Catching up with friends in Sydney

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I returned from NZ and spent the next few days, applying for jobs, looking after my cousins and the house, while my auntie Rach was away on a course. Then I left for Sydney!

I landed and headed straight to Kings Cross to a hostel called Sugar Shack where I met Jen(friend I'd met in NZ) and her brother, David, who had not been in Oz long but long enough to have made friends with birthday celebrations we could join in with so that night we headed out for a dance at the club associated with our hostel after having been to the hostel across the road to meet some of his friends, 2 from Blackpool! Small world!

The next day we left that hostel (and Jens brother) and moved to Bondi, where we stayed at Noahs. We had a quiet day by the beach and then ate at the hostel bar which was nice and chatted to people there before an early night. It was not anywhere near as tacky as I'd expected and was quite a large beach with a variety of cafes, shops, bars but nothing out of the ordinary really. Then we moved back into the city and stayed at 790 on george so quite central. That afternoon we headed to Manly on the ferry, explored the shops, relaxed on the beach, then ate fish and chips on the beach, which was lovely. Another long, lovely sandy beach! Then on our way back to the ferry we stopped off at a little live music festival and listened to some great acts before finally catching the ferry back. On our walk back to our hostel we also briefly stopped outside the Apple shop, where there was Wolfmother gig going on inside so we listened to a bit from the outside(glass windows). Jen left early the next morning which was sad but I had plans to meet my friend I had met in Tas, Grace. She is training to be a vet at uni in Sydney.

I met Grace for coffee at the waterfront near the Opera house which was nice and she offered to let me stay with her. That afternoon she was working so I headed to the Opera house and was lucky enough to get cheap tickets to a matinee performance of 'A midsummer Nights Dream' as an Opera! It was amazing; the cast, costumes, music, set and building! Then I was heading towards the botanical gardens when another friend from NZ, Mel, who I'd hadn't spent much time with rang, she had landed that day so she and her friend from home, Lee, came to the gardens too and we caught up then went back to our hostels before meeting again at the cinema that evening. We watched Shutter Island which I liked a lot more than I had thought I would!

The following morning was Sunday, I set off down to Darling Harbour to a little Catholic church which was packed, the service was very good, although it was very hot too! Then I spent some time around the Harbour and the shops there. I ate my lunch listening to a band on the waterfront. They were raising money for a new hospital unit and were very good-I even bought their CD! Then I walked down to The Rocks area of the city which is old and historic. There was a good market on and then I had a nap in a park overlooking the opera house and under the harbour bridge! :-) Then I took Grace up on her offer and got the train out to Petersham. I quickly got changed and we headed back into the city to Chinatown where we met some of her friends for Chinese before enjoying the very long Chinese New Year Twilight parade, Mel and Lee also joined us here and we all went for a drink down at Darling Harbour afterwards but we had missed the fireworks by the time we got there somehow!

The next day me and Grace went for Thai lunch in Newtown, the student area of the city where she was then working, as a veterinary nurse so I took myself off to Centennial park which was a lovely park with huge European style trees, nice lakes and open green areas. I wandered around, relaxed by the water and then headed back by local bus to the city where I met Mel and went to see her new flat which she had started renting with lots of other travellers. I ate dinner there and we watched Juno with her flat mates which was lovely. When I got back to Graces she was still at work but came home around midnight with 2 tiny kittens who had been abandoned and needed feeding through the night. I gave them a few feeds but not actually during the night! :-)

The next day I set off to Bondi, Grace came to and we had a couple pf hours on the beach before we met up with Linzi(my college friend) and Tash, who is Linzi's work mate from back home. Then Grace headed off home and me and Linz had a huge catch up-it took a while. Then we ate at the hostel and got ready to go out. The next day we had a lazy morning and then Mel came to meet us. Me, Mel and Linz went on a cliff top walk from Bondi to Coogee. We saw some gorgeous beaches along the way and then enjoyed lunch in coogee and a wander around before getting the bus back to Bondi where we had nap and got ready to go into Sydney again to meet Mel and other NZ friends, and some of Linzi's uni friends! It was drag Karaoke night at Scruffy Murphy's which was interesting but we didn't stay too late as we had to get the train back. At Bondi Junction I met another friend from NZ for a quick drink at 'The Tea Rooms' and then got the bus back to the hostel.

The next morning I headed back to Melbourne and seriously started the job search!

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Comments

[bridgeen]

Hello
Really enjoying reading all your information,glad all is well. Reading your blog is a nice tonic at the end of the day!!!!