Last Days: Sydney

So, little bloggies, when last we talked I was in the depths of depression, and funnily enough, you'll notice that to a certain degree, I was like that because I was saying goodbyes, and also not getting the chance to say goodbyes. Well, you'd think, after all that, it'd be done - but in a cruel twist of faith I actually got to see 90% of all the other people I really wanted to see but didn't think I would. So basically, I said goodbye, went through it, and then got to do it all again!! How totally fuckin' awesome, right?

Well, truth be told, it was actually better because I was actually a bit prepared for it now. So, starting on Thursday 13th in Sydney. I was just chilling in my hostel when my phone went *bleep bleep*, innocently enough, and told me I had a message from Jo. Herself and Fran were going to be in Sydney in a few hours, meetage? Ah crap . . . so yeah, obviously I wanted to see them again, but on the other hand, less than 24 hours before I had already mentally said goodbye to them. So that was gonna be swell!

It was actually, depressing goodbyes aside, we had great fun. One thing about Australia though is that you should never start the evening late. Waiting til half 8 to meet can be a problem because everywhere that serves food is either closed or closing and won't let you in. We tried about 4 places before we eventually realised it was KFC or nothing.

After that they dragged me kicking and screaming to an Irish bar, which they seem to always be doing, though why I can't quite fathom. It's peculiar. Anyway, this one turned out to be quite decent, and it was in the throes of a karaoke night when we arrived. Like all karaoke nights, there are people there who can sing, people willing to have fun, and people who really can't sing but keep on trying. Also, that one lunatic.

This night was no exception. There was a guy who sang everything from Guns 'n' Roses to Scissor Sisters and sang well and was entertaining. There was another guy who did a great Use Somebody. And there was this girl . . .

This girl who turned up and stood at the back until her friends arrived and then ran onto the stage, practically skipping like a child . . .

This girl who had clearly rehearsed her dances moves . . .

This girl who was clearly our lunatic for the evening . . .

Here she is! [Okay, so that's not her. It's taking two hours to upload a 4 minute video. I'll make you a deal, you come back here and check this when I get home, and I'll upload it then]

Once the night was over though, it really was time to say goodbye, and I won't go into it. If you want to know how I feel about goodbyes, read the last post.

The next day I had plans for the evening so I slept in and then went out to do some shopping in the afternoon. Firstly I bought some really shit souvenirs which I will be bestowing on you guys back home. Trust me, they are shit. You will thank me for them, but you won't mean it, and I'll know it, and you'll know I know it and we'll hug, but really the stuff will still be shit.

Then I had heard about this place that sold comics and graphic novels and went looking for it . . . And I found it, and it was HUGE!!! It had EVERYTHING! Oh could I have spent some money there - well, I did spend some money there, but I could have spent a hell of a lot more money.

I bought -

The Boys: Volume 7 - The Innocents
Buffy Season 8: Volume 7 - Twilight
The Shepherds Tale

and a book called The Scar, by China Mieville.

And then I read the Shepherd's Tale, but the other ones are for when I get home!

While I was heading home I was walking and some called me. Which is weird when you don't think there could be anyone around, but it turned out to be Dave who I met in Bangkok (of Mat and Dave, who did the trek with me), so there was more goodbyes right there! For God's sake!

After that I showered and got ready to head out to Bondi to meet the Irish girls I met in Laos, if you can remember back that far. One of them is even my friend's sister (for the record that's Laura Creegan MA of Ballymote, Sligo, who is somehow allowed to teach children). . . how very Irish, no? This is Amy here. I cannot for the life of me remember who the other two guys are but I'm presuming they're Irish.

Funny story, we were talking about how there seemed to be a bad ratio between guys and girls (which means more guys than girls - by the way, the other way around is what we call a good ratio), when this English fella turned around and goes, "You wanna talk about bad ratio? There are three people in this house who aren't Irish!" That's out of about 50. He wasn't really wrong. Also present was the other Amy. Seen here with the decks.

It was Michelle's birthday, which was why there was a party in the first place. I actually did take some pictures of her, but now that I go looking for them, I've just remembered that I took them with HER camera, no mine, so you'll have to go without unfortunately. Or when she puts them up on Facebook I'll nick them and edit this so it doesn't say I didn't have a picture . . .

Anyway, moving swiftly along, beer!

This was the fridge. Because we are fancy people. Very fancy. I even wore a hat.

Also, because they were allowed to "decorate" the house as they pleased, they drew some scenes from their trip, most notably a huge representation of tubing in the sitting room! Awh, I miss tubing! That's one thing I would totally do again!

I'd say they had a late one, but I left in time to catch the last train, at about 1. Mostly this was due to the exhaustion, but it was also due to the exhaustion and the being totally exhausted from the few days before.

