Talking to other backpackers people seem to either love or hate Sydney - I loved it and so did Al. Personally its generally a cleaner, more spacious chilled out version of London. Its obviously smaller but just as compact and it doesn't take you ages to get anywhere! The harbour is as beautiful as you'd expect it to be, lined with nice bars and restaurants. Of course we lapped it up and had drinks with friends in the sun in Darling Harbour, Cirqular Quay and also in our fave pub in the centre of town - The 3 Monkeys with live music (like Oasis re-plays - the whole backpacker experience seems to go hand in hand with Oasis!) and a good warm feel to it. Oh yeah and i dragged Alex along to the Sydney Art Museum, visited the wildlife centre, the Botanical gardens and Point, bit of sunbathing and beach walks, took the ferry to Manly and a bus to romantic Watson's bay for fish & chips! (but watch out for a swearing, chip throwing Stan Collymore - no joke, it was him!) - all the 'cultural stuff'...you get the idea.
View of Sydney from the harbour and hoards of bats in the Botanical Gardens
Watson's Bay and The Gap photos
The 3 Monkeys: Lee, Choi & Sang yoon
We conquered the harbour bridge climb. Pre-booked, we did it late afternoon when it was cloudy and unbelievably windy. If we weren't harnessed to a metal bar and walkway along and up the bridge we would have been blown off the top for sure.lol Alex was terrified, clutching on really tight to the bar and leaping across to the other side bar when the guide squeezed past... I just wanted to do the climb freestyle and have our picture taken at the top staged like a piggy back but to no avail! For my part, it was a long way up and pretty scary, and yes i was holding on tight and walking like I had bricks down my trousers but it was blooming windy that day, and anyway, by the end I was cured and even managed to look down a few times!
The following week we headed out to the Blue Mountains and stayed in one of the best hostels in Oz. The Blue Mountains look pretty good but me and Gem have a difference of opinion over how blue they actually are! I think they are pretty blue but Gem is not so sure. The blueness is a haze that covers the mountains and comes from the Eucalyptus in the trees, and if you ask me, it is definately blue, not like the sky, but still blue. We took in the Three Sisters, which are the most famous rock formation in the mountains, and we got to see the nearby Katoomba waterfalls from a cable car, before heading into one of the valleys on the steepest railway in the world. it is only short and was previously used for the mining in the area.
We were there for two nights and on the second day we had intended to try our hand at canyoning. Unfortunately, Gem was in no fit condition to do this as she had got badly sun burned on her right shin (to be specific) while sunbathing on Coogee beach a few days before. So the next couple of days were spent relaxing and trying to see a few extra sights before we headed back to Sydney. We had both agreed that we would definetly have to return here as we had some unfinished business with a canyon!
Featherdale Wildlife Park (Stop off point on the tour to the Blue Mountains)
Back in Sydney we had booked a hostel in the Kings Cross area of sydney. We had heard about this place and when we arrived we understood what people meant. It is pretty much an 'anything goes kind of place' with strip clubs and pubs lining the streets, and prostitues and tramps roaming around. strangely though, the place was not quite as menacing as you might expect, and the place is really popular with backpackers as it is cheap and close to the city centre. While in Kings Cross we met an Israeli guy called Alon (left) who we struck up a lasting friendship with. However, this guy can really bring the feminist out in Gem, and I used to sit there in quiet amusement as those two had arguments about all manner of things, all in good humour though. When we arrived the hostel owner asked us if we were looking for work and said he had 10 days work if we wanted it for some fashion warehouse. Me, Gem and Alon all decided we would take it. For me the next few days entailed standing on street corners with a great big pink sign and handing out flyers. Gem, along with some other girls, got the more prestigious job of folding clothes all day. Noticing Alon's shaved head and goatee beard, he was chosen as security! On his day off they must have noticed my scary physique too because I spent my final day guarding the door. In the end me and gem only worked for 4 days but we got an extra bit of cash in hand so we were happy with that.
Sometime the next week, Alon introduced us to a friend he had just met on the plane and we all went to watch 'Borat'. These guys were Jewish but they absolutely loved it, and ribbed us that they must have enjoyed it more as they also understood all the hebrew jibberish he says that's not subtitled. Alon also introduced us to Caroline, Jo and the popular middle eastern social activity that is nargila, which with much reluctance, Gemma eventually agreed to enjoy.
