China. Maybe One Day #10: Waltzing Matilda - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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I have only been in Sydney a few hours, but my first impressions are fantastic. All the place names and street names keep coming back to me. I am finding that I remember things like the quickest way from Circular Key to Darling harbour. Where to catch the bus to Coogee from. Where the cinemas are. Sure some things have changed - Kings Cross seems to have cleaned up its act a bit. Instead of strip clubs and two slices of Pizza for 50 cents places, there are now loads of internet cafes and cheap noodle bars. A sure sign that backpackers have now completely taken over the area. It was reassuring to see The Cross pub though. It was shut, despite the fact that it advertises itself as a 24 hour pub. I can still hear my friend Des complaining to the bouncer when we got kicked out of there at 6am one Sunday morning. Also still there is the Irish bar, which we would usually start the evening off at.

The bridge is still awe-inspiring from whatever angle you catch a glimpse of it. On the flight I could pick out Bondi Beach, Coogee beach, Waverly Cemetery and Clovelley. All these little things make me feel like I have come back to an old friend.

Two days after I landed Debs flew in from New Zealand. We met down by the Opera House and after a picnic in the botanic gardens we wandered off to meet her friends. First we went up the Sydney sky tower to take a look at the city and surrounding bush fires from a great height, then it was down to the skytower experience, a very cheesy and cheap imitation of a theme park ride. After that we headed over to North Sydney for tea in a pub, then moved onto an RSL for more drinks and a view of the bridge.

The next day it was raining, really hard. In a desperate attempt to find something cheap and indoors to do we wandered into the Museum of Modern Art. I did like the frogs that croaked as you walked by, but overall I couldn't understand the point of most of the work that was exhibited. That evening it was still raining, but we had arranged to go out for a teppanyaki meal with Liz and Ian and a couple of their friends. For the meal we had our own chef, who cooked for us at the table, told jokes and threw eggs and rice at us. It was great fun and the food was delicious, even if there was not quite enough of it.

For the next few days I had an awful cold. I think it must have been from getting soaked the previous night. However, I still managed to wander around Darling Harbour, go to the aquarium, literally fry on Manly Beach and spend a few evenings in the pub or at the cinema. Despite my cold I had a really good time soaking up the atmosphere. One day though, I was to ill to even get out of bed. Debs wandered off on her own and spent a fortune on a haircut that day.

When I eventually got over my cold we packed our towels and suntan lotion and headed off to the world famous Bondi Beach. By now the weather was scorching hot again, so it was really nice to cool off in the sea. Being the child that I am I spent ages messing around in the waves. As a rule I don't really like sitting on beaches, but if there are nice big waves to play in then it makes the sitting around sun baking worthwhile. That evening we went to watch a movie in the park. We took a picnic and sat and ate whilst the sun went down. Once the stars had come out and the bats had started to fly overhead, the movie started. It was Breakfast at Tiffany's. I had never seen this movie before and thought it was wonderful.

A couple of days later we headed up to the Blue Mountains for some hiking and to have a look around Katoomba. Then it was back down to Sydney to stay at another one of my old haunts. Clovelly Backpackers. On the 19th of December I finally managed to meet up with Ben, a friend of my brother, who is spending a year in Australia. We arranged to meet at the Coogee Bay Hotel and managed to stay there till well gone midnight. I must have been drunk by the time we left because, not only did I have a kebab, but Debs persuaded me that I should have one without any meat in it!

The next day we walked along the coastal path from Clovelly to Bondi, had lunch in Bondi and then sat on the beach for a few hours. The waves were not very big that day and I soon got bored. That night we went into the City for a few drinks at some posh bars on Oxford street. Watched some people get nicked for stealing a car, and had a curry. The next day we had to be up early to fly to Adelaide.




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