SYDNEY vol 1

Sydney is lovely! Still prefer Melbs, but there is nothing to complain here - except the expensiveness, which should not come as a surprise anymore.

Started driving last wednesday at 6am, carpooling with two german guys. They seemed nice at first, soon the superior attitude became annoying. I guess, it's not fair to generalise, one of them was sweet. As they decided to talk german pretty much the whole time, we gave up being social as well and were napping most of the time. 

Quick stop for a bbq in Canberra. The capital - check! 

We arrived to Sydney by late evening. Decided to camp the first night with the boys at a free camping site on a riverbank with a beautiful view of Sydney skyline. A possum payed us a visit. First one we saw in Oz.

Kilian, Martin and Keiu

View from Balls Head Reserve

Went to explore the city in the morning. Left our stuff into the guys car and made our way down from the park. The Harbour Bridge did not seem too far away, so we decided to walk, soon found a lovely little cafeteria perfect for brunch in Waverton suburb and continued the hike after. In the end we walked more than 10 km to the city. Once at the bridge, we were not sure if we can cross the bridge walking as it didn't seem that popular, decided to ask a local bus-driver, he told us to hop on and took us to the stairs going up to the actual start of the bridge. Cheers! Next up, "The Rocks" district. The oldest district of Sydney and the historic foundation place. It was fun to discover without maps and not really knowing the city.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Ended up in a "Museum of Contemporary Art Australia" - hands down, the coolest art museum I've been to, we could've been there from morning to night and do it all again the next day!

Finally walked over to the Opera House. Somebody advised us to make our way inside as well, so we did, visited the restrooms.. They were fancy!

Met our lovely Couchsurfing host Olivia and her friend Alice at "The Standard Bowl" for a few rock bands: "Greta Mob" and "Wolf&Cub" (just like we never left Melbourne) and free bowling. The place is inspired by "Brooklyn Bowl" in Williamsburg, NY. I went there couple years ago, sweet nostalgia!

Before going to a suburb called Ashfield where Olivia lives, we had to collect our crap from the camping site we stayed at last night. Took a train to Waverton this time and started climbing the hill, at the same time feeling terrified how we are going to get down from there with our enormous bags, secretly hoping the guys will be gentlemen enough and give us a ride to the train station. Of course not, they decided to start drinking wine. So we ran to the station with our hundred bags and hoped we are not gonna miss the last train. A good workout later we made it to the city and took a night-bus to Ashfield. Another almost-getting-lost and a chat with a very friendly police-officer later, we were home!

Liv had to go to school early on friday morning, so we were out and about enjoying the cheap asian bakeries in Ashfield already by 8am. Went for a free city tour with "I am free" tours. After two months of living in Melbourne we finally got time to take the tour with a same company there to get new tips, we learned it was originally started in Sydney, so now in here, we used to opportunity. They are completely free, don't need registration and operate tips-only basis. The tours are usually fun, educative and not too mainstream.

ANGEL PLACE

After the tour continued on the art track. "Biennale" is a series of art exhibitions held in different locations. We saw some of it in the contemporary art museum last day and now took a ferry to "Cockatoo island". Reminding an old prison camp it is a pretty impressive little island and the incredible art installations made it even better! It started raining in the end so we were running from one bunker to another to still see everything while not getting completely soaked.

Met with Liv and couple of her friends and other Couchsurfers at "Coogee Bay hotel" for a "Cloud Control" gig. The same band we caught in Melbourne. They are touring so we have a chance to catch them in different cities. After the concert me and Keiu were dead-tired and ready to go to bed at 8pm. 

As the others wanted to go to the monthly Couchsurfing meet-up at the "Pyrmont Bridge Hotel" at Darling Harbour and we were staying with Liv, so shook it off and ended up having a great evening. At first we couldn't possibly look more anti-social as the idea of answering to questions like: "where are we from, what are we doing here, how do we speak so good english or what are our detailed future plans" sounded too tiring. Once you meet the right people tho.. we were back to our random, fun-loving selves. 

Accidentally met Hassan, who we knew from Melbourne and started chatting with him and lovely girls Nur from Kenya and Marine from France. Met a guy whose last name sounded like McCheese and confused an Argentinian guy in his own nationality, plus Hassan met his Latin-American brother from another mother.

CLOUD CONTROL

Saturday morning started pretty early again. As passionate music lovers we could not not go to a morning concert at 10.30am at "The Standard Bowl" with Liv and Bella. It's part of the "Drink Wise campaign" to be able to go to a concert early morning on saturday. "Thief" supporting and "Oliver Tank" headlining. Both super awesome!!! Plus there was free coffee and free dumplings!!

Didn't get enough of dumplings so went to a Chinese dumpling place, after, took a ferry to "Manly" island. A bit of wine and cheese on the beach never hurt anybody. Lovely paradise-like-island, totally different feeling from Sydney, only a 30-minute boat-ride away.

The same goes for Bondi beach, tourist attraction or not, it looks lovely. I think we are meant to live near the beach, so our next destination - Byron Bay should be perfect!

Met with a local guy from Couchsurfing in a bar called "Bar Century" near Town Hall. 3$ drink specials. Terrible wine but decent bourbon with lemonade. The guy turned out to be the biggest asshole of all time. He offered to host us at first, thank god we already said yes to Olivia!! It would've been the biggest disaster. A close-minded person with a terrible character who can't handle people not agreeing with him, however stupid his theory on something may sound, especially on women. In his mind women are pieces of meat, meant to sit at home and not open their mouths, if not, they are "Eastern European gold diggers". I guess we rattled him quite some, as he occasionally kept sending me random texts for several days to "prove" some of his points. 

We were headed to "Opera Bar" to catch another "Cloud Control" gig. (Safe to say, we are pretty much following bands around Australia, thanks Clair for getting us started! Met Huw, a Sydney local, total opposite to the guy I just described, open-minded music lover who can handle discussions. "Cloud Control" was great as ever!

On a rainy sunday afternoon in Newtown, finally met Jaffy (my favorite irish, from NY). It was a great coincidence as we were playing pool at a pub which was situated pretty much in front of his house and he got my message at the right time! In the evening we moved from Liv's place to Hassans in Surrey Hills. It's in the central, but all the way up the hill and I think I have mentioned once or twice that we are terrible backpackers and have too much crap (not furniture, bricks or bodies - as some people have guessed). It was painful, as of course, we got lost, which also only happens when we are carrying our things with us. Another sweaty workout!

Transport is super expensive in Sydney, the wisest choice was to buy a weekly ticket, so we got a zone 3 one which includes all the buses, trams, trains and ferries. To get the most out of it, we went to Blue Mountains on Monday. 

Adorable small towns, scenic views and great hiking trails. While traveling from Katoomba to Blackheath on the afternoon, we happened on the gap between the trains, so had to wait for an hour, had a chat with a firewood transporter who lives up in the mountains, a very simple and sweet guy, who knows more about Europe and the world in general than many others from the cities. When finally in Blackheath, it had started raining and as we still wanted to reach "Govetts Leap" (a 6km roundtrip), we used our good-old-favourite means of transport - hitchhiking!!!! A group of labourers coming from work (one of them drop-dead-gorgeous) took us. The lookout was empty and deserted by the evening, which made it even more gorgeous. We were close to missing our train while walking back in the rain when three frenchies with a van saved us. A funny coincidence: we saw them in Katoomba in the morning, had a quick chat, parted ways, ran into them again in Blackheath, waved at each other and in the end they were the ones who took us back to the train station. Or - almost - their van had a leakage problem, which is why they had to camp up in the mountains for a night instead of going back to Sydney and the only reason they went towards the town of blackheath from the lookout was to get beer! And due to that leakage, their car died in the middle of a crossing, near the station, they told us to go, as we had only 2-3 minutes until the train. Laughing, we ran and made it to the platform a minute before the train, and saw the guys driving by. A happy ending! Talked to an artist who escapes to the mountains from the city to paint and prefers the calmness of the nature to the city any time.

GOVETTS LEAP

THREE SISTERS

The minions were on the dashboard of the same french guys car that took us to the train station,  the funny thing here is that I took the photo in the morning, having no idea whose car it is. 

Someone just had THE COOLEST GARDEN! 

Met Hassan, Marine and her friend Patrick for dinner at a Mexican place "El Loco" for cheap yet mouth-watering tacos and quesadillas.

On tuesday visited "4A Centre for Contemporary Art", Chinatown markets (I accidentally bought a bug repellant hand-band instead of a hairband - they did look alike!),  had a sushi-picnic in the beautiful Botanic Gardens and took the evening tour in "The Rocks" area by the same "I am Free" company. Lots of random-entertaining facts, old bank robberies and mysteries and the oldest pubs in Sydney.

These rhinos can be found all over Sydney. At the end of the program the rhinos will be sold at a charity auction to raise funding for Taronga's rhino conservation programs. 

Finished the evening in the "Soda Factory". 1$ hot-dogs!!! And not regular: tomato sauce-sausage-bun, but an awesome selection of them, with onions, cheese, beans, avocado, chilli, salad, lamb-or-chicken sausage etc. They have great specials on other days as well. (Just went there again for 5$ cheeseburgers and caramel-bourbon cocktails).

Eight of March was a FREE CONE DAY at BEN&JERRY'S, no trick, everyone who walks in, gets a free cone of whatever deliciousness, and we just happened to stumble on one store.

Yesterday night met Liv and some of her fellow medical students at "The Clock hotel" for a spiced rum with ginger beer. Another place for cheap specials. And headed to a ROCK'n'ROLL BINGO (yes, this is the coolest thing ever!!!) at "Darlie Laundromatic" - a tiny pub that looked like a laundromat from inside and out! Pure awesome! The whole bar was playing bingo, being competitive and singing along to 70's and 80's rock from the bottom of our throats.

Visited "The Star Casino" today for another awesome music discovery. Rai Thistlethwaite from "Thirsty Merc" was playing a solo gig at Rock Lily bandroom. Such an entertaining performer, his band is on tour, I wish we'd catch a concert sometime somewhere.

Finally, another gig at "Frankie's Pizza by the Slice": "The Darkened seas". Frankie's is Sydney's ESPY. Must-go!

On the endnote, the reason we came to Sydney for almost two weeks, is work. 6 days at the Easter Show would have given us much-needed extra cash for Bluesfest. The employer we worked for at Melbourne's MOOMBA festival offered us a job here too, when we got here she didn't know exactly when she needs us, then ended up not answering her phone for a couple of days and when we finally reached her a day before the start of the festival, she said they're all full. Another life lesson: don't trust people!!

We have learned that everything is good for something, I hope something great comes outta this, as we have savings from our previous jobs it's ok, and mainly: if we would have not come here when we did, we probably would have not seen half of the places, met many great people, nor ran into old friends.

 Couple more gigs and hangouts in Sydney and towards Byron Bay in the end of the week!