| Oz.... 23rd First day in the Big S Went for a walkabout round town to the opera house and around the CBD area. Really awesome view of harbour bridge and of opera...quite impressed with city so far...then I saw it. A street full of shopping malls, there were so many, each with its own huge food court. Strange place. Had to get some smart clothes for my interview in the morning, and that took me ages. Headed back to the hostel and dumped my stuff then I headed back into town to go up the skytower. It was packed, so by the time I got up there it was near sunset. So had some great views over town with the sunset as well - then the city all lit up. Afterwards, I went on the skytower, which is a cool ride which goes to different tourist attractions in OZ. When on the simulator, going through some rapids, I felt some cold air and water on my face..pretty cool! Back to hostel and just sat there chatting. Bed early as I was knackered, still catching up sleep from NZ. 24th Headed into town all dressed up - pretty weird. Had my interview, which I think went OK?? Had to use my brain cell again, why me?? Back to hostel to change and have some lunch. Back into town and went to see the convict prison. This is where all the convicts stayed initally once they arrived in oz...nice place! Left there and walked round the Rocks, which is kinda nice. Went out with some girls from the hostel to the world bar for some beers. Bit subdued in there compared to queenstown, but still good. 25th Another nite on the beers... Met Liz in the morning and we did some sight seeing (Opera House, Botanical Gardens and Arty places!) Had to go and open a bank account which took ages here (the banking system here is pretty shocking...I long for the HSBC!) Back to hostel for some drinks then we headed into town to meet some folks from NZ. Met them in the 3 Monkeys pub - nice place which had a great live band. Left there at 1.30ish and went to Scubar for an hour then onto Scruffy Murphys until 4.30ish. 26th ...I'll have mine on the Rocks! After getting up at a sensible hour (11am) we wandered into town and met Monica for some lunch. Not seen her for 2 months since Lima, so it was great to catch up. She took the afternoon off and we went for some drinks - then dragged her back to Kings Cross. We changed and had some dinner then headed out to Lord Nelson on the Rocks. Wandered round a few bars in the rocks, then headed home. Weekend - Looked for places to sleep on Sat, unsuccessfully then on Sunday went to Summer bay to see Home & Away, then onto Manly beach to wander around and play with the over-friendly seagulls! 19th September Update Over the last two months since my last entry I have been a busy boy - I am now living in Sydney and working for ING (a Dutch Bk). Sydney is proving to be quite an experience - meeting loads of people and keeping the aussie beer industry afloat! Here is a we list as to some of things that I have been doing since my arrival - Checking out Bondi/Coogee/went to a Kylie concert (highlight)/checked out the rocks and ordered an emu pizza/checked out some of the north shore beaches (incl home and away) and got attacked by a wild kangaroo at a kids petting zoo!! So its been interesting so far. I should be heading off to the Blue Mountains and Taronga Zoo soon. 5th December Leaving work in the morning and will be busy over the next week packing up and sending stuff home. I am looking forward to my all aussie adventure, and the experiences I have along the way. During my last week in Syndey, i did the touristy things; museams, climbed the harbour bridge (excellent!), chilled on Bondi and drunk to make up for the next three months! Amazingly it rained for two solid days before I left, and it hasn't rained since August! 16th December - the journey begins...week 1 Hooked up with the oz experience and started crusing towards Canberra - stopped at some national parks (too many damm flies and the heat...) and some small towns (scary!) along the way. Canberra is nice but too spaced out with a horrible federal area, looks like Milton Keynes and a Washington DC cross gone horribly wrong. I found it funny though, that the spaces resered for a few embassies had kangaroos muching happily there... Next day we headed through some nice bushland and ocean drives on our way to the mouth of the famous 'snowy river'. We then headed inland towards the snowy mts where we stopped overnite in a hostel in the middle of nowhere. I did some rock climbing on a wall, hard work but good fun then had a big home cooked meal. Went on a bush hike after in the twilight to spot animals. We saw roos, wallibies, possums and rabbits - pretty amazing. Although it got rather cold today today and I never did meet the 'man from snowy river'... The next morning we continued thru the national park (a few more small towns, more sleeping, chatting, eating) and went for some wine tasting at 9am. That was fun! Simon and I (Danish guy from the bus) got dropped off at Phillip Island as we were going to stay overnite there. Arrived into Cowes (twinned with the town on the Isle of wright!) and had a wee wonder and then headed to see the penguins as they came back from their feeding. That was truly amazing to see these guys coming out of the see walking within centimetres of us and heading to their nests. Left there (frezzing!) and back to campsite for some beers. The place was similiar to one I stayed at in France, a collection of chalets, tents and caravans, with the usual parties every few tents or so... The next day we checked out but went for a cycle along the beautiful coast to Rhyll. It was so hot and we cooked slightly there and back, but the beaches and swamps were amazing. Chilled all afternoon after a quick splash in the sea and walk. We got the bus to Melbourne at 10 and arrived at 12am. Friday (20th) has just been sightseeing round Melbourne - it seems like a nice place. Off to meet Dave later to stay at his place. Friday night proved that hanging around in bookshops is bad for you, somehow we ended up at a bookshops Xmas party where I found myself serving behing the makeshift bar...one of those crazy days... On Sat, went for a wonder round the trendy parts of town (Chapel St, Richmond and St Kilda) - nice places, and even nicer since it was 35c! Did some shopping for a kris kringle thing on Xmas eve then headed back for a friends birthday party. Yesterday, went to see the movie Donnie Darko...pretty bizarre movie but good. Xmas eve 24th Dinner party on Xmas eve was nice, everybody brought a diff dish and we had some food and drink and chatted till 1am. Andy and Jo (friends whom I met whilst at the Pru) were hosts and it was a fun evening. Xmas day - went to the pub to join in with the Barmy army xmas lunch (cricket supporters lunch) The whole town was full of tourists and loads of Brits about. The Brits were pretty rowdy (no change!) It was my first time being out and about on xmas day...weird! After that headed to St Kilda to sit in the park by the beach and enojy the sun. The park was full of Brits drinking, eating and partying. Left to go a mate's house for some dinner. He had his family round, so we just arived as well and ate some of the delish barbie and drank some nice wine! Left there quite late and headed home to bed, what a long, day! |