We were reluctanct to leave the brilliant Blue Mountains and
the girls, but with only a few days remaining in Sydney we wanted to explore
the northern beaches. We got the train
back into Sydney and took the hour long bus ride over the Sydney Harbour Bridge
up to Collaroy. I’d seen the hostel we
were staying in (YHA Sydney Beachhouse) months ago online and was really
looking forward to the beach location, laid back vibe, and free surf board
hire. Talk about the biggest disappointment ever! Our room was on the
top floor and we opened to a hum of hot air and man sweat. The three guys in the room were literally permanent residents, and it felt like we were invading their home, or more
their squat from the state of the place.
After a day of chilling on the beach and two very sweaty, sleepless
nights we decided enough was enough and checked out. We decided to make best of our location and
took the bus up to Palm Beach, a.k.a. Summer Bay of Home and Away.
Plenty of nice houses, good sun, and Sheela’s
so we were happy. Definitely somewhere to
move to if you strike it lucky with the lottery!
Picked up our gear from the Devil's Hostel as
we’ve labelled it (in nearly every game of shithead there I had 666 in my hand;
I of course still kicked Matt’s butt in every game – think I’m about 30 ahead
now) and headed back for Sydney Central YHA.
Woke up that morning and Matt looked like Rocky in Rocky 4 after the
fight with that Russian dude; after much deliberation we decided it must have
been some allergic reaction from something in the dirty squat room, or sun
burn. He'd also managed to again
change the combination on his lock so we’ve gone out and bought a new one. Weather was crap so we headed to Bondi for
some shopping and Nando’s (yes!). On our
last day in Australia we took the ferry over to Manly and enjoyed the
sunshine.
For those of you who ever come to Sydney and wanna hit the beach, we thought Palm was the nicest:
1. Palm Beach
2. Manly
3. Bondi
4. Bronte
5. Collaroy - hole
That night we met up with our
buddy Sean from the Blue Mountains and the whiskey did flow. With a 5.30am wake up call to catch our
flight to Christchurch, Matt decided to down a litre of water before hitting
the hay in order to try and stem his hangover; drunken logic..... About an hour and a half later he woke up with
the most urgent call of nature, and with drunk logic still in charge he
proceeded to search his bed for his room key card and came to the conclusion
that it must be in his duvet. With duvet
in tow and wearing just his pants he headed for the toilet. Upon arrival he searched his duvet, alas no
key card, and at 3am realised there was no way to access the toilet, or get
back into the room. Thus wearing his
duvet he had to head down to reception, and in front of all the returning drunken revellers had to ask for a replacement; another classic Matt moment, although one
I sadly missed as I was comatose. 9am
flight and we were on our way to New Zealand!
