Sydney

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All previous statements about public transit being high end are being revoked. We sat on a bus from Bondi to Melbourne for 12 hours and it was the worst bus ride ever. We left for Malbourne on the 26th of February.



I loved Sydney it was amazing. Kent and I spent the first two nights in Kings Cross, which is just outside of downtown Sydney and is full of little cafes and stores. There is a really nice part of King’s Cross and then there is the really scuzzy crack head area. Thankfully, we did not stay in the crack head location. Instead, we staying in an awesome hostel. There were 4 people in our room and our room had it’s own bathroom with a shower and a kitchen, It was pretty nice. The hostel was built within this giant old house, with all the original woodwork and a giant wraparound porch. The first day we got to Sydney and once we had checked in we went on a tour of the city, with Kent as my tour guide. We walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens and saw cacti the size of me if not bigger, and high up in some of the trees I saw flying foxes aka bats. Then as we walked through the botanic gardens they lead out to the harbour and you see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was a great view. We wondered around a bunch and got dinner at a pretty decent Thai restaurant. We went out with our hostel that night, they had a deal where you got a free drink and into the bar they went for free so it was a pretty good deal. The next day we went to Manly Beach, which was about a 25 minute ferry ride outside of the city. However, their ferries are about 100x better than the crap ones we have in Toronto. Surprisingly they are actually able to leave on time and arrive at their destination on time. Who knew it was actually possible. At Manly the Australian Open Surf Competition was going on, so we walked around and got to see a bit of a surf competition plus, they had a skateboarding comp on and live music. The beach was really nice and you walked through a little town to get to it. Had a really neat collection of designer stores and little shops. The water in Sydney is cold! Well, cold compared to Byron or Surfers. Although, it was probably somewhere between 20 and 22. I am screwed for the summer when the lake is 8 degrees.



On Saturday Kent was doing his Australian Smart Serve course, and you actually have to go to a class in Aus rather than just do it online. So I went and wondered around the city by myself. I went to the Sydney Aquarium first, well after getting extremely lost but, managing to find an awesome shopping area, so in my opinion I got lost on purpose. Finally made it to the aquarium though and had a great time they have this giant see through walkway type thing where you can see all the fish, sharks and manta rays swimming over and around you. Once I left the aquarium I continued getting lost in Sydney. It was a great day, although I didn’t know where I was going 90% of the time I did manage to stumble upon some pretty cool places and views. Kent and I met back up at the hostel at around 4ish and we left for Bondi.



After a short subway ride (deathly when carrying 1000’s of pounds of crap) and a bus ride we made it to Bondi. We checked into Surfside Backpackers Hostel which was pretty sweet since you could rent surfboards from them for free. Although, the room we stayed in was probably 40 degrees at night. I have never missed air conditioning more in my life. On Sunday Jovi and Laur met us in Bondi. So happy to have Laur back I missed her. The beach at Bondi was really nice and we got to see them filming Bondi Rescue, based on the rescues the guards do at that beach with all the stupid tourists.



On the 20th Laur, Jovi and I did a tour of Sydney. We went up to Watson’s Bay and did a walk around the coast plus down into this really cute harbour where we had fish and chips and then took a ferry into the city. We wondered around the city all day and saw the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge plus, the gardens again.



On Wednesday we went with John and Alyce (she came down for 2 weeks and her and John travelled around but, were back in Sydney) to the Jenolan Caves and Blue Mountains. The Jenolan caves were amazing. They are approximately 430 million years old and we went on a tour through them. It was really neat but, we had to go down a 40 stair ladder backwards which really freaked me out. I kept thinking I was going to fall and die on a regular basis. Not that unrealistic since I can trip over nothing while I am walking. We left the Jenolan caves and went to the Blue Mountains to check out the ‘Three Sisters’ named after a old Aboriginal legend.



Currently in Melbourne and having a great time, I know I suck at travel blogging but, at least I’m doing it.

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