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Published: January 10th 2008
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G’day everybody!
ok since my last blog i have ventured down the coast to sunny Sydney. After leaving surfers paradise with some of the guys i spent christmas with, i spent 2 days in Byron Bay. Annoyingly, not as long as i had wanted, but then we were running out of days to new years! Byron was really nice, essentially a heavily tourism driven seaside town, but really laid back and completely different to surfers paradise. The beach and waves were good fun, and the hostel (holiday village) had free boards to use too! We had an appartment between 4 of us and 2 randoms, which was great because we had our own kitchen, bathroom, sitting room, tv, balcony, and meant we could invite others over for a few beverages before a night out! The hostel put on a big BBQ on the last night and everyone headed over to cheeky monkeys - a bar where it was actively encouraged to dance on the tables - great fun!
After a 13hour bus ride, Wend and I arrived in Sydney on the 29th and i have been here since. it’s been so expensive, hostels costing $35 (GBP15), which is a
lot when i’m trying to get by on GBP25/day, but i’ve really enjoyed it, it’s a great city, lots of sights, easy access to beaches, and the weather has been mostly tip top. we went to admire the opera house and harbour bridge on our first whole day, there wasnt a cloud in the sky and the views were like something from a postcard! really impressive. I’ve seen the opera house many times now but it still demands another look whenever i’m near it!
...and then there was new years eve. definitely one I will never forget! usually it consists of maybe work in the (cold!) day, and a night thats really built up but usually is made by the fact you’re with good people. This year, or last year even, we spent the day at Bondi beach, baking heat and great waves. Fortunately no sharks for us! And then the evening was everything i wanted it to be. a group of us sat overlooking the harbour bridge, there were loads of people with picnics and drinks flowing. We watched the sun go down, and then fireworks with a great view of the harbour bridge, it was truly amazing!
Since then, Wendy headed up to find some climbing in the Blue mountains, so I have spent time with various people i have met along my travels. it’s amazing how many people you bump into again and again along the way.
a few other things i’ve been upto...
went to watch the first day of the new years test (cricket) between Australia and India at the SCG (sydney cricket ground). it was a good day and good cricket too, saw Australia go down to 126-6 and then Symonds make an unbeaten century in reply so the atmousphere (and banter between the fans) was great. never seen an international match before, so not a bad one to start!
Took a day trip to the Blue mountains, was a top day - fed kangaroos, held a koala and a snake, saw another croc feeding, the worlds smallest penguins (a bit random in the sun!). Saw some great views up there, could see for miles over the valleys and blue mist, whicg incidently is why they are called the blue mountains. nice buffet lunch, which i obviously took as nice all you can eat lunch! got on the worlds steepest train - 52
degrees, very steep! went to the olympic park. and took a ferry under the harbour bridge and back to darling harbour.
Met a couple in my dorm and few of us went down to Coogee beach to meet up with some guys they knew - turned out one of them was in my year and on my course at uni, small world eh?! so stayed in Coogee a night and then stayed in Bondi a couple of nights and met up with some other people i’d met at my first hostel in Sydney. Also popped over on the ferry to manly beach today.
I’ve really enjoyed my time in Sydney, but i am heading south tomorrow, spending a night in Canberra, a night somewhre undecided, and then a week in Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis, cant wait!
Hope everyone is well and having a good start to 2008! i’m off to catch up on some sleep...
David/Lofty
p.s. for some reason i’m not getting all my email to my hotmail account - anno
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laura
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awww u feed kangaroos......humph!! looks like ur having amazing time! stay safe xx