Australia

Freek,Alex,Me,Remcon and Matthew at the front on Bondi Beach

A very very long day today.
Our flight wasn’t leaving till 8.30pm and we had to check out of the hostel at 10am so we put our backs into storage and the plan was to just hang around till about 5pm until our shuttle bus turned up. Alex and the rest of the guys though twisted my arm and dragged me off to Bondi Beach again although I was very grateful of this as it was better than sitting around all day, so I left Simon and Jill and went off to have some more fun with the rest of the guys at the beach. Unfortunatly it was soon time to go and I said my goodbyes to Alex, Freek, Remcon and Matthew (4 fantastic people who made my stay in Sydney a fantastic time and great laugh).
So then it was time to head to the airport and after to many hours to remember and crossing the date line yet again we made it to Hawaii where the next 10 days would be spent.

The alarm goes off at 6am and all I want to do is stay in bed although we have to get up as we have paid for our trip to the Blue Mountains today.
The coach driver picks us up at 7.30am and he turns out to be a great laugh although after talking to him along the way I think hes glad to see us as the rest of the party is full of people that hardly speak or understand English. First we head over to Sydney Olympic Park for a look around and it feels like a ghost town. Theres this massive park with all these stadiums around which was built especially for the Olympics and theres no one around at all, it all seems like a total waste of money and space to me.
After that we then drive down to Blue Mountains National Park where we get to see wild kangaroos and their babies running around which was something I wasn’t expecting to see although it was a great feeling. Next up we then went over to see the Blue Mountains although they isn’t actually any mountains but what you see instead is still worthwhile. Basically it’s abit of a rocky area but mainly forestry and with the heat and eucalyptus this is where you get a blue coloured haze from in the distance. After lunch we then drove over to a different area of the park where we got to see the 3 sisters and then went out on a fairly strenuous walk around the park where at the bottom of this steep hill we got to see the Worlds Steepest Train Ride. You had 3 options to get back to the top which were either, via the train, via a cable car or walking back. Alex and myself decided to walk back and even though it only took around 30 minutes it was still one hell of a steep climb to get back up.
At the top of the climb we had to wait around for about 40 minutes while we tried to locate some guy who managed to get lost along the way, the stupid thing being this imbecile was actually pissing about while the coach driver gave us directions on the correct way to go, typical of him to be the one to get lost. Eventually we tracked him down and then it was time to head back to the hostel and the long trip was actually a good laugh as Alex and myself spent it having a good laugh and joke with the 2 Italian woman on the bus.

Kangaroo at Blue Mountains National Park

Kangaroo at Blue Mountains National Park

Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains

Waterfall at Blue Mountains National Park

Three Sisters at Blue Mountains

The weather today is unreal and it gets as high as 40 degrees celsuis in the city centre.
Still not fully recovered from drinking to much the other night and a few late nights I just hang around the hostel and relax all day although Alex and myself book a trip to visit the Blue Mountains tomorrow.

Ouch my head. Hangover time and I still feel as sick as a pig and I haven’t got a clue what time we got in last night although I think it was around 3am. The worse thing is the plan today is to go to Bondi Beach and I really don’t feel like it at all although Alex and the rest of the guys wont take no for an answer.
Eventually around 1pm and another visit to the toilet for some reason I decide to join the others Alex, Freek, Remcon (2 dutch guys in our hostel) and Matthew (a german guy staying in our dorm) and head to the beach and im surprised I make it in one piece. After relaxing on the beach for awhile to recover from my hangover I eventually feel abit better and head into the sea for a swim which was fantastic.
Around 4pm we then all decide to head back and after a heavy night last night we just spend tonight relaxing around the hostel having a laugh and joke with the rest of the guys.

Bondi Beach

Me on Bondi Beach

Alex on Bondi Beach

Remcon and Freek

Matthew the big gentle german

Usual first day in a new city where its spent walking around to see what it has to offer and doing some sightseeing. After visiting the information centre and getting some leaflets on places to see and do we then walked down to the harbour and eventually then over the Sydney Harbour Bridge where we also got fantastic views of Sydney Opera House. Simon and Jill then decided to visit an Art Gallery so I made my way over to the Australian Museum although to be honest there wasn’t much to see there.
That night myself, Alex and Patrick a Canadian guy all went out to the pub for a few drinks and had a wild night and a great laugh although by the end it turned into a night where I had a few to many drinks and yet again had my head down the toilet for awhile and also crashed out on the hostel toilet floor again. When will I ever learn hahaha.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney City Centre

Sydney City Centre

Sydney Harbour Bridge

St Marys Cathedral

Sydney Tower

Yet another different country to fly to today although having said that we nearly didn’t make it. The flight wasn’t meant to be till 6.30pm so we booked a shuttle bus for 3pm so we would arrive with plenty of time to spare. Before that though to waste away a few hours we sat in the pub and played pool and had a few drinks and then had one last walk around before heading back to the hostel. The driver of the bus turned up around 2.30pm so seeings as we had nothing to do except hang around the hostel we got to the airport earlier than planned and within minutes we were damn glad we had arrived early because as we tried to check in they told us our flight had been cancelled 3 months ago. Now the strange thing is we actually went into a Quantas office 2 days ago to change Jill’s meal to vegetarian and they hadn’t told us anything about the cancelled flight at that time.
Then it was panic stations as there was a flight to Sydney (the last one of the day) that had room on it for us and was leaving in the next 15 minutes so we got our bags checked in and then had to run to the gate to catch our flight. Luckily for the Quantas staff things actually worked out for us because before that I was at boiling point and ready to give somebody a few stern words.
Anyway around 3 hours later we landed in Australia and got a bus to the hostel we were staying in for the next 5 days which was Eva’s Backpackers Hostel in Kings Cross. Within minutes of me dumping my bags in my room I met Alex a guy from Amsterdam who said he was then off to a football match to see Sydney play Melbourne. So without any hesitation when he asked me if I fancied joining him we found out where the game was being played and walked down to the stadium.
The tickets for the game were $18/£8.50 which compared to the matches in England is dirt cheap as it usually costs me £37 and once in the stadium I was pretty impressed with it. As the match kicked off I guess there must have been around 10,000 people in the stadium and it has a capacity of 40,000 people, however once we started talking to an Aussie guy he actually said there only used to be around 150-200 people watch them play and what happened was they merged several teams from Sydney together and then built a new stadium. As the game went on you could certainly tell the standard of football was pretty poor and you could also say that about the referee who seemed to forget what yellow cards were for especially when one player proceeded to virtually take someones head off with his boot. However you couldn’t say the fans were not passionate as even though there were not many here they certainly knew how to enjoy themselves, although im not sure why they have to proceed in throwing there beers cups full of beer up in the air when either someone scores or comes close to scoring, definitely a waste of good alcohol.
Into the second half and the game really exploded and the referee actually managed to find his yellow cards and I couldn’t believe the amount of dirty tackles that were going on, but then I managed to recognize a player I knew and wasn’t surprised at all to see him in the book and the supporters hurling abuse at him. That player is Kevin Muscat an Aussie who used to play English football and who also put an end to a few footballers playing career thanks to his suicidal/leg breaking tackles. In the end the game finished Sydney 2 Melbourne 1 and we made our way back to the hostel after a very entertaining day.
What i didnt actually realise till i got back home was Dwight Yorke the ex Manchester United and Aston Villa player also played for Sydney that night.

Sydney Football Staduim

Sydney fans celebrating their win

A crazy Sydney fan