Blogs from Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

We were sore from the previous day’s sunburn when we woke up, so although the skies were blue and the sun was out in full today we were doing our best to avoid it! We went for Brunch with Andy and Jess at a café downstairs and our sunburn was so noticeable even the waiter felt able to take the Mickey out of Wil, saying that it looked like he was wearing Ray-Ban’s even though he wasn’t wearing any glasses! We then went to check out Glebe fayre. It was only on for 1 day and took over the streets of Glebe in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney – there were all kinds of crafts and food stalls and entertainers ranging from Capoeira acts to a unicyclist and ladies on stilts. We took a walk through ... read more

Our first few days in Ozzie were ridiculously hot (high 30's), a great and sweaty start to the 10 weeks we have here. We couldn't believe how busy Sydney felt, think it must have been the result of living in a capital city with only a 400,000 population for the last year! We'd come at a great time, as on our first night we saw the Chinese New year parade and a short film festival in the park. There was also some of the build up to the Mardi Gras parade, which is Sydney’s second biggest event of the year after New Years Eve... We spent our first few days looking around the city, taking in the amazing opera house, harbor bridge and all of the city centre parks. We saw hundreds of large bats which ... read more

Our two weeks in Sydney have finally come to an end. Yesterday we spent our last day in Central Sydney, it was long but it ended good. While Rochelle did the bridge climb I was forced to wait for 3 ½ hours which sucked, but she bought the beers after so it was worth it. We ate at this local pub for dinner and had $10 steaks (surprisingly it was one of the most delicious steaks I have ever had; it was topped with mushroom gravy and has a huge pile of mash underneath). On top of that one of our jugs of beer was accidentally left off the bill, we were going to tell them but given that we are poor travelers we kept it our little secret. Today Rochelle and I went over to ... read more

Jan 17th Sunday Hello hello! We’re still alive and kickin! Last we wrote we were at Bondi beach enjoying the sunshine. Only a wee bit has changed since then. We moved back into Sydney to a little town called Glebe. Our hostel is almost half the price of what we were paying in Bondi so that really beat all other preferences. It’s a small hippy town with lots of shops and cafés along the road. We’ve been here for the last 4 days so its been nice to relax a bit, just knowing we have a place to hang our hat. Since back in the city we decided to use up our transit passes we bought earlier this week. We took a ferry out to Darling Harbor, walked along the wharf, listened to some street performers ... read more

My last day at work was on 20th December, it was a long day and by the end of it I felt high as a kite knowing I wouldn't have to back to that Spa that made me so miserable! The next day I celebrated my freedom by going shopping in Bondi Junction with Laura and meeting up with alex who is now in Oz aswell! We had the sickliest hot chocolates ever in a famous Chocolate bar and moaned about the fact that clothes in Oz aren't as good as in England! Laura and Lisa went Christmas shopping to get all my presents on Christmas Eve and I obviously wasn't allowed to go with them so I went and sunbathed in the beautiful park down the road from where we live. It soon started to ... read more

First of all huge apologies for the extremely long time since my last blog entry, the last month has been hectic, intense and chaotic as you will soon find out... Landing late on a thursday evening we made our way to the Balmain Backpackers Hostel tired and weary from the non stop few weeks in South East Asia. However we would have no time to relax. In a totally alien city we knew we had to get our bearings fast, find somewhere nice but cheap to live, and then get a job. Where the past 5 weeks had been about trying to appreciate as much culture, cuisine and fun as we possibly could, our time now was entirely dedicated to setting ourselves up in Sydney. Using the websites gumtree.com.au , domain.net , share-accomodation.net and general advertisements ... read more

HOLY COW.... I'M LEAVING IN THREE DAYS!!!!! I've never truly understood the term 'bittersweet' until these past few weeks. Saying goodbye to these amazing people that I've become friends with over the past year has been way more difficult and depressing than I could have imagined. But on a happier more strange note... here is a story from last night: Last night my roommate Winston and I were on our way to the grocery store and stopped in the middle of an intersection, waiting to turn right... and the traffic that was coming towards us was moving at a semi-slow place... well, I look to my right because I notice something moving... and I look again and it's a friggen SHEEP running through the streets of the city!!! (Yes, you read that right... a farm animal ... read more

And so begins another day in sunny Sydney. Bit of an earlier start as Shane chatted to his SFU advisor at 7am. "C.C." came over for a pet while I drank a lovely cup of tea. Dishes were washed, showers had and off we went! Early morning starts are my favourite. Fast-paced walk in the morning to Warringah Mall, mostly along a busy road but next to the Warringah Golf Course so it wasn't too bad. Got to the mall and wandered around for a couple of hours, trying to find zip-off travel trousers for me, a hat for Shane, and a few other bits and bobs. Having had a fairly productive shopping trip, we were off in a taxi to the dressmakers in Belrose for a fitting at 2pm. I arrived at the dressmaker's all ... read more