Which was a same but with these guys at least there's a good chance we'll see each other randomly again. And I don't know them all that well either. Most of my stories involving them revolve around almost meeting up with them again!

The next day I got up and checked out of the hostel because I was going to stay with my cousin Aoife who lives out in Bondi for awhile. She was in work til about half five though so I still had the day to kill. First I headed out to Circular Quay to snap some pictures of the bridge and the Opera House but I got better pictures the following day so I'll not put any up just yet.

I also bought some more tacky shit presents for people - sorry guys . . . really, I am. My presents will utterly suck.

Anyway, then after that I headed back in the hostel's direction to meet Chris, who you may remember from Spicy and Laos? This is Chris. And yes, that is literally the worst picture I could have chosen to show you. I regret nothing!

We wandered as far as some market food courtand  just chilled there. He was only in town for a few hours while he caught a bus to Melbourne. It would of been nice to grab a few pints but some lunch just had to do. It was good to catch up with him though and talk about all the shit we've been doing. He's good craic and yet another of those goodbyes I didn't want to say but had to anyway.

After that I grabbed my bags from the hostel storage room and headed out to County Bondi to stay with Aoife. Here we are the next day. We'll get to why we appear to be on a boat of some sort in a bit (spoiler: we are on a boat).

That first night we actually ended up doing nothing. Thank fucking God. Seriously. I've never been so glad to hear someone say "I have no plans" in my whole life. I might have died. Instead we went with her friend Ciara to get some food and then we watched Sleepy Hollow with her other flatmates. And then we went to sleep. I'd say I was gone about twenty minutes after the lights went out.

The next day it was time for a tour of the city. First we hit Paddy's market because I needed a bag to put some of my extra stuff in. My day bag isn't really big enough to bring a change of clothes and I want to put on some fresh clothes when I arrive in Frankfurt on Wednesday. You know, because I'll have been travelling for a day already at that point. And because it's going to be soooooo cold there and sooooo warm here that I'll need different clothes.

After I got the bag we went to Darling Harbour which was pretty cool. The thing I really liked though was this random water feature in the middle of some plaza there. I dunno why I liked it, I just did. Then after that we walked all the way to Sydney Harbour Bridge (which wasn't that far) but it was getting hotter and hotter all the time. When we left, we brought hoodies, but by the time we reached the bridge it was boiling hot. We went to the bridge to climb this tower by the way, and from this tower take many pictures.

This is probably my favourite one, even though I still thi nk the opera house looks really small in real life. The nice thing is though, in pictures it looks exactly like it should! After climbing up and down the tower we headed off the Circular Quay to catch a ferry out to Manly Beach, which is about half an hour away and also offers some really great view as your going along. It was damn hot at this stage though and we were sweating buckets.

One of the pictures I took (of many) was a nice of the bridge and if you look to either side you can see one of the towers we climbed. Also, this is why we look like we were on a boat. We were getting a boat. Some time later, the boat arrived in Manly and we went to Coles and made crisp sandwiches and ate them on the beach while watching surfers get smashed by the waves. not a bad way to spend an hour. After that we went to visit Aoife's friend and chilled in her house for a bit before jumping back on the ferry and heading for her neighbours were a few people (clearly all Irish) were having a barbecue and some drinks. It was actually nice to get back to that bit of banter and slagging, because hanging out with the Germans last week (who I do dearly love) you sometimes have to be careful what you say (not that I really was) because sometimes the sarcasm and the joking just doesn't make sense to them. It was good to get some practice in before heading home. Because I'm pretty sure my few months away won't entitle me to some sort of free-pass. If anything, ye've got joking to make up for!

We headed back late enough and I (drunkenly) fixed a laptop for Aoife's friend and then we all went asleep and now it is today. I'm staying in hostel tonight to make sure I get a good sleep, and so I could write this up, and a few other bits and pieces that will follow tomorrow afternoon. By the time ye all get up on Tuesday I should, all going to plan, be on the airplane and heading home and be in by about 12 on Wednesday. Of course there are two things not in my favour - all those Quantus planes that keep falling out of the sky, and the fact that I am leaving from Sydney, which is the same airport that Oceanic 815 - or the plane in Lost to those not crazy enough to remember the numbers of the plane - took off from. So remember, if my plane crashes, I'll be on a gorgeous island full of monsters and madmen and there'll be some sort of magic light, but I read enough random shit like that anyway that I'll probably be quite equiped to deal with it all. So don't worry to much. (Also, if I do die in a plane crash, I'm really sorry I'm being so flippant about it all).

So yay for going home! But also sad, because of the goodbyes, but we've talk about that so we're not going to get into it again.

So, see you real soon, or, if you're still away, hope to see you in the future . . .

Shane