"Holy Shit, I'm in Sydney!"

Yep, that’s exactly how I felt all weekend.

Because of Autonomy Day last Friday, I wasn’t able to take a long weekend trip, so last minute on Friday evening me and 2 other friends decided that we’d go to Sydney for the remainder of the weekend. So I woke up around 4:45 A.M. on Saturday morning to shower and pack my backpack for the weekend. We caught the 6:00 train into town and then we caught the 6:30 train into Sydney. Sydney is only about a 2-hour drive south of Newcastle, but it takes a little bit longer on the train depending on how many stops it makes along the way. We made it into Sydney around 9:00 A.M. and the adventures began.

Since we spontaneously decided to go on this trip, we really weren’t as planned and prepared as we could have been. After stepping out of the train station, we soon realized that a map of Sydney might be kinda helpful. So after picking up a map, we were off and determined to see as much of Sydney in two days as humanly possible.

Sydney actually reminded me of Chicago in heaps of ways, but much less fast paced. I never knew this before, but Sydney has a public transportation train essentially exactly the same as the L in Chicago called the Monorail. However, the Monorail really only covers a small portion of the city, only has 2 lines, and doesn’t run past 10 P.M. Also, as opposed to the $2 fare of the L, this bad boy costs you a whopping $5. I’d rather walk… Sydney also has numerous different areas and neighborhoods each with a different look and feel to them. For the most part I thought that the city was very clean and I never once felt unsafe, even at night. Interestingly, I only saw 2 homeless people over the span of the entire weekend. I thought that was kinda odd. Like any big city, everything is extremely overpriced and expensive. I have to say, I think it was a low point in my life when I purchased a $10 foot long sub from the Subway in Darling Harbor. Also, much to my surprise, there are actually not very many Australians in Sydney. At least I didn’t see or meet many. One of the Aussies from my floor mentioned to me before I left how he and his mates like to play the game “Spot the Aussie” when their in Sydney. I now know exactly what he means… and maybe I’ll play next time? Anyway, for these reasons I’m actually really glad that I decided not to go to Uni there and I can just visit Sydney instead.

We began our day by taking a walk through the Hyde Park area (basically Sydney’s version of NYC’s Central Park ) which was absolutely gorgeous. We actually got to see the making of a car commercial being shot on the street right next to us, which I thought was pretty cool. Then we took a quick stop into the Art Gallery of New South Wales, but didn’t stay too long. Next we took a stroll through the Botanical Gardens and I couldn’t believe that there were just heaps of bats hanging in the trees. I had never seen a bat before and couldn’t get over how many were there. As we continued walking, from a distance across the water, I finally saw the site I’ve been waiting 19 years of my life to see: The Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Now up until this point I was obviously aware that I was in Australia but it was at that exact moment that I saw the bridge and Opera House, 2 huge iconic landmarks, that it just clicked in my mind….I AM IN AUSTRALIA.

So we made our way closer to the Opera House and I think I took a picture of it from every single angle humanly possible. We didn’t get to actually go into the Opera House, but I heard that they do $50 student rush tickets, so that might be something I would consider doing when I go back another time. So we continued to walk around the Rocks area and the Circular Quay, continuing to snap a ridiculous number of pictures of the Opera House and bridge. When we made it under the bridge we went to this cool outdoor flea market and then grabbed lunch nearby. I didn’t know this prior, but you can actually go up and walk along the Sydney Harbor Bridge, so we decided to do that. The bridge is about a mile long, so we walked all the way to the end and then had to turn around and walk back. Along the way we stopped at the Pylon Lookout which takes you up a bunch of steps and lets you view the city from a little bit higher and the views were absolutely amazing. I managed to talk my way into receiving the senior citizen discount for that one haha. As we were walking along the bridge on the way back, someone walking in the opposite direction suddenly grabbed my arm and yelled, “KIM!?” I didn’t see who the person was yet, and the first thought going through by head was, “Who the hell do I know in Sydney, Australia?” Well as I turned around to see, it turned out to be Alex, my supervisor for my internship in Newcastle. Nether of us mentioned to each other that we’d be in Sydney that weekend and even if we had, the chances of us running into each other are pretty slim to none. Once again… small world huh?

Next we decided to make out way over to the Darling Harbor area. This is the area where the Real World Sydney House is located, and I was actually really bummed that I didn’t get to see it. The area is heaps nice, with lots of restaurants and cafes along the water and also where the Sydney ferry cruises leave. It also has the largest movie theatre in the world! Next we walked back and explored the streets of the Central Business District around where the Sydney Central Train Station is. After walking all around that area, it was about mid afternoon so we decided to find a hostel to stay in for the night.

