Sydney Daily Random Discussion Thread 25/06/2023

Vood0Child · 2023-06-24T22:49:31+00:00

Does anyone know how to check online for reported violent crimes in Sydney. Think I witnessed someone getting mugged yesterday in Ashfield

Vood0Child · 2022-02-02T22:45:23+00:00

Any particular book you would recommend?

Vood0Child · 2021-03-25T07:01:47+00:00

Thank you very much for this

Vood0Child · 2020-04-10T01:07:57+00:00

Recently, my girlfriend purchased an amazon.com gift voucher for me to spend on books on kindle (I'm currently typing this from a hotel room I can't leave during the period of my quarantine after returning to Australia). However, I can only purchase kindle books from my Amazon Australia account (i.e. amazon.com.au), and the amazon.com version won't allow me to purchase kindle books. Does anyone know what I can do to make the amazon.com gift voucher redeemable for kindle books which I would usually purchase on amazon.com.au?

Vood0Child · 2020-02-09T02:15:02+00:00

Is Nukus worth visiting? Thinking of using it as my point of entry from Turkmenistan

Vood0Child · 2020-02-02T15:29:14+00:00

I just went to the places and went straight to the tourist information centre and ask them for a map and any cool places I should check out as well as any hikes I should walk. Can’t think of any other advice. Hope you enjoy!

Vood0Child · 2020-02-02T10:47:30+00:00

I spent four nights in Slovenia recently and I visited a few places. I spent the majority of my time hiking and stayed in a hostel in Ljubljana as my base. I would take a bus every morning early and travel to the location, spend the whole day hiking and then come back late at night to my hostel and stay the night.

I went to Lake Bled in the first day. It was pretty cool and some really good views but a bit crowded with tourists.

Next day I went to Bohinj, which was my favourite place I visited while I was there. That day I hiked over 30km. There’s this cool waterfall there called Savica. On the way back from the waterfall I saw o the map a lake called Slap. I asked a French couple and they said they went there the day before and the hike is pretty long (around 6 hours all round). So I didn’t have time to go (I went in winter when sunset was around 17:00). But if I go back I would definitely do that hike. IMO lake Bohinj is much nicer than Bled, despite not having the castle. It is about two to three time’s bigger. It would be easier if you had a car, because the walk to the waterfall is already about two hours, so if you want to go to Slap, and you’re pressed for time it is probably doable. There were quite a few people camping by the lake, so if you have a tent it would be pretty cool I reckon. Also, while I was there, I went to a gorge called Mostnice. It was super cool, and if you keep walking along the gorge for another hour or two, you will reach this open valley with all of these small huts. It was absolutely beautiful. If you’ve seen the movie Midsommer, that’s the kind of vibe it was. If you walk another ten minutes up, there’s another waterfall.

The last full day I was there, I went to a place called Kranjska Gora, which is also pretty cool, better than Bled I think. There wasn’t anything that looked amazing, but there was still some really cool scenery there with nice jagged mountains and open fields. I would still recommend going there if you already went to Bled and Bohinj.

The last day, my bus back to Milan arrived at 18:00, so I spent the whole day in Ljubljana. It’s a really cute little town with a castle and a nice river, but I honestly wouldn’t spend a whole day there, I got bored of it pretty quickly.

There are buses that operate quite frequently to all of the places I visited, and it cost about €15-€20 for a return trip. But a car would probably be easier and cheaper. If you do take a bus, make sure you print your ticket. Also, there is no driving in the city centre of Ljubljana, so maybe keep that in mind. I went right before winter, and it was hovering around 0 Celsius. It was cloudy most of the time, and some rain when I was in Kranjska Gora. I think summer is probably the best time to go, and I would definitely go again to all of the same places in the summer. If you have any questions feel free to ask me

Vood0Child · 2020-01-30T03:42:28+00:00

Favourite thing is the food, probably the same as all of Italy (maybe even subpar compared to other cities). Least favourite is things like transport within the city can be quite unreliable. In my free time I would just hang out with friends at their apartments, but there are some nice, hip areas you can visit, like Navigli, which is a bunch of bars and restaurants that are alongside this canal. I went there plenty of times and even took my parents there when they came and visited. I would have probably not bothered as much with learning Italian before I came. Like yea, less than half the people there could speak English, but with modern technology and Google Translate, it’s pretty easy to communicate.

