Day 1

All was well on the flight, had a minor problem about getting to the city from the airport though. There was a misunderstanding/scam where our hostel owner reckoned he was there t pick us up, and we thought we were on a free shuttle to our accommodation. It turns out that the shuttle is free if the hostel pay for you, but seeing as the owner of the hostel claimed to of been there to pick us up, we had to pay ourselves. It was only £4 but I was a bit annoyed.

Our hostel is a complete s***hole, and a guy on our shuttle even chuckled and sarcastically said “good choice”. We wernt too bothered and had a little kip before heading into the city centre for a look around. We mainly checked out a few shops and went to Chinatown. When we got back to the hostel it was getting late so we went on a scout around the bars in the area, before getting some beers to drink on our tiny balcony (the only good part about our hostel).

The area we are staying in is called Kings Cross, and I promise not to of had any idea prior to arriving, but it turns out to be Sydney’s red light district. When looking at what to do locally, our guide book described it as ‘ a cocktail of prostitution, crime, drugs and bars’ - had I stumbled upon heaven?

It turns out that most hostels are here and it’s the cities main area for nightlife so although shady, its also pretty safe. Sitting on the balcony we observed all sorts of goings on. It was pretty good fun watching the hookers whilst chilling out with a few beers and it kept us occupied till the early hours.

Day 2

We headed to the city to get the touristy things out of the way. Duncs went to the Maritime museum whilst I opted for the less heavy science and technology one for a mooch around. The plan was to use up most of the day in the museums so that we could get to the Opera House and the Sky Tower (yes they have one too!) for sunset. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and the beautiful sun and clear sky of the day gave way to huge rain clouds. We still went to the opera house for a look but will have to go back as the weather didn’t do it, or our photos, justice.

We also went to the Quantas office to bring our flights to Bali forward a week as Duncan needs to get to Bangkok earlier to meet his girlfriend who is coming to visit. Unfortunately their was only 1 seat available from Bali to Singapore so we have it on hold and talk about what to do over night.

Whilst walking around I noticed a $120 buy-in poker tourny advertised in a swanky hotel for a 7pm start. As we are saving ourselves for an Easter weekend of mayhem, we don’t intend to go out too much before, so with not much else on - I went to have a go. Only 1 other person turned up to my disappointment, but I got talking to the guy who puts the event on and he was up for heading to The Poker Dome, which is a dedicated poker tournament room just outside of town. Obviously I was well up for it so we drove down and entered the £30 tournament with no luck or good cards. I went out before my driver so I also played in a small $20 one with similarly bad results (bad beat AA vrs KK, all in pre flop on 3rd hand - if your reading Matt!). Still it was a pretty good place, I enjoyed it and I got to talk poker, poker, poker to fellow addicts.

When I got back to Kings Cross I met Duncs in a bar and we had a few pints with a Brit who Duncs had got talking to. He rekens the place we were in (the World Bar) is the hotspot on Thursday nights, so we are coming back tomorrow for a big one.

Day 3

Up early to go the the Blue Mountains. Before we left Sydney for the day, we went to Quantas because Duncs had reached a decision on the flights he had on hold. Now this is major news because it means I’ll be doing something everyone will not believe…….I’ll be traveling alone for a month!!! Because they didn’t have a seat for me and Duncs wants more time to travel in Asia before meeting his girlfriend, I’ll be in Australia for an extra week, and when I arrive in Bali Duncs will have left for Singapore. We have arranged to meet up on 1st June at the Full Moon Party in South Thailand, which is something I’m really looking forward to.

I don’t reken things will be too bad on my tod because at least I know what its like to do, whereas I’ve always been curious why people do things like this alone - now I’ll find out. I’ll be forced to be more social and I can just do whatever the hell I want. I had a great couple of days in Christchurch so I don’t see why this can be the same. If I get bored/lonely then there is always poker!! J

Anyways, the Blue Mountains were amazing! If you look at the pictures you will see how breath taking the views were. There was a lot of walking involved and it takes around 2.5 hours to get there on a train but it was well worth it. It was scorching hot and very hard to believe that the very train line we traveled on was originally built by convicts and abbo’s in the late 19th century, hard yakka as they say here.

It was pretty late when we got back to the hostel so we went straight out to get a box of wine (cos its cheap and does the trick) and drunk it in front of the TV. We were lucky with regards to the tv because no one was in, so we had full control plus England were playing Sri Lanka on 1 channel and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (one of my fave films) was on another. I don’t think I have ever not been completely wasted after watching Fear and Loathing, and it continued to have this effect in Sydney. I cant remember much of what happened before my thoughts began to clear around 3am-ish on my own in MacDonalds. It appears that on big nights out we take it in turns to be thrown out of/not let in clubs for being too hammered - tonight it was my turn again, almost and exact re run of what happened the last time in Queenstown.

After not being able to find Duncan or get into the hostel I went for some food before making myself comfy in the doorway of our hostel. Luckily Duncs woke up at 5 and realized I wernt back, went to look for me and saw me asleep outside the main door. Luckily all was Ok, although on reflection sleeping in a doorway down an alley in the dodgy part of town isn’t too wise. In my defense I did ask a copper where the nearest 24 internet café was or failing that if he could arrest me for something minor so I could sleep in a cell for the night - so I did try to avoid the alleyway.

Day 4

I didn’t feel too special in the morning for obvious reasons but we moved to a better hostel across the road and went down to Bondi beach. Again the weather was crap but I thought we had better go seeing as we don’t live too far from it. Infct I’m very glad we did because it was far better than I imagined. The beach is really nice and the waves were FAR bigger than I’d seen anywhere before, so big infact that the beach was closed due to dangerous conditions! This may have been a blessing because if I need to be rescued in Newquay, I would have defiantly been in major trouble here. It made the waved at Fistral beach look like ripples in the bath.

Despite the warning signs the lifeguards were OK with us going in as long as we stayed below waist height. The waves were so strong that I nearly got dragged clean off my feet numerous times, but they were really good to swim in, and if you caught a really big one right, it would carry you all the way to the beach.

That pretty much sorted the hangover and when we got back we caught the train to watch a rugby league game at the Olympic Stadium (Telstar Stadium). It was The South Sydney Rabittohs vrs the Mitsibishi Bulldogs. We were sat with the Bulldogs, so we pretty much had to root for them, although one guy supporting the other team was in our block and got very vocal - from there the atmosphere turned a bit sour and the cops had to interfere, which made the game a bit more interesting for us anyway (see pics).

The Bulldogs won, so again me and duncs didn’t feel the need to do they true british thing and smash up all the shops in Sydney. One the train back we sat next to an old boy who explained a bit about the teams and league. It was pretty interesting to me because it there had been lots of changes since Packer and Murdoch’s media companies got involved, and I remember doing this at school. We felt like true fans after the very thorough briefing he gave us, bless him.

As Thursday was soo busy we were eager to try out a Friday night in Sydney, especially as it was a bank holiday. No such luck because here all bars have to shut at 10pm on Good Friday! So Im writing this in bed at our hostel and its just gone 1.30am. Night night.