And so I will explain the hostel saga. Now a few friends of mine went to Sydney the weekend before and recommended that we stay at the Wake Up Hostel right next to the train station because it was super nice, clean, and they had a blast staying there. However, it cost about $38 to stay there a night for a 4-share dorm. Now I had my Australia travel book with me and we saw that there was another hostel right down the street that only cost $27 per person for a 4-share dorm. So in our minds, it was a clear choice that we would obviously go for the cheaper of the two. I mean a hostel is a hostel, right? WRONG.

The Maze Backpackers Hostel may quite possibly be the dodgiest place on earth. I now realize that there were numerous signs that should have sent us running out the door. However, after my experience at the Maze, I now feel that I can more intelligently choose hostels in the future, and I learned that sometimes the $10 extra is more than worth it.

You know you stayed at a dodgy hostel when….
1. The lobby is shitty. If the lobby is shitty, chances are your room WILL be shitty.
2. The couple standing in front of you in line requests to see a room before they pay and the person at the desk says, “we don’t do that….”
3. There are about 33 phones and cameras charging behind the front desk because the rooms don’t have outlets.
4. “NO REFUNDS” is posted about 100 times around the front desk.
5. Walking up the stairs to the room, there are signs around every corner reading, “BEWARE: There are thieves among us!!!!!”
6. The blanket-thing on your bed has numerous colored stains and looks like it hasn’t been washed in 30 years.
7. 2 of the 3 beds don’t even have sheets.
8. Your pillow feels like it has 10 cotton balls in it, if that.
9. The view from your rooms looks like this.
10. When you sit down on your bed, you can feel the springs of the mattress piecing into your ass.
11. Your 4th roommate in your 4-share dorm has actually been LIVING in that room for 3 months. And her stuff is scattered across the entire room. And smells bad.

After we actually got into our room and looked around, it was so gross that I actually turned to Natalie and said, “Do you wanna leave and go to Wake Up?” Well since I neglected to notice the 100+ signs reading “NO REFUNDS” it wasn’t really an option at that point. We decided to just suck it up and stay. Well since we really didn’t want to spend any more time at Maze then we had to, we quickly got ready and left for the night. First we went to a restaurant nearby named Shark Hotel (restaurants and bars in Oz are often called Hotels…kinda confusing). They had a Saturday deal where had $2 steaks, so for me to get a steak, mashed potatoes, and a drink it only cost me about $10 – an absolute steal in Sydney. I think that may have been my only GOOD meal since I’ve been in Oz.

Saturday night, as I lay in my gross, extremely uncomfortable bed, and listened to the sounds of our Swedish roommate snoring/moaning and the sound of about 50 Asian people wrestling in the room above us, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. But then I just thought, "I'm in Sydney right now... who cares." After I got back to Newcastle, I decided to look up the Maze Backpackers online to see what the reviews were like, just for shits and giggles. Well after searching, I immediately stumbled upon numerous reviews with headlines reading things such as: “DUMP,” “Don’t ever stay here!” “Never stay here, it’s horrible!,” and “Please do not stay here unless you are absolutely desperate.” New lesson: ALWAYS search hostel reviews online prior to staying in them….these were all quite accurate.

On Sunday morning, we woke up around 7, showered, and ran out of that hostel/hell hole as fast as possible. We decided to start our morning by walking back to the Darling Harbor area and going to the Sydney Aquarium because we heard it was awesome. They had a pretty decent student discount and we really enjoyed it. It was the last day for this SpongeBob Squarepants exhibit so there were heaps of kids running around everywhere. There were 2 different areas where you could walk in an underwater tunnel to look at everything which was pretty cool and great for photo ops. We didn’t do it, but for $10 extra you could actually feed sharks from a glass bottom boat. Anyway, we spent about 2 hours at the Aquarium, and then began our journey to Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach is in Bondi (pronounced bond-eye), a suburb of Sydney, and is Sydney’s most famous beach and well known for its amazing waves and surfing. And sure enough, while I was walking around freezing in my NorthFace, there were probably about 50 some guys out there surfing away. Somehow we managed to choose the one day out of the entire year to visit Bondi Beach to be the exact same day as The City 2 Surf Run in Sydney. The City 2 Surf Run is a 14km (8.5 miles) fun run sponsored by the Sun Herald newspaper, and is held in Sydney, Australia each year. Basically it is what it sounds like….participants start the run in the city’s central business district and end at Bondi Beach where they celebrate with barbie dinners. The race is one of the biggest running races in the world and attracts over 70,000 participants. So by the time we made it to Bondi, a good majority of runners were already there and the beach was basically just a huge party and there were heaps of people hanging out.

