will be far less detailed.
Sunday 12th October/Monday 13th October
Managed to get to Heathrow early and met up with Sarah before checking in, Rachel missed her connecting flight from Manchester, due to fog at Heathrow so therefore missed the flight. Met all the other guys on the flight all of whom seem really cool and friendly types. Had a fun 1st leg of the flight, watching movies, tv shows and chatting. The stop over in Singapore was short lived but after finding the outside smoking area, also labelled the ‘cactus garden’, we managed to get outside to experience the heat (which was very very humid) in Singapore.
The second leg was a bit less easy to take, with awful food and slightly rude stewards.
When we got to Sydney airport, it seemed as though the singer PINK agreed with us as she was also on our flight, and looked pretty pissed off at baggage claim. After a rather bumpy minibus ride, we got to the hostel by 9pm (approx) and everyone basically decided to have a shower, get changed and meet in the bar (scubar) attached to the hostel for a ‘few drinks’ - which eventually ended up as lots of drinks, with some getting more drunk than others (not me).
Had quite a few, but eventually agreed that sleep was very much needed after such a long flight.
Tuesday 14th October
Everyone from the group agreed that as we were in Sydney, we should walk down the long street to Sydney harbour and see the Sydney opera house. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and decided to welcome us brits to oz with a lovely downpour of British weather - I.e. lots and lots of rain…. So all of our pictures and also our first impressions were grey and dismal hehe, oh well not what we needed but couldn’t be helped.
We then got the ferry from the harbour to Darling Harbour to go to the Sydney Aquarium, which is apparently Sydney’s number one tourist attraction. Had a fantastic time seeing the many types of fish, crocs and even seeing the sharks up close in the underwater tunnel section.
When we got back we decided to make a group meal of chicken tomato pasta, which was a big group effort… but all put together by me, which was quite a surprise, as it was quite delish J. When we were finished with that, we decided to go to the cinema to watch ‘eagle eye’, a Hollywood film not even out in UK yet I think…. Very good.
Wednesday 15th October
We all got up early to go to our talk with Work & Travel - lots of talk about sharks being misunderstood (apparently more people die of being hit on the head by coconut) and more about bank accounts, tax and also warnings about how to swim safely on aussie beaches. After enough info to confuse us all for days, we went in search of the venue for a free meal and cheap drinks event on the Friday. Got thoroughly lost, but eventually found it, at which point we all needed a snack and a beverage, so we had a couple in scruffy Murphy’s - typical Irish pub. We then came back to the youth hostel and did the deal of the day, which was pizza and a bear for $5 - bargain. Then went out again, to Scubar and then tried the STAR BAR, which unfortunately was a bit dead on weekdays, but had a few hilarious games of Pool nevertheless.
Thursday 16th October
Decided we’d had enough of being cooped up in the city and ventured out to Bondi Beach. Were literally stunned by the view and sights of the ocean.
Had a bit of a walk around, and then did *THE* walk, which is from bondi beach to Coogee, which took about 4 hours and included a cliff-side art festival, with various modern sculptures dotted around the trip, which was very enjoyable. Somewhere along the way we picked up a random guy called Peter, who was also from England and he walked along with us.
When we eventually got to Coogee, it was perfect time for a schooner (I.e. pint). At which point, it had started to get a little bit chilly down on the beach, so we jumped on the bus back to the hostel. Decided to try the hostel café…..bad idea. The chicken was so unlike chicken that I didn’t even eat HALF of the chicken burger…which is saying something.
Friday 17th October
We felt like a walk to see the harbour again, but this time SUNNY - as the weather was still good and we weren’t TOO burnt by yesterday’s sun we walked down to the harbour once more to take many photos of the bridge and opera house.
- on the journey back, we took a different road, and found 100% better and more reasonable shops, so I bought a t-shirt, shorts and my first pair of converse - which were so exclusive that day that they weren’t on the shop floor yet. In the evening, was the free meal at ‘the gaff’, which turned out to be quite bad really, and the drinks seemed to change priced with each order. - after we’d had enough of there we tempted everyone to come out to try STARBAR and a very good time was had by all.
Saturday 18th October
Was woken up at 9.30am by Carly, to be reminded that we had to check out at 10am, which we did and then I preceded to go straight back to sleep once we’d rechecked in - I ashamedly slept in til 4pm. We then decided to go out for dinner to Pizza hut, which was a very strange experience. It seemed the one we’d chosen was *buffet only* and you basically HAD to pay for a set price and then eat all you could :S very strange, but it was ok…nothing by UK standard at all….although the drinks were superior. As the others were still knackered from the ‘heavy’ night before, we went to bed early.
Sunday 19th October
Today was the day for getting the ferry to MANLY - which is the place that they filmed my fave aussie soap - out of the blue. After suggesting we got the train to the ferry point, I was outvoted and we walked. Needless to say we missed the ferry by 2 minutes and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. After an exciting ferry journey catching the sites of Sydney harbour and surrounding suburbs we got to Manly Wharf at about 11am. The sun at this point was getting nice and warm. We went down the famous ‘corso’ passed ‘Bacino’ (central to the soaps plotlines) and made our way to the beach. It was a lot more commercial than the soap depicted, but it was still pretty gorgeous and the sand was lush. It was a bit busy, and the aussie locals are really quite loud and shouty on the beach - but that was really the younguns.
After a good bit of tanning, me and Sarah went to try to find the police station and also the bowling club, which is also in the soap. It was disappointing to learn that they did not use Manly’s police station in the show, and also that the bowling club…. Well it looked different.
We then decided to make the way back on the ferry, just as the rain started. After trying out the convenience store for food to eat, we renamed it the inconvenience store, as it was so overpriced and bare of essentials that we had to make do with aussie version of pot noodles - which turned out actually to be quite nice.
Monday 20th October
Today was the day for getting stuff sorted. We went to the Work and Travel company for help in finding accommodation, as we weren’t really getting anywhere, but the lady was quite helpful and when we got back to the hostel we managed to find quite a few possibilities - one of them who wanted us to view it that night.
For dinner we tasted something exotic….but not necessarily very nice. - Kangaroo Burgers…. Not to be recommended…. Full of gristle. We then set off to find the house…… oh dear. The area of Chippendale, despite it’s chirpy name…. Was really quite a dump. The house in question, reminiscent of the addams family… or some Hitchcock reject film. We waited a full 10 minutes…. And then did a runner as we really just didn’t feel safe at ALL. After this ordeal some much needed drinks were in order at the scubar.
Tuesday 21st October
After staying over a week in the Central YHA in Sydney, it was time to move on so we travelled with our HEAVY luggage over to Bondi YHA, which is right on the beach, but unfortunately not as posh as the Central… but I’m sure we’ll get used to it. After settling in and a short power nap, we went into Bondi town and had the best meal so far in Oz. Basically a wetherspoons pub, but nicer and we all had burger and chips and garlic bread on the side - with rosé. It was delicious!!! May have to go there again and try another dish.
We then visited our friends who managed to get an apartment very close to Bondi…lucky bastards. - but having seen it, we’re not so jealous. ;) We then went back to our room, to organise tomorrow’s mammoth house hunt.
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