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We arrived in Sydney with the sun shining (for once). The drive in is impressive; over the Harbour Bridge, nice view of the Opera House and through the centre of town. We needed to drop the van off at the depot in Wolloomooloo (oh how we laughed), just to the East of the CBD. Needless to say we got lost and couldn't find where we were on a map. After stopping to ask we found we'd driven someway off our maps- the centre of Sydney is very small!
We made it to the depot. As it turned out the guys lost more from their deposit for a small windscreen crack than from the kangaroo damage (they had opted not pay $30 a day extra for kangaroo insurance, which was fair). In what turned out to be the only nice weather we got in Sydney, we hiked across town to our hostel, which the English girls were already at. Hostels in large cities tend to be more like hotels - large, very clean, great facilities. We were only there for a few days, but thats more than enough to take Sydney in - the Opera House is much less impressive up close it has to be said, but the Harbour Bridge is truly monumental. The Botanical Gardens were great - bats hang from the trees screeching and huge spiders wait menacingly in every tree. The city itself has a decent amount of character, with some nice little back streets and arcades to explore. Sydney's Kings Cross seems closely modeled on London's in terms of edginess and general being a bit dirty, but had some cool bars and shops. I've found, though, that after sampling Tokyo most other cities seem to fall a bit flat in terms of charm.
After a couple of day Lauren and Kathleen went off to Melbourne (they had been traveling together to start with) so Vicki, the Niks and I went off on a wine tour in a local(ish) valley. The day, as you may imagine, basically involves getting very drunk on a lot of different wines before they try and flog them to you. Naturally, I had to sample the wines numerous times before I decided that it just wasn't the bottle for me.
Soon came the time for us to leave - I was off to New Zealand, the Niks to Fiji, and Vicki was going to stay with a friend in Sydney for a while before going to Melbourne. We parted ways - I traveled to the airport with a lass who had been on the buses with me at various points and was flying home, and spent the flight been talked at by an American girl while trying to catch a bit of sleep. I was off to the Land of the Long White Cloud for new friends and new adventures.
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