Blogs from Bondi Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

It was a nice, sunny day. We woke up, watched some TV, had breakfast and did everything else. We wanted to do some shopping and go to the beach. So we decided to go to Bondi Beach for a little relaxing day at the beach, and then head off to Bondi Junction which was a massive shopping centre with 6 levels! We caught the bus to Bondi Beach. At the beach, it wasn't busy, maybe because they were all at school. The waves were small and there was some people trying to get a tan. Bondi is one of the most known beaches in Australia. There was a lifeguard tower which was blue and white and had stairs from the sand to the tower. The sun was still shining, luckily we had some sunscream :) After ... read more

“Oh my God,” I cried, as I walked over to Matt, “What happened?” “The door fell off,” he replied sheepishly, clutching the side door to our campervan in his arms. I sighed. We had only had our van (which we christened ‘Babs’) for three days. We knew when we were buying her that we’d run into some problems along the way (a 23 year old van tends to break down now and then) but not so soon. And not THIS. This was ridiculous. Parked outside our Bondi apartment, Matt had been giving Babs a bit of spring clean. Upon finishing, he found he couldn’t close the door. So he let his temper get the better of him and slammed it shut with everything he had. As if in response to this direct abuse, Babs’ door came ... read more

And now, the end is near..... I'm devastated - literally - to be leaving Bondi and Sydney today. The overnight bus to Melbourne is not appealing in the slightest, with the only glimpse of optimism coming from the fact I still have a couple of 'knock out drop' painkillers left which will hopefully at least halve the amount of time I'm awake on the 12 hour trek on the greyhound bus. I headed down for a quick last swim at Bondi, having been summoned by a Twitter message from one of the Bondi lifeguards themselves, no less... The sun is baking today but the wind has got up a bit, and there are some cracking waves coming in today and tomorrow. After a bit more lifeguard stalking and failing to catch up with said lifeguard (for ... read more

My Dad wrote a list for me of places he'd visited when he was in Sydney in 1965 and emailed them to me the other day. I thought that it'd be nice if, on my way back from the Blue Mountains, I visited some, if not all, of them just so that I could say that I'd visited them too. Sadly the horse incident put a stop to those plans for Saturday. Today however is Monday and despite the fact my back is giving me serious gip, my face is causing people to stop and stare and my eyebrow looks like a plucking disaster (to almost quote Sam, Heidi's friend, over dinner), I'm going to brave it. I set off into town and had a wander around The Rocks. The streets are quaint and cobbled, and ... read more

The last few days have been painful to say the least, which has resulted in me not doing too much but rest back at Bondi. I drove back from the Blue Mountains on Saturday morning, much to the relief of my roommates who no doubt endured a dreadful night's sleep while I snored through my mouth, on account of my bloody and blocked nose. The drive back was uncomfortable - my back hurts far more than anything else so steering was interesting. Back at the car hire place, I managed to get 50 dollars refunded to me on account of the sat nav failing to charge up in the car I was driving (not sorry to see the back of the Corolla - not a patch on my Hyundais...), so there was some good news at ... read more

Ett forsta inlagg for att komma igang med min nya blogg och forhoppningsvis kommer det att foljas av atskilliga langre inlagg under mina 4 manader pa vift. Just nu forsoker jag bara smalta att det verkligen har borjat och att sa mycket ligger framfor mig. Den varma solen och brannande punkter pa kroppen dar man missat med solkramen gor en pamind om att det faktiskt ar pa riktigt, tillsammans med den dar skona kanslan i magen. Resan gick smidigt trots att den varade over 30 timmar. Motte upp med Jonas och Bjorn pa Arlanda och efter att ha akt SAS till London blev vi valdigt imponerade av Erihat Airways standard pa sina plan, inga problem med att fordriva tiden direkt, bland annat genom att anvanda tarningar som Jonas har med sig for att ta diverse beslut, ... read more

Hi Campers!, On 23rd December we caught our last greyhound bus to Sydney; our last stop in our Australian adventure! We arrived in central Sydney at lunch time and caught a taxi to North Bondi where Rory (Anton's friend from uni) lived. He met us from the taxi and showed us into his apartment that he shares with another English man called Ben (they both manage bars called Bavarian Bier Cafe, Rory in Bondi and Ben in Crows Nest). The lounge window in the apartment looked over the famous Bondi Beach. Rory very kindly gave up his room for us and was going to sleep on the sofa for the next 10 days! That afternoon Rory walked us down to Bondi Beach and then we went on a coastal walk to Tamarama beach; luckily the weather ... read more