Where Sydney ended up: On a tall ship

Its been three months since I got to Sydney and things have turned out a lot differently than I imagined.   I had it all planned;  a job in a cafe, hopefully overlooking the beach,  a house share and most importantly, finally a wardrobe. It would of been nice and comfy and I'd get to live a city slicker lifestyle.  But again,  opportunities come forward that are too out of the ordinary to pass up.

As mentioned in my last post, the Tall one went for a trial on a ship. Well she got it, and then she gave her new boss my number.  Now I live and work on this sexy lady.

This is random, even for me.  Her name is the southern swan, She's about 90 years old and comes from Denmark.  For the moment she does day cruises out of Sydney Harbour and moors up between the opera house and the harbour bridge. Each morning I wake up to this.

 Sometimes I'm a cook, a sail hand or on the bar. Since coming on board I've done a hell of a lot of fun activities and met some fantastic people. Great moments have included dressing up as a Santa (whilst up the mast unfurling sails), dressing up for pirate parties, learning  about sailing (previous experience was zero) and getting to know the harbour. Over the last few months I've also thought about what I'm going to share on this blog and how I'll go about it.  Along with filling in whats been going on, I'll be sharing photos around Sydney and doing other 'overviews' from my travels  (I'm still in love with top tens!). The hours I work have affected my ability to progress blogging but by god I'm gonna try and get some material out there!!!

More posts to follow, I promise.

Hello Sydney!!!

After our day in Newcastle, we found ourselves getting seriously confused and lost on Sydney's roads, but by some miracle we got to Manly, our chosen first suburb in Sydney.  It had hit dark by the time we arrived at manly backpackers, where we stayed for almost a week.  We were pretty excited to have arrived in Sydney, but with our road trip ending the trio would be separating at this point. Lou had decided to head to Moree, a small town in New South Wales to spend some time with her boyfriend -  before looking for farm work. Olivia, had a trial on a tall ship in two days time and I would be staying in Sydney, looking for a job, a home and some kind of life.

Within the next few days we said goodbye to our van, handing it in a couple of days early to the nice people at wicked campers. And then we did a few tourist things. The first time I saw the harbour bridge and opera house was on the ferry from Manly, which I found pretty surreal. I mean, I'd been in Oz nearly  a year and this was the first time I'd seen the iconic landmarks.
Before our time was up, we did a few touristy things. These included;

Walking around the botanical gardens and spotting the gigantic bats roosting in the trees

Met some of the locals...

 A smaller Hyde park than I'm used to...

going down to Darling Harbour

Heading to Bondi

One thing to fall in love with in Bondi:  the public swimming pool over looking the sea. I loved how the waves crashed over the side.

Nearing the end: Coffs harbour and newcastle

For the last leg of our journey we stopped off at a couple of towns before hitting our final destination, the big S.

Coff's harbour - home to the giant banana.  Got there near dark.  Found a campsite with a very rude receptionist who then had an argument with the tall one. Surprised we weren't kicked out. Me and Lou went to a nearby pub for some drinks and headed to macdonalds (yeah we're classy) and used the free wi-fi.

The next day we went to the beach and had some swim time. Then driving. Followed by a night stop at  a tiny campsite over lookiing the river.

In the morning we went to Newcastle. It was cold and raining. We had coffee on one of the main streets then went to the water front.  Highlights included the graffiti and watching a pod of dolphins swim on a tanker's bow.

Nimbin

Nimbin - if I thought the hippies grew thick in Byron bay, then  I had a shock in this small town, one of the few stops we made in land.
If you're looking to score some space cakes or magic mushrooms, you won't have to look far in Nimbin. Welcome to wacky-backy central. Within an hour and a half i received a dozen offers (and its a small street!) For some reason the hemp business is allowed, meaning Nimbin has become a favourite day trip for backpackers. However, I only took away some fun photos and a good cup of coffee.

I wish I had the balls to wear a hat like this everyday.

Loved some of the artwork plastered on Nimbin's walls.

Best name for a clothes shop. Ever.

