Slobbing in Sydney

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So basically we've been in Sydney this entire time just hoping for an improvement in the weather but it never really came. We have had an absolute laugh though its been hilarious. On the day I last wrote the weather made it a complete right off so we didn't do much with ourselves. Katie managed to sort out her online banking and transfered all the money she'd borrowed over the last month to me and Rob which was good to get sorted! We went food shopping again, me and katie got some ingredients for a spag bol which we were determined to make (we'd wasted a pack of mince in melbourne!). Slobbed out in the TV room for a bit with Matt the geordie watching a hilariously rubbish film called Slackers. We had a few games of kings in the room to save a few pennies with Jake and Dan, our hostel mates, and headed down to side bar for a rowdy night. A live DJ was on and he was pretty good. Celia and Georgie came to meet us again on their last night in Sydney and we all had a laugh. Strange hanging out with people you met in Thailand in such totally different circumstances! Also hung out with James the mackem and had some pre match banter with him and his non mackem mate Rich. The next day was supposed to be another hostel organised walk with free beer afterwards. This time it was a beach walk taking in the beautiful walk along Sydney's southern coast beaches. Coogee to Bondi. Typically it was raining and cancelled. Katie was completely worse for wear in the morning. Me and Rob felt fairly grim but were determined to stop doing nothing with our days and regardless of the weather walked into the center and went to the Museum of Sydney which was pretty interesting with the history of the penal colony etc. The bit we liked most though was the modern Sydney exhibit with loads of local photography which was really good and looking into Sydneys culture. We headed down to the quayside again and chilled out around the opera house and harbour bridge waiting for the lights to come on as it had got late. The bridge and opera house looked great at night. We decided to head to Darling Harbour to enhance our geeky day with an Imax film (supposedly biggest screen in the world, or thats what they advertise it as!). We walked through an area called the rocks which was scarily english! Sydney was a different place at night with a real buzz around it, the fact it was friday night probably helped too! We got to darling harbour and all the restaurants and bars were busy and looked good but waaay out of our price range! Sadly the only film on at the imax was U2 3D which we decided would be one of the worse ways to spend an hour and so headed back to the hostel feeling quite pleased to have done so much and get to know Sydney better!

Bumped into Katie in the lobby, just woken up apparently. We decided we were going to make our Spag Bol before noticing the side bar advert for 6 dollar fish and chips tonight... easy decision. We bumped into Jake and Dan in the bar and we all went up to our room for a game of kings with our 'goon' (cheap aussie piss wine in 4 litre boxes). Back down in side bar we hung out with Rich and James and after one drink we all decided it was friday night and we were bored of side bar so got a taxi to the rowdy and seedy area of Kings Cross and to a bar called Empire. Empire was fantastic. We got wristbands which meant we could get as many free vodka vedbulls as possible from the bar when the siren went off for a 20 minute period. Plus bottles of Wolf Blass Champagne were 10 dollars. What more could you want!? Met some fun aussies and stayed pretty late, Dan was chatting up the door girl and she gave us about 300 stamps on our arm for some reason. Me and Rob decided we'd make the epic walk back with the help of a kebab (grimey). Singing wonderwall and chilis loudly we made it and navigated very well. Today we must have walked miles and miles but a good day all round despite the walk being cancelled! The next day was saturday and I was determined to do this beach walk with or without a guide but it was yet again rubbish weather. Dan and Jake asked us if we wanted to go to their room and play drinking games, we all went to the bottle shop and got some boxes of goon and had absolute jokes all day. Before you judge us for drinking all day, the weather drove us to it. Somehow we made it to the evening and went to side bar for a bit and met some rowdy canadians.

