Au Revoir Australia

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Only 6 days left down under before we set off to New Zealand, which I suppose is still down under! We have been in Sydney for a week now and have been graced with the presence of Tom Pond who is here for a wedding (Not ours, in case you were wondering). Let me try to remember what we have been up to...........(pause for effect or affect)............. oh yes I remember.

Brisbane: We arrived on the greyhound after a reasonable journey. My first impressions of the city were a sense of dread as this was the biggest place we has been to since Perth. Huge skyscrapers and loads of people made me feel a bit nervous at first but after only an hour or so I grew to love the place! The city center is small and we were able to walk everywhere. Which was handy as the buses were pricey. On the south of the cleverly named Brisbane River, there is an area that reminds me of Embankment in London. Except that it was warm, sunny, there were not loads of annoying street entertainers and there is a salt water lagoon that has a view of the river. We were aiming to spend a while here as we had tickets to the 2nd Day of the 1st ashes test. Activities included walking, eating, cinema (Ha ha Harry Potter lovers I saw it 36 hours before you even could! Unless you are a pirate!) and we both enjoyed the museums and art gallery. We visited the XXXX brewery which was not fun except the drinking, a far cry from the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen (Denmark 1 - Australia 0). After the cricket we decided to break up the journey to Sydney by visiting........

Byron Bay: A place where no one wears shoes? Not anymore. The hippies have been replaced by backpackers. Not sure which one I prefer! We stayed in the expensive Arts Factory which included Bongo lessons and free bush walks with a strange man and a Cockatoo (hmmm could be a joke there) which we declined but we did book a snorkling trip and went to Cape Byron to see the lighthouse. The snorkling was fun. The current was so strong that Nat got swept away and was picked up by the boat. In my heroic attempt to save her (what would I have done even if I did get near her!) I almost perished myself. I was told to swim back over to the sheltered part. When I looked down I was swimming but not moving. A bit disconcerting. It was all worth it as we saw another turtle (getting boring now), a Wooblywoobummy Shark (or something similar) and huge pelagic fish that were checking us out. After surviving the perils of the bay we stayed one more night and headed to the big city.

Sydney: To sound frighteningly like the Lonely Planet.....We are in the capital of Australia. Apparently Canberra was created to stop Melbourne moaning but I have not been to either place so I don't care. This place is huge. It took ages to get here but we got to Wake Up! Hostel which is the best one we have stayed in so far. We are in the center of town and have been seeing the sights every day since we have been here. I actually found that in a close inspection of the Opera House, it seems a bit grubby and dated. It looks amazing from a distance. The bridge is inspiring too. We have enjoyed walking through the Botanic Gardens on several occasions. It is beautiful and I am not sure that I have been to a garden so amazing. Wow, I am officially old. We have come back from a trip to the Blue Mountains today and we are super tired. We change hostels tomorrow to stay in the more seedy part of town, Kings Cross. A forced change unfortunately. Hopefully it will give us a new area to explore.

Lastly I will leave you with the most surreal experience of our travels. Tom has spent the last two days with us sight seeing. He needed to change some traveller's cheques so we headed to a local bank. Inside there were some people painting. A competition was running for customers that produced the best painting and there was a prize for $200! Tom decided he would do it. Nat then suggested he paint me. I was flattered but declined the offer so that made him do it. Using a picture of me he painted me looking grumpy (my normal face then). It took him 30 mins whilst I was booking our Blue Mountains trip and getting us lunch and to be honest I was impressed. So was the artist running the competition. We have been invited to a do at the bank tomorrow night where a winner will be picked. Not sure I want to go. The paintings will be auctioned off and I may end up in someone, somewhere's lounge or parlour.

Well. I am spent. Good to finally catch up to where we are now. Look forward to my next blog. I have tried to be more positive in this one as I tend to get a bit negative and moany sometimes.

Hope you are all well and not covered in snow!

Alex

xxxx

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