Blogs from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 670

Here in Sydney, what happened? Well, Karl - a bit of a ditherer - dithered in the direction of Malaysia/Singapore and I got word that Bob and his fishpot were not leaving for quite a while so I thought bugger this for a game of soldiers and took a flight to Darwin. Good job really. One day in Darwin and I came down with some mysterious tropical fever thing I musta got in Timor. The doc wasn't the most tactful bloke in the world and I spent the next day scared half shitless that I had malaria and was going to die in a less than graceful style. 2 days later, 6 vials of blood and $250 lighter, I found out I wasn't going to die. A week later and feeling better after the worst illness ... read more

Well, we're finally all packed and ready to go!! So now we enter that long wait until the airplane leaves - it's 1:15am, and I've got 6 hours before I have to leave for the airport. True to form, I have decided to stay up all night. Why? Well - I have this theory about jet lag. I figure that if I start acting as though I'm living in another timezone before I get to the timezone, then when I get there, I'm already acclimatized and hence no jet lag!! Catherine has a theory too, but it's not complimentary to me and hence I won't share it with you all. But it revolves around the concepts of maturity and wisdom and the lack of it :) 'Tis very exciting to see our backpacks all set up ... read more

Geo: -33.8096, 150.676test... read more

Our visit to Australia didn´t start very well. When we arrived in Sydney after a very long flight we had to wait ages in the longest queue we've ever had in any airport. It was roasting hot and there was no air conditioning. When we got to the immigration official there was the usual unfriendliness, but things got worse when we got through the other side. We had to go through more bag scanning and searches (this is the only place in the world where we've had to do this), the security people were very rude and one of the woman kicked Denise's bag because it wasn't exactly where she wanted it. Denise was ready to punch her lights out! From the airport we headed to our pre-booked accommodation 'Sinclairs of Surry Hills' which sounds quite ... read more

A couple of people have asked where I'm going to be when - well basically its a quick 16 day European Encounter Contiki tour around Europe, then some driving around Scotland and England, then off to Ireland for a bit. The more specific details are: Tue 15/3 ~ 10.15pm Fly to London (QF31) Wed 16/3 ~ Arrive London about midday Thu 17/3 ~ Sightseeing in London Fri 18/3 ~ Start the Contiki tour: London to Amsterdam Sat 19/3 ~ Sightseeing in Amsterdam Sun 20/3 ~ Amsterdam to Rhine Valley Mon 21/3 ~ Rhine Valley to Engelberg Tue 22/3 ~ Day in Engelberg Wed 23/3 ~ Engelberg to Innsbruck Thu 24/3 ~ Innsbruck to Venice Fri 25/3 ~ Venice to Rome Sat 26/3 ~ Rome sightseeing Sun 27/3 ~ Rome to Florence Mon 28/3 ~ Florence to ... read more