Holy Catching up to do

hey Guys

Holy crap I didnt realise how long I've been away for. Sorry if anyone was worried (you know who you are) but things are fine.

I've been out in the wilderness having the time of my life for the last 4 days!

Anyway, I appologize in advance because this is going to be one long ass entry. I'm gonna try and upload some photos on here as well, but we'll see. I might also split this into two

So! where did I leave off... oh right the Blue Mountains.

So after the Blue Mountains trip, things with OzIntro went a tiny bit downhill, but it was still alright. Our "Club Crawl" Consisted of the crappy club in Coogee and one free drink at every bar with like 15mins of driving between. It was fun though, till our tour ditched us all at the WakeUp hostel bar (20 mins drive from Coogee) and we all had to catch cabs back. I might mention that we all went a little more than a little over our limits for drinking.

Then it was off to the Tower on Sunday night for our farewell dinner. Now talk about a snazy affair! the restaraunt at the top rotates. It was really cool actually, it was raining for the last couple days in Sydney and we had a lightening storm going on while we were up there. So the whole city was lit only by the lights in the buildings, looking like tons of little stars. Then the restaraunt would rotate to view the harbour, and lightning would flash, lighting up the water, the bridge, the opera house. It was breathtaking unfortunatly, my pictures from there didnt turn out great, but oh well.

The food was pretty good too out there. Lots of choice, but the fish was rubbery. For those wondering, I did try a tiny little bit of camel and kangaroo, and didnt like either the Kangaroo was tasteless and the camel was cold.

As a piece of advice by the way, for anyone wanting accomidation in Sydney ... BOOK AHEAD! Our pre-paid accomidation in coggee ran out as of Monday morning, and the majority of us decided to head to a more central location as many of us were taking busses out of Sydney. However, me being stupid, decided I'd just let everyone else take care of it, and forgot to mention for them to book me a dorm. Anyway, I arrived and, much to my annoyance, despite having 8 mostly free floors, without a reservation, you could not book into a dorm! so I paid $88 ($88!!!!!!) for a room to myself. the worst part came as we were exploring around the hostel and there was a decent hotel down the street with single rooms for $60 /sob! hahah oh well. Live and Learn. it was a good sleep, and wakeup was really nice and clean.

couple fun facts about Sydney life before I move on, first off... Coke-cola is expensive! $3 for a 600ml bottle. 2nd, they do not have Captain Morgan's rum! 3rd, all their spirit mixes (vodka & sprite or lemonade as they call it, and rum and coke) come pre- mixed. So my favorite drink at the moment is Bundaburg rum and Coke.
oh right, and bus prices in Sydney are never flat rate. its based on how many "sectors" you are going through. So when you get on the bus you tell the driver where you need to go, and he figures out your fare from there.

I did end up going into the markets with Amy and Adam (the "Ginger couple" as the other English called em) on Saturday. Saw lots of cool things around the Rocks, but it was all geared towards your short term traveller. We then got very lost in the City, and here's another fun fact ... there is more than one Harbor in Sydney!

we were wandering around a commercial district for a couple hours before we found an internet cafe, (which reminds me, photos are on my face book site, I'll get the link) and uploaded photos and checked emails. We still had to get back for the club crawl though, so we were rushing to find out bus. We stopped in at a convenience store to ask the clerk which way to the harbor, or the Quay, and he looked as us funny. Apparently not every person in Sydney knows how to get to the opera house. We eventually found someone who understood us enough to point us in the direction of the harbor ... only to find out it was the wrong one! they took us to Darling Harbour instead of Sydney Harbor, so we walked like a half an hour out of our way! We eventually found a really nice local girl who took us to the bus stop back to Coogee.

And as if I didnt learn my lesson the first time, I went to Bondi Beach with Emma and Charlene on Sunday and spent a couple hours looking for the tatoo parlor out there. That was fun. Turns out you need several days in order to get one (thank God, cuz they wanted me to get one too) and we didnt have that kind of time. Emma and I were both leaving on Teusday so it was a bit of a waste. We did hit the Bondi markets though, that was fun. Emma bought a dress for $10, and I got a nice bag the zipper already broke on it, but its really nice. Its big enough to hold all my beach stuff and then some! and it was only $14.

Oh right, and another thing about Sydney life ... buy and umbrella ... a big one! Sara, Charlene and I got stuck in some god forsaken part of derelict China town on the 23rd looking for a bank and it started pouring! We were stuck in a closed mall for about a half an hour before the rain let up enough to boot it back to the hostel.

Anyway, I just tried to upload some photos, but this connection is just too slow, and when you are paying $4/hr, I just dont have the patience. Anyway, check out this link for a map of Sydney, the red area is Darling harbor where we got sent to, luckily we didnt get all the way there before we realized we were in the wrong area

http://www.metromonorail.com.au/Artwork/MetroSydneyMap-Web.gif

So yeah, we all met up in the Side Bar (below wakeup hostel) for a going away party, and parted ways. I was leaving the next morning for Waves Surf School. Check that out in my next entry

For now, my photos can be found here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15806&id=618320647

sigh now to type about my last week back in a min