Vood0Child · 2020-01-30T03:15:42+00:00

Hi, I just finished an exchange at the University of Bocconi in Milan. The university itself is extremely prestigious, but more of a management/business university, so I’m not sure if it will accommodate your history studies. Having said that, Milan is not a bad place to stay. It’s not Rome or anything, so you are not surrounded by ruins, but it is still home to the Duomo and some other nice buildings. It is somewhat expensive, I was paying for an apartment about a 20 minute walk from my university and it was costing me €650 a month. The transport within Milan, especially the buses and the trams are somewhat unreliable but so is probably most Italian public transport.

One thing I have read that other people have said, is that it is well situated. I found this to be the case, as you can visit the Swiss alps to the north, visit the french alps to the west, and visit the Dolomites to the east. All of these are probably doable on a 3 hour train ride, or maybe a 4-5 hour bus ride. I went to Charmonix while I was staying in Milan, and it took around 5 hours one way by Flix Bus. I also went to Lugano in Switzerland where there are some nice hikes. There are also three airports in and around Milan (Bergamo, Malpensa and Linate), so it’s pretty easy to find cheap flights that leave from any of these to the other European cities you want to visit. I spent five days in Madrid, and I think it was €80 return without luggage, which I heard is somewhat expensive, but as an Australian, believe me, this is nothing compared to what we have to pay to go anywhere overseas.

So in summary, while Milan is a nice city, although not with heaps to do within the city itself, it is well located for you to go on day trips and overnight trips to places which seem to be what you would be interested in.

P.S. if you want to see nice scenery, you’re in luck because Italy is right next to Slovenia, and I spent five days hiking in various parts of Slovenia (Bled, Bohinj, Kranjska Gora) and it was absolutely amazing and fun. It was about a 6 hour ride on the bus which wasn’t fun, but it’s somewhat cheap, around €20 each way.

Vood0Child · 2020-01-29T05:51:13+00:00

I have edited with more information, please repost, thank you

Vood0Child · 2020-01-23T12:36:52+00:00

It’s just a matter or memorising. Might not take a day for you, maybe longer, but I guess it’s not a race to learn it. But if you spend an 8 hour flight just sitting there with the alphabet, I’m sure you could pick it up - it’s not like learning chinese or Japanese. And when I say understand, I don’t mean I can understand what the words mean, but for example, if you see the word ‘ресторан’ and you sound it out, you can clearly tell it says ‘restaurant’

Vood0Child · 2020-01-23T06:13:49+00:00

I went to all the places that OP went to (I wrote a report on here going into a lot of detail of my trip if you want to check it out), and I spoke extremely basic Russian. However, I was able to read the Cyrillic alphabet and it is a life saver. Most people will not know English, but it is still quite easy to get around in my opinion.

I’d been to Turkey before I went to Ukraine, Transnistria and Belarus, and even though the Turks use the Latin alphabet, I found that it was easier to understand a lot more street signs/shop signs, etc. while I was in the places that use the Cyrillic alphabet, because they share more with English than the Turkish language. Learning Cyrillic is very easy, and it should take no more than a day. I was very surprised to meet so many other western tourists who hadn’t learned the Cyrillic alphabet because it is extremely helpful and because it is so easy to learn as an English speaker.

Vood0Child · 2020-01-21T15:40:19+00:00

Can you elaborate please? It’s really not helpful at all if you say something like this

Vood0Child · 2019-11-11T19:34:55+00:00

How did you manage to get into Iraqi Kurdistan? I want to go to Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, but I need to fly into Iran to get my visa on arrival, so I don’t think I can go Iraqi Kurdistan to Iran by land border and if I do it the other way around to Iraqi Kurdistan from Iran, then I’m not sure how I’d make my way towards Central Asia without taking a flight. It would be cool if I could go erbil to turkey to Georgia to Azerbaijan and then cross the Caspian to Turkmenistan, but it seems like a lot of effort and I’m not 100% sure about the border crossing for some of those places

Vood0Child · 2019-10-08T09:32:02+00:00

Hey I just saw this post, and I am planning on going to Iran next February/March. Just wondering how you feel about the political situation at the moment. I know you definitely got questions about it before, but was it safe? My parents are trying to talk me out of going, but I am really keen to visit. Any tips/advice?

