Oz Intro and Albury Wodonga part 3

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Part 3....

For the Saturday pub crawl we met at the Coogee Bay Palace hotel around 8 and got a couple of free drinks from the organisers. Everyone was dolled up and chatting as we had all got to know one another by now. We spent a good half hour there before the call came from the organisers that we had to get on the party bus to take us into Sydney.

It was about a 40 seater coach that had been, intentionally, spray painted with all sorts of graffiti to make it look like a "party bus" - those crazy antipodeans!!!

Like I say, it was a 40 seater which was fine but there were about 80 people on the crawl (2 ozintro groups and one of the leaders mates - it was his birthday!). So basically there were people on each others knees and everyone else crammed into the aisles. The music was blasting out and eveyone was bopping away and singing to party classics like Bon Jovi and the like. Alison was loving it but I could of done with a pint of Boddies and a game of doms - that old man syndrome Ali says I have again.

We finally got to the first port of call - the Scary Canary, which was underneath a backpacker hostel. We all got free drinks again and got involved. It was a bit of a gangster pub club with lots of white eyes peering out of the darkness (if you get my drift). Plenty of R & B crap which isn't my cup of tea but I was already a bit tuned in from the beer garden earlier so I just had a drinking race with one of the leaders Dan! Ali was bopping away again and getting snap happy with the camera.

Another half hour passed and it was back on the bus again for a music filled trip to the next bar.

it was called something like scu bar or something. Another back packers place where you had to go downstairs to the bar. Got another freebie then sat at side of dancefloor whilst all the "crazy" lads jumped up and down on each other. Was an ok bar though.

Another half hour of mayhem passed then back onto the bus for a trip to the gaff - an Irish backpackers pub they all rave about. Was a bit of a labryinth inside (felt like it when I was busting for the loo anyway!). We all just congregated round a few tables anyway and chatted and nodded our heads. Was ok, everyone was getting tuned in anyway. Some table top dancers got on the bar to wake everyone up and that was that for another hour or so.

It was then back on the bus for a trip to Kings Cross to finish off the night. Not a clue what the bar was called that we went to but it seemed abit dodgy walking in then not too bad once inside. It was Kings Cross so we all had an open mind anyway. Stayed in here until 2 o'clock when the bus was leaving. You could have stayed there if you wanted to but me and Ali had had enough at this point and headed to the bus. Slept all the way home then back into the hostel.

Some more folk came back later but we were fast asleep at this point!

Sunday was the last day of our Oz Intro and as usual we all woke up with fuzzy heads!! Me and Ali had a bit of breakfast at a cafe then headed down to the beach as the sun had come out properly at last!! We were meant to be heading into Sydney today to meet up with Ali's uncle Neil and Jackie but as the sun was out we texted them and asked them if they fancied heading to Coogee to see the sun and beach.

They said they would so we slapt on the cream and chilled for a couple of hours. I of course did my usual drunken seal act by diving like a looney in the sea for a couple of hours whilst the princess soaked up the rays!!

I had just come back from the sea and lied down when we heard a distinct Heywood accent!! It was Neil and Jackie. They came down to the beach and sit with us for 20 minutes/ half an hour filling us in on where they had been and what they had seen ad asking about our trip so far. They said they were hungry and fancied some lunch and we agreed as we could feel ourselves starting to burn - little did we know the damage had already been done (more about that later!!).

We headed up Coogee Bay Road to a small Italian type Cafe and had some nice sandwich type lunch which Neil treated us to. During lunch the topic of Neil and Jackies wedding came up and to our surprise they said was to take place the following Saturday which was one of the reasons they wanted to meet with us to see if we could make it. Straight away we said we would do our best. We were due to be in Albury that weekend but we would definately see if we could afford it.

The one condition however was that we kept it completely secret from people back home which would be a challenge in itself to Ali!!

We agreed and walked down to the Coogee Bay hotel for some drinks in the beer garden. We then had to head back as we were due to go out for a farewell dinner at the Sky Tower tonight. Neil and Jackie to the coastal rout to Bondi and we bid them farewell.

We went back to our room and it was soon clear the damage the 20 mins we spent without sun cream had done. All the back of my lags were burned and one side that had been exposed to the sun. Ali however had been face down so her whole back was bright, and I mean bright red!

we applied the aftersun as much as we could but it was obviously gonna get worse before it got better!!

Everyone got dolled up once more for the farewell dinner though you could tell from the atmosphere that eveyone was a bit tired and ready to move on.

We headed to the Sky Tower which is the distinctive tall slim type building on Sydney's skyline. We were going to a buffet tyope resteraunt and headed up the lift that took us high into the Aussie sky. When we arrived at the resteraunt the initial viw was quite breathtaking. You had a full 360 view of the city and it made it more spectacular due to the fact that the sun was slowly setting. The resteraunt actually revolves as you sit there which is a bit disorientating at first but you soon get used to it.

The buffet itself had a great selection from seafood to curry to carved meat and kangaroo!! We tried the kangaroo was good but it was hard to cut as it kept jumping around and kicking the peas!! boom boom.

Also had baby octopuss and all sorts of other things. It turned out a good selection but it was really busy so there was a bit of a wait for food when you queued up. By this point as well Ali's skin was getting tight and looked really sore.

Everyone then fired back onto the bus and headed back to the Coogee Bay Palace for a couple of drinks. Evryone was a bit tired though so we just had a quick drink then headed back to the hostel as most people had early starts in the morning. The Canadian girl, Bonnie was up at half 5 to head off fruit picking and another girl, Gerri, was up at 6 to head off to a surf school.

We all said our goodbyes to our group leader Rob - a top guy then headed back to Surfside.

We all soon got off to sleep ready for our next chapters in the great Aussie Adventure!

Next installment - The trip to Albury Wodongs - our new home for thenext few months.

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Comments

[runa]

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Great blog.Thanks for sharing.