Experience Australia with Us: Part II: Bad luck comes in threes... but eventually, you'll realize that everything will be alright

Upon arriving into Sydney Alex and I had to go through customs... since my passport was a bit older I didn't have the e-pass feature, meaning that I had to wait in a longer queue for "all other nationalities". Alex's passport had the e-pass feature so he just checked in with the computer and walked right through. So while I waited to talk with a customs officer, Alex went ahead to our carousel to fetch our luggage. He saw someone grabbing what he thought was my luggage but he didn't fully remember what my luggage looked like but he assumed that this woman would take good enough precaution to ensure that the bag she grabbed was in fact her luggage. When I finally met up with him at the carousel he asked what my bag looked like. This is what it looked like:

I'd consider this a bag I'd be able to spot out of a crowd easily and not get mixed up with anyone else's especially with the endless number of black luggages. I thought there would be no way in hell that someone might accidentally take my bag. But, like the title states, bad luck comes in threes and this was the third strike. We saw this bag coming down the carousel so we picked it up and checked the bag tag on the back which was where I put my name and information down and there it was... someone else's name and address on the exact same bag as mine. So Alex ran off in search of the woman with my bag while I headed over to baggage services to see if they could call this woman's name over intercom before she left the airport. Long story short, after running around and talking to a multitude of different baggage service representatives, she was gone. The baggage services workers gave me their information and took mine so they could go ahead and deliver my bag to my address once she brought it back. They also gave me a complimentary toiletries bag with some stuff to tie me over, which I probably wouldn't really use but it was a nice gesture.

Thankfully, in my carry-on bags I had packed two pairs of socks, two t-shirts, extra underwear, shorts, shoes, and some toiletries that I brought onto the flight with me. So I'll be okay for the next couple of days. However, turns out that a taxi would cost around $100AUD Alex and I ended up taking the train to a nearby station and then taking a taxi from there to our stay. So it was nice not having to lug around three bags up and down stairs and onto trains, it we want to look on the bright side!

(Update: It's been a day and no sign of the bag yet, however I messaged the woman, who happened to be from Kelowna, BC, and she replied saying that she returned the bag a couple hours later after realizing once she got to her hotel that it wasn't hers. We both mentioned that we purchased those bags with the thought that we wouldn't need to worry about mistaking others' bags for ours. How ironic. Ah well, these things happen.)

In the end we managed to get to our airbnb stay and let ourselves in. Here's an overview of the apartment that we are sharing with a friendly couple.

Apartment in Greenwich, New South Wales

Cozy kitchen area

Balcony

Our private room for $44/night

View from our room

For $44 per night for the both of us it's really nice and way better than a hostel for sure! We are walking distance to groceries, the ferry, and buses making it super easy to transit around. Once we got all settled in we headed out for a late lunch and caught the ferry to the Sydney Cove where we ate and did some souvenir shopping and sight seeing with the rest of the tourists. Here's a few photos to capture our day: