12/9/10

Woke up at 5:30 am and showered and got ready for go catch my flight. Everything went pretty smooth and I made it to the airport with plenty of time. I still did not know where I was going to stay yet at in Sydney I had a voucher for a free nights accommodation from a tour package I bought thought I never called to see if they would have anything open for that night I needed. I waited this long I figured I could wait until I arrived in Sydney. The flight went just fine and was on time, I slept the entire flight since I am pretty sure I was out before take off and was nearly awake for the landing. The flight is not very long at around an hour but I still found this to be somewhat amazing. In Sydney I got my backpack from the baggage claim and then went over to call up the hostel to see if they had a bed for me. I was in luck and the guy on the phone was helpful as I told him I wanted to use my voucher and asked if I could check in early which he said was fine on both accounts. He said my voucher was good for an eight share room but for no extra cost he put me in a six share room. I had a feeling that this place was going to be a dive but I did not care that much. I was right the place was a bit of a hole and also located in a part of town I had never gotten to in my first visit. This part of town is called Kings Cross and is the seedy red light district of the city. Oh well at least I had a place to stay. It was still early at around noon and I wanted to go and see the Bondi Beach area of Sydney but I was not sure how to get to that part of the city. I ended up getting a ticket on one of the hop on hop off double decker bus tours and it was good for the city tour and the Bondi tour. I walked the beach at Bondi and checked out the area a little. It was not too great out for the weather people were out on the beach but it was a very young crowd. They also were doing some kind of surf clinic for kids which was neat to see. The rest of the tour on the bus was OK but not great. I did not care much for the tour and I did both of the tours but besides seeing more of the city then I could have covered in a day on foot I am not sure I would do it again. The rest of the day was pretty chill and I meet some of my roommates who were like 19 years old from the UK and drinking goon. I went to bed at a decent time since I needed to be up early to catch my flight out to New Zealand. I took the shuttle bus from the airport and I bought the return ticket to try and save a few bucks. The lady working the Information desk where the shuttle tickets were bought was not helpful at all......she was chatting on the phone and stopped for a minute to sell me a ticket and I told her I had an early flight out and I wanted to arrange the morning pick up now. She told me I could do that once I was checked into my hostel and they would take care of that. When I checked into the hostel I asked the guy at reception if I could arrange my return shuttle and that my flight left at 6am. He told me that the shuttle did not start until 5am so I would need to get a cab to the airport. I WAS HOT!!! I wanted to go back and chew out the lady and get a refund.