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Published: January 8th 2009
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I was lucky to have found really kind people to host me in Sydney because as it was getting closer to christmas, it was harder and harder to find a couch available. Rob and Anet had decided not to receive anyone for a week as Rob's daughter was there. But when they saw my request they felt sorry for me and offered me a room at their place. It was 45min away from down town, but it was good enough for me. When I got there, Rob was at the hospital and it was Aurelie and .her boyfriend, other french couchsurfers coming from Thailand who welcomed me. I met Anet later on when she came back from hospital. The following day, Aurelie and her boyfriend was leaving to New Zealand, I left with them early morning to visit Sydney. The first thing I wanted to do was to see the Opera House so I went there and it helped me to realise that I was in Sydney. It was early morning, therefore so quiet and the first impression that I had from the city was very positive. I loved it at first sight. People are beautiful, there are well dressed in
the center but completely relaxed and laid back after work. I walked around the city and was enjoying every street of it. I met Rob when I got back home that day, it was a funny little man. I had taken the habit to wake up really early to catch the first train to be in town as soon as possible so the following day I left to go to Manly beach, from down town, I took the ferry to get on the other side of the city. I trip was very enjoyable itself. When I got there, it was saturday and there was a beach-volleyball competition organised on the beach. It was quite funny to watch as each team was dressed up with vey original costumes such as smurths, pirates, bees, and so on... There was also a group from Brazil playing drums and capoiera. As I stopped to watch them, I met Nicolas, a french guy who had been living there for a few years. We spent the whole afternoon together, watching the gaming, going for coffee, it was telling me about his life here and it was quite appealing in fact. I got back to the city
center later own and had dinner in China Town, thank god they are everywhere those Chinese, providing cheap and tasty food :-) The following day, Rob drove Anet, his daughter and me to the Blue Mountains. It is hills just outside Sydney, but called mountains compared to anything else in Australia. I had a very interesting day with this typical aussie family, I met an arborigene who was posing for pictures to get some money but who actually had studied in Cambridge and was in Reunion last year! We conclude the day by visiting Rob's siters. She and her family live in a beautiful and posh neighbourhood, the whole family was so kind to me. The supposedly-last day I spent in Sydney was quite busy. I left home early in the morning with all my luggage, I left my bag in a locker in town and then went to Sydney Zoo. It was well worth it, so beautiful, with animals coming from everywhere, they made the effort to recreate the habitat for each animal so you ve got the feeling to be in Asia or Africa' jungle when you are still in central Sydney. A few hours were far not
enough to check out everything. I had to leave to see the famous Bondi beach before leaving. I was shocked how many french people there were there, too many!! Bondi is a very beautiful beach, very popular but so nice. Too nice as I spent too much time there and then arrived just on time to catch my flight but my plane was not leaving... Big stress when I got to the airport; as the flight was not on screen, I thought I did a mistake and misread my flight information. After I asked around, I finally understood that due to technical problem my plane was not leaving before the following morning. They put me in a very nice and fancy hotel but I was so disappointed, as I would miss my brother s birthday in Bangkok. He, my parents and myself were supposed to meet there on his birthday but I arrived a day later. Andrea and his friend, 2 italian guys were in the same situation than me so we tried to take it in the good way and made the best of it. We went for dinner together and ended up staying up late at the bar
of the hotel. It was quite hard for me to get up in the morning to catch my plane, especially when half awake I had to take the emergency exit to leave the hotel as the lift was not working properly, quite a fun adventure when we got lost at the back of the hotel... However, this time I was on time for the plane and I left to Thailand...one day later.
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