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Tuesday 25 October 2011

Sydney Take 3

One of the bad things about being an unorganised backpacker is that I left it too long to book my accommodation so instead of staying at the Railway Square YHA I ended up in the Glebe YHA and in hindsight I am pleased that I did. For one thing I got a free hair cut out of it. One of my newest roommates was in the process of applying for a stylist position at what turned out to be a rather nice salon. I volunteered and she was pleased to have me as a model. Originally she did a creative cut to show off her skills but as it was a bit unmanageable I ended up with a short bob in place of the long unruly and damaged hair I had had before.

The Glebe YHA is a 40 minute walk from the Railway Square and on my first night back in Sydney I head over there to catch up with some of the first friends I made in Australia. It was great to see them and we had a relaxing evening sitting in the hostel common area chatting and it felt very like old times. The next day was the day I got my creative haircut and then it was back to the hostel to book my bus to Melbourne and do some much needed laundry before heading over to Kings Cross to have dinner with my first ‘long term’ roommate. It was great to catch up and see her settled in her own place. I did try and meet up with some friends from the snow after dinner but it was a long weekend and my phone battery was low so after one drink in a very crowded pub I headed home to bed.

Sunday was the first day of daylight savings in NSW so I had a long lie which seemed like longer due to the loss of an hour. I was worried that my friends would be annoyed that I had slept so long as we were meant to go for pancakes but in the end one of them slept even longer than I did. Thus our morning pancakes turned in to afternoon pancakes at a place called Pancakes at the Rocks which really does do the most amazing pancakes. Since it was a lovely day we walked up George Street with a certain backpackers pub in mind so we could watch the rugby with beer or in my case cider. I don;t think it’s come up before but since arriving in Australia I have become a cider drinker. Where as before I would Have The odd pint in NSW I regularly had a scooner or two of cider and when we were drinking in the hostel it would be a bottle of cider in my hand rather than a glass of wine. Anyway a few ciders and some pizza later and Wales and Ireland were through to the semi-finals of the rugby world cup. At this point I head home for to skype my family and reassure them that I was well and still enjoying myself immensely.

During our late pancake lunch on Sunday one of my friend told me about a fiesta that was happening at Darling Harbour. There were three area show casing various latin dances and music and a few classes for those who wanted to join in. Therefore when I met up with another friend on Monday I suggested that rather then head to Glebe for lunch we head there however oty turned put we were meeting a mutual friend at Glebe so we stuck with ur original plan. I was delighted to be able to catch up with a friend who I hadn’t expected to see and it was fun hearing about their trip to the hunter valley which they had just returned from. We found a cafe hidden behind a book store which served tasty healthy food at a fairly reasonable price by Sydney standards. After lunch we decided to catch the bus down to the Harbour to check out the fiesta. The weather was beautiful and the harbour full of people with latin music and dancing all over the placed not to mention a few stalls and pavement acts. It was a fun afternoon and I even got to meet a friends mum when we stopped for some hot chocolate. When we went our separate ways I once again went to Railway. This time I was meeting a new friend, the mother of my friend who died. We had been in touch via facebook so it was good to meet her in person. She brought over some photos and a recording of Sam’s funeral. Four of us met up and went for dinner, It was really nice to hear about her travels as she has been going to all the places Sam visited in his many travels especially as it brought up stories of Sam’s own travels and his younger days. After dinner we headed to the hostel for a few drinks and more chat before I headed back to my own hostel once more.

I spent my last day in Sydney CBD with a the friend I had stayed with the previous week, after she finally made it to my hostel that was. I don’t blame her for getting lost, Sydney seems to be to be something of a maze and her satnav had a hissy fit at one point which didn’t help as it was her first time driving in the city. Taking all that into account i was impressed that she was only an hour late! Having been in the car for hours she chose to walk to the rocks as I had promised to introduce her to the amazing pancake restaurant. It was a long walk but it gave us plenty of time to chat about our weekend and our plans for the coming months. In the end the walk was worth it as she loved the pancakes and I discovered that they also do very tasty milkshakes. Our lunch helped us to recover from our long walk and we decided to walk slowly back up George street, stopping as a bar for a cold drink along the way. Our destination was the Railway Square YHA for burrito night and a final catch up with my friends. Not long after dinner my roomie from the Jindy arrived and she and our other friend head to my roomies home near Parramata.

The next day my roomie took us into to the Blue Mountains to visit the Three Sisters. We had a good look and walked down to the nearest one. ON our way we visited the information centre where I adopted Terry the Platypus for my mum and my friend adopted Pete the Kangaroo for her own travels. Having two new companions provided us with many fun photo opportunities on our way to and from the tallest sister. Being a lil’ bit unfit we soon headed back up the very steep stairs and back to the car so we could finds a picnic spot for our late lunch. Since it was a weekday and spring we only had to share our picnic spot with one other group and a few ducks. After lunch we headed home for a night of films and sweeties (NOT lollies, there were no sweeties on sticks!). The next day arrived too soon and then I was of again and on my way to Melbourne.










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