Sydney - Part 1

My transition to Sydney from Melbourne didn't go without a few hitches and some major stress. Firstly the bus I had booked to pick me up from where I was staying (as by now I had accumulated too much stuff to make it to the station) to take me to the airport turned up at 4.15pm even though I was told it would come at 4.50pm - after receiving a phone call alerting me to that fact I had to run from the city center in the 28 degree heat. The plane was going from Avalon airport which is over 50km's outside the city and no other way of getting there but by bus or car. Sweating and about to spew I just managed to make it before the coach gave up on me. Once aboard the driver shortly after ran straight into the back of a land rover at some lights, went mental and more time was wasted. It was even looking tight to make it to the airport on time as the bus company had not allowed any time for these delays... fortunately we just did. When we arrived I knew my baggage far exceeded the permitted 20 kg allowance, so trying to be creative with my packing I put all the heavy stuff in my backpack hand luggage, but they twigged that and what was meant to be a 7kg maximum carry-on weight was actually 14kg! So I had to loose some weight from it. My main bag was 7kg over as it was too. So I went round the corner piled all my heavy things into my shorts and pockets. Books, chargers, camera, ipod and a wetsuit stuffed down my jumper. I still had to pay a $70 excess baggage charge (the price of the ticket to get there!) and as I waddled towards the departures area my shorts literally began to fall at the weight they were carrying! I tried to pretend I had just lost alot of weight recently as I went through the security gates, but it rung like a high school bell 4 times before I got through.

After all of that, tired and fed up with being stuck in a city and knowing that I was probably going to be spending the next 3 days in dirty garages looking for cars - I was really looking forward to Sydney (life couldn't have been better in fact. hmmm.). Getting into Sydney wasn't the spectacular arrival I expected either. I had booked a hostel in the Kings Cross area, which is renowned for being well... a shithole. But I knew all the cars were close by so decided I will have to survive it for a few days. The hostel advertises itself as delux which I reckon the manager made himself laugh at when he looked at the advert proofs, this was the view from the window of the first room I stayed in. But hey it could be worse. Kings Cross is a total hell hole though. It is basically 24 hour neon signs, kebab shops, sex shops, strip joints, prostitutes, chavs, drug addicts, general freaks and bums - and thats at 9am in the morning, the real freaks come out in the evening. You'll walk down the street and have what must be a 80 year old fat woman offering herself for $10 next to some druggie who is trying to smoke the left over fag ends off the floor. Sounds just the place you want to spend your holidays hey! My first day here and not wanting to spend any longer than strictly necessary I went straight for the car dealers, who aim themselves towards travelers, which basically means they sell heaps of shit that have been round Australia more times than the moon. One in particular (Travellers Auto Barn) I found out was particularly dodgy after disgruntled travelers distributed leaflets to warn others of their experiences. Then there is the Kings Cross Car Market which is a dark, smelly underground car park with a load of knackered motors from people who are about to leave and would, quite understandably, spin any story to get out of this hell hole they had spent the past week in. I discovered that people were finding it hard to sell their cars and that the management who were meant to be checking cars over, offering free impartial advice, were dodgy too telling potential buyers there was something wrong with the car when there wasn't. The place was decorated in graffiti from people who had spent the last 2-3 weeks of their travels in Oz just sitting there, spending money on accommodation in the process, getting screwed over and not having any fun. I thought sod this, and decided to go to another dealer close by who offered was seems a sound warranty and a buyback agreement - so although I get a bit less I just turn up and sell it back to him. I spent the day with the sales guy Dave, who came from Bristol, and gave him a bloody good grilling. In the end he came up with a Ford Falcon GL Sedan. It was a 4.0 liter beast, an automatic and had done far too many miles but I decided it was the way to go after alot of thought. It cost more than I wanted to spend but I'd had more than enough of all the hassle and with the warranty (including towing cover) and buyback - if it didn't break down it should be all right (fingers crossed!!!!). Its a surprisingly stressful decision to make when there is only literally yourself to make it (but thanks for the help Dad!), truth is all the cars for this money are crap, this is one time where traveling with someone else and to have the value of their opinion (and some of their money) would have been very helpful. So, the next day I went and put down the deposit and it should be ready to go in the next day or so. With that weight on my mind over, and impending freedom, I decided to take in a couple of Sydney's tourist spots. I made my way down into the City and onto Sydney Harbour. Yep, here is the expected Opera house picture and Harbour Bridge photo. Pretty boring but had a walk round the Opera House and past the Bridge. Look how nice the view from the train station platform is - not bad hey!

