Greetings from Brisbane...

I will start where we left off last time, which is Bondi Beach near Sydney. After our first dismal night in Sydney centre we got a bus to Bondi Beach. We stayed in a hostel that had a brilliant view over the beach. We had a few hours on the beach and rented some body boards, but even though it was sunny, it was fairly chilly. We usually spent evenings having jugs of beer at our hostel and choosing one of their $6 meals. We also found a place that had $5 pints of Guiness, so we drank there a couple of nights and heckled the different musicians who played.

Bondi Beach is only half an hour away from Sydney centre on the bus, so we weren't too far away from some culture. We saw the Opera House and the Bridge. They are nice. Although $179 for the climb is a lot of money. We just went up one of the pylons for about $10, and got some pretty nice views. We also sought out the 2 oldest pubs in Sydney (They argue over which ones oldest), and had a beer in each to decide which was best...one of them smelt of wee. Jamie was fascinated by the oldest house in Australia, which we found after a long hike around Sydney. It was just an old house with a drain. The Sydney Contemporary Art Gallery was free so we decided to have a look. It was the worst decision. Conceptual art is rubbish. So after a day of culture we still hadn't finished all the culture and went back for more another day. We went to the Crime Museum which had a special beer exhibition which told the story of drinking in australia, and the Sydney Museum which had a lot of pictures...

We then flew to Byron Bay. A bit warmer now, we could lie on the beach and do some more body boarding. However the waves at Byron Bay were ridiculous. They were huge, the biggest ones would tower over your head when you are just chest deep in water. We saw a rainbow. The new Indiana Jones was released on the 22nd so we went to see it, and were front of the queue singing the theme. We spent a lot of time at a rubbish club called 'Cheeky Monkeys'. We spent a lot of time there because it did cheap meals, it was quite 'happening'. However one night we were drinking with a few guys from our hostel and were on our way to a different place called the beach hotel or something like that. Suddenly this minibus drove along with a guy hanging out the door shouting 'hey guys, get on the bus to cheeky monkeys'. This caused a lot of excitement so we all dived onto this bus and ended up at that stupid club...again.

Without prior knowledge or planning we decided to get a bus to 'Surfers Paradise'. We hadn't heard of the place but was told is was good. So we stayed a couple of nights in this very strange city of towering hotel skyscrapers mere metres from the beach. Our first night was a large organised club crawl which, for $30, got us free entry and a free drink at 4 clubs, bus ride, glow stick and a straw hat. We were also promised free pizza at every venue...this was not true. So we got back at about 5am. On the way home we saw a car that had crashed into a rent-a-car shop window, by a drunk. Very funny.

The next day we got up after a few hours sleep and went to Dream World, a theme park a short bus ride away, with a few guys from our hostel. We spent a very pleasant day being upside down and spinning around. That night we all went out for a curry and Darius and I had Kangaroo. Nice. We then bought about 9 litres of wine for 10 quid (its called 'goon' for some reason) and played some drinking games.

Today we have a 'goon-over' and have arrived in Brisbane, although for only 2 days as on the 28th we are off to NZ...hooray.

Love

JDJ