Bondi Rescue!

Once I’d had enough of the city I took the bus to Bondi to stay in Surfside Backpackers. The great thing about staying in Bondi is that you have the best of both worlds- you can go to the beach but you can also take a 30 minute bus ride into the city. And it doesn’t have the problem of having to get a ferry like Manly does. The beach itself looks a lot smaller than it does on television; some people scoff at it being too touristy, but I’m a tourist and I loved it. The white sandy cove has a pavilion with juice bars, toilets and restaurants for the tourists, and often you’ll see them filming Bondi Beach Rescue. On my first day in Bondi I was lying down basking in the heat when all of a sudden there was a big commotion. “SHARK ATTACK” I heard someone say as thousands of holidaymakers and Sydneysiders ran across the beach to see what the fuss was about. A big crowd was gathered round the lifeguard’s tent along with TV cameras and sound-men and I was so curious I ran over too. As I peered over people’s shoulders I expected to see a bloody bitten off leg or someone passed out from a jellyfish sting, but instead there was a small stubby little man wearing a mankini. Yes people will do anything to get on Bondi Beach Rescue, and this guy was dressed as Borat. In Europe, exposure on a beach is no big deal, but in Australia of course he was escorted immediately off the beach by officials because of his indecent exposure. Bondi is a great place to watch the beautiful people on the beach, or take a stroll and look in the surf shops or buy some jewellery in the Bondi Markets. The big thing to do in the day is do the walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee which takes about 2 miles and is about 7km. The walk takes you to the smaller coves of Tamarama Beach and Bronte and then through a cemetery oddly enough right on the coastline. Is it me or does that seem even freakier to have a cemetery on a clifftop next to the sea? It wasn’t something I expected on my walk but I suppose If you died you might want to always have a view of the sea. I must say there were some ornate monstrocities- people with family vaults and tombs, with too much money if you ask me. I felt sorry for the poor buggers with the average tombstones laying next to someone with a gold statue and a vault. The walk then takes you to Clovelly and Gordons Bay, and finally Coogee where you’ll want to pass out from the heat and probably get the bus back. That’s what I did.

There’s not much to do at night in Bondi, you can go for a drink in Iceberg’s or Bondi Hotel, and there’s a cool bar on the corner called Ravesi’s, but everything tends to close rather early. So the main party is in the hostel and often it would spill out onto the beach. You can go on a night out in Bondi Junction though- I only did that once when the hostel had a free bus which took us to ‘The Gaff’ where we were plied with free drinks and I ended up dancing on the bar and joining a wet T-shirt competition. I did it for the money- they were offering $200 to the winner and I had taken no money out with me; all I wanted was $2 to get the bus home. My two Swedish roommates entered it with me and the rest is a blur- I remember us all being herded into this poky room and being handed a t-shirt and a pair of scissors- we were like pieces of meat going to the slaughter. I fashioned mine into what can only be described as a belt and we were plied with champagne to make us all a bit more slutty. I remember being paraded onto the stage and then looking down at literally a room full of men, ive never seen so many men in all my life. When we were announced by the DJ he asked Olivia what country she was from- “These girls are from Sweden!”. Well I didn’t dispute it with him, Sweden was definitely a better selling point than England.

I spent most of my days lazing around on the beach in the sunshine, and drinking goon in the hostel at night. Surfside is just one of those hostels that you can never leave and where you’ll make the bestest friends you ever had. It’s been known for people to stay there for months, and I think the drug dealer that they put up for free there has been around for a couple of years. I can’t really tell because he’s so messed up you can’t really tell what he’s saying. I’ve read some pretty bad reviews about it online, and I’d heard one or two stories about people paying and then having seen their room walking straight back out again, but you don’t stay in Surfside for the luxury. You stay in Surfside for the party. The hostel itself is on Hall Street just off the main drag, and you hardly notice it’s there because it’s down this little alleyway with a metal gate to keep the party off the street. Inside it’s got a surf theme with painted mermaid murals on the wall and the rooms are basic with a set of communal showers. They only have a small number of rooms on the one floor, but if they’re fully booked (which they usually are) they’ll usually let you sleep in the TV room. Most of the time it’s pretty quiet in the day and then people come out to play at night, it gets pretty rowdy and I feel sorry for the person who has to clean up our shit. It looks like there’s been a goon bag massacre at 2am when everyone’s cleared off to the beach.

