Sydney

The flight across to Sydney was pretty straightforward bar the fact I came off the plane with some free gifts from the staff. I had been seated in the same aisle as a poor guy who had recently had some kind of accident which left him paralysed and every now and again the staff would move me and the guy seated next to me in order to move this guy into a comfortable position. This didnt bother me in the slightest but Qantas Airways felt the need to furnish me with a bottle of champagne and a $50 voucher for the onboard gift shop. A pleasant way to start my holiday in a new country. Then the cold hit me. Now it wasnt necessarily cold in Sydney when I arrived but when you are used to the temperature being in the high 30's then anything lower than 20 feels cold initially. I then had to find my way into the city and work out how to get to my uncle Paddy's place. He would be putting me up for my stay in Sydney and lived in the suburbs somewhere. I had his address and figured that should be enough to get me there. I ended up getting a bus, train and taxi as it was so far away. Upon arriving Paddy came out to greet me. This is a guy I havent seen in about 13 years and I know little about him bar he is the black sheep of my dad's family. I would soon discover that this is way off the mark, he is a completely different animal to my other aunts and uncles. As its still early in the morning we go for a coffee and chat about family, my travels and I ask about what he does here in Oz. This was fairly pleasant and after this exchange I decided to go back into the city and take a look around for myself.

I didnt get up to a whole lot, I walked around the main station I was going to be using in order to get to and from Paddy's and explored the area around Hyde Park. I spent a nice afternoon relaxing here in the sunshine. I planned what I would do on the following day and tried to work out how I was going to get there. I also got to watch a game of giant chess. In one area of the park there is a big chess board painted on the ground and large plastic chess pieces (think traffic cones) to play it with. The banter between the two guys playing each other was quite funny, there seemed to be some kind of club involved in using the board. I got back to Paddy's in the evening and he talked about his views on life, religion etc which are a little different to what im used to. I heard him out (I had to sleep there remember?) and took most of what he said with a pinch of salt. We also called back to Ireland to say hi to my folks and my aunt, just to let them know id arrived safe and sound. Soon after this I got distracted by the footy on the tv but was so tired I fell asleep watching it.

The next morning I left early to go into the city and made my way to Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Two international icons that I had only seen on tv or in pictures so it was pretty amazing to be right next to them and see them in the flesh. I pretty much walked across the city centre to get here as well so this took up the bulk of my day. I got back to Paddy's a bit earlier this time and i began to realise i was missing company my own age so I resolved to find myself a different place to stay for the remainder of my time in Sydney after that night. So I spent the next day looking at places in King's Cross and checking out travel options after Sydney. I found a place to stay that was cheap (for Sydney) called Asylum and the tour operator that caught my attention was Peter Pan's so it was a pretty successful day. I moved into the Asylum for the next few nights. On arrival I was informed it was pub crawl night and was asked (advised) to attend. As it turned out most of the hostel was there so it was good fun. We got dinner a few free drinks, tshirts which we were encouraged to draw/write on and played drinking games with goon. Goon is something I had heard about from anyone who had travelled in Oz and basically it is boxed wine. The reason it has such a reputation is it is quite strong and is the cheapest available alcohol in the country. I soon realised I no longer had to explain where I was from to every person I met as people simply pointed a me and yelled 'Irish!'. A bit different to Asia then.

The next day I woke up with a bit of a head on me so I decided the best cure for that was to walk across the Harbour Bridge. I would have liked to have done the Bridge Climb but that was stupidly expensive so walking across for free would have to do. It took ages to find the start point for getting across the bridge but then starting from the Opera House was probably not the easiest way to do it. I did also get to walk through “The Rocks” area of town as well though which is an arty little spot with a few irish bars and shops. Once I got onto the bridge and started walking across I was happy with my decision though as the views over the harbour and of the Opera House were pretty spectacular. The city also looked impressive especially from the other side of the bridge where I could fit the Opera House and the bridge into the same picture as the city skyline. It wasnt the best day for it, a bit cloudy and fairly brisk but it was a really nice way to spend a day. Later that night I finished my day by watching France crash out of the world cup in the company of some French guys. A fitting punishment for knocking us out in the manner they did I think!

Next up was a walk through the Botanical Gardens and a trip on the ferry to Manly. In the rain. I had been recommended by a few people to get the ferry to Manly and it would have been beautiful on a nice day im sure but on this particular day it was just ok. Same goes for the gardens too. In fact considering the weather it felt like being back in ireland. Id heard great things about beaches in Australia but on first impressions it was pretty similar to the ones we have in ireland, only with bigger waves. Nevertheless I managed to have a nice day. Manly is a nice area with lots of cafes and souvenir shops. On a better day im sure it appears even better. Later that night I was in for a different experience. Remember the Aussie girl I met in Chiang Rai? Well tonight I was to meet up with her Sydney friends for some Trivia. Trivia is essentially what we would call a pub quiz back in ireland but less serious. Having worked out where I was going and successfully arriving at the right bar I realised I hadnt the faintest idea what any of these people looked like. So I stood at the bar, ordered a drink and tried my best to look like a red haired irish guy. This plan worked as one of them came over and I was brought to their table and introduced to the team for the night. Trivia itself was tricky for me as a lot of the questions were Aussie based so I was a bit of a dead weight. Luckily these guys seem to do this a lot (every week) as they were quick off the mark with answers and also on first name terms with the quizmistress. It was a good laugh though and I think I got on pretty well with the gang if the link I had to them was a bit tenuous. At the end of the quiz we had finished joint top and what they have in this place as the last question is the jeopardy question. This means every team can gamble all or some of the points they have acquired on the last question to double them. We gambled all of our points but got the question wrong and lost them all. Ooops..... After trivia we went our separate ways on good terms I would like to think. I went back to the hostel for more footy and some sleep.

At this point my time in Sydney was drawing to a close so I spent my time on the second last day sorting out my travel plans. I booked some trips with Peter Pans since the staff I talked to had actually been on some of the trips and could say from experience which ones were good. I got my trip to Fraser Island, the Whitsundays and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef along with my bus ticket to Cairns. Getting everything together made it cheaper over all. My last evening was spent watching movies and football. I tell you I wont get any sleep till this World Cup is over, the kick off times are killing me! On my last day I went to see Bondi Beach which again was not all that impressive but it is winter. Later on I caught the bus to Byron Bay. Overall Sydney was kind of cool, its not as big as some of the other big cities ive been to and is more friendly than most. But at the end of the day its a big expensive place to go so in a way I was happy to move on.