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Thursday 9h April 2009 Melbourne
Leaving New Zealand, I think I was ready. We'd done the whole of the country and done everything that we'd wanted to do. Leaving Joe, I wasn't ready for. Having spent 24/7 together for a whole month and miraculously not getting on one anothers nerves at all, I was going to miss him. A lot.
For what seemed like forever, I arrived in Melbourne having transferred from Sydney where the skies were grey. I arrived at night so I had to get the skybus into the city and then a taxi to my hostel. I was showed around by the owners nice Chinese wife and then the owner took my bags up to my room. When I arrived, no one was in the room but the room was definetly lived in. It looked like a teenage girls room - s*** everywhere. I settled in and eventually the girls arrived and I introduced myself to them. They were nice but have been there a while trying to look for jobs with not much luck so they were skint. No drinking buddies there then. They'd also done everything so I was to do everything during the day by myself, something I came to enjoy and prefer here. With Joe, it was great cause we had the same itinerary, with new folk, they have different ideas with how they want to spent their days so I dont mind much being on my own during the day.
Whilst in Melbourne I caught the tram into the city each day and explored. However, I'm not really into museums and galleries and shopping (cause ive no money to do it) so these ruled out a lot of Melbourne. The shops look absolutely fantastic here.. if you've money. They don't seem to have any cheap shops here like their equivilent to New Look. All very expensive. So yeah, I explored the city which is huge, so takes ages to get around. I met a nice German girl who I arranged to go to the Queen Victoria Market and to the cinema (Monnsters vs Aliens in 3d! 3d was cool, movie so so) with but I quickly realised this was not a good idea. As lovely as she was and that she could speak some English to get by fine, she couldn't understand it that well. It was hard. I ended up with a splitting headache trying to translate. Stick to days on my own i think or choose wisely. The hostel was nice and comfortable but very quiet. Not a party hostel so there wasnt much chance to go out drinking. I'm hoping things bright up a little in Sydney where I'm off to today. A 13 hour bus journey. Yey! No kids around me so thats good. Looking forward to Sydney though, I'm there for a week in a hostel called The Pink House. So my opinion of Melbourne was, at this time of year, quite cold but a really beautiful city with great transport links and plenty to do. Just wish Joseph was here with me. Awww lol. I'll get used to it soon... I hope.
Friday 10th April 2009 Sydney
I arrived in Sydney earlier than I thought I would at 8.30pm. Eventually I found a taxi rank and got a taxi to take me to Kings Cross which is the red light district here, which is legal here, but it's also a party place which I wouldn't mind a bit of. Anyway, I eventually arrived at my hostel and my first impressions werent good. I was confronted with a message at the desk saying they'd "gone shopping" and would be back at 9.30pm so I waited in the lounge which was a mess. The kitchen was disugusting and then when I did eventually get my key to the room that was a disgrace. I was on the top bunk and I had to take off the previous persons linen and make my own bed which on the very high top bunk was harder than it may sound. Glad I arrived earlier. Periodically in the early night, people would come into the hostel with tanoys and tell everyone what offers they had on in their pubs. After a shower I decided to call it a night cause I was knackered from my long day travelling. At 3am I was woken up by two girls in the room pissed who although not arguing were shouting at the top of their voices. Eventually after a while, they b*****ed off. Oh, the joys. I woke up early at 8.30am and spoke with Joe on my skype phone when I left the hostel. That's another thing. My skype phone is out of range there and my net doesnt work. Yey. He kinda conviced me I should look for somewhere else to stay. I spent my morning getting the train to the circular quey and visiting the Sydney Opera House. Was weird visiting it on my own. Got a wee bit emotional thinking about the last time I was here and how much I wished I wasn't on my own to see it. No one to take my photo at it. Got some nice photos of it and the harbour bridge though. After that, I popped into Macdonalds to use their wifi and looked up the closest hostel to where I was at, bang in the middle, and it turned out it was just right round the corner from where I sat so I paid it a visit. I'm now staying in a 10 bedded female dorm for the week which is spacious. I visited the room which was empty at the time, expectant of arrivals so if I was quick enough I had my pick of what bunk I want so your right as hell, I raced all the way back to the hostel, got my money back, packed and raced back and got meself a nice lower bunk by the window. After I'd unpacked some of my things into my locker, I set out and explored the surrounding area. China town is just down the street so I went there and ended up going into Paddys Market which was actually an alrigt one. Got me some nice sunglasses for about £9.50 since Joe sat on my other ones hehe. After exploring some more shops I decided to call it a night and went back to my hostel. I met a couple of the girls and quickly realised they weren't into drinking. What's with people??
