Travel Story «Settling into Sydney»
Australia
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22 May 2006
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Last Update 24 December 2006
We left Melbourne and said our goodbyes to the girls who headed to Canberra. After a short flight with the Australian equivalent of Ryan Air, Aisling Grainne and I landed in Sydney and checked into the cheapest Hostel we could find called Big Hostel. Turns out it’s not so big and not so easy to find, thus began the unsettling (yet familiar) feeling that we were being filmed for Candid Camera such was the debacle of trying to get there. Our poor driver could not find the hostel and circled Central Station for the best part of 30 minutes repeatedly asking us the address (“It’s on the corner of Hay street and Elizabeth street” a very controlled Grainne repeated for the 49th time in as many seconds). Eventually we just got out and said we would walk and lo and behold there it was – home.
We settled into our dorm and booked Una and Lorna in for later that week not realising we had just checked into Pyscho Room but more of that later.
Seeing as it was Monday and we had just arrived we did what anyone else would do when they first arrive in Sydney in the middle of the afternoon and went straight to the pub. Later on that night, having acquainted ourselves with the local brew, we met Paddy from home who has been here 2 years with no sign of going home (and whom all of Sydney seem to know at this point) and inundated him with question after question about Sydney and the things to do and don't do. Suddenly it was closing time (we managed to have stumbled on one of the few pubs that aren't open 24 hours) and we plodded the 20 meters back to our hostel, a little worse for wear, while Paddy jumped in a taxi looking oh-so-relieved to be free of the endless barrage of questions.
At 8am we were rudely awoken by a ringing phone (lately, all hostels seem to be eager to get us up and out of bed early in the morning). Now a shared dorm requires some simple forms of etiquette and answering your phone or rejecting the call if you don't want to take it rather than let it ring out, is one of them. Ring, ring, ring, RING! And on and on it continued. I got out of bed to see who's phone it was to discover the culprit and her phone lying beside her head. I was about to say something when the ringing stopped. Relieved I got back into bed and tried to go back to sleep.
Ring, ring, ring started again. Now this phone rings 33 times before it cuts out (Aisling counted) and clearly the girl has no voice mail and the caller really wanted to get through to her. Again, I got out of bed (by this time we were all awake and gesticulating wildly at each other) and I stared threateningly at the phone owner to which she was completely oblivious on account of being asleep. ASLEEP! Through that noise. I was about to say something when the phone cut out again, so, hoping the caller had finally got the message I got back into bed.
No such luck. Ring ring ring. This time I was beyond angry and jumped up, grabbed her phone, shook her shoulder violently and hissed "Your phone." (Not the best way to introduce myself to our roomie but there you have it.) One eye cracked opened, a hand took the phone and silence descended once again and we returned to the land of slumber. Turns out, no one was ringing her - it was her alarm. Grrr.....
Later that afternoon we awoke again and hunted a McDonalds for the obligatory miracle cure food for the morning after the night before. Shock horror Aisling was accosted by people she knew (in fairness we had been in the city for 20 hours at that point, she's slipping up our Aisling) and we faked not being hungover until we discovered they were in the same sorry state and the conversation turned to where was good to shop, go out (Scruffy Murphys & P.J. O'Briens were mentioned I do believe) what recruitment agents to sign up with etc - you know, all the basics. The obligatory phone number swop ensued, then we left the Irish Colleens and, after a walk about town, ambled home for a quiet night in.
Ring, ring, ring... ah yes, this must be Tuesday morning. Yet again we were rudely awoken. Clearly my venemous looks and violence the previous morning had not deterred our sweet little roomie from setting her alarm. Despite the gentle-to-loud coaxing for her to wake up she did not stir so I returned to my bed and attempted to rise above the most irritating noise in the world by telling myself it was not annoying and did not affect me, when really it was damaging my calm beyond repair. "Is that your phone?" I opened my eyes to see a slightly harrassed Grainne staring down at me accusingly. "It's her" I said and pointed at the top bunk. Despite Grainne's best efforts and polite "Excuse me...sorry...is that your phone?", coma girl could not be woken. What a shock. Ring, ring, ring..... Grainne returned to her bed while making what looked to be throttling actions. On the third ring one very brave woman rummaged through coma girls bag, found the phone and handed it to her managing to wake her long enough to reveal our collective annoyance. The rest of the day was spent working on our C.V.s and beginning the arduous job hunting. Boo..hate work.
Wednesday afternoon Lorna and Una arrived in Sydney safe and sound, (although slightly harrassed after negotiating the citys' complicated one way systems). They kidnapped me when returning the car and while searching for a petrol station we came upon the Sydney Opera House so of course we jumped out to look around before re-focusing on the mission at hand which was returning the hire car. Back at the hostel we decided a re-union on this scale (hello - 2 nights apart from each other!) was cause enough for celebration and we must must must go out. We headed to The Three Monkeys and watched The State of Origin match; New South Wales V Queensland in Rugby League (NSW won if you're interested). Lorna and Aisling went on to discover the delights of Scruffy Murphys while the rest of us snuck off home.
The rest of the week was spent job and apartment hunting and the weekend was taken up with socialising wherein we discovered the problem of 24 hour pubs - no one ever tells you to go home because they never shut... so you don't... and then the sun comes up and oh-my-god-would-you-look-at-the-time - it's tomorrow!
By some stroke of luck we got the first apartment we viewed and had moved in by Sunday. We decided against Bondi Junction as it is winter here so whats the point? and got an apartment in the city - it has a swimming pool, gym, sauna and Jacuzzi in the building (jealous) and luckily for us was fully furnished - we landed on our feet to say the least. Our first night in the apartment was spent in front of the T.V. (which is HUGE by the way) enjoying being in our very own place which we wouldn't have to leave for a very very long time.
Emily
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