Acclimatisation week

Thursday, September 24, 2009

My First Week

Monday: arrival and space out, checked out the botanical gardens where cockatoos attempted to eat my hand, went to Sydney harbour, took pictures at the lookout and checked out all the relevant stuff, cut my head open on a rusty bit of metal sticking out from a coat hanger and got on a jetboat, came off drenched and shivering then went back to coogee where we were staying and ate a steak (lots of steaks here compared to England, and cheaper!) went out for a quick drink which I decided wasn’t for me so I walked along the rocky coast for a while climbing over dangerous stuff in the dark and eventually found an amazing view of another beach, then I went to bed.

Tuesday: awoke feeling terrible! For some reason being absurdly tired means you sleep worse… maybe just me. Gradually I rose and we headed off for a day of surf! Excited almost to the point of accidents I journeyed to the beach which apparently was where some great surfer used to train, I’m sure you could say that about every single inch of sand in Australia but still, I was impressed. The beach had dolphins swimming just behind the waves, excitement at this point is almost winning. Suited and barefoot we waded into the freezing almost English water and proceeded to brake the first rule of surfing, ‘looking cool.’ I have surfed before so I got the hang of it pretty quick and stopped looking ridiculous, well partly, but I had tons of fun and that’s what counts in my book. In the evening we went to a club and I learned how to pole

dance. Thank you Michelle.

Wednesday: the most exciting day yet! Hung over and miserable we sorted out our bank accounts! Then we went to the aquarium, I maxed out my camera memory, deleted some pictures and maxed it out again, this continued for some time, then I realised I was the only one

left, so I left and earned the name fishboy for staying so long. Back to the beach and everyone went out again, I being a conservative chap decided to stay in and skype my parents, they couldn’t figure out how it worked… sleep.

Thursday: Bondi beach is our next stop, I can see why everyone thinks its amazing but I didn’t, a beach is a beach to me, made fascinating only by something totally outrageous or rocks to climb (I like to climb). Still it was fun and I experienced a burial, being slightly claustrophobic this wasn’t the best idea but still, gotta do it once. Then we walked back towards Coogee and stopped for a barbie at Clevelly, another beach (loads of the things) which ended with a volleyball match, my team won twice and as a punishment for the losers we drenched them in partially melted ice cubes, huge fun!

Friday: the blue mountains really are blue, from afar anyway and believe or not that’s where they got their name! logical names are big in Australia; Manly beach was named so because the person who found it saw some manly men on it… Digressing, anyway I left this handy little crystal scarf I had in the hostel bathrooms as you soak them and they hold water for days to keep you cool and naturally I haven’t seen it since, don’t leave anything anywhere that isn’t your room or preferably bag in Australia, you will not get it back. Still digressing, the blue mountains was by far my favourite day, although my camera ran out of battery so I don’t have as many pictures as I’d like, we saw trees that were actually cold (this still baffles me), trees with silver leaves, a little red/purple parrot, more cockatoos who didn’t try to eat me this time, but no kangaroos which made me sad. I climbed some sandstone, but only a little as the girls were freaking out at my ‘dangerous’ antics; honestly just getting into bed was more hazardous.

Saturday: planning day! I booked a few things, whitunday and fraser island trips aswell as a skydive at mission beach which apparently means you fall over the reef, seems like a good idea to me. Then we mucked around for a while and went out on a pub crawl, unadvisable. I had loads of fun pulled a cute masseuse then proceeded to lose my really nice hat and my wallet, including my drivers license, bank cards, money, global gossip card (with credit) and possibly more I don’t know about and probably never will.

Sunday: hell. Hungover to the point of climbing into a grave and unable to find that masseuse, trying to figure out what happened and how the hell I managed to lose the important things instead of change (conclusion being lack of real braincells). Regretting ever looking at alcohol I attempted to get the remaining braincells into action so I could figure out how to sort the mess, I cancelled cards and called clubs and reported to police and generally insulted myself for being so clever. In the evening we went to dinner in the tower which revolves giving a view of lots of Sydney, but not the bridge or opera house, great thinking whoever built that tower! And I attempted to participate in the buffet competition of which the record was 10 plates, I managed 3 before dessert, pathetic but I’m sure my score would have been higher had I not been so stressed out. That ended we had a final picture at the lookout and said goodbye and goodnight.

OzIntro ended its time for me to head out into the big wild world of Australia alone!