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Published: August 27th 2007
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My time in Sydney seemed to fly by so quickly, it's hard to know where the time went. During the week I would get up when Mike did and then wander around Sydney with a vague plan in mind of where I wanted to go and then I would either find where I wanted to go quite quickly or take a more scenic route depending on the weather!
We did a few touristy type things starting with Bondi beach. Bondi looked impressive, lots of golden sand and clear blue water, the surfers weren't doing too much in the way of surfing as the waves weren't very forthcoming. We'd decided to walk from Bondi to Coogee beach, it was a lovely walk with plenty to look at on the way, the Lorikeets were beautiful and plenty of times I tripped over my feet as I kept gazing upwards to watch them. There was even a superb graveyard we walked through, with the tackiest of tombs and headstones, I'm sure the occupants would literally be spinning in their graves if they could have seen what they were buried under. We eventually made it to Coogee beach just as the sun was beginning
View from Mike's place
He "works" in the tall building on the right. to set and that's Coogee with a hard g sound not a soft g, only took me the entire afternoon to get that right.
Another beach trip was to Manly which started with trip across the harbour thankfully it was nice and calm as one of us had a hangover. (not me) I was a bit disappointed with Manly to begin with as it seemed really small but there was a little jellyfish net, which initially i was lead to believe was a shark net, after much giggling from Mike he admitted that the small bit of sand I was standing on was not Manly and eventually we got to the far more impressive Manly beach which was about a hundred times bigger. Even though it was the middle of winter I wanted the whole paddling on an Australian beach experience so off came the shoes , rolled up my trousers and quite happily paddled all the way to the end of the beach. I spent ages trying to wash off the excess sand from my feet with little success and had even less success in trying to dry my feet with my socks and keep the sand out
Threskiornis molucca
An Australian White Ibis, I did cheat and look up the Latin name though! They're fairly skittish birds and not so pretty to look at either. of my socks and shoes. It brought back so many happy memories of Black Rock Sands every Easter holiday. It would have been so much simpler if I'd been allowed to borrow some thongs (Australian for flipflops - I wouldn't share the other kind of thongs!) but some people have a thing about sharing footwear apparently. There were some good rocks for scrambling on and I managed to get up and down them without bruising or damaging myself in anyway, it's fair to say even Mike was impressed with my lack of injuries this week.
I did the whole art gallery and cultural stuff too, sometimes it's nice to wander through a warm place and marvel at the greater talents of those around you. It's not something I can do a lot of (looking at paintings) but it was a very pleasant way of passing some time and learning a bit more about Australian artists. Less cultural was the various cinema trips...Die Hard 4, I still don't think bald will ever be sexy and I'm still not sold on the 'taking a fighter plane out with a truck' idea. Chuck and Larry... made me giggle in places but I
Bondi Beach
A view of the iconic beach. won't be renting it on DVD anytime soon, although I'm told that it was worth it for Jessica Biel and finally Harry Potter, not as good as the last one but still very entertaining.
I watched my first game of Gaelic football, in the basement of an Irish pub, surrounded by dozens of cheering Irish. I can't remember if that was the one with 4 goal posts or the one where they could run, kick and bounce the ball. I get the Gaelic and the Australian Football muddled but I'm certain they have the same shape ball but the Irish one is smaller and heavier. The rules for the Irish game were explained to me by Sean (another of Mike's stunning Irish flatmates) but it sounded a bit like quidditch and it all got a bit confusing because you can score points and goals and they're different things and the goals matter more than the points. It was a great night and the atmosphere rivalled that of the Millenium Stadium when Wales are playing.
I had some great food while in Australia, mostly thanks to Chantel (One of Mike's lovely flatmates) she's a superb cook. Mike also cooked
Me at Bondi
This is the start of our epic walk from Bondi beach to Coogee beach. for me, awesome pasta and sauce and the grated cheese was just inspired! At this point I'd also like to mention that should anyone help you with your packing for a 6 week trip away and suggest you leave your hairdryer at home, ignore them, take it with you! I'm not the fussiest of girls but 6 weeks of hair that thinks it can do whatever it wants had driven me right to the edge. Thankfully Chantel had some straightners which saved my sanity for a few days. I will not be travelling without a hairdryer again, I'd rather ration my underwear!!
All to soon it was time to leave Sydney, thankfully the train station is only a couple of minutes walk from the flat and a 10 minute journey to the airport but even so it was still a struggle to get up at 6am ready for my 8.30 flight. I'd been fairly organised and packed the night before and made sure I'd got the essential stuff like passport and tickets. Mike got up to see me off at the station (I think it was probably more to make sure I got on the right train and actually
Stunning tree
No idea what it is, I just like the look of it. left the country) which I appeciated as it was pretty early and he had to go to work in a few hours, another goodbye (I hate goodbyes) and I was on my way to catch another flight....
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