Australia day in Sydney
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2008
1
10
23
Trip End
Ongoing
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Saturday, January 24, 2009
We did lunch down in 'the Rocks' - think Covent Garden with the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera house in the background. We had a stroll around the botanic gardens, unexpectedly stumbling across the huge bats (well technically flying foxes) hanging in the trees and looking somewhat out of place. It was a good day exploring Sydney, and we arrived back at our hostel later on and had a chat to Toby and Peter, our roomie's for the next couple of days.
Monday the 26th Jan - Australia Day!! My only previous experience of this was fosters banners outside pubs in the UK, trying to give people an excuse to get tanked on a Monday. None of that Fosters muck out in Oz, they have the superior Carlton Draft. In the morning we took a trip to Kings Cross - which promised to be Sydney's Camden, though we found it more like Finsbury Park - pretty run down and not a lot going on. We started the revelry early and after a few beers at lunch we headed down to 'Hyde Park' (the blatent plagurism!!) where there was a day of music, comedy and other shenanigans. Although busy, we found it a bit low key though enoyable nonetheless. Then the rain came. As one comedian said - 'its raining, Australia day is officially over!!' We were still keen to carry on partying though and visited the infamous backpacker bar the Scubar. Surrounded by brits, it felt like being back in Uni. I was probably bringing the average age up but drank as many jugs of $7.50 Carlton Draft as I could muster before doing one back to the hostel, pretty worse for wear but had an enjoyable day.
The next day we took the bus out to Bondi. Unfortunately we had booked a pretty lame place to stay - a deposit for cutlery you say?? We soon realised why as most of the occupants seemed to have the social etiquette of badgers. It was raining outside so we were stuck inside, at a bit of a loss as of what to do. I picked up a paper and read about the various incidents on Australia day - it seems the day has been highjacked somewhat by the right wingers....I would love another public holiday in the UK but this goes to highlight why the much touted 'Britain Day' may remain a pipe dream. Some of the comments etc were really quite ironic for occupants of such a 'young' country.
The next day we awoke to glorious sunshine so headed down to the beach. We had a swim - the water was much warmer up here and exactly how I imagined an Australian beach would be. Lots of bronzed bodies, six-packs and silicone. And then Daisy and I, keeping it real and covered in factor 25 to ensure we didn't end up like someone back at the hostel who had actually turned completely pink and was in a great deal of pain.,. In the afternoon we followed the well trodden coatal walk which was incredibly pictureque and definitely made the couple of days spent out here. After another sleepless night - a very considrate couple who would come in around 4am,turn the lights on, shuffle around for about half an hour and then finally go to f**king sleep we up sticks and headed north. After almost 4 months of being in hostels and shared rooms we had always found people considerate and respectful, however this had all changed at this one hostel, souring the Bondi experience a little. Nonetheless, lots more beaches to come - TO NEWCASTLE!!!!