Inside club in sydney
Jo & Caroline. Any chance to have his pic taken,
this man has no shame
On a finer day we decided to head down to Darling Harbour and have a ride on a jet boat around the Harbour. Gem occasionally gets a real need for speed so she was particuarly looking forward to it. It all started off fine with the boat whizzing around the harbour but then the driver started doing all these sharp 180 degrees turns and getting us absolutely soaked! Combined with the wind it actually made it pretty cold. What we could have done with was one of those mac's that keeps you dry, but the driver said we wouldn't need them. It was good fun with some great views of Sydney but the driver was an arrogant git who was just getting us drenched for his own amusement!
On Xmas Eve we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy meal on the harbour. It started with a fried prawn starter, which was then followed by some beautifully cooked lamb and chutney source for me, but Alex can't even remeber what he had - typical! Dessert was a lavender and poppyseed cake while Alex had a Creme Brulet tart. Not a typical English Xmas roast but still gorgeous.
As the saying goes, 'When in Rome...' we decided we had no choice but to spend Christams Day at Coogee beach with our Korean and Isreali friends (hello all! Hope you've either managed to save money & not spend it, studying or travels are going well!) and cooked a bbq and tasted xmas pud ice cream - don't try this. Thankfull it was sunny, the day before chucked it down. Sydney was experiencing unpredictable weather in years in the height of their summer, typical! Good for the Ozzy drought though. Alon then took us us for another bbq in the same evening after we walked from Coogee to Bondi Beach. Not your typical backpacker experience as we dined out back of a an expensive white washed interior house in the hills, celebrating Xmas with some Jewish Australian peeps! Loved it!
Spot the Xmas tree!
me and Alon Choi...what a pose!
Gem and Sang Yoon
We were invited fro lunch for a traditional korean meal round our Korean friend's apartment in the city. You huys are going to have to email me the correct terminology for this..for starter we had spicy noodle (right) and for the main meal we tucked in to omlette style fish and vegetable pancakes, fish soup and a sweet soy sourced stripped beef dish with boiled rice.
Delicious! We knew there was a reason we were such good friends! lol
On 27th December we left Sydney for a couple of weeks. The whole of Sydney gets very expensive this time of year, as you would imagine. Xmas, New Year and the Ashes meant that practically all the hostels were charging 400% extra and then saying you had to stay a minimum of 10 nights. Our bright idea was to move
out of Sydney but not so far that we couldn't easily get back for New years Eve. Well, that was the plan but our geography still being a little sketchy we ended up booking a hostel 3 hours north in a place called Port Stephens.
Everything worked out ok though as P.S was just what we needed. Completely different to Sydney. Our hostel was on a camp site and we stayed in a great little log cabin for the next couple of weeks. Melaleuca was the name of the place and the owners were brilliant, completely interested in helping us out rather then just exploiting us.
Gem and our roomate Evette in P.S.
On just our second day we got a good treat as a wild koala had decided to make his bed in a tree right outside our room. Cute and cuddly, great to look at, but love a good long sleep... their similarity to Gemma is uncanny. Getting a good photo was difficult because all they seem to do is hug trees all day. It was not untill our penultimate day their that we finally saw some great koala bear action.
One walked right through the middle of the camp (as we were told they did quite a few times while we there, but everytime before this we had missed it) and this time I was ready and armed with the camera. No wonder they spend all day in the tree, they don't really look designed for walking, as if they're walking on stilts I think. Anyway, in our enthusiam me and gem kept tracking it outside the camp until it climbed up another tree. Well, up this tree was another koala with a baby. What we saw next was a bit shocking. The male koala, grunting like a pig,
went for the female koala and the baby. The baby sprang off its mums back and scampered up to the top of a tiny swaying branch, while the two adults started having a fight! The female was having none of it and held off the male, then after about 15 seconds they seemed to get tired and stopped, seemingly to go back to sleep again! It all ended happy as the male tried one last time but the female gave it another good kicking and the bloke gave up and went to sleep on another branch. Great to see a bit of proper wildlife in action but these guys aren't always as cuddly as they look!
While in P.S. we also went on a dolphin cruise around the port and saw loads of them with one even coming right up to the bow of the boat, but me and gem were one of only a few people who saw it, so it made it seem worthwhile. Possums also shared our camp site and Gem enjoyed feeding one bread and strawberries, though to her surprise it preferred the bread. We saw the biggest spider I have seen in the common room. Somebody caught it and trapped it in a vase. "Oh it's only a huntsman" said an aussie over my shoulder. Only! This thing was massive. OK, me and gem knew they weren't poisonous but it was still pretty scary!
