Blogs from Kings Cross, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 20

Today’s plan was a day at and around Bondi beach, but astonishingly we had to make alternative plans - the sky was overcast and it rained most of the day. Call this summer!? So we went to the Australian Museum, thinking it would be okay, but it turned out to be brilliant. The best bit was an exhibition on skeletons. So simple but so effective and very interesting. Have you ever seen a hedgehog’s skeleton? Probably not, but it’s worth looking out for… Or a python’s? Other things of interest included a large room containing specimens of all the birds found in Australia (“Your Dad would fill a whole memory card in here” said Ed to Gemma), the BBC’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and an Abo, or rather Indigenous Australian, exhibition. After the excitement ... read more

After an excellent night’s sleep we set out walking to the most obvious destination we could think of - the Sydney Opera House. We walked through the beautiful Botanical Gardens, with the sun shining and reflecting off the water in the harbour, watching countless office workers going for a lunchtime jog. It’s no surprise that Australia wins everything if this gives any indication of how seriously they take their exercise. And they are definitely the healthiest-looking nation we’ve come across yet. Sure they’ve got plenty of pie and beer addicts but so has everywhere else - it’s most noticeable when seeing how their slender schoolkids compare to the overweight ones back home (let alone in America). We went for an hour-long guided tour of the Sydney Opera House and were so impressed that we decided to ... read more

Finally we reach Australia, the English backpacker’s usual destination. Immigration was fine, and our bags turned up safely, but there was no sign of the table. Eventually, after various ‘officials’ had pointed us in various wrong directions, Ed stumbled across it as it (very wrongly) made its unaccompanied way towards Customs. The Customs man who inspected the package was actually extremely helpful, unlike his moronic young colleague who rather pointlessly (and unsuccessfully) kept asking a stubborn Ed to move to a different spot 3 metres away. The table got the thumbs up from Customs, and it was actually quite impressive to see how much care they took over making sure no insects had come along with it. The helpful guy even helped wrap it up again. The only disappointing news was that it had split down ... read more

Well, we finally arrived in sydney, australia, after a long 20 hr flight, via singapore. Took off at 2200 GMT, a quick snack, (courtesey of the lovely looking air stewardesses), and ready for bed. Just as lovely dreams of white sands and sexy ladies were entering my head, an announcement from the cabin crew...."is there any doctors or nurses on board, we have a medical emergency." GREAT!!! The whole point of me coming to the other side of the world is to get away from work. I've not even reached there yet, and some twat has already pisses me off!! So Carmen puts her hand up straight away, and volunteers my services (THANKX HUN!), hoping for a free upgrade no doubt!! So the cabin crew come and ask me "are you a doctor?" No, I reply, ... read more