So after we scoped out Bondi Beaach for a little bit, we decided to spend the rest of our afternoon walking the coast of Sydney. The coastal walk is a self-guided walk along a path right along the coast of the beaches. It’s VERY popular among local joggers. The walk goes from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach (another popular beach south of Sydney) and you pass about 6 other small beaches along the way. It’s 6 kms long (almost 4 miles) and takes about 2 hours, that is if you don’t stop or take pictures. A girl who I sit next to in one of my classes is originally from Bondi and she told me that she use to have to do the walk for PE class every week in high school, which I thought was kinda funny. Now when Natalie originally mentioned that she wanted to do this walk, all she told me was that it was a walk along the beaches, was about 6km long, and it was suppose to be heaps gorgeous. Now to be honest, I really had no idea how far 6 kms was, and I thought to myself “well, gorgeous beaches are cool…let’s do it!” Well what Natalie neglected to tell me that this walk could almost sorta be called a hike. I was picturing in my mind walking along a level and straight path along the beach for a little bit. However, the walk is up a lot of cliffs, steps, uphill incline, twists, turns, and dips. At one point the path even takes you right through a huge cemetery, which was actually pretty cool and unexpected. Now don’t get me wrong, I genuinely loved the coastal walk and have never experienced anything like it before in my life; however, the combination of about 20+miles of walking the city of Sydney in 2 days not to mention the absolutely dreadful nights sleep I received the night before, about 2 miles or so into the walk everything kinda hit me at once and I was pretty exhausted. But I kept on trekking, and passed out on the beach for about half an hour when we finally made it to Coogee. Man, I say screw the gym, traveling is the way to get you in shape. Especially if you’re a cheapo like me and would prefer to walk 7 miles to Bondi than pay $4.80 for a bus fare. Needless to say, we did splurge and take the bus back…haha.

After grabbing dinner, we made out way back to the train station around 6:05, and were able to quickly buy our tickets and catch the 6:10 train back to Newcastle. At this point, we were all completely exhausted and looking forward to finally getting back to our own rooms. But you know how my life rolls, and the excitement of the weekend just couldn’t be over quite yet. We had only been on the train for about 30 minutes and we were still technically in the Sydney suburbs when the conductor came over the announcements and said, “The train will be stopping at the nearest train station in approximately 2 minutes. There has been a train fatality and everyone MUST evacuate the train immediately.” Train fatality? What?! So the train stopped and everyone got off and started walking up the platform looked extremely pissed off. I was so confused and had no idea what on earth was going on…so I just followed the crowed. The train station workers instructed us that we had to go up the platform and catch a bus which would transport us to another train station. Now a train from Sydney to Newcastle on a Sunday night probably has about 700+ people on it. So once we were finally able to get on a bus, it took about 25 minutes till it dropped us off at another train station where we had to wait outside for about another 30 minutes. It was here that we learned that apparently someone committed suicide and jumped in front of a train to kill themselves. It wasn’t actually the train that I was on, but one on the same line. So that’s why we had to get off and get bussed to the train station past the accident. So once we were finally able to board the train, it was completely packed and there was absolutely nowhere to sit. I was not too keen on the thought that we would have to stand in the train vestibule for the next 2 or 3 hours. Luckily a lady felt bad for us and asked another passenger to move her luggage off the seat so we could sit down. Thank God for nice people, aye? Well as we were almost home, we realized that we should check out the train schedule to get us from the Hamilton stop back to Uni. The conductor estimated that we’d arrive at Hamilton at approximately 10:00 p.m. Well the only trains going back to Warrabrooke (Uni) picked up at Hamilton at either 10:01 p.m. or 11:35 p.m. Now after all this commotion, there was no way on earth I was about to sit in the cold for another hour and half if we missed the 10:01 p.m. train. Well our train rolled into Hamilton at exactly 10:03 p.m. Now thankfully, as I mentioned in a previous post, train and bus timetables in Australia are a work of fiction. So as we stepped onto the platform, I could hear our 10:01 train rolling into the station 4 minutes late. So we SPRINTED, and I mean SPRINTED across the bridge to the other side of the tracks and got onto the train literally seconds before the door closed. Phew.

That pretty much concludes my weekend in Sydney. Sorry I’m a little bit behind on blog posts, but I’m catching up. I’ll update soon on my volunteer project from this past weekend as well as a few other things I’ve been up to. I’ll also post new pictures from Sydney ASAP.

Cheers!