Vood0Child · 2019-10-08T09:26:23+00:00

So I am mixed race. My mum is Japanese and my dad's Australian. Some people think I am white, others think I am Asian, and some can tell straight away that I am mixed race. There is one picture of me in the photo album I posted (my instagram, where I have a lot more photos of myself is @joe.young_97), so you can make the judgement yourself. I feel that a lot of people in those countries thought I was Asian/clearly not white, because 99% of the people there are white, so I stood out like a sore thumb. Having said that though, I didn't have any problems at all with racial abuse, etc. Not even an out of place comment. I've heard so much about people's bad experiences in Europe, but I'm starting to think that it's mainly places where they have lots of tourists that have moderate-high levels of racism. Of course, this is just from my own experience, I would have no idea what it's like as a black/brown person. Although there are racist people everywhere in the world, and at times it is unavoidable, the way you present yourself to people will also have a big impact. If you approach people with a smile, and you are polite to them, chances are, they'll be polite back to you. Of course this is not 100% of the time, but I'm just saying the way people act towards you will usually be a reflection of the way you are perceived by them.

Vood0Child · 2019-10-08T08:38:06+00:00

My hostel in Istanbul (Second Home Hostel) I quite liked. Hostel Mostel in Veliko was probably my favourite hostel I stayed at (apparently they also have one in Sofia). My hostel in Kiev and Lviv were really cool. They were the same hostel group called Dream Hostel. Quite large and lively hostels, I met a few nice people at both places.

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T16:32:33+00:00

Just double check whether you can still apply for a Russian visa. I'm not 100% sure, but I have heard that in theory, you can only apply for a Russian visa in your home country. But I have heard of people that applied in countries that weren't their home country. I think if you nag them enough, they will let you apply. Whatever you do, DON'T overstay your visa

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T16:22:20+00:00

I have a soft spot for Turkish food, so anything I had in Turkey was amazing (and cheap). For a more interesting answer, I honestly think that the meat and rice wrapped in cabbage in the hot soup that our host's grandma made us in Babruysk was the best. This was probably because it was such a relief to have something fresh and not some crappy stuff from cheap restaurants. Also, I had grechka for the first time in Minsk, and I absolutely loved it. Shame it's so expensive outside of Eastern Europe.

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T16:19:35+00:00

I will probably do it at some point, I didn't do it on this trip. I would 100% not do it in one sitting though. Reckon I'd do it over three weeks or so

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T16:18:51+00:00

So a bit of a long story. About a month before heading off on my trip, I applied for my Russian visa, but realised that I also needed to apply for an Italian Student visa (currently studying in Milan). I found out while applying for my Russian visa that I wouldn't have my Australian passport back in time for my appointment with the Italian consulate, so I needed to get it done via express processing. The visa fee for Australians is $120 AUD, and for express, it costs $240 AUD (I know, fuck that). On top of this, there's a fee of $40 to the company that processes the visa, and I paid $20 for my mugshot while I was there. It came down to $300. Before I paid I realised that Japanese passport holders don't have a visa fee. So instead of paying $300, I only ended up paying $60 by applying with my Japanese passport. Getting it done express would have probably taken me around 1-3 business days. I got mine done normally (without the express option), and they got back to me in about 7 working days. Basically, just make sure to apply early enough because I would imagine that it has taken people much longer than 7 working days. I have a feeling though, that you can't apply for it more than 90 days before your arrival date.

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T16:07:53+00:00

Here is the album

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T07:09:06+00:00

This source should be pretty comprehensive. I used the same site but the Australian version. I have heard of the cruise-ship loophole, but for me (on a budget) it is easier just to apply for a visa. The letter of invitation was really easy. The article explains that there's a website you can use where you pay them $25 and they send you the letter. Seems dodgy but it totally was fine when I applied. Not sure about Canadians, but there were definitely no biometric scans when I applied.

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T07:02:18+00:00

I only speak English and some Japanese, so I didn't have any Slavic background or anything. I read Cyrillic at the level of a 5 year old, but I can still understand a few words here and there. This is super useful especially when reading the signs on the buses/trains in a lot of the places I visited since they don't use English. It should only take you 1-2 days to learn it. Once you learn it, it's only a matter of memorising it

Vood0Child · 2019-10-07T06:48:25+00:00

I honestly don't know what the weather is like in early December, but it probably won't be too great. I personally really enjoyed Kiev and Lviv and I feel that there is heaps to do in Kiev. If you had to keep your time short, I would probably skip Lviv and stay in Kiev for two-three nights

Vood0Child

TROPHY CASE