Monday 23 June 2014

Smashing Sydney


"Hey Russ. Guess who is playing Sydney Opera House when we are there?" Cat asked as I finally joined her, poolside in Bali. "Pixies!!" Sheeeeeeet! We're going. Tickets booked and as soon as I could say "where is my mind" we were sat in our seats waiting for our favourite band. Full of anticipation and drinking our pocket wine the band walked on stage. But not to a standing ovation? In fact when the opener had finished, still no one had stood up. Then the second song with the same response. I could see two girls downstairs stood at the side of their seats dancing. Screw this, we're off!




We sneak downstairs and carefully open a door. Waiting at any moment to be caught by stewards and told to return to our seats upstairs with the boring idiots. As easy as it was to bring our own wine into the venue we strolled inside jumped up and down at the side for half of a song then danced all the way to the stage. Soon to be joined by a bunch of other Pixies nuts.




Probably the best gig I have ever been to. I searched online for a cool place to hang out after the show. I found a place called Frankies Pizza. We walk in to a very regular looking pizza joint. After grabbing a slice we
head out the back. The big back room is plastered in old gig posters of The Who and The Ramones. Real ale on draft. In one of the corners there are pinball machines the other is a live band with a singer that sounded like White Snake.


We woke up in our scruffy hostel room with an alert on Instagram telling us that Pixies have liked these photos :D








Every week there is something different happening in Sydney. While we were there it was Vivid Festival. Sydney was alight with neon colours. Huge projection covered sky scrapers. The sails of the Opera House were washed with a constant changing of shapes and colours.




Instead of joining the free daily walking tour we decided to do our own, we ended up at Darling Harbour. Walked around the bay & gardens. Later we checked out some of the Vivid Festival attractions & headed to the Rock for food trucks and photos by the Harbour Bridge.

 
The founder of Australia, Captain Cook. A Yorkshireman.










Surry Hill is a fifteen minute walk from Kings Cross where our hostel was. This is where we met our friend Aaron for lunch. Catching up with a fellow traveller over Lebanese food. We met Aaron in Macedonia it was cool to hear his future travel plans. Lunch lasted longer than expected so we got to Bondi a bit too late to do the full coastal walk. We sat on the gorgeous beach for a while then walked along the cliff at sunset. The natural beauty is breathtaking, much nicer than we exepected. Cat spotting dolphins & me finding a ball was the icing on the cake.









We returned to the hostel to find they were giving out free sangria so we decided to hang out there & chat to the other guys staying there who seemed really friendly. It wasn't strictly sangria, it was goon with lemonade & fruit. For those of you wondering what the hell goon is - it is any really cheap box of wine in Australia. By cheap I mean 5 litres for about £5. It's made from the crap that can't go in normal bottles of wine, we had heard stories of people losing bowel control on this stuff so obviously we were eager to try it :) Try it we did, lots of it. It was ok mixed with lemonade. The night was spent playing crazy drinking games in the hostel drinking room, loads of fun.

The next day being our last day we had decided to go to Manly Beach. Manly Beach is a big enough attraction by itself but, you go there on a ferry & see great views of the opera house & harbour bridge. The ferry was very windy but worth it, great place for photos of Sydney.





Manly Beach was really nice but the weather wasn't as good as the previous day at Bondi Beach. We sat on the beach for a bit & when the rain started obviously we went to the pub. The rain didn't last long so after that we enjoyed some fish & chips and a walk to the next beach which was called Shelly Beach. Again, we were amazed by the incredible natural beauty of Australia.






Sydney was amazing, possibly our favourite place we visited in Australia. There is so much to do, we didn't even scratch the surface. I'm really looking forward to going back.

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