We tried some kayaking in Nelson Bay along the coast past cliffs and beaches, which was actually quite hard as we chose a windy day and rowed like maniacs on the way back going against the current. Me and Gem had to work together and as Gem went in front she was the one who was in control of steering! I'm not going to say anything more other then that with Gem's sense of direction you can imagine how it went. I'd just like to add that Alex had to sit behind me as the heaviest goes in the back seat, which we were told meant I had to give the instructions from the front and Al doesn't like taking orders! (Ha ha Matey!) Lets just say it was a steep learning curve for us but once I started to counting a rythm for the oars, I got my ship mate back on track and we were sailing away!
We bought tickets to the Rodeo in town as well and had a good time watching the talent on show, even though the whole event is not really ethical in terms of the animals. It was an experience but for this reason I wouldn't choose to go to one again. Unfortunatly some of the photos of the Aussies riding the bulls didn't come out very well but we have downloaded some of the horses we just about managed to catch in action.
Good old Bundyrum! lol
New Years Eve away from Sydney was a pretty quiet affair. We ended up going to a party with live bands but when we got there we were definatley older then most others. In truth it was nothing special but we made it through midnight before heading down to the beach for a walk and another drink.
P.S. was also a good chance to try and top up our still non existant tans. We were told there was a "cloths optional" beach just round the corner from us and Gem, ever the naturist, was up for that, especially if it improved the chance of an all over tan. So yours truly was dragged along and within about 30 seconds of arriving was greeted with the sight of about half a dozen wrinkly, chubby 60 year old men strolling around naked. Not a pretty sight I tell you. And I assure everyone, I took the "option" of keeping my swimmers on, not so Gem who, after we had found a quiet spot, was a bit braver, but didn't go all the way!
All in all though, despite the bare arses, P.S. was pretty good and a nice change from the city, and seeing some of the Aussie wildlife was a great bonus. However, we knew we had to return to begin job hunting...
Alex and I both intended to leave Sydney for good in early January but instead we hit the Sydney January Arts festival, leading up to Australia day and so..urm..we stayed. We bought tickets to a touring show called La Clique - a traditional caberet style night with comedians, gymnasts, dancers, strip tease artists all tastefully done...and Oh My God...something like this male artist who'm we saw in the performance would be perfect for a very distant future, possible hen night (Hint hint ladies). Wearing only fitted jeans and using two ropes hanging from the ceiling on a cirqular stage he swung himself around, on and in a water filled bath tub - I want to add something else but its a really bad pun and perhaps not appropriate for all who are reading this. Yeah, I did notice Gem's enthusiasm for this guy and her continual Whoo Whooing was a bit distracting for a date! I'd just like to point out that i was not alone in my appreciation for some of the performers - there was a female comic strip tease, i say no more. Neither do I...
We saw a play in the theatre of an adaptation of a classic Oz children's book 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'. I had to drag Alex along, as i'm the only big kid in this relationship! (Tried to get him and you guys Ollie&Paul to explore 'Wiggles World' too in Dream World theme park- shame) It was an 'enlightning' performance on their adventures but not as good as some of the children's plays i've seen at home in richmond theatre and good old Buxton theatre! The reviews agreed with me as well.
The Open Air Cinema on the harbour was impressive. The screen was
the size of a tennis court and was built on stilts in the water. We
watched from the seats on the riverbank, overlooking the Harbour Bridge
and Opera House at sun set. Saw Catch A Fire - not bad, serious
but touching and a decent pace once you get into it. To top it off during the festival we danced at an urban latino dance night in Sydney..
All of which meant we now definitely needed to work!
After a 17.5 hour journey to Red Cliffs in Victoria, AKA the middle of bloody knowhere, we were pooped and reconciled to a two month prison sentence fruitpicking. No matter how much people try to warn you about working in desert heat conditions you can't help but wonder what the bleep am I doing here till after you've booked yourself in to a hostel. Some days reached early - mid 40s! We stuck it out though, even if at times we were desperatly thinking about that credit card.
Just a little mention to all the Red Cliffs' clan...
Scary dude with the glasses gives you an evil eye when playing poker
