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Published: March 4th 2007
I have had my first request for the blog... Apparently many people are very keen to hear more about the happenings in the evenings. I will try my best to censor the content and the photos, but i cannot promise anything... Only kidding, its only embarrassing pictures of me, and nothing graphic has happened... yet.
I must take this opportunity to explain that thus far, I have obtained two travelling nick-names. The first originated very early on in my trip down through Asia, and stuck through-out. I believe it stuck so well, to the extent that I do not think half of the group even knew my real name by the end! The first night the group really bonded was the second night we were together, on the overnight train out of Bangkok, as the first night people went off and did their own thing in groups, and I was in bed with a bad headache and suffering from exhaustion. The vast majority of the group made their way down to the "Disco" or "Party" Carriage. I was one of the last to arrive in the carriage, and immediately realised it was dead. Everyone was just sittind down consuming drinks
Sydney 02
Scruffy Murphieslooking miserable, while the Thai DJ/Bartender was trying his hardest to get everyone going. So before I even ordered a drink, I stood bang centre in the middle of the room and started dancing to God-knows-what ridiculously cheesy Disco song. This amused everyone some-what, whilst embarrassing me some-what, but at least it got the room going. It was at the moment i stopped dancing to buy a drink, that i was named "Disco" by my room mate, Chris. Unfortunately with a nick-name like "Disco", I had to live up to my reputation on a number of occasions. Thankfully, I love dancing and clubbing, so took up every opportunity to live up to my name.
The second I have only had for a few days now. It relates to the colour of my hair. The Aussies don't call ginger haired people "Ginge" or "Red-Head" or anything like that... It is something quite bizzare, yet quite clever at the same time... It is simply "Blue". Why, I'm not completely sure, but it has something to do with the random, 'why not?' attitude the Aussies have, but I love it. So there we have it, I'm am now either 'Disco' or 'Blue'.
So back to it... I am now in Brisbane, and have spent just over a week now in Australia. I spent about five days in Sydney, the first of which were quite wet. But it did brighten up for the end of my stay. I spent my first afternoon walking aimlessly round the city trying to find somewhere to stay, as I had nothing booked or planned. I ended up walking right from Central Station to the Harbour, and back again, and all with my big bag on my back. To put that into perspective, that is walking from the Jelfs' Household to Cobham, or probably further. Ironically, I ended up staying in the hostel DIRECTLY outside Central Station... so a fairly wasted trip, but at least I got to familiarise myself with the city.
The following day, I met up with my room mate from my travels through Asia, as he followed me out here a day later. We didn't really get up to much, just both walked round aimlessly together instead of independantly. We departed, and planned to meet up in the evening for a couple of drinks, but I developed a headache, so cancelled and
got an early night. The next day, Chris had said he was going to meet a school friend of his, so I just went for a wander (after getting up at 2pm... nothing like a good lie in). This is when a couple of bizzare, almost sureal goings-on happened. I was just casually walking through the city of Sydney, no point in particular, and bumped into Chris and his friend Paul! Out of any spot in the whole of the City of Sydney, and its a big city, we were both in the same place at the same time! What is even more spookey is that the folowing day, after we had spent that afternoon together, but had not discussed what either of us were doing the next day, ended up in the same bar at the same time! It could have been any bar in the whole of Sydney... and it was the same! Very wierd. That evening, as well as Chris and Paul, I spent with Hannah and Liz, because they flew in that day. These two are the two girls I was originally going to go travelling with, but of course didn't, mainly because I did not
Sydney 05
Manly Beach get organised in time. Suprise suprise.
So I went over to where Liz and Hannah were staying and we said our hellos. We then proceeded to a bar called The Gaff, and of course bumped into Chris and Paul. We had a meal and a few drinks, and then left in search of a more lively bar. By that, we mean one with a dance floor. We got turned down from one club/bar for not complying with the apparant dress code; no shorts or sandals... Which is a bit difficult for a backpacker in Australia, because thats about their whole wardrobe. So we ended up in a Bar called Scruffy Murphies, which was an Irish Pub, except didn't seem very Irish, except for it serving Guinness. But it was good because it had a live band playing that were fairly good, and a dance floor downstairs,
so we had a good time.
The next day, we all decided we would spend the day together, so we got a ferry over to Manly Beach, which is on the other side of the Harbour. We had a nice day on the beach, but i got slightly burnt on my arms/shoulders,
because i stupidly didn't put any cream on. We caught the late ferry back to catch the city at night, which was fantastic, especially the Opera House all lit up. Unfortunately I didn't go out with the gang when we arrived back, because I needed an early night as I was up very early (about 5) to catch my lift out of Sydney and up the East Coast.
So this started my "Oz Experience", as it is called. Our first stop was 'Surf Camp', a small camp sight about seven hours out of Sydney, right on the beach. We arrived at about 4.30, and went straight out onto the surf, as it is called. We had about a 2-3 hour lesson, which was... successful, in certain ways. The pictures explain all. It was really good fun. We had a fantastic BBQ to top the day off.
We headed up to Byron Bay the following day, a small but fairly touristy town right on the coast, and actually home to the most Easterly point in Australia. I spent the afternoon wandering around town and had a look at the beach. I then had a nap because I was still
nackered from the surfing and lack of sleep from the day before. The evening turned out to be one of the best of the trip so far. Our driver booked us a table at "Cheeky Monkey's", the most popular Backpackers' night spot in town. We started out with a meal and a couple of drinks, and then Happy Hour came, where of course drinks prices are dropped considerably. For example, a jug of beer was now $7, which works out at just under 3 pounds... so had a few of those. All the while music is playing, of which there was a very good selection, and to which "Disco" could live up to his reputation. Every once-in-a-while, the music would stop, and some "party games" would be played for the chance to win prizes, such as bar tabs, sky dives and surf lessons. The majority of the games usually involved items of clothing having to be removed, but there were some others that were really fun and original. Finally hit the sack at about 2.30, which is fairly ealry for this trip.
However, that didn't mean I got a good night's sleep. That day, I had convinced myself to
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Sunrise at Surf Camp get up at the crack of dawn... well a while before the crack of dawn, to make it up onto Cape Byron (the mose Easterly point in Australia) to watch the sun rise. The walk up takes the best part of an hour, so that meant i had to get up at 5.30, which meant 3 hours sleep, on top of a considerable amount of alcohol, followed by a 5km trek...
Suprisingly, everything worked out fine. I got up without much trouble, and not feeling that ill. The walk was fine. And the view from the cape was... absolutely incredible. Well worth the effort. I returned at about 8.20 and went back to bed.
And now Im in Brisbane, after a journey up this morning. It has been great so far, and I expect things to get even better.
Hope you are all enjoying cold, wet England, because im loving hot, sunny Australia.
Blue out, Dudes!
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