Yesterday was a bit of a downer. Without turning into a moderen day Holden Caulfield, I'll try and give a balanced account of the day.

Emma left this morning, getting up at half 5. I was awake and couldn't sleep so i got up aswell. I got a bad first impression of her when we met on the bus but spending time with her allowed her to grow on me. Sad to see her go as it also meant that i was pretty much by myself now. I watched Barca walk all over Celtic and then hauled my ass up to Kings Cross with 30kgs on my back. Blazing heat. I took a wrong turn and ended up in Darlinghurst which i thought was quite a nice area, much different to downtown sydney. Everyone seemed very friendly and smiled a lot. Then I realised that nearly everyone there was a bloke in short shorts. Turns out Darlinghurst is gayer than a suitcase full of pink dresses. My boyish good looks and the fact I was wearing a coral pink tank top didn't help matters as I attracted a bit more attention than I wanted. I used to spend a lot of time in the Marais in paris which was super gay but this was gay in 30 degree heat. I made tracks but hope to nip back to check out Bill Granger's restaurant later. Doubt I'll be able to eat there but never mind. Anyways so I got to the hostel in Kings Cross and the room was a bit of a dump. Massive comedown after base. All the salt I bought had spilled in my bag. I quickly packed a day sack and got out and back into the city. Went for a thai in a food court and then wondered aimlessly round the city centre. I think my problem with Sydeny is that it just isn't as good as Melbourne. Despite that, I can't deny that Sydney is utterly iconic and some of the views kinda take your breath away, especially on the ferry back from Manly. I skulked around a few shops (books are very expensive!!) and chatted to a few shop assistants who didn't have any brilliant recommendations as to what I should do although there was a hot shop assistant in French Connection who smiled at me and made me feel marginally better. Pathetic really. I had had a text conversation with miles early on and his brother, marcus had gotten in touch via email and offered up some wicked advice as to what I could go and do on the cheap. Had I not been so tired I would have headed off back to manly and explored some of the other beaches.

As the day wore on i grew increasingly wary of returning to Kings cross and went on panic runs to try and find another hostel to stay in. Everywhere was booked up. I made my way back up to Kings Cross in what was probably quite a bad mood. I got into the room and met 2 girls who were staying there. Seem quite nice. One of them is french so I said a couple of sentences before unpacking my bag. Steeped out of the door and realised why Sydney is sometimes called Sin City. Pigalle on heat. Drugs, booze, prostitutes on tap. Very loud and brash. It made me cringe and wonder what the f*** I was doing up there. Is this what travelling is about ? I'm not against hedonism but this seemed a bit ridiculous. I grabbed a Subway and ate it outside the hostel like a tramp. Got back into the room and the Estonian girl whom I had met earlier and her mate where there. i don't know if they were arguing or whether gruff male tones make it worse, but Estonian sounds like lots of pigs dying in a pit. I tried to get some sleep (11pm) but the rest of the room woke me up when they came in. I then woke up again atam by shed loads of people rolling out of clubs and bars or the brothels that they were being serviced in. (I don't know if there really any brothels. perhaps I'm being overly presumptious because I was bitter over how god awful kings cross was). Didnt wake up again til 8.15.

Soundtrack to yesterday(shuffle on ipod) was quite fitting: Subways, ACDC in the morning, Phoenix and Led Zepp in bad mood then Foo Fighters and Audioslave in angst .

This morning just ambled down to Paddy's market which was rubbish then mooched around like a stray dog. Really nice day though and the park looks especially enticing. I might grab some lunch and go to the botanical gardens and read my book. I'm so cool! A+tard.