Day 89 - Sydney

  Sydney, Australia
Friday, November 30, 2007

Today was our last full day in Sydney, and we realised that we'd be quite sad to move on.

Although we've not had great weather here, and we haven't really explored all there is to see in the city, we've had a really good and relaxed time here, and of course Eric is the main reason for that. He's been the perfect host!

We had a few things to organise today, first on the list was to get our round-the-world paper airline tickets updated & re-printed.

Yet again this was a very frustrating experience, but the lady who eventually helped us in the Qantas office was fantastic. She seemed to know a hell of a lot more than most of the other muppets we've been dealing with so far over the phone, so it was refreshing to be able to talk through all our issues with her.

We'd intended to re-route our flights leaving Oz, from Christchurch to Auckland (so that we can work our way down NZ from north to south, and spend Xmas with my little sister Bex in Christchurch), but after a long and complicated discussion the Qantas lady helped us realise it was best to keep our flights as they are, and to get a separate flight up to Auckland instead.

We quickly shot out to an internet cafe to see if we could get a better price than the A$95 that she was quoting, and for some reason all the 'low-cost' carriers were about twice the price! So we practically sprinted back to the office and handed over the money to secure the relatively good value seats, with a much better airline.

Next on the list was to collect the camera from the repair centre, which was a fair walk away, and it always takes much longer when you know you have to fork out another A$200 at the end of the walk! Still, we had no choice, we needed the camera fixed, and it was cheaper than replacing it. I'm sure that all repair shops are well aware of this and price accordingly...

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did a very professional job, giving a full list of works completed and their diagnosis. The problem was apparently a build-up of white, yellow and black (!) sand in the lense area. The bloke said that black sand was very unusual, and asked if we'd climbed any volcanos lately?! Erm...

We then walked south east to the nice part of Oxford Street, which is a bit like its London namesake because half the street is bloody awful (a la the Tottenham Court Road end), and the other half is much better (a la the Selfridges side).

We took the bus through the centre, then decided to walk the length of the street, which was a bit ambitious but fun, you could really see the contrast between each end.



After some very frustrating window shopping (we are REALLY missing buying new clothes but just don't have the money!), we had a drink in a cool bar, and discussed how much we liked the area.



Check out what they call traffic wardens over here!



We then hurried back to the business area to meet Eric for a drink after work, which obviously turned into a few drinks. Unsurprisingly we ended up in a massive bar full of 'city' types, with me wearing t-shirt, shorts and sandals! Got a few weird looks, but whatever ;)

We decided to get some dinner together, so Eric recommended a really nice fish restaurant at Woolongoo (honestly) harbour, very close to where Russell Crowe has an apartment apparently. (That guy seems to have property all over Oz, he's like the King!)



On the way there we saw loads of bats flying above us, in large flocks like birds. I've never seen so many bats in the air at one time.



The restaurant was perfect: very cool interior, excellent service, and a great location, looking over the wharf and the city skyline.



Katie & I nearly choked when we saw the prices on the menu, but we didn't want to offend Eric in any way after all he'd done for us, and he looked like he was really looking forward to his steak!

Katie had the ocean trout, I joined Eric with a t-bone steak (which was delicious), and the chips that we all shared were also excellent. Washed down with a Little Creatures beer (the brewery we visited in Freo!), it was a gastronomic delight. 

When the bill came Eric struck like a cobra, and wouldn't let us near it. We really didn't expect him to pay for everything, and despite our vociferous arguments he was having none of it.

He would only let us pay the tip, and apparently Aussies hardly ever tip anyway! The waitress seemed happy though ;)

We felt terrible that our host was treating us (how does that work?!), but he said that we were both homeless and jobless, so he wanted to pay. All we could do was thank him, it was a really lovely gesture.

As we were leaving the restaurant this drunk Aussie staggered over to us, blurry eyes locked onto Katie, and he was so wasted that he could hardly talk!

We had a very entertaining two minute conversation with him (sample quote: "It was a shame about Princess Diana. I mean, I also would really like to sleep with her, but I wouldn't kill her in a tunnel"), which had Katie in tears of laughter, and we were suddenly surrounded with waiters apologising and trying to drag him away! Highly amusing.

He was a big bloke but absolutely harmless, and he followed Katie like a puppy dog as we said goodbye and walked away at high speed!

We also managed to pay for the taxi home, which was another weird experience. I swear the driver was either drunk or on something, he was absolutely NUTS!

He was trying to speak French to Eric, and kept asking him what type of French he spoke ("from France or somewhere else?"), and again he had Katie in hysterics!

I was loving his ridiculous answers to every question we through out there, so I just kept pumping him for answers to all sorts of questions, he was like the funniest robot in the world.

During the ride he told us that anyone who didn't like Sydney must have lived in Melbourne, that the best places to visit in Australia were all within 30 minutes from central Sydney, and all sorts of other nuggets!

When we got out the cab our stomachs were hurting because we were laughing so much, and the nutcase drove off thoroughly confused as to our bizarre behaviour.

It was a great way to enjoy our last night in the city, although that trout would come back to hurt Katie, literally!


Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx