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Published: April 11th 2008
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My flight to sydney was met with mixed feelings - as I loved HK so much and didn't want to leave, but was also so excited about heading to Australia... Felt weird to be sat at HK airport though and know that from now on I would be on my own. On the flight I ended up sat next to some aussie playboy pilot who flew for sleazyjet (and lived in berlin) but was now heading back to sydney to the flat that he'd just bought in bondi beach - straight off the internet though, so had never seen it 'in the flesh' in his life; some people are super crazy!
Getting through customs and immigration at the airport was kind of interesting - as I was made to feel like I was doing something wrong by simply being a girl travelling on her own. The 'lovely' woman at customs totally put the fear of god in me as she stared me out and asked (or should that be demanded) that I open my suitcase. Was saying silent prayers that she wasn't going to make me unpack it, but no she simply wanted me to open it and confirm to
her that I hadn't got any fruit in there?! What the f**k... If fruit is the worst thing that you can smuggle in oz then there must be some v weird priorities going on somewhere.
Chatted to mum and chloe (my sister) in the taxi en route to my hotel, whilst ignoring the comments of my taxi driver that 'this is going to be expensive journey, as traffic is very bad' - hum, yeah, whatever just get me to my hotel mister! Arrived at the hotel just after 8:30am and the lovely people let me check-in to my room straight away... Quickly jumped in the shower, had a peak out the window and saw that girls in sydney were in flip flops, short skirt, t-shirt and jumper so decided to be a 'sheep' and dressed exactly the same (so much for being original). Found a starbucks and then set off through hyde park en route to the botanical gardens and my first glimpse of the opera house - very impressive and took the obligatory 27,000 photos of the opera house and harbour bridge!
Got a little bit freaked whilst walking around the gardens though as a woman ran
(or rather slow jogged) past me with 'Lorna Jane' printed in capital letters on her @rse... Quickly got out my camera to take a photo as found it highly amusing that someone had my name on their jogging pants but as I discovered whilst shopping on oxford street the real reason was because their is a sports brand called 'Lorna Jane' - and they have their own store! Very amusing. The rest of the day was spent watching people swim in andrew (boy) carlton swimming pool - very bizarre location at the edge of the botanicals gardens opposite the wharf, then window shopping down oxford street in paddington and ending up with a walk around Centennial Park. Then my feet in their flip flops started to hurt...
Treated myself to a beauty treatment in the evening (Nina Coombs - very good beautician who came over to Sydney from Kent over 10 years ago) and then watched tv in my hotel room and saw Sally Fletcher leave Home & Away (which was v bizarre given that I hadn't even watched Home & Away since uni!). Then slept and slept and slept...
Woke up early and went for a run
following the route that I had walked around the botanical gardens/hyde park the previous day, but didn't appreciate having to run up a massive flight of stairs opposite the opera house purely because they were building a massive ramp thing for some redbull event (the one where people fling themselves into the air in the hope to 'fly', but really end up crashing into the water!). Post-run decided to head for a walk around the opera house, circular quays and the rocks - and clearly multiple photos were taking of the opera house and harbour bridge from this angle, that angle, blah blah blah you get the picture (no pun intended!). After a quick change back at the hotel (and the obligatory food pit stop at the green grocer deli, a fabulous discovery opposite my hotel), off I headed to a lazy afternoon on bondi beach.
It was stunning - but unfortunately no fit surfers to check out - and a lot of tourists sunning themselves in the aussie sunshine. So many tourists in fact that some 'local' commented whilst walking to the beach that he felt 'like a tourist on his (my) own beach'. Hum, what do you expect on a friday afternoon! Promised myself that I head back to bondi for a proper day as soon as I could - as wanted to check out the shops etc but didn't have time before the sunset and I jumped back on the 333 bus to Oxford Street (no taxis anymore for me, so its public transport all the way - which is a total contradiction to how I used to be whilst working in London!!!).
Later that evening the flight to Adelaide was booked and the next stage of my travels would happen...
L xxx
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