The sun was shining this morning so spent today at Bondi Beach, which is surprisingly nice considering that its Australia's most famous tourist beach. Especially when compared to the beaches in the bay of Melbourne. My plans for the next few days depend on when my car is ready but I will head north and check out the small towns of Manly, Avalon, Narrabeen and Palm Beach (where Home and Away is filmed apparently) - and hopefully start getting some serious surfing done after too long of a gap!

Surfcoast Victoria and the Great Ocean Road

This weekend I went to the home of surfing in Victoria; Torquay (on Saturday) and when I got off the bus I thought I had died and gone to heaven (although my bank balance knew it certainly hadn't). The place is just wall to wall surf shops . The Surf City Plaza (a large shopping center dedicated to only surfing stuff) is like a factory outlet for the Victorian surf industry. Then next to that you have the Rip Curl office headquarters and somewhere further round the corner the Quiksilver headquarters. They both started life here in the late 60's / early 70's. Rip Curl started making wetsuit's for surfers to stay out longer in the colder (than the rest of Oz) Victorian waters. They also continue to make some of the best suits around, and what better place to bag myself a bargain Rip Curl spring suit for those warm Queensland waters? Nowhere else hopefully, so I did! Quiksilver started by making boardshorts, and now make everything except kitchen sinks. Whilst in surf city I also visited the surfing museum here, which is apparently the largest one in the world (and probably one of the only ones). They had a seriously funny series of boards with letters from a son who was away from home and to his father. This was the first of six . As I sat on the beach for the rest of the afternoon I realised that I could very easily spend some serious time here. It has all the good bits of Margaret River but not as isolated and is less than an hours drive to central Melbourne. So, I have submitted my CV to Rip Curl and am awaiting my date for interview!

The next day it was another early morning. I went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. Originally I had planned to spend a week along this area of coastline (which was easy with the car I would have by that point, but that didn't happen, so this was they only choice I had). The coast line is aptly named the surf coast and the amount of beautiful, perfect, peeling waves was unbelievable. Our first stop was Bells Beach (one of Australia's most famous surf beaches and home to the Rip Curl Pro competition where the world's top 44 guys on the Championship Tour compete every Easter to ring the legendary Bell trophy). When we pulled up the waves were small (by Bells standards) but it sure was perfect, a sick peeling point break - I was literally unable to contemplate ever leaving without testing it out, it was like love at first sight. The sun was shining and the thought of leaving without going out made me feel really sick. In the end I had to tell myself of all the amazing surf that was to come when I got up the east coast and that if I really wanted I could always come back here later on in my trip (only have to go about 2,000 km's out of my way!). Getting back on the bus, and after another brief photo op, we made our way towards to the start of the Great Ocean Road. The scenery is stunning and the road follows the shoreline with winding corners and sheer drops nearly the entire way. Along the way we stopped off at Cape Patton observation deck and then for lunch at Kennet River where we saw wild Koala's and Parrots. The Victorian Koala is a different species which is larger than its Queensland counterpart (which is the traditional small and grey variety) and a dark brown color. I got some pretty awesome pictures as the one I found was not sleeping (cos they normally sleep like 22 hours a day) and decided to change positions just as I got my camera out. We then stopped off in Apollo Bay, a pretty nice bustling little town further up the coast. We then made the trip inland to Maites Rest to take a walk around one of Victoria's natural rainforests. The 32 degrees outside was markably cooler and moist in the rainforest which I had heard was the case, as obviously all the moisture is held in. Then it was back on the bus and on our way to the 12 Apostles, which were not as spectacular as I had envisaged but at least I could tick them as done on my to do list. This was probably because of the weather being very overcast, which meant that taking any stunning pictures was very unlikely. I had originally booked to go on the sunset tour (so you are at the 12 Apostles as the sun goes down) but it didn't run due to lack of numbers which was probably a good thing in the end as the sunset that day would have been nonexistent anyway. Before making our way back to Melbourne, we stopped at Port Campbell National Park to see some natural caves it was here where legend has it a young shipwrecked couple sheltered to survive many years ago, the general pleasantness of the spot and play a spot of frisbee. Then it was then time for the long journey back via Colac.

Its labour day (bank holiday) in Australia today. All the shops and bars are closed, only those not owned by Australian's (e.g. Macca's, KFC, Subway and Starbucks) are open. The Commonwealth Games has transformed the face of the city and its all restricted areas, "official" bus lanes and people with short shorts, white trainers and pulled up white socks with ID tags round their neck who it turns out are competitors (and their support teams) walking around siteseeing. What sport they do we can't guess as they all seem to be short and fat or tall and skinny, but then the real elite athletes are probably training and concentrating on the job at hand rather than getting their holiday photo's. Invariably due to this influx prices are going up and its time to leave.

I thankfully fly to Sydney this evening, Melbourne has been cool but its begun to drive me round the bend. I don't want to spend any more time in a city. I can only put this down to the fact that I came to surf loads and also that I live in the middle of the countryside at home. The past fortnight has consisted of pretty much no beach and thus no waves. Which is why I plan to spend as little time in Sydney as is needed to buy a car (and do the proper Sydney on the way back down).

Before I go though, as anyone who has travelled like this before will agree, the experience is full of up's and down's. There are days when you are so stoked and happy and everything seems to go right, the weather is great, you've met cool people or they are just generally friendly, you don't spend too much money and you don't feel hungry. Other days are just hassle, stress and everything and everyone just seems to be against you. The ideals you held before you left don't go to plan you feel as though you have no control over the trip, that it is in the hands of others. Ideally, the good days far outweigh the bad days. One excellent day (for me it is when the sun is shining, surf is good, food is in your belly and you have your own transport) can outweigh a few bad days (for me when I am stuck in a city, its costing me loads of money, you are in a dorm room with a bunch of idiots, miles from a beach and having to rely on public transport to get around). The key is to limit your exposure to these bad experiences. I have met many people since leaving the UK, all doing things a different way. Who needs to spend 36 hours on a bus when you can fly there in 2 hours? Not me! I may be a 'backpacking' surfer but that doesn't mean I don't like a nice hotel, or decent transport. Sometimes its nice to catch a bus but in those instances, no way. Some people will be what I call "proper" backpackers who spend as little money as possible by staying in the cheapest hostels, not going out anywhere nice and travelling by bus. Some just do all the organised tours and can't explore things at their own leisure. Some just get drunk every night and sleep all day and then lie around the hostel, seeing nothing. Some keep themselves to themselves, are on a mission to see and do everything and move on. Then some are a mixture of all of these, who are usually the best people you meet. All you can do is raise a beer to the goodtimes... live every day as it comes... but most importantly i suppose you've just got to be you and be truthful to yourself.

Melbourne

So here I am in the coffee guzzling, fashionable culture-vulture capital of Oz... Melbourne. It is very akin to London in my opinion, both in look and cultural feel. Walking through the city streets you can sense this similar culture its in the bars, shops, what people wear, who they are. Its like a clash of many different sorts of people from all different backgrounds coming together from the various suburbs (like London which range from plush and green "Ramsey Street" style to the downright skanky derelict ghetto's). The City types in their suits rub shoulders with the weird and wonderful bohemian types, tourists and the average man on the street. I had the fortune of finding a really nice hostel located just south of the river which had recently opened in December. It is ultra modern and ultra clean, more like a hotel, so 3 days soon turned into 2 weeks. Early last week I visited your typical various tourist spots such as the Melbourne Aquarium (where they had sharks but no real big ones, then at the end I went on the simulator which I thought would be a pleasant journey through the sea but was some spiraling white knuckle ride which made me feel so sick that I thought I was gonna spew for about an hour afterwards. It was the Universal Studios' (California) space mountain and back to the future ride memories bought back to haunt me.) I also visited the Crown Casino (once the only but now just the largest casino in the southern hemisphere). The best time to go is at night to watch lots of Japanese businessmen and other random people loose their money, plus it is one of the only places (and the nearest to the hostel) to get a beer 24 hours a day. I expect the casino's in Vegas are like this but on serious steroids. I have been to Cooks Cottage (in Fitzroy gardens) which is the cottage that Captain Cooks parents built in Yorkshire originally and lived in. Cook himself would stay there between his voyages discovering many countries obviously including Australia. Anyway, it was bought by a businessman from here and moved over brick by brick. It is strange to see such an English looking cottage in the middle of an Australian city. To me there are hundreds that look like it back home but it is funny to see people from other countries reactions when they see it as they have nothing remotely like it anywhere else. I then went to the Melbourne museum, you wouldn't wanna meet this roo with the bonnet of your car, thats for sure. The highlight was probably the set of the Scully's kitchen from Neighbours (thats how good the museum was to be quite honest). It is a nice city with parks backing onto the skyscrapers and plenty of parks closeby - definitely livable.

The highlight of the tourist spots was the Rialto tower observation deck which is the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere and the tallest buiding in the city. The actual deck is at 253 meters making it something like the 13th tallest observation deck in the world. It offers awesome views out over the city and surrounding area. Here you can see the city including Flinders St Station and Melbourne Cricket ground in the distance . Here out towards the bay, South Melbourne and St. Kilda . And out towards the Docklands area and in the distance the Great Ocean Road .

