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Well finally after 7 weeks of being in Oz I have now finally got around to doing my first blog of this place, I have been pretty busy and have even been back to work for 3 weeks, YES you read that correctly, WORK. I can’t tell you how after nearly 6 months off work it was a really shock to the system.
So anyway the going all the way back to when I first arrived here, Keith my step brother met me at the airport and for the first week I lived at his place. When he picked me up he mentioned that his place was a little empty has he had just moved apartments, but when we entered it was just like just got the keys to vacant flat, the only thing there was a kettle and that was it! no couch, TV, washing machine and most importantly no fridge to put milk so I couldn’t even have proper cup off tea!!!
The following morning I headed into the city centre so see the opera house etc, it was so like England again and it took around 5 days for me to get used to this
The harbour bridge
Some one might think I like photgraphing the bridge??type of civilization, but I think the weirdest thing I notice was that there are loads of Asians here but they all speak with a Aussie accent, my brain just couldn’t get used to it, it just didn’t seem right.
So I jumped of the bus and headed up Pitt street too the harbor I passed though a lovely little park to see my first view of the opera house and harbor bridge the two main icons of Sydney. But the most surreal moment was at that same moment two aborigines beside me started to play some traditional Aussie music on there didgeridoos which sounds so similar to the theme tune to crocodile Dundee. At that moment I knew I had arrived in Australia stood there listening to that and looking out at the bridge and the opera house and quietly laughing too my self.
For the first few days I spent walking around the city and basically just getting to know the place. I had heard that I was one of the most beautiful cities in the world had I have to agree that the harbor does make it a truly stunning sight. I have taken so many
pictures of the opera house as it just looks so good from every angle even though it was smaller than I thought.
It was really great to all meet back up with Owen as we had been apart now for 7 weeks and had loads of catching up to on. I also met Emily from Laos who was all over here. For the first 3-4 days we all kept heading to the one bar as It offered a steak and chips for 6 dollars (about 2.50 pounds), I had really missed proper steaks but by the end of the week I thing I must have had enough of them to devour the majority of a whole cow!!
After being at Keith’s for a week I had planned to stay in Sydney and work so Owen a I got a house together, I was in area south of Sydney and a whole street of about 30 house is all rented out to backpackers and travelers, so as you can imagine there are house parties going on all the time. Each house had 6 people in it with three rooms, so it was back to sharing bunk beds again. Now
I have been in squeaky beds before but our bunk bed has to be the worst I have ever seen, even scratching your head makes the bed squeak like you’re having sex!! This was to due to the fact that all the welds of the bed were cracking and so therefore the bed could rock back and forth up to a foot!!!
Oh yeah we also have a lovely marbled effect carpets due to the shear amount of multi colored stains on it, I have not walked on the carpet with out shoes on cause I have decided what all the stains are and I don’t think I want to know either!
All in all the house isn’t that bad and it is nice to settle down for a bit and be living out of cupboards again instead of my backpack, we also have the only room with a small balcony.
I have been to Taronga zoo with Emily which was amazing, we got to see loads of really cool animals including, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, crocodiles and a duckbilled platypus just to name a few. I also got a great pic of a giraffe that looks as gormless as
The beautiful botanic gardens
This was my tranqual relaxing spot after all my site seing. Many a nap has been had here! hell. What made it even better was the view back over the harbor to the city which was a magnificent sight.
Emily and I also got to see this great show with sea lions, I couldn't believe how well trained and clever there where, they were doing some really cool tricks like walking on the flippers, playing dead and doing summersaults out of the water.
Caring on the theme of the wildlife I also visited Sydney aquarium with 2 of my friends Jack and Sarah who had flow in on there way to New Zealand. Sydney aquariums is said to be one of the best in the world and I have to say I can completely agree, some of the huge tanks you can walk through were incredible, in one of the tanks where loads of sharks and they where swimming inches away from us only separated my a piece of Perspex glass. A few of them where absolutely huge and looked as evil as hell!! I also got to see a massive manta ray and when I say massive I mean about 2 meters if not more in diameter, as it swam over us it was wider then me
with my arms stretched out.