Sunday was derby day, Newcastle v Sunderland. I put my colours on and was ready to go do the walk finally but it was... raining. Met up with the geordie lads I'd met previously and decided to meet up later. Hung out with Dan and Jake again, me and Katie finally made our Spag Bol and it was brilliant. Plus we had loads left to eat tommorow. We congratulated ourselves on how much money we'd saved. Afterwards we continued the goon consumption in Dan and Jakes dorm and the geordie lads joined us. We went off to see the match at a bar called cheers whilst they stayed put and went down to side bar. It was hilarious walking the streets of Sydney with a growing convoy of Black and White! After a swift Guinness in Scruffy Maguires we went to cheers. It was mainly Newcastle fans, the atmopshere wasn't that great though but we made enough noise to compensate. Rob came and met us there too which was cool and the game went fantastically. There was only one Mackem, an Aussie bloke with no links to the place he'd just chosen them.. We decided he was clinically insane. We all headed back to side bar but it was clearly not the place to be on a Sunday and was clearing out. We slobbed out in the lobby with Dan and watched the drama of a stuck lift and a fight unfold. Hilarious. A game we'd been growing to love after a night out was 'lift lottery'. The whole hostel is operated by key card. You cant get to any floor other than your own or any floor at all without your key card. Basically you get in the lift and wait until you get to your floor however long it takes. We recruited some girls from Walton on Thames or Surbiton or somewhere around there. We made it to all sorts of floors but not our own. We took a beanbag from floor one (tv room) and a duster from the ground floor to make ourselves more comfortable. Rob stopped off for a mars bar and while he was gone the security guys discovered our little game. It was fun while it lasted. Hilariously I went to Dans floor to get my bag before getting back in the lift to go down to ours, the security guy was there again and couldnt seem to understand my obsession with the lift. Maybe you had to be there but me and Rob pissed ourselves for ages before turning in.

Monday the weather was average, but me and Katie decided we needed to sort ourselves out. Eg. Get out of sydney and go north. Rob was still in bed so we went by ourselves to one of the many travel agents along the road. We organised an open bus ticket all the way up past Brisbane to Hervey Bay - point of entry to an amazing Island called Fraser Island. We could hop off at any point along the way and back on when we chose. So basically on wednesday morning (tommorow morning at 7am - ouch) we're heading to a place called Coffs Harbour, a stopover to break the 20 hour journey to Byron up. Then Byron Bay for sun and surf, surfers paradise for more of the same. Brisbane, and then to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island before flying back to Sydney for our flight out on May 11th. The weather up there is getting gooood too so we couldnt wait to get out even though Sydney had been a right laugh! No sign of life from Rob so me and Katie decided to get our acts together and finally do the beach walk. We got the bus to Coogee beach and spent the next 3 hours or so walking north up the amazing coastline. We went to coogee beach, gordons bay, clovelly beach, bronte beach, tamarama beach and finally bondi beach. It was really chilled out. We decided we were 100% jealous of kids brought up round here to have all these amazing places to hang out in on their doorstep when at home we had what, Reading town center! In Bondi we treated ourselves to a burger before it started raining so we caught the bus back! Good way to spend the day and glad we'd finally done the walk after saying we would every morning. Couldnt handle another night of Goon so we just headed down to the bar with Rob, Jake and Dan and stuck to the Tooheys (great aussie beer). It was a pretty good night, our Canadian mates were there too and we met some funny people!

Today we did another one of the things we'd been meaning to do for ages and had to do today as it was our last Sydney day. We caught the boat to Manly - the famous surfer beach on the north side of the bay. Walked all the way to circular quay and caught the boat accross. It reminded us loads of a british sea side town and was pretty dead. The beach was beautiful and so empty except for a few hardcore surfers still out on the water. It was grey and cold and pretty empty but we could imagine how cool a place it would be in the summer, the waves were great. We laughed at a few 'manly' signs and got the best milkshake ever before grabbing the ferry back. It was sunset behind the harbour bridge, opera house and skyline so sailing back in was really cool, a good last look at both sydney icons! I've been on here for about 2 hours and need to eat and meet some people in the bar who are just about to leave but I'll upload some pictures probably tommorow or day after so check back but theres your update!
Miss Everyone, cant wait to get to the sun!
Luke

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Comments

[Dad]

Hang in there ... weather getting better
According to weather.com it'll be over 20C on Friday, even better on Saturday. Can't wait to see the pictures. BTW ... I don't think you mentioned the score in the Newcastle Sunderland match :) love -Dad