We woke, watched tele for half an hour (another massive luxury) in a comfy clean room. We didn't have a clue what the weather was like outside (no windows) so we took a wild guess, packed up and headed for the hostel we'd booked. On the way we walked through Belmore Park where kids were doing karate kid moves with their sensei watching... There were funny looking birds in the park too with huge beaks and homeless people who had turned the benches into fortes. It looked like people had popped their rubbish on top throughout the night too.
Fingers crossed our hostel is a little better than that.... We'd booked into a 10 bed room in the Stratton Hotel off Castlereagh Street. It was $24pppn... We couldn't check in til 1 so we headed to Paddys market next to China town. I love markets! This was super super cheap (in comparison to shops in Australia). We bought nuts; salted, unsalted, a mixed bag... Nuts galore! - we've both given up chocolate for Lent so we look for snacky alternatives. Lee's quite casual with what he deems chocolate?!
It was dinner time so we went to Chinatown. There were people standing outside trying to coax you in....like on your holidays! We settled for the Golden Harbour Restaurant. It was fab. We didn't know what was going on at first. People who worked there kept coming to our table with different food asking if we'd like bean curd, prawn dumplings, seaweed, pork.... Then we realised its like yo sushi on a larger scale and Chinese. We took a few dishes, they stamped whether it was small, reg or large which determined the price. Perfect when you've not a clue what the food is because you get to see it first. If your in Sydney go there!
It was less than $20 for us both!
It was 1pm so we headed back to check our bags in. Before we headed around the corner to the hostel we used the Internet for a bit to confirm the relocation camper we'd booked from Sydney to Cairns. We booked an outbound flight from Cairns to Brisbane too so we were all sorted and stress free! We got to our hostel, the reception and wifi is a separate building, we walked up the stairs (4 flights, no lift, I carried my own bag!) we met a corridor with doors. The majority were rooms then a kitchen, showers and bathroom. There were some people sitting in the landing area as we walked in so we said hiya then I noticed a cockroach climbing on the table behind one of the lads so I informed him. He said 'oh'. It made me shiver and prob pull a bit of a eee face which prompted the girl sitting next to him to say 'you'll get used to it' I straight away told her 'I will never get used to that?!' - what the hell?! Why get used to it? That shouldn't be the norm? We're in Sydney?
We threw our bags in then headed for a free city tour. The tour group give you a free tour and a map and it run twice daily! 10:30am & 2:30pm.
We met the free guide at the start point which is between St Andrews Cathedral and the town hall, on George street. we followed her around whilst she told us about the word Eternity that's written in places around Sydney, the convict story/ Hyde park barricks, rum hospital, Martins place were Superman returns (Lee would like me to make a point of saying it was only Superman returns that was filmed here) and the Matrix was filmed (and its the financial district) oh and it's where people go to wave in the background on morning tele. She showed us the clock that beheads a king every hour (can't remember which king), and a talking dog.... Apparently Ireland sent the dog along with a huge statue of queen Victoria, for free, to Sydney to get rid of it! We'd walked past a lot of the things that she told us about yesterday and hadn't noticed them.
When she got to the harbour we cut off and headed for the rocks again. There was a free band covering U2 in the Orient so we had a little drink there then spotted a German pub called Lowenbrau Keller. After a drink in there we found a lovely bar on the quay that had a meal deal so we eat fish and chips then headed back to the hostel.
There were 2 Chinese lads in our room and a couple from Blackburn. We had a chat then we all went bed. The couple had work in the morning and one of the lads had an interview... Night