I woke up still on the bus pretty proud of myself. I must have had a full four hours sleep! I was dead chuffed. Looking out the window at that very moment I was greeted by sydney harbour with the opera house standing proudly in the centre. I couldn't believe I was finally in Sydney!
Landing in the bus station I was back to the working out the underground tube station, something I was well trained for thanks to kuala lumpar and Singapore. It was only 3 stops to the kings cross station, the area I had to get off. The hostel was pretty easy to find and was comfortable and clean as far as hostels go. Kings cross was the sleaziest part of the city where the roads were lined with prostitutes, strip bars and crappy pubs. The highlight was Mardi Gras, the gay and lesbian festival so everyone around either had a strut or an eyebrow piercing, making kings cross all the more interesting.
As I was making lunch, the exciting combination of muesli and milk, I looked up to see a couple of familiar heads peer around the kitchen door. There stood Liam and Jess who had managed to seek me out. I was over the moon. It was like I had saw them only yesterday. After lots of hugs and too many questions we decided to make the most of the beautiful day and headed off to take a wander around sydneys botanical gardens and the famous opera house. It was so good to be in this amazing city and to catch up with the pair of them. Together we had compared stories of asia and what our plans were in the up and coming months. Between us we figured we could cope with just about anything the world could throw at us as Liam and Jess had been through as much adventure as me over the last few months. We came to the opera house that stood with it's awkward shapes and angels on the edge of the beautiful harbour and despite the impressive shape it was pretty boring inside. We were the typical tourists and took enough pictures to keep mum and dad happy for a while. We checked that off our list and walked around the main city centre and then back over to kings cross so Liam and Jess could check out vans for sale. That night was a relax one and I was in bed quite early to have a good nights sleep for the Mari Gras festival the next day!!!! Woo!!
My excitement was soon shattered in the morning when I woke feeling like death warmed up. Overnight my throat had completely swollen up to the point where my voice was distorted, making me sound like an 80year old with a 40 a day smoking habit. So I got myself off to the doctors and after the most expensive 2 minute conversation I've had in my life I had antibiotics for my throat. I was so hacked off that the day I was really looking forward to was ruined by mother nature and her stupid bacteria. But thats the way it was and I had a nice day being grumpy by myself until Liam and Jess met me a bit later when I was feeling a bit better. I popped to the shop and managed to whittle a 4litre box of goon down to $10 (bargain) and we tucked into that to warm the cockles before we headed out to watch the festival. The temperature had taken an interesting turn, meaning my idea of wearing a dress had gone out the window and I had to dig out the jeans, something I hadn't touched since Thailand.
By the time we got to the festival route itself we quickly realised we lefted it a bit late. The streets were packed with every sort or sexuality, race and religion you could think of. The chill in the air obviously had no effect on some groups of people, who had decided to celebrate the festival in full swing. I soon lost count of the number of crotchless trousers and leather thongs I saw. Everyone was in such a great mood and even though I felt like pants, I found the buzzing atmosphere infectious. We didn't see much of the festival due to the massive crowd, especially me who was a good 5 inches shorter than the other two. A girl near the front let me share her crate that she was standing on to see so I was able to glimpse at several different floats rolling past, including a cheerleading act based on Glee and a number of gay rights for marriage banners. I had no idea such a massive festival as this existed and I was proud to be a part of it, cheering and clapping as much as the next person. After an hour of the parade we figured it was best to go back to my hostel for a few drinkies before everyone got the same idea and the streets became manic. Liam and Jess' hostel was on the other side of the city and was a good 10minute bus ride away so we went back to mine to hit the goon. The misery of the mornings illness was washed away and in about two hours we polished the full 4 litres between us. To this day I don't know how we did it without one of us passing out. But sure enough I made it to bed, pyjamas on, contacts out and teeth brushed.
I woke up the next day by my phone beeping away, completely confused about where I was and what had happened previous night. It was Liam wondering if I wanted to go to Bondi beach for the day, as they had seen a small camper they were interested in to buy to travel up the east coast. So, getting myself reasonably together, I met them at the train station and we were at Bondi beach, a small district of Sydney that was around 30minutes south from the city centre. It was a nice beach, another typical beach for Australia to me, but to Liam and Jess it was a nice change from the city. Liam was gutted he didn't bring his new surf board as the surf was pretty good. We finally going the camper which had a lot of stuff new including wheels and sound system. It was going for a pretty good price too but sensibly they decided to mull it over before they invest most of their savings on it. We hit the beach for a tanning session and I fell asleep, mouth open catching flies for a few hours before making our way back. I was chuffed I got to see Bondi beach. It wasn't incredible but I've heard so much about it that I would've kicked myself it I didn't go.
That evening I took the bus over to liams hostel to chill out before I left Australia the next day. I was a bit smug to find that their hostel wasn't as nice as mine but saying that, they were paying half the price and it wasn't in the red light district. It was horrible to say goodbye to them but at the same time i was over the moon that i got to see them at all. That night I went to bed but couldn't sleep knowing that in 24hours I would be in New Zealand and a whole new adventure.