Sydney, Bavarian Cafe, More Shopping and Bad Weather

Hello from Sydney. Hope you are all well and good? So i last blogged on Thursday having spent the day on Sentosa island in Singapore. I decided after a heavy night the night before that i would have a quiet, chilled night in the hostel as i had to be up at 6am the next morning for my flight to Sydney. It was a quiet night but ended up being a late one. Lots of backpackers arrived that day due to the Singapore grand prix starting the next day, there wasn't a bed free in the whole place. I ended up chatting to a bunch of Aussies, sharing travel stories, they were especially intrigued to hear about 'incredible India'. So after many a laugh, piss taking and pom bashing i hit the hay at 3am! I had found 2 other girls also leaving for the airport at the same time so we agreed to share the taxi fare, bonus, especially with the amount of Singapore dollars I had put into the local economy in my short stay. I rose at 6.15am, showered paid up and was at the airport for 7.30am, still in good time for my 9.40am flight to Sydney. It was all going too swimmingly, of course this was about to change. At the check in desk I managed to place myself in a queue which had a family of 6 who about 100 bags, it took around 15mins just to process them alone. 25mins later i was heaving my rucksack on to the conveyor belt, i handed my passport over, after few bashes of the keyboard the lady asked me for me Australian Visa, i stared at her with a 'WTF you on about' look, I explained that it should have been all sorted by my travel company who i booked the RTW ticket with and that they advised that it was all electronic and on the system. After a few more bashes of the keyboard she politely explained that i didn't have a visa! Magic i thought, it was the middle of the morning in the UK so I couldn't even contact the my flight company! The nice lady explained i could buy one for $75 dollars and i could still make my flight. I was sent to Quantas customer services where though frustrated, just wanted to get a Visa and be on my way. I gave my details and was asked to take a seat, 30mins later i had my visa, checked in made my way to my gate still with 30mins to spare. It was only on the plane that it dawned on me that i hadn't paid $75 and nor did they ask for it, Result! The flight was 7hours and must admit went pretty quick, i think because of how great the service and plane was. It was a brand new Boeing 380, it was bright, super clean and airy. The in flight service was top notch and by far the best airline service i had ever experienced. I was handed a menu of the food, snacks and drinks and when they would be served throughout the flight, including an ice-cream. The entertainment system was certainly top of the range with plenty of films, TV programs (with lots of different genre to choose from) music and games, the piste a resistance was an option called 'Skycam', this enabled you to watch the whole flight from a camera in the tail fin, as you can tell i was pretty impressed, watching take off and landing from that view was pretty cool.. fair play Quantas, overall, excellent airline.

So i arrived in Sydney at around 6.45pm and was greeted by my English friends who are currently working and living here on a sponsorship, Ed and Lorna. I stepped outside the airport, i knew it had been good weather all week, however that had certainly changed, Ed and Lorna advised it had been up to 31 degrees that day, i found it hard to believe as it was now around 12 degrees, it was freezing and the rain was soon to follow. We had a short 15min journey to their apartment in Randwick, which is about 20mins from central Sydney. Their place is a one bed modern flat, its pretty spacious and has a big balcony on the first floor, the view isn't the best but nice place, my bed for the next 10 days was a mattress on the floor in the open kitchen/lounge, was just perfect and a also found out that night, pretty comfy, not too shabby for little Ruffy, not too shabby at all. I slept like a log and even slept to about 10am the following day, unheard of for me with my usual 6am energetic starts, i clearly was tired and my body was enjoying the home comforts. It was Saturday, raining and cold, my plans for the beach an getting a tan faded away. So we hopped on the bus to Bondi Junction, and went shopping. I clearly hadn't shrugged off my shopping fever! I left the mall a few hours later with a unlocked mobile phone which cost only $30 and allowed you to have to sims in it at once, of which you can switch between very easy, 2 T's, a pair of 'going out' shoes costing $150 (they are pretty sweet) and $30 dollars top up for my new phone, along with a few other bits and bobs. And the spending didn't stop there, on the way back we stopped at the supermarket and i picked up food for the week, at least i wont be spending loads on takeaways and restaurants. I am very surprised how expensive it is here, definitely on par with London prices, i guess being one of the biggest cities in the world, i shouldn't be too surprised. That evening myself and Ed headed out to a local entertainment center to meet one of his friends, Gary that Ed worked with, Gary is Irish who now had permanent citizenship. We ordered some food and had a few beers. we had headed out early, around 5ish as Gary and his mate Kev (who joined us around 6ish) were off to a comedy club at 7. They shot off and Ed and myself chatted, watched England smash Romania and of course sank a few more Schooner's (for those of you that don't know a schooner is not a pint nor is a half pint, its in between). At around 9 Gary and Kev had finished in the comedy club and headed to another bar in the complex, the 'Bavarian bier cafe'. This place was very cool and had loads of character, the food was supposed to be amazing and waitress' dressed in tight German style waitress uniforms which produced some great cleavage, not that i had noticed, it was only when Gary had pointed this out had I noticed.. of course! The cafe of course was all about the beer, mostly from Europe, there was plenty to choose from and a choice of sizes, Schooner, 500ml and a whole litre, which would have set you back $20 per glass. We sat chatting, drinking  and getting slowly drunk. Gary and Kev who i will mention at this point in their 30's treated us to some rather interesting and hilarious of tales of times when they had shit themselves!! yeh not really dinner talk but very funny nether the less and by this point we were well on our way anway! Gary and Kev left around 11pm, we decided stay for a few more and of course the inevitable happened, we started on the whisky's. We soon got chatting to a local couple, Jody and Rob by all accounts also had, had a fair amount of drink, they seemed to have a strange relationship and Jody who i will mention was pretty hot kept stroking mine and Ed's leg's at every opportunity, she seemed a little unstable with a couple of outbursts of tears.. very random but they were both a good laugh. We left at around 1am but not before the barman had said to Ed very smuggly if you can flick a dollar coin into a glass behind the bar the round of whisky's you just bought are free, of course first go Ed popped the one dollar straight into the glass.. Mr Barman was no longer looking so smug but Ed sure was.. good work Edward. We finally got kicked out as we were the last ones to leave, it was pissing down and blowing a gale the four of us shared a taxi not before getting soaked to the bone and headed home.

That brings us up to today, must admit i was feeling hanging, more tired than anything, Lorna was out for the day, myself and Ed had your typical hangover day, TV, PlayStation and of course KFC, the colonel always seems to be calling me after a night out! Yes before you say it, i did buy food the day before so i wouldn't eat fast food, this however was a special occasion!!!! I am sure you understand. Keep well peeps.

PS. Its still raining and hasn't stopped and is fcking freezing! the sun better return soon, i need a tan! and having heard from Caz who is still in India, now travelling through GOA i am nore envious as she advised me that its been in the 30's and they had been sunbathing getting burnt and awesome tans! NOT jealous at all!!! Grrrr.