Sydney explorations

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After flying in from Christchurch, NZ the first thing I noticed was that it was much warmer than in NZ. I left NZ wearing a jacket and long pants, and these were defenitely not needed in Sydney, it was a good 26 degrees. For the first week of my stay in the city I booked a dorm bed in the Railway square YHA which is located in the centre of the city. Well not exactly the centre but at least near Central station. You can go to the major sights on foot but the metro is handier.

The hostel is extually located next to the central station. There are even some dorm rooms that use an old railway wagon in which they have placed bunk beds. All very clean and nice with airconditioning.

I booked 7 nights at first and extended it with another 2 nights. During these first days I basically visited all the major sights. The Harbour bridge, all the different suburbs, the olympic park, some beaches and of course, the Opera house. Anyhow, after a couple of days, you've pretty much seen most of it. The primary goal for me in sydney was again finding a car. Skimming all the notice boards in search for the perfect ride. Not an easy task at all. The prices are rather high compared to NZ car prices. I was looking for a station wagon in which I could sleep and store a surfboard in. There is basically one option if you're looking for that kind of car, and that is a Ford Falcon, these 6 cylinder, 4 liter beasts are all over Australia. All the cab drivers drive the Australian made Ford Falcons, so you can rest assured that they are reliable and that you can find spare parts in even the remotest places of the country.

I went to look at several cars and I didn't really find one that I liked. Most of them had some kind of issue. There were ones that had a new radiator because the old one broke down, and overheated the engine. That spells 'stay away'. Others had an automatic gear that looked pretty dodgy. Others had tires that needed replacing etc etc. Another thing with cars in Oz is that you need to register it, and the rules and regulations vary from state to state. To explain it very short... in some states, you need to register the car and have it inspected before you can get the registration, in other states, you don't. In some states, when you extend the registration, you need to be present in that state with your car. So if you are travelling in one state with a car from another state and you have to extend your registration, you have to drive all the way back to the state to get it reregistered, which can be a big hassle since Australia roughly the same size as the United states. Your best bet is to get a Western Australia car, since you can easily extend the registration by simply calling them, from anywhere in Australia. So when looking for a car, you have to keep in mind all of the registration requirements, and it's a pain in the butt. You also have a backpackers car market in Sydney, but here they ask too much for the cars and to be quite honest, the place looks a bit dodgy.

Anyhow, enough about car registration details... for now... As I said, I extended my stay in railway square for 2 nights. I had to change rooms for this because they already booked a person in the bed I was staying in. And of course, in this new room, I had the worst sleep since I left Belgium. What happened was that the person lying under me (i was on the top bunk) was unfortunate to have a bit of a cold and absolutely no manners at all if you ask me. Imagine yourself trying to sleep with a person trying to clear his nose, not by blowing in a handkerchief as most people do, but by trying to suck up the snot. You know, like sniffing real hard. Now picture this at 3 o' clock in the night for a period of about 45 mins. Then he would fall asleep for half an hour which gave me 30 mins to fall asleep myself, before he woke up again and repeated the process. It was sooooo annoying !!!!

The next morning I requested a room change and fortunately I could get another room. Thank god, another night would have killed me.

But the time had come to go to another hostel, YHA Dulwich hill. I already booked this hostel at the end of July, because you have to be very early to get hold of a room for christmas and new year in Sydney. Even back in July I had a hard time finding a place !!!

Dulwich hill is situated outside of Sydney, about 20 mins by bus. I still hadn't found a car and I was pretty far from Sydney central. Bummer. And the little suburb hasn't got much going on. There are the grocery stores, some bakeries, and that's it. No places to go out to, nothing. They certainly named it right... dull. But it is a youth hostel aimed towards working holiday makers. Travelers who need a base in sydney to work. It's not for the party crowd, which is good in a way.

Anyhow, I arrived 2 days before christmas and didn't really get to know much of the guests when Christmas came arround but there was a little christmas party going on and I joined the festivities, but no presents for me.

It turned out there were three other belgians in the hostel, which was good. It had been a long time since I saw fellow countrymen (you can't say this if you're german).

The days between Christmas and New Year were filled up with my quest for a car, and finally, I made the decision to buy one. A white ford falcon, with a mean looking bull bar. Bought from a dutch backpacker couple.

Then the moment had arrived, new year's eve... Basically, everybody in Sydney wants to see the fireworks. So they all line up to get a seat in one of the parks that look out onto the harbour bridge. And line up they did. We (basically most of the hostel) got together to head out for the Royal botanical gardens which have a good view on the bridge and opera house. The plan was as follows. At 10.30  (in the morning !!!) leave for the gardens to obtain a spot. I would drive my car to a suburb close to Sydney central station so that when the fireworks ended, we could dump all our backpacks and gear in the car and go party in the city instead of going all the way back to the hostel.

Sounds like a good plan huh... well, most of the group waited in line for the entrance to the garden, they got there at arround 11.00. I, together with 4 others, arrived at arround 12.30 and simply joined the others in the queue which simply was the longest queue I have seen in my entire life !!! I think if you would have to wait in line, it would take several hours before you got in (remember, we got there early). The park had a capacity of 25.000 but the best spots go away very quickly. Anyhow, we managed to get a good spot... and only one thing was left... waiting till midnight. Killing time for half a day to see the fireworks, quite common here in Sydney. Luckily, at 21.00 there were already some fireworks, for the kids out there. These fireworks were pretty good already... it made you wonder what the real deal was going to be like. To kill the last few hours, I wanted to go get a good picture of the opera house and the bridge at night time. But it was simply impossible. There were soooo many people, simply unbelievable. I gave up and headed back to our spot. Finally the moment of truth arrived. The countdown began and the fireworks display started. Basically, there are 4 copies of the fireworks going of at boats on the river crossing the city, so that even if you are pretty far away, you can see the exact same fireworks as the people see who are very close to the opera house. Pretty cool if you ask me. Anyhow, the fireworks were pretty darn cool. But always with fireworks, you have the feeling that you've seen it before already. In the end, most big fireworks are the same. Of course it was still very impressive, don't get me wrong, but I was not the only one who expected a bit more. I guess the limit in fireworks has been reached. After that we headed for the car, and arround 2.30 we were back in the city, ready to party. We went to one of the bar/clubs in the centre of the city, walking in the middle of the street, since all trafic was blocked for a couple of hours during the fireworks. When we got the bar, it was almost 2.45 and we were told that they were already closing down !!! The shut the place down at 3.00. Ok, on to the next bar... we got in. Most of us got the chance to order a drink, not all of us, because... yup, you guessed it, it was closing time. Again, 3.00 is closing time. By then most of us were already fed up with it. Where could we go were there were no closing times ? We decided to try Darling harbour, there are lots of nightclubs at Darling Hbr, so we must find something for sure. Well, think again. When we got there, there were indeed a few clubs open. But they had an entry fee of 120$, and it was almost 3.30. That's a bit steep considering almost everybody has left. Soo, on to the next club, same story, expensive entry fee which we didn't feel like paying. At 4 o' clock, most night clubs were shutting down as well. What a dissapointment. There you are, in one of the biggest cities in the world and everything shuts down on new year's day... sad, very sad. I think you can get a drink in Hasselt at 4, which has a staggering population of 50.000. But apparently not in Sydney. I think if I'm ever again in Sydney for New year's eve, I will buy a ticket for one of the big night clubs, and spend my time in there. No waiting in parks for fireworks, and at least you'll be able to get some drinks.