Advertisement
Published: July 12th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Finally its time to pick up from where I left off just as we left Malaysia heading for Australia. At this point Im gonna quickly apologise for the ridiculously late blog about Aus and now that is done Im going to go ahead and continue.
First day in Australia and we arrive in Melbourne after meeting Sophie on the plane from Singapore. We checked into the Base hotel located just outside of the city in St Kilda at 5 in the morning! And decided to get some sleep before checking out the city itself.
We took a tram late in the afternoon to the city centre just to have a look around and yeh its a really nice city though there didn't seem to be an amazing amount to do from a tourist perspective apart from ride the free city tram around the city which gave a brief history of the major parts of Melbourne, which was just riviting! Soon enough we headed back to Base and got a drink at the bar which is where we started to realise that Australia was going to be a completely different experience to Malaysia. Within 10 minutes of sitting down a group of
guys from the Aus navy sit down next to us and decide that since we had just arrived in Australia we should be drinking so on our table appears a jug of beer and a jaegerbomb each, and Im sure you can already guess that we basically ended up drinking til the early hours. A good start to Aus I feel..
Day 2 in Melbourne started with a superb hangover curing breakfast, followed by a not so good hangover curing trip to a small 90 year old theme park. Most of the rest of that afternoon was spent chilling at the hostel but as the evening rolled around we visited the city again to visit the Eureka Tower which looks out over the entire city and since it was in the dark and all the city was lit up, it was pretty much stunning. We also decided to do the EDGE experience at the top of the tower, which involved standing in a large glass box out over the side of the building 270 metres up. Later on at the hostel we met some of the other people staying in our dorm where Melbourne was their last stop and
it was at this point we first heard about goon. The favoured drink of travellers which is effectively a 4 litre box of wine for roughly 12 dollars (At this point I should mention Im actually writing this in Airlie Beach and have been drinking goon for the majority of the past 3 weeks in Aus.) So it was pre drinking in our dorm with a box of goon, trying to decide how to look cool in a garbage bag since it was garbage bag night at the bar. All in all a wicked night out ending in seeing an awesome band called Red Ink. Next stop Syndey.
Next day we took a flight to Syndey and landed in the early evening with enough time to check out the area around the Base hostel there, followed by a decent meal down in the stunning Darling Harbour before taking a night off from drinking and attempting to catch up on some sleep.
The next day we decided to get touristy and after a wicked bagel for breakfast we headed to the Sydney Aquarium to buy a ticket for the aquarium, wildlife park and observation tower. First off we
visited to aquarium which was actually pretty awesome with plenty of crazy looking fish as well as ridiculously big sharks and sting rays. We also took a trip up to the observation tower which gave a decent view over Syndey Harbour and the city, though it didn't quite match up to Melbourne. In the evening we got on the drinking yet again and joined in on the fluro night that was going on in the bar attatched to Base known as Scary Canary. The bar was wicked as it was so easy to meet people, including some exceedingly interesting characters from Holland who made the night absolutely hilarious.
On the third day I woke up with a face covered in bits of fluro paint as it had all rubbed off on my bed which was kind of annoying but a quick shower sorted that out. Today we checked out the wildlife park along with a guy who worked behind the bar at Scary Canary. After seeing that wildlife park we really quickly realised just how boring the animals in England are compared with the ones in Australia. We then grabbed a quick beer by the harbour before heading back
to the hostel for yet more goon! That evening was definately a highlight as it was then we met two guys called Sam and Will and girl called Becky who we have been travelling with for most of our time in Australia. It was also a highlight due to the fact that I won this limbo competition in my skinny jeans and got given a 50 dollar bar tab which was spent very quickly on jaegerbombs obviously.
One more day at Syndey and without a doubt we had to visit the Syndey Opera House as well as the Harbour Bridge, even if it was pelting with rain and I ended up getting my shoes absolutely soaked. Totally worth it. Fortunately I didn't need my shoes that night as the theme was beach night (well technically wet t-shirt night) which involved wearing beach stuff and flip flops. That evening we collectively came up with the genius idea that since our first Oz bus picked us up early in the morning the next day, we would just keep drinking until the early hours rather than go to sleep... So we watched Englands rare success and then drank until the early hours
of the morning to begin our Oz Experience with Will, Sam and Becky.
So this first week ended up being a little bit more about drinking than backpacking but it only got better from here and with a solid group of 6 of us travelling up the coast, it was bound to be some good times ahead.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0404s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb