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Published: October 20th 2012
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After getting our camper back to the depot in Mascot we had to get ourselves across the otherside of the city to Merrylands west where we were staying sith some more Elder family friends, Avril & Sam. This was actually pretty straight forward despite the distance, as the train system is pretty good with efficient big double deck trains that come and go on time...even on a holiday weekend!
When we arrived at Avril & Sam's it was late afternoon and Avril was at work until late, Sam had all the boys around for the NRL Grand Final. James couldn't have been happier with this situation as he was desperate to watch this game, and getting to watch it with 6 Rugby fans instead of just me made him very happy indeed! So we spent the evening in a true Aussie style, beer, BBQ and rugby.
The next day we dragged ourselves out about 10am and headed for the city, about half an hour on the train. We spent the day walking round through the Darling Harbour into the Circular Quay and through the Botanical gardens, via obviously all the main sights. Itsd quite something to take in when
you finally see sydney harbour bridge and the Opera house up close. The botanical gardens are hguge and beautiful and we had a great day just walking around taking things in. The weather was lovely and when we were sitting in the bar at the Sydney Opera house, looking out across the water things didn't seem like they could get much better! On the evening we went out for tea with Avril, her brother Gareth and his wife Tam, really nice to catch up with people I haven't seen in years, and people James has never met!
After a slower start, we went into the city again the next day. It was another beautiful day, so we took the ferry out to Manly, a nice beach town across the far end of the Harbour. The ferry itself was a lovely trip, about half an hour along the water and we even saw dolphins quite close to the shore. We spent some time sitting on the beach, eating fish and chips and then completing pafrt of the Manly scenic walkway. When we got back into the city, we had a walk across the Harbour bridge for yet more photo's. When
we returned to the house, Narelle, Avril's mum who i haven't seen in years was round, so again a bit more catching up and readying ourselves for moving out tomorrow.
We had decided to move around a bit whilst in Sydney, as much as we appreciated Avril & Sam looking after us, we wanted to spend some evenings in the action, so had decided to spend 2 nights out at the infamous Bondi beach. Turns out this was a bit of a mistake! Picking a hostel was difficult, as they all got slammed in reviews and were pretty over priced for what they were. When we arived at the hostel, no body answered the bell, when we finally got inside we discovered the reception was closed between 1 - 5pm (the busiest time of the day??) and it was currently 2.30pm and we couldn't check in. We rang the number as a sign suggested and no body answered! So instead of spending the rest of the day on the beach we spent it carrying our backpacks around Bondi. Just improving our moods about staying in this hostel even more! When we finally got to check in, she denied knowing
we were coming, suggesting we were at the wrong hostel, when i showed her the personalised e-mail confirmation i had recieved 2 days before she "squashed us in" as she had already sold our beds. We had booked 2 beds in a "small dorm"...when we got in the room it had 10 beds, interesting definition of small! There was also absolutely nowhere to put our bags, nowhere at all as every inch of floor space was covered with clothes. Everyone in our room was working in town and living there long term, although we have no idea why anyone would choose to do that! This meant there was coming and going at all times of day due to some working nights in clubs, some working at 6am on site and some working through the middle of the day. There was no lockers and the door was always propped open, safe hey? We were given a "complimentary" internet voucher in exchange for a compulsary $3 charge to have our beds made up (although we had to strip them ourselves). One look in the kitchen and we decided that cooking was off the agenda and got a takeaway. We did manage to
go out to a half decent bar with some live music and had a good night in the end, got rid of all the stress from the hostel!
In the morning we headed for the beach. There is a walkway between Bondi Beach and Coojee Beach which took about 1hr 20mins each way right along the coast and across various beaches. So we walked to the end, had our lunch on the beach and a bit of a chill and read. Then we braved the sea for a very quick dip, not quite warm enough in there yet, despite it being in the high 20's and sunny. After that we walked back to Bondi and spent some time there. It is a typical big sandy beach, but absolutely packed! If we were to do this part of the trip again, we would just visit but not stay, Manly beach was much nicer and not as busy. The walk was interesting as you can really see how well they are geared up to make exercise easy here (despite the fact there are loads of really really big people!). All along the walk there is exercise equipment, water fountains and toilets
and showers. There is also the sea side rock swimming pools and BBQ's i mentioned before to get people outdoors, it makes things really easy. On the evening we got the train back into the City as we were meeting James' friend brother Michael and his girlfriend Hannah in the Darling harbour for drinks and dinner. They are living in Sydney and it was nice to have a chat about the city and what their lives are like here.
The next day we were pretty excited to be moving out of the terrible hostel and back into the city to the lovely comforting familiarity of a YHA! The city centre YHA was huge, with a bar and pool on the roof. We were in a nice small 4 bed dorm, which we originally thought we might have to ourselves but by the end of the night was full up! We had another general walk around the city with a bit of shopping. We spent a lovely afternoon sitting in the botanical gardens reading and people watching. On the evening we went out for a lovely dinner in the Darling Harbour. Despite all the eating out over the last few
months, nothing has felt so much like a real night out as that! After a few drinks we headed for bed as we were up early for the Greyhound bus tomorrow.
We had a fantastic time in Sydney, it's such a lovely City just to walk around and absorb. We loved the fact you could live somewhere like Manley, on the beach and only be half an hour away from the CBD for work. Yet again, people have really looked after us and we are lucky to have some good friends round the world! Now we are heading up to the Hunter Valley for some more wine tasting....how terrible!
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