Fairytale Of New South Wales
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2004
1
53
84
Trip End
Nov 16, 2006
Sydney,
Australia
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Absence has most definitely made the heart grow fonder of Sydney and Australia. It's a great place, and the girls are vastly better looking than New Zealand girls.
The time in Sydney was spent mainly chilling out. We saw a few things and I caught up with a few people, but basically it was a much deserved rest. And a few errands, including shipping some stuff home because...get this...New Zealand Post don't do surface mail...which baffles me.
I wanted a quiet birthday so just spent it with Soph. A group of us went down to Coogee for Christmas day and Sophie and I did the relationship-obligatory 'spend more than agreed on presents'. And New Year's was spent in the apartment again, kind of with Mick & Nodlaig (but really with Will & Grace) and Sophie (in denial, believing that photos of fireworks are worth taking.) All very relaxing.
Mick and Nodlaig are in better form then I've ever seen them, and as always they took good care of me and my guest...even buying me some new, much needed, underwear. They even took us out for dinner at The Italian Forum on our last night. I am Pearce and Sinead.
It was a bit sad though seeing Sydney without all the gang from last time. Alot of really fantastic memories came back and it did at times feel like I was visiting a tomb or something. Still, it was good in its own way.
Time to move on though and see some of the east coast which had eluded me last year. Instead of buying yet another car, we decided to do one of the hop-on/hop-off Greyhound Bus tickets.
I still love the Greyhound bus. I had entertained the thought that romance is dead and that I had a hand in it, but an overnight Greyhound is one of the most romantic things in the world. I love driving through these nothing towns, dropping off people at ungodly hours and seeing them met, and picking up randoms from all walks of life with their own stories. You get a few hours sleep and you read and you people watch and you listen to music and it all becomes clear what Paul Simon or Iron & Wine are singing about. I love it.
First stop is Port Macquarie to see an excellent Koala hospital and sanctuary. Our Greyhound driver said Port MacQ is a hole where old people go to die.