St Kilda is like Melbourne's alternative suburb by the beach. The beach here is nothing on the ones over in W.A. but that is probably to be expected as it is contained within a large bay. The main landmark to be seen is Luna Park . Money is beginning to look visually depleted on a bank statement at this point so I thought I'd attempt finding some work. I just happened to be in a pleasant enough internet cafe in St. Kilda one day that had a load of nice girls working there and as I sat there tapping away I noticed a sign saying staff wanted. It seemed like a good place to work, a cafe/bar for meeting people, plenty of internet time and most importantly loads of fit girls. So I enquired at the bar and she went to get the owner. When he came out front he was this strange little greek looking dude. He took one look at me the whole time we spoke, asking stuff like do I have a working visa? Tax file number etc. I could tell this was a no goer, plus I wouldn't have wanted to work for him anyway. He blatantly only took fit girls. So when asked what experience I had I said "None at all, but the girls that work here are hot"... My ass was outta there sooner than you could say "fit american bird..."
All the other work I looked for during this time was requiring people who were going to be around for at least 3 months... not one week like me.

I went out with Martin and James (two scottish guys I'd met) and Robin and her mate (two Dutch birds) in St Kilda last Friday night, went to the Espy for a couple of live bands and then to a few bars in St Kilda. The Dutch birds, although very fit, were total cheapskates who didn't wanna pay for anything but would happily except rounds when bought for them so we had no option but to eventually dump them between bars.

One day after arriving from Perth I was already going crazy without my daily strum. So I went off following a tip from a friend of a shop just down the road from where I was staying and found myself a nice new guitar, just a cheapy but it is a copy of a Taylor 316CE and sounds surprisingly good! I got it with padded gig bag, new strings, etc for just $260. After a couple of hours breaking it in I was happy and chilled again. However that lasted for about 2 days as I started hunting for a car... to cut a very long story short (and because I don't want to go over it again) I saw a whole bunch of rubbish over 3 days of looking, blown head gaskets here, cracked radiators there, busted engine sealing everywhere. I met every single variety of used car dealer in the book, most span me a line like "well the reason the temperature gauge is sky high, bubbles are coming up through the radiator cap and coolant is leaking out of the bottom is because you haven't turned the warm air fan on in the car to circulate the air flow". The one positive of these wasted days is that I have become very aware and in the know of what to look for and what to spot when checking a second hand car which I knew nothing about before leaving. See I am learning something. I then realised I am actually constrained by time as I need to be in Byron Bay in 3 weeks time for the music festival (the Bluesfest, which is like the Australian Glastonbury) which I have a ticket for and is about 2,000 km's away. So, I am now going to fly to Sydney and then buy the car there (plus selling it in the same state as I bought it in will make life easier).

I've met a couple from the UK, Matt and Danielle who are really cool. We've been in the same room for the past week. This week we spent a drunken night out at the Crown Casino. They also had this machine called the "Alcolizer" which tests whether you are to inebriated to drive home. Giving it a blow, I was instructed specifically not drive any "large" vehicle. Danielle had a reading of 1% which is high, and this was most probably the reason she wore a coin cup on her head for the rest of the evening and tried to jump in the fountain on the way home.

For all you fans out there (that means you Jules, Andy and Sam!!) I went on the official Neighbours tour yesterday. We visited Erinsborough High School (which is a foreign language school for kids new to Australia from places like Africa, none of them know what the hell is going on when a bunch of tourists turn up to their school), we then drove by the studio (hoping to see Skye - I saw absolutely no one, just the tip of Lassiters over the fence) and then onto the one and only Ramsay Street! Its actually alot smaller than you'd think and is located in a suburb east of Melbourne and is a real street (real name: Pin Oak Court, which even someone nicked the sign of) and people really live in the houses. They are all there Paul Robinson's house, Harolds house, the Kennedy's, and the Hoyland's, etc. The reason they chose this street is really because there is a massive car park around the back to park all the trucks in. Every night the street has to be patrolled by security guards to stop people doing things like burnout's on the street to leave their mark. During the commonwealth games they are closing the street off 24 hours a day!

Anyway, now is definitely time to get out of this city - it is about to pop at the seams for the commonwealth games, its everywhere. Accommodation prices up by as much as double during (and I am not dropping coin like that!) and there is no rowing on (which no one can answer me the question as to why) for us Brits to just rock up and rinse. My plans for this trip were not to be stuck in a city and the fact that I haven't seen a decent beach or wave for the last fortnight is stressing me out - gotta get in the water! So I fly to Sydney on Monday evening (13th March) to then buy a car and get my arse up the coast. But before that I am going to Torquay (the surf town of Victoria - home to Rip Curl and Quiksilver were they were originally conceived. Also home to the world famous Bells Beach!) then on Sunday its a tour of the Great Ocean Road including sunset at the 12 Apostles! Awesome! I will leave you with this little tip (at no extra charge). If you are ever looking for somewhere to eat in Melbourne try here ! They have an extensive menu ... and when you do... let me know what it was like :-)