-stop shop had everything good prices bargain here okay it's a lot more expensive there are a lot of independent places in comparison to the UK which is a really good thing but it does mean that they're pricier there's big malls like Westfield and they're dotted in lots a different area so they're probably the best places to go to although like their total mazes I get lost all the time it's more of a day out probably not for the right reasons but I actually am getting a lot of my clothes from market charity shops or second-hand shops I find that a lot better more sustainable and also easier which is good oh yeah if you're a lover of Uggs guys this actually uggs everywhere there's so much cheaper here they're pretty much like half the price so if you love them there's plenty around but let's talk a little bit about online shopping and we're talking specifically about eBay and Amazon total absolute nightmare like in the UK it was so easy to find things but here is less variety more expensive and it's also more expensive to get it delivered to so if you do need to get any tech equipment or just anything in general that you would normally get on eBay you can even like for example try it out on looking on with the Australian eBay or Amazon website and see if it's actually available but otherwise try and get all of your stuff before you can that would be my advice next is about transport so I haven't got a car I thought I was going to get one and then I realized actually it's too expensive really to park it in the city and driving here is an absolute nightmare I'll be honest with you it's it feels so dangerous I rented a car and there's like there's two main like websites that you can or can also use to rent a car one's own car next door and the other ones go get and they're pretty good apps but literally driving here is totally different so the two main point is actually three points is one you can overtake from any lane so people just go a little bit haywire the apps that you would normally use in navigation apps literally they just get lost at time so I've taken the wrong exits they stopped working when you get into the tunnel also in some tunnels it'll just say exit doesn't say the exit where - but anyways we're just I uh need rive absolutely necessary lastly when you are parking somewhere you need to park in the direction of traffic because otherwise you'll get a fine like I did which was about 80 dollars power although it's totally worth it if you want to go and explore some of the you know the other areas in Sydney so like the great national park or some of the features up north ending oh man like you've got it you've got a record car pretty much for those when she can take a bus but now I can't it's just too much we should also mention that hiring a car is pretty expensive so it's roughly about a hundred and twenty dollars per day and that's like the cheapest five about other transport the great news is is that you can use your credit or bank card when using buses and trains you cannot use it however when using a ferry so you have to get an opal card for that I absolutely love using the opal card it's the equivalent of music an oyster card what I would advise when you get an opal card is to download the opal card app that way you will be able to top it up manually or there's the auto top-up of which you can say for example if it reaches five dollars and it will automatically chop it up by you know two thirty dollars or however much you wish if you lose your card like I have already I would highly highly recommend that you save your card number somewhere because I didn't do that and I had to cancel my entire bank card and I would wait for that to come through which took about a week so yeah save your card number so that you can just cancel it or hold it just in case you do find it just on the online website a lot easier oh yeah also with the transport and this goes for using the opal card or your bank or your credit card there's like a maximum amount that they will charge you per day per week and also on Sundays it is a bit laid-back though for example there was one day when I was taking the train to work the train had arrived and I was like brilliant trying to get on it and then the lady was basically like oh you'd come off the train now I'm like okay get off the train so I went up to them and I said so how long's it gonna be so you know how need to get to work and they were like oh we don't know just you know just wait I was like huh I can't go I do that so yeah very laid-back we'll just roll with it another app that it's also useful to get is trip view light now this app is the most accurate I feel when it comes to finding the the most accurate times the only issue is you need to know exactly where you're traveling from and - and we're talking about station names or street names so I normally use a mixture between Google Maps to find out what the name street name or whatever is and then using trip view for light to sort of then see about the exact more accurate train orbit the last thing I'm going to mention about is about the nightlife now the nightlife is a really really cool here in Sydney it's quite quiet generally though for a big city you'd expect it to be clearing with people but it really is it but that's kind of nice as well it's a bit more chilled out but you know you've got everything from loads of really awesome restaurants you've got dessert restaurants you've got you've got like nightclubs everything so it's whatever you fancy there is here the only thing that I found that was very interesting and different to the UK they've got specific zones that you can drink alcohol in the majority of public places you cannot do that so for example you're offering CDs signs that show like ban on alcohol in these public areas and when where you are allowed to drink it's normally around the parameter of the pub or place itself and for example it's really funny because events are held like out wherever they usually have like a fence around the place of which you can drink in that designated zone so it's quite hilarious so that's a different one so when it comes to the outdoor stuff there are loads of parks and beaches to go to you are literally spoilt for choice like I think it would take me a very very long time to explore them all and genuinely there are so many beautiful ones so for example I am definitely this is definitely for me the one I'm in at the moment where the most beautiful parks that I'd be mad it just overlooks Sydney Harbour Bridge you won't be disappointed there's also loads of different like coastal walks or park or land walks that you can do as well so for example the one of the more famous ones is like the bondi to coogee of which I've done a little video on well between bondi and tomorrow if you'd like to see with sculpture by the sea featured so yeah there's loads to see and do like if you love the outdoors genuinely you will love your love Sydney I haven't actually visited the Blue Mountains yet I just feel like I want to spend like I want to be there overnight or something like that because it just seems so vast that it needs that but that's also another stunning stunning place to go and visit and I literally cannot wait so guys that's all from me today hopefully that you've found this useful if you did please give it a like and feel free to subscribe if you'd like to follow on the journey I also have like little Instagram page as well at today we're doctor UTSA feel free to follow me on that as well and I will see you guys soon take care this is SCI on the camera by the way it doesn't workable Hey cool thank you oh that was random

Channel: Today With Dr Lucia

Views: 62,572

Keywords: Moving to Australia, living in australia, doctor moving to australia, moving to sydney, food in australia, food in sydney, shopping in sydney, shopping in australia, paddy's market sydney, weather in australia, weather in sydney, bondi to coogee, night life sydney, work life balance, doctor in sydney, doctor in australia, why australia, australia vlog, sydney vlog, best markets sydney, doctor vlog, uk doctor, general practice, gp, general practitioner

Id: en0yj0XmAkA

Length: 16min 56sec (1016 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 22 2019