We touched down in Sydney on a bright sunny morning (although the temperature was nothing on Asia!) and took an expensive taxi to our hostel, Wake Up. Nicola and Alex (along with the lovely Emily Collins) had stayed here three years previous and so highly recommended it as a place to spend our nights. For $30, you spend the night in a comfortable mixed dorm with bunk beds and a shared bathroom down the hall. The hostel itself is huge with around 8 floors and you can use their facilities, which are a 24 hour internet room, tasty restaurant, lounge and Side Bar underneath.
Our day trips included a walk to Hyde Park, Darling Harbour, a visit to see the Sydney Opera House, a lazy half day in the botanical gardens – Nicola managed to lie in chewing gum and had to cut it out of her hair – and also the Aquarium. The latter was good fun with many amazing, mystical and colourful creatures, including some crazy sea horses and friendly turtles with long necks.
On one of our nights out, we played some interesting drinking games in our dorm before descending to the bar below the hostel. Side Bar sells some tasty cocktails and is good for an easy night out whilst staying in Wake Up, but the crowd is fairly young (18,19) and the music was often dodgy (something the dj did not enjoy being told). Alex and Nicola noted how the bar had changed a great deal since they had last been there; from chilled and sociable to more of a party club.
On another night we went out to Kings Cross, which was cut short upon arrival, where we were bombarded by non existent skirts, strip clubs, a rude bar leaflet hander – outer man who got a good talking to and expensive entrance fees into what seemed to be standard bars. Not really our scene.
With Sydney crammed with typical touristy activities, we felt satisfied when we had to move on and get a coach to Byron Bay. We bought an open 3 stop ticket for $168 to Byron Bay, Brisbane and return to Sydney. This price was steep for our budgets, especially when we had become accustomed to the ten pound equivalent bus journeys around Asia, and so this woke us up to the prices that we needed to start getting used to from now on.
