Craig & Sam Down Under

Hi guys! Hope everyone is well and not missing us too much. First of all, thank you all so so much for the comments on our blog, it’s great to know you’re all watching, keeps some of the homesickness at bay hearing from you all.

The first hostel we stayed in, Wake Up (www.wake-up.com) was really really lovely, the room was clean, bed comfy and we had a locker each for our valuables in the room. Unfortunately it was quite pricey to stay there so we made a short list of cheaper hostels based on the info in our BUG guide and decided to visit them after the city orientation with the CCUSA rep. During the orientation the rep gave us a map of the city and said “do not go below this point on the map” and promptly ruled out the majority of the cheaper hostels. So we’re now in one called Forbes Terrace (www.g-day.com.au) which advertises free breakfast, free pancakes, free tea and coffee and free internet access. The net access is limited to half an hour am and half an hour pm. The kitchen doesn’t look fit to slaughter cows in and the showers are equally suspect. In short, it’s a flea pit and sadly we’ve paid up until tuesday next week as we were panicking about not being able to find anywhere to stay over the bank holiday weekend (i think monday is aussie labour day??).

However, on the happy side we’ve put down a deposit on a campervan. Rego is PLP 918 so we’re calling her Penelope (Penny for short). We’re picking her up on Tuesday and are planning a test trip out to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days. There are several guarantees with the van as we are buying it from a company called Travellers AutoBarn, rather than risking buying privately from another traveller. Parents please go to (www.travellers-autobarn.com) and read up about the guarantees, the buy-back service and the 12 months NRMA roadside assistance that we’ll be getting as part of the package. We’ve read all about it and have visited the NRMA office where they were very helpful, provided us with all kinds of maps and info and we feel very secure and supported in choosing to go with these companies- you should too. As for staying in hostels where possible, it’s probably not going to be an option very often as its so expensive, however we are looking into getting a list of free and cheap camp sites where we can park up securely with other travellers and use power and toilet/shower facilities, we know they exist, now we just have to find them. Don’t worry, we will NOT be parking up at a roadside in the middle of nowhere to sleep. This will NEVER EVER happen (memories of Wolf Creek still resounding strongly).

Anyway, we’ve been doing loads of walking to see the sights of Sydney and spend our days as far away from the hostel as possible. After the orientation on Tuesday we walked through Hyde Park and saw the Anzac Memorial. It was a case of – free touristy thing, we are tourists therefore we shall visit… off we went. It was actually a very touching memorial with a statue of three women holding up the body of a male soldier, placed at the bottom of a well so that all who look upon it must bow their heads. No photos so look it up on the net if you’re interested.

Last night we came back to the hostel for a nap at about 5pm and ended up sleeping thru til this morning about 6am! Oops! Jet lag hasn’t been too bad but we have been crashing out for naps in the afternoon and sleeping most of the night, giving us good early starts in the morning. This morning we went to finish sorting out bank stuff, we both have bank cards, funds, medicare cards, tax file numbers etc now so we’re pretty much set up.

Then we went for our free harbour cruise which was absolutely beautiful. The sun was out (yay) and the sky was very very blue, although the wind was still quite cold. There were lots of jelly fish in the water and we saw loads of houses of very very rich people (jammy gits). We’ve also now seen the Opera house and harbour bridge and got the traditional photos.

Other stuff… we visited the NSW Art gallery and saw a free exhibition, we’ve seen St Mary’s Cathedral and today visited Hyde Park Barracks, all free/cheap sights and very interesting. I think we’re gonna go to the police and justice museum soon as well as the australian natural history museum as it claims to have a bus-sized croc.

Will someone please tell Grandad Pete that we see about 20 parakeets on a daily basis flying and squawking their way freely around Hyde park as well as some freaky looking birds with heowge beaks. Awesome (and we think of him every time!)

Funny stuff… Dad, today I heard your Golddigga song being played here for the first time today, made me smile. The roads in the city are laid out in blocks so it’s not hard to find places but you have to wait 5 mins at every corner to cross the big roads. You push the button and while you wait for the green man it goes beep…..beep….beep…..beep….BEOWP!(meaning GO NOW!) bipbipbipbipbipbipbipbipbipbipbipb (think pacman/tommy gun – meaning HURRY UP!) always followed by lots of giggles from Sam. There are many many SJP wannabes in Sydney, lots of headcases for people watching, and we’ve come up with a common term for all those people who do the bridge-climb and the many many city-dwellers who think its fun to jog around Hyde park at 7am and stop at intervals to do boxercise with their personal fitness instructors – “Mad Bastards”. Hehehe.

Craig has bought a crocdile dundee hat. Yeah, I laughed too. Pics soon….

There was a parade through the middle of Sydney today for the Sydney Swans, some kind of sporting group who’ve won their premier league. It was a bit weird as we had no clue who they were and had to fight the crowds to get into the bank!

I’ve exhausted my brain remembering all that we’ve been doing so I’ll say tara for now.

Thank you all so so much for the comments you’ve been posting, can’t tell you enough how happy it makes us hearing from you. Love love love

Sam & Craig

Hello! For those of you who don’t already know, we made it to Sydney ok and we’re now fully set up in the hostel. Thanks to everyone who replied to our Tokyo message, it’s great to know you’re all watching.

Here’s some stuff we forgot to mention last time…
1. Craig left his mobile in the car and we didn’t realise til we got to the departure gate. Useful.
2. He also left his woolly hat at home
3. It’s cold here (ha ha for No.2) – bout the same as it was in the UK last week, warm when the sun’s out but otherwise overcast and cold 🙁
4. Sam actually ate sushi TWICE – go me!!
5. They tried to give us mushrooms with the breakfast on flight number one – if we didn’t know better we’d think our mum’s put them up to it.

So we’re in Wake-Up Hostel in the middle of Sydney, it’s very nice but also pricey so we won’t be staying on after tonight. We’re in a room with 2 Yanks and 2 Germans. The American girl is freakishly like Danielle and we’re both considering asking her who she really is?? The bed’s are lovely and comfy and we slept like babies from about 8pm last night til 6am today. Showers are hot, food reasonable and there’s plenty of info around to help us out.

I think we may have decided on a change of plan from the original ‘fly up to Cairns and start there’ idea. We’re now thinking of hunting down a camper van here in Sydney, we’ve seen some great deals advertised and we’re gonna do some research later. Cheap as the hostels are, they’re not that cheap and as it’s school holiday time here for another two weeks, flying anywhere is quite expensive and it’s really expensive to stay in Sydney for another fortnight if we decided to wait around. So we may well be driving UP the east coast by next week.

This morning we have an orientation meeting with the CCUSA rep so we should have tax file numbers by the end of today, allowing us to work. We’re also gonna see Sydney harbour on a cruise and hopefully a lot more of the major sights. So far city life has been a tad disappointing, it’s ok if you’re up for an 18-30’s kinda lifestyle but we’re looking forward to doing some real exploring on our own, without wasting our savings on booze (well, maybe not all of it).

Think that’s all for now, we’ll update again soon when we’ve seen more stuff and maybe moved into a hostel with free net access.

Love to everyone (still missing you muchly)
Chunky Monkey and Smidge

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