Over Easter there was a two weeks festival on a the Olympic park called the royal Easter show. I was like our royal show back home but bigger, Emily and I had a great day and got to see some breathtaking as well a shocking sights. On the breathtaking side of things we got to see some motocross free style riders in the main arena. I have seen these boys on TV but to see them live doing the most unbelievable tricks in mid air while jumping 75 feet from a ramp was just incredible. It was so good in fact we ending up seeing the same show again latter. Also in this main arena we got to witness a women human cannonball which is something you don’t get to see every day!
Later on in the day we went to another stage to watch a show called the psycho side show as we where intrigued by the name and what it had to offer. Well we defiantly weren’t disappointed, we witnessed a bloke put he arm in bear trap after seeing it minutes before destroying a can of beer, we watched a sword
swallowed swallow a long balloon right down to his stomach, he then popped it with the sword as he swallowed that. Then the sickest bit was when he used these huge long pincers all the way down his throat to retrieve the burst balloon, this was something that had to be seen to be believed I wasn’t sure whether to amazed or disgusted by it, especially as the balloon was covered it loads of stringy mucus as he pulled it out!!
But I think the worst bit had to be the bloke that could lift up a car battery by his nipple rings while a set of jump Leads were attached to the terminals and then to the chains to his nipples, It had to be the stupidest but yet amusing thing I have ever seen.
I have to explain that this was family show and there were loads of kids sat in the front of the stage, I can only imagine them going home and there parents seeing them trying out something they had seen here!
Since being in Sydney I have only been to the beach a few times. I heading to Bondi beach which is one
of Australia’s most famous beach as its only half an hour from the centre. I was really shocked by how cold the water was 21 degrees!!! Which in England would be considered warm but compared to Thailand and Cambodia which was 29 degrees it did take a bit of getting used to. The other most notable thing was the intensity of the rip tide, I have never felt such a strong current I can see now why they have to save so many people a year from it. I am a strong swimming and even I struggled when I slipped off the sand bar.
It was a lovely looking beach if not smaller than what I had expected thou and the coastal walk to Coogee was lovely as the walk pasted many lovely little coves etc.
As some of you will already know, it is sad but due to money issue's Owen my traveling buddy of the past 6 months has now gone home back to sunny old Wales!!! It was really bad that he had to go but he is happy that he has seen what he wants and is ready and prepared to face real life again!!
so I wish him all the best. We did have leaving party of course were loads of people turned up to wish him good luck and that he will be sorely missed, as you will probably guess we all had far to much to drink and as you will see from the picture Owen was trying to convince us all he could do the splits which hilarious.
A week after Jack and Sarah had arrived I had an email to say that my to friends Ashley and Lee from Cambodia/Vietnam were coming in, which was great to see them as they had been to Malaysia and Singapore since I had last seen them. So we all had a good catch up of a few proper English pints not these girls scooners they like to serve over here.
Well now everyone has left and either gone home or of on other travels I am back on my own, I have another day left of work before I then head to the blue mountains pick up Emily and head to Byron bay to try my hand at surfing. I have just bought a ford Falcon 4 litre!!!! and cant wait
The QVB (Queen Victoria building)
The greatest shopping centre I have even been into, they even have carpeted floors!! to start my road trip as I am getting really ichy feet now to head up the coast ant start exploring again.
I have really enjoyed Sydney, It was a bit like getting back to normality having a house and a job but now I feel recovered and ready to hit the road again.
PS There are two pages of pics
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Eva and Si
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Fuzzy Koala
An update from down under at last! Good luck in your ute and don't go picking up any dodgy hitch-hikers. Those pics of the kanga and koala are soooo cute and I've now got the giraffe as my desktop photo. Looking forward to more photo's soon and good luck on the surfboard mate!!