After a 9 hour flight in which I slept for approximately 18 seconds and our plane travelled through lots of quite gigantic lightning storms, we arrived at Sydney's Kingsford Smith airport. Tom had his photo frame from Thailand confiscated because they claimed it was made from elephant dung. This was literally bullshit. I kept quiet about mine and still have it now so am probably violating international law. Bearing in mind that we arrived on the 29th December, our decision not to book a hostel was to prove near suicidal.
At the airport we bumped into Justin a lawyer from London and all round nice guy. Turned out that he was in a similar situation to us and needed a room for the night before he met his mate Owen. After lots of grovelling to the women in charge of accomodation at the airport, we ended up in a Novotel at a place called Brighton Le Sands. Not really near to the city. Unfortunately, we had to pay quite a lot for this room and whilst it was really nice, with a balcony, 2 double beds, tv, bath and TWO types of toilet paper, we had to cough up prices that we didn't really want to pay as backpackers. Not dwelling on this, we had a massive nap to try and get some energy back and headed out for a wander and some food. (Justin, went to the beach, fell asleep and literally got more sunburnt than any human being ever)
That night we all decided to venture into Sydney city centre for a few bevvies and a look at our home for the next week. Sydney by night is proper cool to look at and we enjoyed taking in the sights that were very different from Thailand. After a couple of beers we went and got a Mcdonalds. This was not a good idea. After waking up from an amazing sleep in a really comfortable bed, I realised I had a very violent stomach ache. Thinking nothing of it, as I usually have a pretty strong stomach, I got in the shower only to be violently sick for about 10 minutes! I can only come to the conclusion that this happened because of a mixture of the burger I ate and my body still being hammered from what Thailand had thrown at it.
A significant event that happened in Sydney was I discovered my old mucka from Uni Katie was there at the same time. After a facebook message we met up and hung out for a few days whilst we were there. Was weird seeing someone thousands of miles from home that I had previously only seen in Leicester. Reppin' Liberty Park. We went out on a few nights out with Katie, went down to the famous/infamous Bondi and went to watch Australia v Pakistan at the SCG.
Thinking back over our time in Sydney, me and Tom didn't really see enough of it. We spent most of our time pretty central, ignoring areas like Manly and Coogee that I'm definitely checking out when I return. (As I write this I'm actually preparing to be flown to Sydney with work for a week)
The real story of Sydney for us, was the difficulty that we had getting a place to stay for the period over New Years. JEEEESUS CHRIST. Having woken up feeling awful and with chronic food poisoning, I had to walk miles carrying 20kg of luggage. How I didn't pass out was a miracle as I was unable to eat or drink at this point. Things were getting really worrying at this point as New Years was a day away and we had nowhere to stay. Justin was proper helpful and came along to try sort us out before he went off to meet his pal. The only room we could find was in a hotel just outside the city centre. This was going to cost like 60 quid a night so we really weren't up for it. The fella behind the reception was one of the nicest people in the world and actually offered us a sofa at his missuses if we were still stuck. God bless Nigel! Luckily, two girls from Bristol that we had met the previous night sorted us right out by getting us a room where they were staying. Was WAY more expensive than it should have been but we took it. After all, it gave me a place to be really ill for the next day and a half!
This wasn't ideal preparation for New Years in such an iconic city. I literally was unable to move other than to run to the bathroom for 24 hours. Had to take some medicine and try to sort myself out so I could go watch the fireworks the following day.
NEW YEARS- In truth, this was a bit of an anti climax. Whilst it beat being in Norwich, my lack of health, the cost of everything and the crowds meant it wasn't half as good as it should have been. After hitting Kings Cross for a few bevvies, and an ogle at 2 of the most attractive women I've ever seen in my life, we headed down to the harbour to see some fireworks. Was really cool being there and there was a great buzz about the place. Fireworks being fired from massive skyscrapers and off the harbour bridge kept us entertained for a while, but I was still feeling pretty rough and so didn't get massively into it. Beer prices were astronomical and me and Tom's lack of knowing what we actually wanted to do, threw a bit of a spanner in the works.
The rest of our time in Sydney was spent doing a combination of things. All of these things involved spending money, so my bank balance was taking a hammering. Shopping, eating out (as we had no kitchen) and drinking with Katie/Justin etc were all enjoyable activities, however, upon leaving Sydney I was NOT happy with how much money I had spent. Being as I do enjoy animals (particularly dangerous ones), the trip to the aquarium was pretty good. A noticeable improvement on Great Yarmouth's Seal Life Centre I might add.
Sydney is a wicked city from a touristic point of view. The harbour complete with Opera House, bridge, flashy restaurants and massive cruise ships really make an impression on you. It's a city that is very in your face, at times this is a good thing. Everyone looks like a model, the buildings are huge and the city never sleeps. However, the attitude of people is much different to that of those in Melbourne. (my current hometown, and a place you will be hearing a lot about)Sydneysiders have a bit of an unpleasant arrogance and attitude about them which makes it difficult to fall in love with the place. Having said that, I will be returning as I fly out of there on my way to New Zealand. This time, I fully intend to visit the Blue Mountains, Manly and a few of the lesser known gems of Australia's most well known city.
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