Read more...

Sydney in a Day (It'll Cost You Nothing)

It’s reasonably cheap to get from Sydney airport to the centre- I took the Skytrain which cost $15 one way but you can get a taxi quite cheaply too. I was staying at Base which is a few steps from the Town Hall and probably the most central hostel. Base as it turns out is a chain of hostels, and partly for that reason I’m not too keen on them. They’re everywhere up the East Coast and in New Zealand, but they’re rather impersonal and you don’t meet people that easily.

I arrived at 8am in the morning but wasn’t allowed to check in till 2 o’clock so they told me I could leave my bag in the luggage room downstairs. There wasn’t a lift though and the lady on reception watched me struggle downstairs with my bag without an offer of a helping hand. So at 8am I set out to explore the city- my first stop was Darling Harbour where I sat with a coffee and enjoyed the early morning sunshine. It was such a peaceful part of the city and is a great place to watch the sun shimmer on the water and observe the shiny skyscraper skyline behind it. Around the harbour are lots of bars and restaurants, Cargo being the favourite club by night. There is also the Syndey Aquarium and the imax movie theatre, as well as Skycity the casino, which trust me you'll end up in when you run out of money at the end of your trip . I wandered over to the Chinese Garden of Friendship which is a small piece of tranquillity in a bustling city. The garden was intitiated by the local Chinese community to celebrate Australia’s 1988 bicentenaryis a scaled down version of a private garden from the Zhang Dynasty era 3000 years ago. It was designed and built by Chinese lanscape gardeners and architects and contains the four key elements of fire, water, plants, stone and architecture. The landscapes feature waterfalls, mountains, lakes and forests. If you have some time, why not stop for some chinese tea and a spot of lunch in the cafe there.


I walked up past the Town Hall towards Hyde Park and the Botanical Gardens. Hyde Park is Sydney’s central open green space and was actually named after Hyde Park in London and was originally a racecourse and sporting ground. The tranquil setting is popular among office workers who want some fresh air, and time out from the concrete jungle. The central pathway links the Archibald Fountain and the War Memorial. The War Memorial is a 1934 art deco tribute to the Anzac soldiers who fell in the first world war. The memorial stands 30 metres above the pool of rememberance and there is a photograph exhibition underneath the building. My favourite place to relax is the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were first established in 1816 and are home to over a million specimens of plants and flowers.


I made my way down Macquarie Street to the famous Opera House and since my tummy was rumbling I decided to stop for a sandwich. "I'll have the ham salad" I said, thinking I would receive a ham sandwich with a little bit of lettuce and a slice of tomato. "Do you want everything? She replied. Well I watched in amusement as she piled betroot, carrot, lettuce, tomato and cucumber into my sandwich and piled it like it was a doorstop. It turns out the Aussies love their betroot and shredded carrot and they are the two staple ingredients of all sandwiches and salads.

Like many things in Australia the Opera House looked smaller in real life, but it looked beautiful against the bright blue sky with the sun reflecting off the many ‘shells’ covered in glazed off white tiles. It was in fact designed by Jorn Utzon from Denmark and its construction became almost as controversial as the design. In 1956 the New South Wales Government announced an open-ended international design competition and appointed an independent jury. The competition aimed to attract the best design talent in the world so didn't specify design parameters or set a cost limit. The main requirement of the brief was a design for two performance halls, one for opera and one for symphony concerts. Supposedly rescued from a pile of discarded submissions, Jørn Utzon’s winning entry created great interest and the NSW Government’s decision to commission Utzon as the sole architect was an unexpected and bold move.

After admiring the opera house and joining the throngs of people in taking hundreds of photos of the same thing, I walked along circular quay and up towards The Rocks. Australia doesn’t have much in the way of history, but the Rocks is where Sydney first began. In 1788, Australia's first European settlers-British convicts (POMs) and their overseers-claimed the land and built their camp atop the sandstone cliffs.

