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Published: November 4th 2007
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I'm writing this journal entry from my friend Lisa's house located in the suburb of Sydney called Clovelly. This is my first nite NOT in Robin's place since I arrived in Sydney 1 week ago - last Sunday...I ended up staying at Robin's for 1 full week - it was so great! To be honest, I didn't do too much earlier in the week and mainly just lazed around the house enjoying all the space and the peace and quiet. I did manage to go to the movies twice, out for dinner, to a shopping center at Bondi Junction, to the Cronulla beach for an afternoon, and so on. I had a really relaxing week and thoroughly enjoyed the slower pace in comparison to the go-go-go sightseeing that I had been doing over the last month.
On Thursday, however, it was a beautiful day and I ventured into the city and met up with Beccy (for most likely the last time *tear*) and Johnny from Contiki. We grabbed some lunch together then did some sightseeing. We did a ton of walking and walked across the Harbour Bridge which was something that I had been wanting to do and was super
Cronulla sunset
Robin lives here...very jealous! neat... got some great pix of the city from up on the bridge. We briefly took in a free museum (contemporary arts museum) as well. We then walked to Darling Harbour which by that time was pretty busy with the after work crowd all coming out for drinks, and went to Pontoon bar for a bevy... Stef from Contiki met up with us there too, it was great to see her at long last! On Friday I took it easy and had another pretty relaxing day around the house... it was raining and going outside was not looking too tempting.
I had a fantastic weekend in Sydney!! On Saturday my contiki girlfriends G and Stef took me to the Hunter Valley wine region. It was a LONG DAY but was sooo much fun! I was on the subway by 7am - Stef picked me up at a Central station which was close to her house, then we grabbed G (read: drove forever through the various suburbs until we got to G's place at long last) then made it to the hunter by about 1:30pm.... Sydney is SO HUGE it takes forever just to get outta that city! We visited
7 different wineries sampling tons of different wines (whites, reds, and stickies (desert wines)) at each winery... I couldn't believe how generous they were!! I bought quite a few bottles and really enjoyed all the tastings! 1 of my many bottles i will be using Monday nite as Stef has decided to host a wine and cheese party at her apt in the city - so i'll get to see her place which should be fun. Unfortunatley I won't be bringing any bottles home for any of you to try since they're heavy and my suitcase is already overweight for my flights - sorry! It's a shame I can't bring bottles home as we went to quite a few boutique wineries who don't even export to Canada so no way of ever getting them there. We didn't get back from the Hunter and Stef didn't drop me off at Robin's until 10:30pm... poor Stef, did soooo much driving, what a doll! I was supposed to go out and meet up with Lisa and her friends at the bar but since it was so late, was pouring rain, and she was about an hr from Robin's i decided there was no
point in going out.... so i sat home alone at Robins on a sat nite in sydney.... kinda depressing/pathetic!!! It's too bad i didn't have friends in Robin's area bc there are good clubs and bars only 15mins walk from Robins' that i could have hit up but i wasn't about to go out alone, goodness nooo!
Today, Sunday, I got up and my contiki friend Ivan came and picked me up in Cronulla around 1pm. I had been up walking around Cronulla prior to that time, all along the walking path which lines the ocean and treks on past the various beaches... I also walked through the main shoping strip - I really wish I had space in my suitcase to buy things! Cronulla was hopping... it was such a hot, beautiful day and a Sunday so it seemed like everyone was out and about - such a great vibe! I can't believe Robin lives there, it's soooo nice but everywhere in oz is! There were so many surfers out, I love watching them. Once Ivan arrived, we headed to his apt close to the city and met up with his roomie, Johnny from contiki. We had lunch there (Ivan's a cook and brought left overs home from work last nite haha) and then the 3 of us headed into the city as i wanted to see the sydney weekend markets that i'd heard so much about. We hit up 1 called paddy's market first. We then went to the Rocks market - much nicer, lovely crafty items and real unique things. Then the boys drove me through some neat areas i.e. Paddington, Kings Cross and Wooloomooloo (8 o's in 1 word, crazy!!) just for a peak and then they dropped me off at Lisa's. We had already dumped all my stuff in Ivan's car earlier on when he picked me up in Cronulla...it was bit sad to say bye to Robin's home 😞.... It's so nice that i have these great people to spend time with and who kindly take time out of their day to drive me around and show me things!! I'm also of course very lucky to have had the use of Robin's home.
Lisa's parents are so lovely. Lisa also has a brother who's 24 named ashley, or ash. I got to her house around 6:30pm today. We relaxed and chatted and then had a super nice Sunday dinner. We sat out in their backyard which is small but cute and has huge vines dripping with passion fruits... which won't be ripe for another month or so her dad said, darn it! I've never seen passionfruit vines, so cool. Her parents are world travelers, i see where Lisa gets it from, and just got home yesterday from a 5wk trip to Mexico so they were feeling jet lag. They used some of their new Mexican tequilla and made us all tequilla sunrises to start and we had some nibblies too. Then we had a delish dinner of indian food that her mom had prepared.
I am hoping that the weather is nice this week - apparently they are calling for rain (but they also called for rain today and it was an absolutely beautiful hot sunny day so maybe they will be wrong again). Lisa lives 5 mins walk from Clovelly beach which is supposed to be real nice. There's a coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach that my travel book talks about and Lisa lives right in the middle of that walk which is awesome - I'll def. walk to both beaches and spend some time there (weather permitting). Tomorrow, Monday, I've got a hair appointment at 2pm in the city... there's a 2 for $80 deal on (beccy got her hair done at this salon and it looks fab so I know it's good) so G and I are going tomorrow - it includes a cut and colour so I think I'm going to be adventurous and get a semi-perm hair dye (I'm not adventurous enough to go permanent)... a darker brown I think, we shall see what they recommend! Then there's Stef's wine and cheese later on... i've got so many fun things planned for this week... As expected, still feeling the same way I did right from the get-go on my first day in Syd and oz for that matter on Sept 21 - Sydney is a truly amazing and stunning city and I would love to live here!!!!
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giovanna
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Budget
As I'm reading your blog I notice that there are two advertisements and they are both of budget - go budget