Sydney

So bus from Byron to Gold Coast airport and a short flight meant Sydney! I flew with Tiger Air which was surprisingly cheap but came with heaps of warnings about using their service. Everyone said that when they say 'be there 45 minutes before' they're not lying. They'll close the flight and make you pay. Oh and keep your bags under the max requirement [foshiz, they weighed it! Thank god they didn't weigh my tiny backpack that I had sneakily stashed every heavy item, or else I would've definitely been over weight]. The flight was delayed, niggly, but all good and I was in Sydney at like 4, already checked into my hostel. This round, a 4 girl dorm with not too friendly people. I noticed immediately that the friendliness of Byron Bay did not even slightly leak into Sydney [back to that new york dont-stare-at-anyone lifestyle].

I had very little of a plan but decided to go for a massive wander around the city. For a good 2+ hour journey I got to the aquarium [didn't go in], darling harbor, dawes point, the rocks, circular quay, sydney cove, the opera house, government house, royal botanic gardens, hyde park, had a wee reflection at the pool of reflection, china town, and then the chinese garden. Essentially, that's the city full circle. The weather was pretty reasonable and the walk was sweet. By the time I got back it was time for the super-early hostel outing to side bar. We were leaving at 7:30 for a pool tournament, free goon, and free finger food. I managed to not eat anything all day aside from a breakfast mango, so got massively drunk from the free goon, and was not rescued by the handfuls of fries we got [and by handfuls, I wish I recorded this event. Imagine 30+ people, and a massive tray of chips coming out. It was like feeding time at the zoo for humans. Savage would be the appropriate word. Don't even get me started on what it was like with the tray of wedges.] so I went home for an early sleep on somehow one of the most uncomfortable beds I've ever been on.

This morning I woke up super early with big plans to go to the beach before starting my day. After waiting 45 minutes to pee, while one of the girls was taking the world's longest shower, I got another shower in [yay for infrequency] and went downstairs to see that the weather was shit. The sky was pissing down hard and I had no backup plan. I ventured out to a starbucks to have some tea and wifi whilst trying to figure out what to do. While there the rain stopped enough for me to make it to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Twas a really cool place and I spent forever there looking at all the weird artwork people were up to, like a weird raised triangle kinda piece that was a different picture if you looked from the right side vs the left side. [hologram but really pronounced]. This reminded me of something that I can't believe I forgot earlier, so SIDENOTE: In Nimbin, at the art gallery I mentioned, there was the most amazing painting I've ever seen in my life. It was really weird and galactic looking just flat on, but then we realised there were 3D glasses right near it, so naturally we put them on and HOLYSHIT. This painting was 3d... not like, blue and red or fuzzy kinda 3d, like a kind of extra dimension i can't verbalize. If i was home, that baby would've been mine, but I can't foresee the practicalness of carrying around a painting for the next month and a half [though it was a funny bit to consider whilst admiring it]

When I left the gallery the skies had opened and the day was glorious. I decided to take a ferry ride to Manly. It's a half hour each way, and such a cool ride, especially when sitting right on top in the front. I was the photographer for every other couple or group, though none were as fun as the hilarious canadian indian family I was photographing yesterday in front of the opera house. [did you know american's tried to convince them to change the name to oprah house?]

Manly itself was gorgeous. A cute little sea kinda town with shops and happy people and ice cream everywhere. The beach, Manly Beach, which is a popular surfer spot was also gorgeous. Not crowded, super clean looking, and perfect. I set up camp for a wee bit [couldn't be bothered putting on sunscreen and didn't want to get burnt, so kept my stay short] and then wandered around the town a little before taking the ferry ride back to the city.

When I got back I was heading towards the art gallery of new south wales but got distracted by an aboriginal selling boomerangs. A bit of a haggle later, I bought three of them [shipping them home tomorrow I guess?] and fashioned a little carrying device on my backpack to hold them.

Then I wandered through the domain, chatting with a couple for a bit about some concert stage that was getting built and made my way to the gallery, but not before stopping in the beautiful library. Everything was super cool and they had 2 gallery exhibits up there as well - one about  ballet in australia and the other about the changes in fashion over the last 100 years. Both were really cool. The actual art gallery was way more than a gallery. It was a full on museum and it was great. In fact, the art work couldn't have been grater [this is going to be a helluva lot more funny when i get home eventually and post a picture of the cheese graters that were on display.] I was initially drawn because of the Francis Bacon exhibit, but didn't want to fork up the cash when I realised the museum was sweet anyhow. I spent ages there and then decided to head back to the hostel for some internet. I wandered around a supermarket on my way home contemplating cooking kangaroo for dinner, but you could only buy large amounts of it, so I'm going to wait till I get to Melbourne s I have it for a few nights, instead of eating 4 hamburgers tonight. It's pretty cheap compared to the other meats.

Tongiht I'm going to go to bed early I reckon and then try to wake up super early to get to Bondi Beach in the morning [weather looks good] and then hit up the markets perhaps before catching my flight to Melbourne!

All in all, Sydney is pretty fricken cool. It's like surrounded by amazing beautiful things, but is, in its core, a big city with big city kinds of people who don't act all friendly-like. China town is not as good as new york's china town, but cute.