The Rocks eventually grew from an open-air gaol into a vibrant port community. It's a village which has a colourful past-filled with tales of rough gangs and gritty life can still be traced in the many surviving buildings from the last two centuries. But today the renovated former warehouses, sailors' homes, and dens of iniquity house a unique mixture of fine restaurants, boutique shops, and galleries. Cadmans Cottage, built in 1816, is the oldest surviving residential building in Sydney and was occupied by Governor Macquarie's coxswain, John Cadman and his family. It was an official building associated with the surrounding government wharves and shipyard. The water police took over Cadmans cottage in 1847 and later it was used by the adjacent sailors home. Restoration began in 1972.

Walking around Sydney is the best way to do it, and if your legs aren't too tired try walking past the Opera House and round the bay to Mrs Macquarie's chair. From here you'll get the best view of Sydney, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the same shot. This chair was carved out of a rock for Governor Lachlan Macquarie's wife as she was known to go and sit in this spot to enjoy a panoramic view of the harbour. Aussies are really into keeping fit and you'll see .

So in one day, by 3pm I had seen all the most important sights Sydney has to offer. Now all that was left to do was party. Base has a bar attached to it called Scary Canary and it was ladies night. Ladies night is the most biased night known to man, but I wasn't complaining. Within one hour I managed to drink 5 'champagne' and raspberry cordials and shut the door on my finger in the bathroom. I now have a nice black mark on my fingernail to prove it. An invention in Australia that hasn't quite made it to any other country I have been to yet is the Buzzer Device Thingy. When you order your food you get a Buzzer Device Thingy which you rest on your table and wait for it to buzz and light up. It's a nerve racking experience waiting for it to buzz and flash- you know it's going to do it but you don't know when. You stare at it like you do when you're waiting for your phone to ring, but when it finally does buzz you jump up with fright. It gets you every time. When The Buzzer Device Thingy buzzes and flashes you have to go an collect your food from the kitchen window, which I think is a rather lazy service, but I suppose it saves them from having to pay waiters and waitresses.
When I lay in my 6-bed dorm trying to get to sleep, someone suddenly started talking in Swedish. It took me a few minutes to realise that the girl below me was in fact talking in her sleep, whats more she was grinding her teeth and clutching a teddy bear; it was like she was possessed. Suddenly the German sat bolt upright. "Das ist gud" he said, before laying back down. Before long it was like a mexican wave of sleep talking in different languages. French, German, French again, Swedish, grinding of teeth, German again....they could have formed a band and had a hit single. It was ever so slightly creepy....

Read more...

Day 3: Kings Canyon and Heart Attack Hill

If enough people haven't already died from climbing Uluru, you can also have the opportunity to hit the bucket on Heart Attack Hill. We had to start the Kings Canyon walk very early in the morning to avoid the sizzling heat of the afternoon, and to get to the top you must climb this hill, which in fact is more like a mountain. Puffing and panting we climbed up the steps to see the breathtaking view over the canyon and Hello Kitty girl began to cry, it was just too much for her. Several people have had heart attacks as the name would suggest and our guide drummed into us for the millionth time, "You need this much water (pointing to a litre bottle) otherwise I won't let you go."

I was extremely peeved that I had to wear trainers- I'm a bare foot, even-if-you-get-glass-in-your-feet, kind of girl. I try to wear flip flops in winter in the UK and always regret it when I get muddy black water splashed up my leg. Azza said we had to wear closed shoes in case we stubbed our toe or something and the company was liable, then he would lose his job; stupid health and safety world we live in. So you can imagine how he flipped when he noticed one of the Japanese people wearing flip flops- another result of miscommunication. So by this point my feet were so sore and so blistered I wanted to rip my shoes off- I would have gladly paid the Japanese boy to remove his shoes and let me walk around with size 9 boats on my feet.

Once we were at the top the walk was pretty easy and we enjoyed the breathtaking view from the top into the valley below. I was a bit grumpy because of my enclosed feet and didn't really feel like having a photo posing awkwardly, but the Germans insisted "You have to make a photo, come on, stand there...."

Read more...