Let the rivers run red with blood: Byron Bay

How would I describe the streets of Byron Bay?  It was a mish mash of coffee shops, hippy clothing from a previous age - owned by a generation of hippies ready to share their ideals of a anti-establishment life style by selling you tie and just sticks.  Be aware, this town is expensive. However, still take the time to come to this holiday destination for some r&r.

As you can see, I had a lot of fun playing in the sand....

 Someone left these behind in the sand and i couldn't help but have some fun !!!

Puff the magic dragon. I wish I could do this.

My first successful jumping photo - thank you for your patience Lou!

But I've got some bad news for you all about Byron bay - I think the anti-Christ lives there. Because the rivers heading into the sea look suspiciously like blood.  A bus driver later said it was from the eucalyptus forests on the hills but I'm not buying it. Nope, definitely the work of the devil, or the end of the world. After all its soon approaching 2012...

 Whilst in  Byron it was also time to surf and the three of us signed up for a lesson. The first day the waves were too 'crashy' for us mere beginners so another time was scheduled.  The next morning we were out on the waves and although i wasn't transformed as a pro by the end, at least I could stand up on the board.

With our time in Byron coming to an end, we left with heavy hearts but rather light pockets!

Brissy-vegas

Now as mentioned in my last post,  we were no longer in possession of our van.  'little princess' was dead and after two days of waiting around in Noosa, a tow truck turned up to take her to Brisbane. However, when it arrived the back wasn't vacant.  strapped to her back was our new vehicle, and this one was definitely an upgrade! First of all we no longer had the same attention as before. It turns out that men don't shout out rude comments to you so much when 'save a bird, eat a pussy' is no longer written on your van.  Second, it was a five-seater instead of a three, which meant we were squabbling over sitting in the back and stretching out. And thirdly, electric windows and a gi-norm us sun roof made life a lot more comfortable.

But we had our set backs. For one the handbrake was screwed and was a mission to get off, it was so bad we had to call the helpline to talk technique.  And then we had to deal with it being automatic.  Automatics freak me out. Now and then whilst driving, I'd reached for the gear stick and try to step on the clutch.  So driving to the Brisbane, affectionately called 'brissy-vegas' by some, was a learning curb.

In Brisbane we splashed out on a room, which was the size of a hobbits closet, and had a great few days in the city.
Day 1 - we got there, wandered around the city centre, then food, out to the centre. stayed in a bar and to my shame got drunk. like really, really drunk.  The kind of intoxication that's not funny or clever and means the next day is a write off.

Day 2 - trying to make my way through the day with the mother of all hangovers. This included a walk around Brisbane's art gallery and past the river.  In the evening we were out again at a decked out uber bar called cloud land.  Although a pretty late night it was also a sober one.

We then headed towards Surfers Paradise - which i felt was false advertising; the heavens opened and we didn't see one ray of sunshine.  So we had one night out on the town before heading to our next big stop, Byron Bay...

Trapped in Noosa

Our first stop within the Sunshine coast and it rained the whole time. And because of this, the off season streets became even more depressing and lonely.  We spent nights huddled up together and in the day looked around the surf shops, watched a rom-com called 'friends with benefits' at the cinema and had some deep conversations  about our lives and how we view the world.  

This is the only picture I took in these couple of days. Its a pelican.  I imagine his hobbies include fishing, flying and people watching.  His favourite feature is his beak and he has nightmares about salmon taking over the world.  Like I said, it rained a lot and I had time to think....

So after an exciting jammed packed few days of wet weather, we began to move towards Brisbane, but alas it wasn't our time to leave.  On a dual carriage way 10 minutes out of town, our beloved van couldn't hold out any more. The little princess's gear box died and it was game over. For one hour we waited for a tow truck, which took us to a shopping mall. This wasn't because our shopping addictions had taken hold of us again, but because this tow truck had only the task of getting us somewhere safe. We had to wait another hour or so for the take-me-to-a-garage-tow truck. The head mechanic had a mullet. I imagine he also had a yuwt hiding somewhere. At the garage was confirmed that little princess was dead, at least as far as we were concerned. She would not be taking us to Sydney.

Farewell little princess. You gave us some great times....