Sydney Part 1

G'day Mate, No worries!

The flight was about 8 hours from Singapore. I was soo tired from my last night out with the group. We went to bed at about 5.00 in morning or so, and had to wake up by 9 to get our free brekkie! That would have suited me fine because the obvious answer was to sleep on the plane, which would also have compensated for the 2 hours time travel into the future of the Australian timezone...but... I could not sleep one wink! I ended up watching movies (which were quite good actually) for the whole flight because the plane was so uncomfortable to sleep in.

At 0500 hours A.m, 22/04/2007, flight BA 015 landed on time in Sydney Australia aiport. I was shattered, but was excited too at the concept of a whole new adventure beginning all over again, and the 5th country boarder I had passed in 1 month. Thanks to this slight adrenaline high I managed to pick myself up enough to reclaim my 16kg Backpack and pass through customs. On the other side I waited in anticipation and hope that Dave had no delays and would be able to find me easily enough in the maze of such unknown territory to us as of yet, which was Sydney airport. He turned up 10 minutes later with no problems other than those of sleep deprivation, problems identical to mine.

A very blurry sign, (tiredness and bad eyesight combined) pointed the way towards the train station. Just before purchasing a ticket towards the Sydney Central Station, a man came up to Dave and myself holding something in his hand. The stranger explained that he had a flight to Singapore that day and so could not make use of the objects clutched his hand. He handed over two tickets allowing full access of the public transport including Bus, Ferry and of course train, valid until the 24th which happened to be my departure date from Sydney. Perfect! Good start I thought.

When we arrived at our train stop in Central station, I felt like a true Backpacker for the first time so far. I hadn't showered in 24 hours or more, I was sweaty from the plane and now from carrying my backpack through a huge city I had no idea how to navagate in, all on 4 hours sleep out of 48. Clearly all I wanted was a bed! Like I said before, I really felt that I was now of true Backpacker status and not that of someone on a guided adventure tour!

After some map and acommodation details reading, Dave and I discovered the location of the hostel was five minutes walk around the corner. The acommodation was called the Wake Up Hostel. It became immediately obvious when I walked into the deja vu like, funky hip happening place, that with a name like Wake Up, it was a sister hostel to the Hang Out in Singapore. This place was even more modern tho, with 30 computers, an ATM machine, vending machines, cafe and a Bar all on the ground floor! Once I was successfully checked in and they had eventually found a bed for Dave at 6.15 in the morning, we went to put our bags in our separate rooms for a well needed snooze!

It seemed that all of our miraculous luck from over the past 3 weeks was beginning to run out! To my shock, there were 8 fast asleep Backpackers in bunks, in the dark with their posessions everywhere over the room and certainly not much actually in their bags! So that was it, no bed. I could dump my bags off in there if I was quiet and didnt wake the total strangers up at 6.30 in the morning, but I could not sleep until one of them had checked out at the compulsory time of 10.00 and til the maids had changed the sheets and pillow case at 12.00! I was feeling a bit paranoid too about leaving my unsecured bag in a room with 8 strangers, this was my first time sharing in a dorm so far and I wasn't in the best mood for trying something new and a bit scary for the first time. Five and a half hours to burn until I could physically lay my head down to catch up with my already drifting off brain!

I met Dave downstairs and we decided that the opportunity could be put to good use...an early start on sight seeing! Trying to engage our brains that morning to organise where to head first on our map and how we would get there, was like kicking a frozen computer and shouting at it to work again...useless! We eventually decided to try Darling Harbour. After catching a bus using our free travel card, it became apparent to us both that the ride took about 1 minute, but Darling Harbour on the map compared to where we started looked very far. Obviously the map and tourist attractions were on a very small scale and were easily walkable, so Dave and I could keep up our walking tradition from weeks gone by and burn time whilst at it. We quickly saw the fish market on the short walk to Darling Harbour.

In Darling Habour there was no life, it was more apparent than ever to us, as to how early in the morning it still was. The sight of the place was nice, except, what I was actually seeing through my glasses lens still seemed tarnished somewhat, tarnished with an overcast, cloudy view of the harbour, with a cool and breezy wind to accompany it, also with my fading enthusiasm generally from lack of sleep, my seriously deteriorating eye vision added yet more of a fuzzy blur, that no lens prescription could ever fix, to the already discoloured, outlook of the famous Australian city of Sydney, looking through the thick, dark layers of my now deeply stained glasses lens!

The use of English Lit was for you Nanny, Mum told me you liked reading these, X

In Darling Harbour, there was however a light, gleaming through the layers of grime on my dirty lens, was a saviour, in the shape of a Huge Yellow...M!

Ironically, the greasy, fatty, dirty, disgustingly gorgeous fast food in the form of a Mcdonalds Breakfast served with a strong black coffee and sugar, was the only thing up to the task of making me feel human again and wiping the layers of doubt off of my filthy glasses lens, allowing me to see clearly once again!

The rest of the time til 12 was spent walking miles as usual, seeing as many sites as possible. By 11.30 we had ticked off most of the main sites on the map, including Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Botanical Gardens, Darling Harbour, Fish Market and a few more small ones too.

At a few mins past 12, we arrived back at the Wake Up, which was precisely the opposite of our intentions! My bed had not yet been made up with fresh clean sheets as I was told they would be, but at least there was no one in it. The dorm was still full of 7 sleeping Backpackers. I started back towards the lift, heading for 5 floors down to reception in search of clean sheets..I didn't make it as far as the lift door before I turned back and launched myself into this slept in bed. I don't think I even need to explain myself for why I couldn't make the walk!

Dave and I had agreed to meet at 3.30, so we would be able to sleep that night. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful as it drizzled with rain, we jus took time looking round again til dinner. After home cooked spag bol, we went to bed properly for an early night hoping that sunshine and a brighter outlook would greet us in the morning.

Sydney Second Day Coming soon.