Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I arrived in Sydney in the evening, catching a flight from Adelaide, the same day that New Zealand upset Australia in the Rugby League world cup final. I had decided in Adelaide not to book a hostel. "I'll find something when I get there" I thought. What hadn't entered into my mind was that it was the weekend and Sydney was very busy at this time of year, which I did expect, but not to the extent of struggling to find a bed for the night. I had caught the train from Sydney Airport into the centre of Sydney armed with my lonely planet and trudged around with backpack and rucksack for a couple of hours attempting to find somewhere to stay. I soon realised that everywhere I went to was fully booked. The Sydney central YHA advised me to try the Central backpackers " They will have rooms" I was told. I did ask the standard of accommodation and the response wasn't particularly favourable, but as I didn't have a lot of choice at 10pm on a Saturday night I decided to head for Central. I got there and went to the reception to check in, but just before getting there I caught a glimpse at one of the rooms which to put it mildly looked like a bit of a hole! I was advise that there was a minimum stay of a week as well, so I thought " Sod this - I'm sure I can find better than this dump!" There has to be one bed available around Sydney surely???? The trusty lonely planet book came out of the backpack and I started to ring around all the hostels, which in hindsight should have been done a few hours earlier! It was a bit of a struggle to find somewhere. At one point I thought I may have to sleep on the streets of Sydney for the first night but eventually I rang the Alishan guesthouse and was told there was a bed available. It was a major relief for me to find a bed for the night because as the night wore on it was looking pretty unlikely I would find anywhere.
I headed for Glebe, a suburb of Sydney. It was around half an hour on the tram from the CBD. I felt a sense of relief that I had somewhere to stay. But wait..... I arrived there only for the guy behind reception to not know anything about my booking that I made about one hour earlier, My jaw dropped. He acknowledged that they had made a mistake and was trying to find a room for me. The thought occurred to me how was he going to find me a bed when they didn't have one? Still I was desperate for a bed so just played along and waited to see what he would say, After a bit of flapping about he gave me a key and told me I would be sharing with two ladies " If they say something to you then you may have to move" he said. And then he said " You never know you may get laid". Not knowing whether he was joking or not I walked into the room…….Two big, butch ladies were shaking their heads as I entered and said " I think you have the wrong room". No problem I thought. It was pretty obvious that they had booked the room as a private room. Pretty cheeky of the hostel to try that really. Eventually they put me into this other room with another guy and I got my bed for the night. It turned out my roommate had paid 120 dollars for the private room and I had gate crashed and paid 30 dollars. I don't know if the guy complained. I know I would have! Anyhow all was well that ended well. Lesson learned….well, maybe!
The next day I got up and headed for Manly, on recommendation of a few people I had met on my travels. Manly is famous for it's rugby league team the Manly Sea Eagles who are the NRL champions at the moment and for it's surfing. I booked the hostel 'Manly Backpackers' in the morning, caught the bus to Circular Quay and then caught the ferry to Manly. During the journey to Manly it was the first time I got to see Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. But more about those landmarks later.
I booked into Manly backpackers, a lively but grotty hostel and ended up staying there a little over three weeks. I didn't really enjoy staying in the hostel and wouldn't recommend it. The dorm rooms were basic, the toilets and showers disgusting and the kitchen small. The only good point was it's location to the beach. Manly, on the other hand, is a really great place. Fantastic beach, great bars and the town had a really good feel to it. North Head is really good for nature and Shelly beach a great spot for lying on te beach away fro the hustle and bustle of the main beach.
My main aim was to find a job but as time went by it became clear this was going to be very difficult with Christmas and New Year just around the corner as well as the recession in full swing. I registered with lots of job agencies but to no avail.
In terms of nightlife I had some good nights out while staying in Manly. Some in Manly, some in Sydney centre and I made it over to Bondi as well. One of the best nights was a '12 pubs of Christmas' bar crawl organised by some Irish backpackers which I was invited to. Needless to say that any bar crawl involving Irish people was always going to get a bit messy. It was a good day and I managed to see some of Sydney's bars and clubs. Unfortunately the majority of the Irish backpackers were not allowed to have a drink in the 12th pub as they were all too intoxicated. But somehow I managed to get served as I was English. Happy days!
Four days before Christmas Day I moved from Manly Backpackers to the Collaroy Beachhouse YHA. Collaroy is another one of Sydney's northern beaches, just 30 minutes on the bus from Manly. Collaroy is a lot smaller than Manly and therefore a lot quieter. It has a great beach but not much nightlife, with just one bar across the road. However it's proximity to Manly meant that a night out could be done there, or indeed Sydney which is a two hour bus journey with buses running throughout the night. The YHA in Collaroy is pretty nice. Excellent facilities, the only thing that let it down was the kitchen. The atmosphere was very good as well, which isn't always the case in YHA's but this was Christmas & New Year and many backpackers had booked in advance, like myself.
On Christmas Eve a group of us went to the Thai restaurant across the road, which was excellent before heading to the pub next door. It was a bit more of a sedate Christmas Eve than I am used to but it was nice not to wake up on Christmas Day with a sore head. Christmas Day was all organised by the YHA. 20 dollars for Christmas dinner and then cricket and volleyball on Collaroy beach. It was a weird Christmas Day, but good as the same time. It is certainly the first time I have spent Christmas Day afternoon on the beach in 30 degree temperatures but somehow it didn't feel quite right especially seeing five guys in Santa hats going out for a surf! Still, it was different!
