Sydney

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We had two months to spend in Sydney and the fist place we stayed was the infamous 'Kings Cross'! We didn't realise the reputation of this place until we arrived at the hostel on day one, a dubious area with a 'lively' night scene and gigantic neon Coca Cola sign as a welcome. Our first night was spent in a tiny twin room with single bunks, small and expensive but with the most fantastic views across to the harbour bridge and opera house which more than made up for it. In total we spent 10 days in Kings Cross, from the second night onwards we found a cheap guesthouse across the road which was nothing special but cheap and cheerful and again a fantastic view over Sydney skyline.

our first few days were spent job hunting, I fell into some luck almost straight away with a backpacker agency called Travellersxpress who offered me a temporary two week position as receptionist. This two weeks actually turned into two months and I ended up having a great time there and met some fantastic people (mostly irish lol!). Dale also found work with Epay, handily located just the next street away from where I was working, in central Sydney. Our accommodation situation also improved dramatically as we had the chance to stay in Newtown house sitting for a friend for 4 weeks while they were visiting England. A massive upgrade on our kings Cross digs! Rent was cheap, work was secured so we were feeling much more relaxed about our time in Australia, now to start enjoying things! Happy days.

With regular work nights out at V Bar (happy hour of course - well we are backpackers still!), and a few steak meals at Darling Harbour, and a great African restaurant in Newtown called Kilamanjaro, and lets throw in a few AFL games in the local pub with the Port Adelaide crew (go Vic!)....Sydney was proving to be a lot of fun. We did of course get some sightseeing done (in between our nights out!) - with a day trip to the Blue Mountains (which poured with rain and marred visibility by 95% - such a shame), a 5km coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi (where we spotted a whale - woohoo) and a trip to Watsons Bay and Paramata on the ferry boats. We also managed to watch a live AFL game - Sydney Swans vs St Kilda at the SCG - with friends of ours that we had made in Vietnam (on the kareoke boat for those of you who have been reading our blogs!).

Weather was slowely getting cooler throughout the two months although still nothing like our winter would be back home. After our friends, Rick & Vic returned from England we had to move from Newtown to a place we found in Glebe. Glebe, like Newtown, is a trendy and bohemian suburb of Sydney - just 15 minutes on the bus for both of us to get to work. Its boasts lots of ethnic cuisine restaurants and a fantastic Saturday market which we went to a couple of times. Sydney fish market was also only 20 minutes walk away where you could get some fantastic fresh fish (we cooked up a mean seafood risotto one night).

One of our most favourite places to hang out on a lazy weekend between working was the botanical gardens. Right next to the opera house these gardens are awesome. On sunny days we would bring a picnic and a couple of books and just lyde down taking in the views all day. We were loving Sydney - it was feeling like home - and especially the friends we had made, but we knew that in a short time we would be moving on again. That's the travelling game for you. Our last night went off with a bang though - a few drinks after work and a kareoke session to top it off, with all the friends we had made along the way. That night made our Sydney adventure complete.

We were about to leave Australia for good, although we had one last weekend of sightseeing planned which involved jumping on a Jet Star flight and travelling 600km up the East Coast to Hervey Bay........

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