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Shelia's Diaries part 4: Sydney and Melbourne
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After spending 35 of the past 36 nights in the tent it was a relief to reach Sydney and stay with a pair of legends, Wayne and Nat, who we had met in Cambodia, in their flat overlooking famous Bondi Beach. Bondi looked identical to Scarborough: cliffs, wide beach with a promenade, grand buildings on the main road, the resemblance was uncanny. Penguin took this as an insult and was huffing and puffing about Bondi was, but we saw it as a compliment - Scarborough's brilliant. Bondi is a very popular surf beach and Wayne told us about surf gangs who are very protective over their particular patch of waves. Can you imagine some bleached blond surfer shouting 'f*** off thats my wave?' Neither can I, so they have different tactics. When their riding a wave they surf straight into people who are trying to paddle out to their patch. Every few minutes a full speed mid-water collision put a smile on our face.
We only had 2days in Sydney so we set about ticking all the must see things off our list: picture next to opera house, boat through the harbor, pint in the cities oldest pub. I had imagined the opera house to be a gleaming breathtaking structure but up-close it looks battered and drab, especially inside. It definitely looks better on the TV. A huge art installation had been installed in a nearby warehouse which blew us away. Hundreds of speakers had been arranged to create a huge surround sound system which told an audio story about a women who was looking for her. Bizarre.
Despite Kerry locking the keys in Shelia, we drove the 880km to Sydney in a day. We stayed at the greatest bed and breakfast in the whole of Australia - my Great Aunt and Uncle's Rona and Brian. They looked after us unbelievably well and I have never been offered so much food for breakfast. Whereas my impressions of Sydney were a city almost trying too hard to show off, Melbourne seemed more reserved and content. It had such variety and the narrow lanes of the centerer oozed originality. If it wasn't for the terrible weather it would have been our favourite place in Australia. Rona took us to Napean point - the most Southerly point we could reach on our journey. In front of us was the Southern ocean (next stop Antartica) and a pod of 8dolphins hunting a school of fish just metres from the shore. Our journey was over, but we had two final things to tick off the list. We went to the 100,000 capacity MCG to watch an Aussies rules football match. While the stadium was amazing and the game was good, the atmosphere was pretty pathetic - I think I was shouting louder than all the Aussies put together, where was their passion? 'Hawthorn (clap, clap, clap) Hawthorn (clap, clap, clap)' was the only song they had and it sounded like it was sung by an American cheer leading outfit. Finally, we visited Ramsey street. After devoting so many student hours to Neighbours I had to see this famous cul-de-sac. Admittedly it was a bit of an anti-climax, and Toadie or Harold Bishop didn't answer their door, but we could rest knowing everything we wanted to do had been done. Time to go home.
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