Two guys I met in Fremantle, Tom & Charlie were also staying in Collaroy and I spent New Years Eve with them and their friends from back home in Norwich. The aim was to go into Sydney and get a good spot during the day and watch the world famous fireworks that are set-off from Sydney Harbour Bridge at midnight. You can watch the fireworks from al over Sydney but we wanted to try and get into the Botanical Gardens, one of the more popular spots. Unfortunately the queue was too large so we decided to head for the Kings Cross area to a place called Rushcutter's Bay where we spent the afternoon and evening enjoying a few beverages before the main event - the fireworks. The fireworks were spectacular. I'm sure everyone has seen them on the TV - well it was a spectacular show they put on and we were in a really good spot to see them. After the fireworks we all went clubbing in 'The Gaff', a backpackers bar close to Kings Cross before making the long bus journey back to Collaroy. Definitely a New Years Eve that will live long in the memory.
Having booked the YHA back in July, I got my dates mixed up and wrongly thought that I would be staying until the 3rd January. Actually my checkout date was the 2nd and this meant finding accommodation at the last minute again! I was not the only one to be in this situation. A northern guy I met from Stockport also had no accommodation and we tried to ring around the hostels with no success. Then he mentioned that there was a YHA down the road called Pittwater YHA which we could try. I asked him where it was and he told me it was at the end of the road. Our YHA was based just by the Pittwater Road so I thought I'd give it a go. Bingo - they had rooms. I gave my details and booked the room for one night. Then the hostel owner gave me directions to the hostel. "You'll have to catch the ferry" he said. I said to him that we were already in Collaroy and that we wouldn't need to catch the Manly ferry. He then said it wasn't the Manly ferry, there was a separate ferry to get to the hostel and what's more the last one was at 8pm, otherwise we would need to get a water taxi. It was already 7pm so it was going to be tight. "Just down the road……" I thought as we both rushed to the Bus Stop to try and make the last ferry to what we discovered wasn't a YHA at the end of the road but a nature reserve! Next time I will read the info myself rather than rely on other people! We didn't make the ferry. In fact we were about an hour late and had to get a water taxi which luckily was quite cheap. We got to Pittwater and it was pitch black and were given a torch and were told to follow the trail to the YHA. It was an uphill trail though bush and woods. I was wondering what the hell I was doing to be honest, trudging in the dark with a Backpack, Rucksack and two bags up a hill in the middle of nowhere, in the bush. It was like being on the west coast again!
Finally we made it to the YHA, the guy that owned it met us and checked us in but must have been wondering what we were doing there, especially with me with my flip-flops on totally unprepared for a 30 minute bushwalk! There was no shop, we had no food, only beer. So we sinked a few beers, had a bit of a laugh about our day's adventure and then went off to bed. The next morning I booked myself back into the YHA in Collaroy for a couple more days and left Pittwater. It was a really nice spot actually. We saw possums, wallabies and kangaroos and if the circumstances were different I would have stayed longer but I was looking for work and couldn't justify staying longer after lazing about during Christmas and New Year.
So, back to Collaroy YHA for a few more days. It was there that I decided to end my Sydney adventure, book a couple of days in the Sydney Central YHA and then head to Melbourne to seek work. I had heard nothing from agencies I had registered with in Sydney and I could always come back if they found me a job if I needed to. The original plan was to get to Melbourne when the Australian Open Tennis was on and I decided to stick with the original plan.
There were still a couple of things I wanted to do in Sydney, which I hadn't done yet - visit the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Olympic Park built for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. At the time the final test was on in Sydney between Australia & South Africa. I had been following this closely on TV and it was a great series with South Africa already having won the series. The final test was a chance for Australia to gain some consolation. I bought myself a ticket and went down to watch the fourth day - a great experience and a fantastic ground and great seeing the likes of Ricky Ponting bat live. Australia actually went on to win the test a day later in dramatic circumstances with Graeme Smith coming out to bat last with a broken finger and bruised wrist to try and save the match only to lose his wicket with a few balls to go.
With the SCG visited, I moved to Sydney Central YHA for a couple of days and decided to spend an afternoon at the Sydney Olympic Park to look around. Sydney Olympic Park was built for the Olympics in 2000. It is very impressive with second to none facilites, fabulous stadia, including the main stadium which was the scene of England Rugby and Jonny Wilkinson's finest hour when beating the Aussies in their own backyard to lift the World Cup in 2003. You can see how much the Aussies value their sport when you see facilities like those at the Olympic Park, which help to nurture future talent. Hopefully the UK can build something as good in London for 2012 and make use of it after the Olympics are completed.
So what do I think of Sydney? I enjoyed my time there, but I was glad to be spending most of it in the quieter northern beaches as the centre of Sydney is just manic. Like an Australian version of London. I liked the Rocks area of Sydney which has some really good bars and shops. Bondi, in my opinion is nothing special. It's an overcrowded beach. Bondi Junction is good for nightlife though. I think Sydney is a great place to visit but not necessarily to live. From a tourist point of view there are some great landmarks - the Harbour Bridge is spectacular and the Opera House. Darling Harbour is a nice spot with plenty of entertainment, shops and bars. Kings Cross is an interesting place. Very good nightlife but a very dodgy area and would not recommend walking around alone there at night. I like Sydney but was looking forward to move on to Melbourne.
The next day I jumped on the greyhound bus - destination Canberra. Australia's capital city, where I would stay for one day and two nights, before going to Melbourne to look for work. Another new adventure begins.....!
- comments