"A small sense of de ja vu...!"
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2004
1
89
102
Trip End
Ongoing
Sydney,
Australia
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
First things first though, seeing as we had arrived in Sydney on Australia's version of the Grand National, The Melbourne Cup, we went and placed a bet. With only 20 minutes to the start of the race, we legged it to the first TAB (betting shops found conveniently in pubs) we could find and queued to place our bet. All being unadventurous, we betted on Makaebe Diva, the outright favourite, and after watching possibly the most boring horse race (no jumps so no falling horses) we all won our beer money for the evening!
01. The boys in front of the bridge!
Meeting up with Alex, a girl we travelled up the West coast with, we headed down to Circular Quay, home of the legendary Opera house and Harbour to get the token picture every tourist leaves with when they visit Sydney.
Although I absolutely detest the suburb of Kings Cross in Sydney, its dirty, full of seedy sex shops and prostitutes/drunks on every corner, it does have a very good Vietnamese "DIY BBQ" restaurant that I visited last time I was here. Well it was here, it seems that since my last visit, business wasn't quite good enough and it had closed down, very annoying as I had been looking forward cooking a bit of cows tongue on our very own table BBQ!
Not wanting to travel back into the city for a meal, we had a look around Kings Cross, but apart from a MacDonald's and a dodgy looking Kebab shop, the was only one restaurant. Our stomachs made the decision to eat there, but unsurprisingly it wasn't the best meal we had ever had! After a few drinks in some random bars we called it a night, deciding to have a big one tomorrow night instead.
With the Opera House and Harbour Bridge done, we thought Paul couldn't leave the country without seeing one last Australian icon, Bondi Beach
02. and we couldnt forget the opera house could we
. Instead of just going there we caught a bus to Coogee beach, 11kms away, and walked along the coastline to Bondi. Along the way we walked past a few bays and a couple beaches and strangely enough a graveyard with possible the best view in the world, although due to land slide, I don't think this will be the deceased' "final resting place" forever!Just before we got to Bondi, we walked along another beach, Tamarama beach, where we were faced with an unusual sight, huge sculptures dotted around on the sand. Notable ones were the deck chair bigger than a car and or course the fried egg (see photos). After 2 hours of walking we eventually made it to an inevitably busier Bondi.
Paul couldn't leave Australia without at least trying a bit of surfing, so we hired a board and kitted up. I don't think he quite expected the strength of the waves, because after 10 minutes of furious paddling, he hadn't made it out at all, just drifted 100 metres further down the beach! Exhausted, he gave up, sticking to plain swimming in the surf instead.
We spent the night getting extremely drunk with Alex and Laura. Although obviously starting to get homesick, Paul had a great last night in the country, and had a holiday that he will never forget, something all you at home should think about next time you book your identical 'holiday with the boys/girls' in Greece you do every year - Australia can be done in 2 weeks, you can do a lot and it is relatively affordable
03. Arty, well black and white shot of the bridge!
.There's no place like home...
Since my parents had lived in Sydney in the Seventies, I had always wanted to give the city a go and live and work here, so for the first time since we left England, me and Dan parted company, Dan deciding to move straight back to Melbourne. Although I love Melbourne, I wanted to at least try Sydney. Fortunately I wasn't alone, Laura had also decided to stay, so at least I wasn't the only person, broke, jobless and homeless in a new city!
What I didn't expect though, was the number of backpackers in Sydney also looking for work and accommodation (it costs far too much to stay in Sydney hostels - especially if I was going to stay here for 3 months). To my credit I did manage to stick it out for a month, but in that time I had not been offered any graphic design jobs, and instead had to rely on a job with a hospitality agency. Although interesting, the money was no way enough to live on, which meant for the first time in Australia, living off my credit card, not an ideal situation.
As for the bar work, a couple of interesting things did happen
04. Coggee Bay Beach the start of the walk
. For my first job, I was sent to the Telstra Stadium, to work as a barman in the very posh Platinum suite, whilst Australia played Uruguay in the World Cup Qualifier. As not many people drink during the game, we spent most of the game, watching it in the best seats possible (they cost $30,000 each for life membership). You can imagine the atmosphere after the game when Australia finally made it through to the World Cup.Another job was spent at a posh Surf club overlooking Bondi Beach. One member, a massive wheelchair bound, pompous old bastard, to put it lightly, arrived half an hour after I started. The problem was the surf club wasn't wheelchair ready, so being the youngest 'strongest' (debatable) person there, I was called upon to be one of the 4 people to carry him up the stairs. With me and another man at the front and 2 at the back, the order to lift was given. The only problem was the 2 people at the back hadn't actually gripped the chair, which led to us 2 at the front literally flipping the chair over, causing the guy to land in a heap on the ground.
To say I felt at little awkward would be the understatement of the year, especially as we spent the next 30 minutes trying to lift him back in the chair. Each time he wasn't happy with the position, so each time I (being the 'strongest' remember) had to lock my arms under his and lift him up (this guy would have weighed a good 20 stone).
Eventually we gave up after he demanded to be driven to the hospital! I have never wanted a bar a shift to end so soon!
Because of this, the lack of money and still no sign of regular work turning up, I gave my old boss in Melbourne a ring to see if their was any chance of any work back there? I've never been so happy to hear "Bloody Oath there is mate" In the space of 2 hours, we had checked out of our hostels, cabbed it to Apollo Campervans headquarters and taken receivership of a brand new camper. Once again a relocation would be my way out of a city.
Comments
Who are you all?
I've just noticed that my travelpod has been read over 1000 times this month, although very happy with this, I would love to know who you all are, especially as I only have 80 people in my address book!
If you know me, or don't, please emial me or leave a message here so I know who you are, i'm just interested.
Cheers everyone,
Oh, and noticed its snowing again back home, its was 45 degrees here last week, not that i'm trying to rub it in or anything!
Go on the Southend United... Championship here we come
Matt
It's just me...............
Hey you, i think snow is most probably too harsh a word for what is going on over here.
Please come back and bring some of that sunshine!!!!!!!!
Love jols
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