Jonny and I arrived in Sydney downtrodden and weary, we haled a taxi driver to take us to the hostel we had pre booked.
The Lebanese cabby was a little rude to us when we tried to make polite conversation with him and tension was steadily building in the car. When the cabby couldn't find the street we needed we told him to drop us off and we would try to find the hostel ourselves.
The cab driver then charged us a ludicrously large amount of money and became aggressive with us when we started to question the price!
All these things didn’t make a good first impression on us and our annoyance only grew worse as we walked up and down the streets, tired in search for our hostel late at night.
Our Hostel was in the Kings Cross area of Sydney and just like London it had the same seedy dangerous feel. Not that pleasant really!
When we finally found our hostel and having to wait a further 30mins for the receptionist to turn up, when he did he was clearly drunk and looked like he hadn't slept in weeks or had a bath for that matter!
There were all kinds of dodgy looking characters hanging around and without sounding rude they all looked like a bunch of 'low lifers on crack'! Jonny and I looked at each other, both with worried looks on our faces but we accepted the room as it was very late, we were shattered and wasn’t hopeful we would find alternative accommodation roaming the streets of Kings Cross.
Our bedroom had a foisty smell to it and it was right next to the communal toilet which reeked of urine. In the toilet there were a whole range of human stains all over the walls, floor and door handles!
After checking our bedroom door was well and truly locked several times we decided there was no chance in hell we would contemplate staying in the hell hole that was our hostel another night.
Throughout the night I kept hearing people walking up and down, talking and hanging around the communal toilet. I was scared, really scared that someone would try and come in our room, I prayed the morning would hurry and come.
At the crack of dawn (no pun intended!) we were up in search of somewhere to stay. Luckily for us we happened to stumble across The Altamont Hotel which was a palace in comparison and we both felt happy and relieved we had somewhere clean and safe to stay. No more grime and crack heads!
Apart from the obvious must sees in Sydney like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, Sydney has a clean, young diverse feel to it. What I particularly liked was the combination of cosmopolitan bars, restaurants and shops with clean beaches and large open spaces.
Many of the streets in Sydney have the same names as famous London streets; you will find an Oxford Street, Paddington, Kings Cross and Liverpool Street ect.
Ok now onto Bondi! Bondi Beach isn’t quite like I thought it would be but in some respects it is. There’s the obvious vast array of surfers hanging out but in general it’s not just the surfers that are cool here, as I write this there’s a crowd gathering around the skater boys doing their tricks down an unused swimming pool and I kinda get the feeling that anything daring and free goes here.
Although it is a cool place I can’t help but think it has become quite touristy and has lost some of it’s charm. I think if I lived here Bondi wouldn’t be my favourite beach and I would probably become a bit bored after a while but how lucky are the folks from Sydney to have not only an amazing city but have beaches on their doorstep as well, that is what makes seeing Sydney quite interesting and unique, it has a youthfulness to it.
