First Week in Sydney- CBD


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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Darling Harbour
November 8th 2008
Published: November 25th 2008
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Arrived at Sydney airport at about 6.30pm, slightly tipsy after the air steward forced more free alcohol down my throat... Went to the information desk to find out the best way to get to our hostel and were told we should get the airport shuttle bus which will drop us off straight at the hostel door. Everything seems to be going smoothly apart from the mad Asian driver who seems to be exchanging some harsh words with the operator on the other end of the transmittor, who keeps calling him a "foreign c@#%". Nice. Next thing the bus does a lap of the airport and then arrives back at the terminal where we started. We sit there for another fifteen minutes and then eventually we are off again. It's not a long journey to the hostel and we arrive after about ten minutes later. The hostel is absolutely huge! It has about 8 floors and a large shared kitchen and computer area on the ground floor. There's even a bar underneath which i'm guessing we'll get to know pretty well over the next week (purely for social reasons of course). We are based on the 6th floor which is named South America (each floor is named after a different continent) and our twin room has bunkbeds and about an extra metre of room. I realise now how snobby we are for our little hotel luxuries. Oh well, it won't be for long hopefully. So after unpacking we head out to find an off-license so we can get a few beers. Ask a guy outside a pub where we can find one and when he realises we are scottish, he claims he is related to Robert Louis Stevens (?) from Scotland and would like to buy us a drink. Being typical untrusting Scottish people who know you don't get anything for free, we hesitate slightly, but then figure we should just go with the flow. Turns out he is just a nice (if ever so slightly inebriated) guy. He tells us the off-license is actually inside the pub and is called a bottle shop. Drink isn't cheap and costs us about 8 pounds for four beers. Greg is outraged. We manage to last until about 11pm then fall asleep on our bunkbeds.

The day after we arrive we take a walk up to Circular Quay which is where you can see the Syndey Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It's so unreal standing here and looking at a view that we've only ever seen on the T.V. On the way back we stop off at the Sydney tower, which has a viewing platform 305 metres above sea level. Greg refuses to go up with me so I go up myself. Think we are turning into Archie and Margaret. Anyway, the views are great but I even feel a bit dizzy looking straight down to the ground below. In the evening we put on our best gear and decide to go out for a nice meal. We end up in Wagamamas which we know won't fail to disapoint and it doesn't. Afterwards we go to a pub called the Three Wise Monkeys which has a live band playing. We both have a few more glasses of wine than our jetlagged bodies can handle and we are in bed again by 11.30pm.

Wake up at 8.30am on the dot as our bodies are still trying to deal with the new time zones. Feel a bit rough after all the wine last night. Decide it would be a good idea to have some scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and head out to the local 7/11 (basically like a Spar). The funniest thing happens as when standing in the shop we feel as if the ground is moving below us like we are on a ship. I figure it's just the underground trains because Greg feels it too. So I make our scrambled eggs but then realise the pan wasn't washed out properly as they taste very soapy. Greg being Greg eats them anyway. The weather has gotten much nicer and really warm now. We take a trip over to Tarronga Zoo which you have to get there by ferry. The ferry takes you straight across the harbour so you get some great views of the Opera House and Bridge, which look even more amazing in the sunshine. The zoo is amazing and about 20 times better than Edinburgh zoo. You can even take a cable top car over the whole zoo to get even better views.

Although we've only been here a few days we figure we should start thinking about where we are going to live as our hostel is only booked for another few days. We end up seeing a flat advertised in the city so phone the guy up who says we can go over and see it the same day. When we get there we realise we are facing a dilemma as the place is lovely. The flat is really modern and decorated out really nicely with a big plasma screen telly. The room is also a decent size with built in wardrobes and fully furnished. The only problem is we would be sharing the place with four other people who we haven't even met, and I feel it is too soon to rush into leasing the first place we see. Against that we are warned that we won't be lucky enough to find anywhere half as nice and that it will be gone in a few days. We hold off anyway as we have both been told so many times "What's for you won't go by you". We watch some of the Birdcage in our prison cell/room and manage to stay awake until about 12.45am. Rock n roll.

Throughout the rest of the week we have another couple of viewings for flats in Newtown, Manly and Bondi but nothing really grabs us. In fact they are all tiny, pretty dirty or basic and expensive. Start to panic that the guy in the first flat may have been right but try not to worry just yet. Greg on the otherhand is alreayd stressing about it. We head out of the city to view some other areas and take a trip down to the eastern suburbs to check out the beaches. We visit Bondi and Coogee and fall in love with them immediately. Definitely think we are destined to stay next to the sea, it's so much more relaxed here. I am extremely brave and even go in to the shark infested water. Don't get too excited though, I only went in up to my ankles. Greg is much braver and goes in up to his waist which makes me feel a bit uneasy- I have visions of a big shark coming and eating him. Thankfully it doesn't. One afternoon we get a text from a women who lives in Coogee asking if we are still looking for a flat, which we say we are. She invites us up to see the place and get really excited when we realise it is a two minute walk from the beach. The flat itself is really nice- quite spacious and it has two balconies. The spare room is quite big and has a double bed and wardrobe in it. The women herself is really down to earth, turns out she is a 35 year old Kiwi who drinks cider. Definitely someone we could see ourselves living with. Tell her we are interested so will need to wait nervously to find out if she will take us on. Later on when waiting for the bus we get the motion thing again, no trains underneath this time so we are a bit baffled. Muat be jetlag otherwise we are both going a bit nuts.

We manage to get all the boring bits of staying on Australia sorted out this week such as opening a bank account, filing for a tax number, getting an Australian mobile phone number sorted and doing our RSA (responsible service of alcohol) course. Now we can both properly start looking for jobs... The night before we leave our hostel in the city we decide to do a body attack aerobics class which nearly floors us and we are both seeing stars by th end of it, but we struggle through. They even play all the songs from back home which makes us excited and nostalgic. Manage to stay up until 2am but it will be an early start tomorrow as we get chucked out at 10am.



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2nd December 2008

G'dday again
Hi both Good to hear that you're out of your cell and have found some work and somewhere to live that has everything you need (hope it's the flat with the beach, good company, cider in the fridge etc etc) - sounds like it's getting to be more like home (at least for a while). If it wasn't for the pictures of the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the zoo (with, co-incidentally, all of these animals called Sydney) it could almost be home ... (well, we have a beach here too, and a can of Woodpecker in the fridge, so we can pretend!!). Anyway, we have e-mailed you the Cumbernauld song separately which contains the immortal lines "I hear the way they say your days of what's it called, are numbered Cum-ber-nauld". Merry Christmas, and try to contain whichever emotions seem most appropriate when you hear it! Love S and B

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