Evil has many faces.
Take, for example, Uzi. This is an Israeli guy, who owns some 30 appartements here at Sydney, and lives from giving them in very cheap prices to Israeli travelers. They are what is called ‘the Israeli appartments’ and go from traveler to traveler. Usually you rent a place in the appartment, and the Israelies group together. It goes by hearsays from one to the other.
My bed last night was in a VILA that belongs to him. It is a really big place (16 beds in 5 bedrooms; two floors; private backyard), all equipped (t.v., kitchen tools, whatever), very centrally located, and half empty - it currently hosts 7 Israelied, 3 girls and 4 boys (me excluded).
I should have guessed something was wrong. It was just a little too dirty. There was a bit too much cigarette smoke in the air. Some of the lightbulbs were not functioning and nobody cared to replacing them.
The guys were very friendly and inviting. They where really keen to help, gave me good advices, showed me where there is everything here. They are here for several months - three or four, most of them, except one who arrived 10 days ago after 8 months in India.
And in the evening they put out the drugs.
It was an amazing drug-cave. All had their joints, sharing bangs(you know the name of Thailnad’s capital? correct guess! it’s Bang-Kok), sharing wine, cigarettes and marihuanna (only “SAMIM KALIM”, not that such a thing exists). I was pretty terrified, though of course I didn’t show it. If it hadn’t been raining outside, I would probably leave at that moment.
Only that in the evening began heavy rain, which continued all night and went on and off today for the entire day.
For example, there is this guy from Yavne. Four months in Sydney, and he still didn’t “have the time” to see the Opera house, or any other attraction here. Or this girl from Holon, three months here, and still planning her tour. Or the boy from Kfar-Saba, who came from Melbourne (after being there for two months in an Israeli appartment) and for over a week is planning to go to the half-day tour of the ‘blue mountains’, near Sydney.
Is this what the kids are looking for in their post-army tour?
First thing at the morning I called the house-keeper and told him I wanted to leave because there was too much smoking in the appartment. He was very polite, but explained to me that it’s like that in all the appartments - this is what Israelies ate hiring appartments for.
So I spent some hours looking for a backpacker guesthouse, until I found one that looks nice. I also went to open a bank account, and that sort of sums up all the day.
Tomorrow I will start to look more seriously for a vehicle - I still haven’t decided if I want a van or a falcon. I’m not afraid about meeting people, because there are plenty of van-parks throughout Australia, with all the facilities; but I think driving a normal private car would be easier, and since I’m only one person, I don’t really need a van.
I also want to go and see Sydney’s attraction (I still didn’t see the Opera house), but that will probably wait till the storm is over - and maybe to my next visit here, at the end of my Australian journey.
So Australia didn’t start that good - I hope tomorrow will be better.