Wednesday 15th April 2009 Sydney
I'm leaving Austalia on the 14th May 2009 and leaving for Thailand for 3 weeks with Joe on the 2nd of June for 3 weeks. Woohoo! Cannot wait. My time since I arrived in Australia hasnt been the easiest or happiest. I get up and go about my day in the city like a love sick zombie. Just wish I was back in New Zealand with Joe or at home. Travelling by yourself is hard. Ive not had the best luck meeting like minded people. Everyone's either skint, got plans next morning or don't like to go out much. Everyones mostly travelling on their own but they keep themselves to themselves. Mostly they're all foreign, a lot of asians that mix only with other asians. I dont mind being by myself, being left to my own devices but would like to go out at night occasionally. Then, last night, an american girl Id spoken to briefly a couple of times asked if I wanted to go out and so I said yeah. We got ready and went to an Irish bar and she moaned about the prices, which she did everywhere we went. Kept having to remind her we were in Sydney. We then decided to go to Oxford Street which is meant to be full of bars and clubs. The only bars we saw were empty and wouldnt let you in if you were wearing open toed sandals and we were both wearing them. Yey. We walked for ages and saw no good pubs and ended back on George Street where our hostel was, and didnt have much more luck. Dammit.The trains were also infrequent and didnt have many on so that sucked. The American girl was also getting on my nerves lol. We called it a night, absoluetely hopeless. I went to Darling Harour one day, but the weather here hasnt been too good. Its either been overcast or raining so when I got there Im afraid to say it didnt look that impressive and I knew, it was cause it was missing the sun. I visited the Chinese Gardens which were lovely and I went and saw a couple of movies by myself!!!! but it really wasnt that bad. Well, going to see Watchmen was painful. Do. Not. See. This. Move. Bad doesnt begin to describe it. All in all, I quite like Sydney but I don't think it feels like a safe city. Theres quite a lot of weirdos. I definetly felt safer in Melbourne. I'm not going to climb the bridge because it wouldn't be the same looking down on dull, grey Sydney rather than the beautiful one we see in all the pictures. And its a lot of money. I also went to Manly, a totally over rated beach. Again, the sun was hiding so it wasn't that great but a nice enough ferry ride over and back.
At the moment, I'm counting down my days until I go home. The only reason I decided to come to Australia the longest was cause I was meant to be working. I wasn't really looking forward to it, and when I look at my Oz book it doesnt excite me. I'm heading to Byron Bay in a couple of days, where my skype phone doesnt work :( so if you want to contact me, here are my details. I'll also be checking my email regularly so email me and leave a comment here!!!!
My normal OZ sim number which I will have on me until I leave and is free for me to receive phone calls from you is as follows. Before you phone me though, go to the following link and jot down the number to call before you enter mines and it'll give you a cheaper rate from BT landlines.
www.0044..co.uk/cheap-international-calls.htm
0061 421012284
Here is my skype number. This will only work in Sufers Paradise and Brisbane.
0061 433163508
Lots of love, Claire xxx
Monday 20th April 2009
The day before I left for Byron, I took the two hour train ride to the Blue Mountains which were nice. Took half an hour to walk there and I stayed like 15 minutes lol. When you take your photos theres not much else to do. Were pretty nice though. Next day, I caught my bus at 7am and completed my 13.45 hour bus journey to Byron Bay. The first 10 hours werent too bad but after that, I was aching badly. As we neared Byron, there was this huge lightening storm and when we arrived it was pissing it down. I was raged cause the free bus pick up had come and gone leaving us there. They hadnt bothered to wait. Asses. So, I kicked up hell with reception and got the bus to come back, they actually expected us to walk in the pissing rain. Idiots. When I arrived in my 10 bedded dorm at The Aquarius, there were two pissed girls passed out in their beds having puked up in the toilet and bathroom. Lovely. They'd been passed out since 7pm. I passed them the next day and they literally looked 16. Next day, the sun was shining and a girl I met in the dorm called Miranda from Holland wanted to go to the beach with me. It was good cause she was able to show me around. But, really, there's not much to Byron at all. It seems to be like a big circle then you're back at your hostel. So, we chilled on the beach for a while until it got a bit chilly. When the cloud goes over the sun, it doesnt bring relief it gives you goosebumps! Quite cold at night here. Later, after speaking to Joe and Mum on Skype, I got ready, put on my new dress I bought and met Miranda in the bar with a load of people she'd met waiting and we went out in the town. Had a good night. We were in this pub where there was this Australian band playing reggae music. Everyone was totally into it. Was quite funny to see. Think it's funny cause everyone looks spaced out. On the street at night, theres tonnes of buskers totally high as a kite. I saw this old couple, he was playing the guitar and singing extremely bad and she was playing the harmonica terribly. Was sad and funny at the same time. They were spaced out. Late fifties, early sixties and still high as kites. People are dancing on the street, the rapping busker was a particularly funny one. Just weird. We then ended up in this club called Cheeky Monkeys which I didnt like much. Had all this dance music s***e which I totally hate. The dance floor was totally weird, there wasnt one for a start, it was like pyramids of podiums that people stood and danced on opposite the other pyriamid. Weird. Next day, I woke up and I was sick with the cold. It'd been coming on for a few days with a cough but now Ive got the full works. I should have just stayed in bed yesterday but I somehow summoned the strength to get ready and go out for a while. Felt crap for it. So, today, its overcast and windy (yey) and I've been mostly in bed resting up with my snotty nose.
Hope everyones good :) xxx
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