Friday 6th & Saturday 7th June
My last day in Darwin proved to be so mind-numbingly boring that the couple of hours I spent hanging out by the pool just dragged and dragged. I had checked out of my room at 09.30 and stored my stuff there for the remainer of the day, but still had a whole twelve hours to kill before I was due to get the shuttle bus out to the airport, and then catch my flight to Sydney which was scheduled to leave at 01.40.
Thomas had left the day before, so Daniele and I just chilled out, moaned about there being nothing to do, and, admittedly, ogled some of the girls who were lying by the pool. Later in the evening, we went for a drink at the pub and had some fish and chips for dinner, and then hung out in the pub for a while before it was time for me to get my bus. I bade farewell to Daniele and Konika, the last remaining people from our group who had driven up from Broome to Darwin the week before.
The shuttle bus took no more than half an hour to get the airport, and I got checked in quickly. The flight was delayed in getting into Darwin by an hour, so we were behind schedule before we left the airport. I was knackered myself and tried to get as much sleep as I could on the three hour flight from Darwin to Brisbane.
The flight arrived about half an hour late with the result that I missed my connecting flight to Sydney, but it wasn't much of a problem as I was just put onto the next Virgin Blue flight they seemed leave on the hour). On board the flight to Sydney, I got chatting to the guy beside me who was heading to Sydney on business, to interview people for his company which staged themed parties and murder mystery weekends. He was quite a funny guy and we had a bit of laugh before we took off, after which I couldn't stay awake and conked out for most of the hour and a half flight.
Once in Sydney, it was a pretty straightforward trip on the train out to Bondi Junction station where I met Elizabeth & Iain. I hadn't seen Liz since she was back in Derry in September, and it was great to see someone from home again. We got back to their flat and caught up for a while before we went out for a walk to Bondi Beach, which is just around the corner from their flat. I was actually very surprised at how Sydney looked, at least the coastal part where the guys live; it's all very rugged and rocky, with a strong wind and angry waves lashing in off the ocean reminding me more of Ireland than the other part of Australia from where I had come. It really was so different but it was also beautiful too. After lunch, we walked along Bondi Beach, which itself was full of joggers, walkers and generally beautiful people out for some Saturday afternoon exercise.
We got back to the flat and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We watched Ireland get beaten by the All Blacks in the rugby; it was a good game and Ireland didn't disgrace themselves, but new Zealand were just too strong. We had dinner and chilled out and it wasn't late by the time I crashed out, happy to have a comfortable bed and a room to myself after a month of sleeping in hostel dorms.
