Railway Square YHA Sydney

Wild kangaroos, bridge-climbing, a harbour cruise, surf camp and many more adventures awaited me in Sydney.

After a flight from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, 10 hours and many struggles in the San Francisco airport, a 13 hour flight to New Zealand, three hours in the Auckland airport and a three-hour flight to Sydney, I finally made it to Australia. Australia was my dream place. I think it was a sign when I was young, and my dad and I were driving down the highway in central Utah w...

Hard to imagine that I have only one more week in Australia! Sydney has always seemed so far away, and now it is suddenly here. And, in a couple days, I will officially be halfway through my holiday... also very hard to believe. Somedays it seems to be neverending and I'm ready to go home... some days I want it to keep going forever. Looking at my new 2009 calendar, I just realized that I will actually be in New Zealand for 8 weeks, not 7... whatever will I do with 8 weeks?!? Anyway, I'm stay...

Had the most amazing New Years!!! Had planned to stake out a spot with Jackie, Scottish girl that I had met in the Outback also traveling by herself. We met on the 30th to buy supplies and make plans, and in the grocery, ran into Minke and Lisette, two girls from Holland also on our Outback tour. They luckily had already done the research, so we made plans to meet at 8 a.m. to get a good spot with a view of Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. When I arrived that morning, there was already a l...

Today I went for a second attempt at surfing. My first at Port Macquarie was not bad, but was with a ton of people. This time I decided to book a private lesson in the hopes of standing up better on the board. Plus the day before I got an email from Cordula and Stefan, 2 Toastmasters from Freiburg who moved to Sydney in February. They were also heading to Manly to surf, so we decided to meet up for lunch. I took the ferry from Sydney to Manly Beach. On the way to the appointment, I listened t...

Sydney I AM DOWN UNDER!!! En dat is letterlijk, dat merk je aan alles: winter in juli, zomer in december, het water kolkt ondersom de afvoer in, als je naar het noorden reist, wordt het warmer. De Australiërs zijn gewelig, een beetje simpel net zoals de Amerikanen, maar hun motto "No worries!" neem je snel over, en dat is een heerlijke manier van leven. De eerste dagen in Sydney rond geslenterd, maar het onderdeel van Sydney dat ik het meest gezien heb, is mijn hoofdkussen (lekker bijkomen va...

Sleeping well on an overnight bus is always a little hit and miss. Thankfully, the bus to Canberra was a calm and peaceful journey, with only a break in Albury to stir the travelers from their slumber. We roll into Canberra at 7:15 and I head off in search of lodgings. There is a large new YHA suitably placed so I dump the bag and head over the lake to visit the main reason for the town existing, Australia's Parliament House. To reach the enormous building, I first have to negotiate the barri...

We finally arrived in Sydney after a long long time in the air. Stuck in the two middle seats of four with the winner and runner up of the bladder holding championships either side of us.

When we got here we could hardly keep our eyes open. Thank god it was the evening and we could hit the sack.

Day 1 of 42.....

Set off about 9am for a "bit of a walk to start things off". Got back at about 9pm with Regina limping along after a tough day on her feet - thought she was fit!!...

This is our highly anticipated backpacking trip, which took 6 months of planning. This is just me and Fang, going on an exciting adventure. As a savvy traveller, so called, Fang is independent enough for this DIY trip. Even though I had my doubts initially, Fang proved to be resilient. Throughout the entire trip, she had to clean up after herself, bathe and eat by herself, pull along her own luggage, be responsible for her own belongings, walk by herself, help check out directions, carry pack...

I came back into Sydney and switched to a different Hostel as the xBase Backpackers was very loud and had some serious amateur drunks. I wandered about the city, but nothing too exciting. The hostel i stayed in was the Railway Square YHA. My room was a train car converted to a dorm-style room. The hostel was a big improvement over the xBase, nice quiet and clean.

I did a lot of walking around Sydney today. I followed a walking route from the Lonely Planet guide up through Hyde Park, stopping at the ANZAC Memorial. The route also led through the botanical gardens which beyond having flowers, is host to a large colony of fruit bats called 'flying foxes.' They chirp away in the trees during the day and then fly around the city at night. The walk finished off just past the Sydney Opera House. I found this iconic building quite difficult to photograph up ...