Tales of Hostel Life

It's part of the expected backpacker/gap year experience. Life in a hostel. Supposedly filled with drunken antics, annoying people in your dorm, bed bugs, filthy floors and a grotty experience...if we believe the most negative of stereotypes.

Now I've found the reality, fortunately quite different. Well aside from the drunken antics, that one is fairly accurate... I'm a little in awe actually of those I've seen be out all night, come back about 6/7 in the morning, have brekkie, then continue drinking ready to go out again the next night! Me, I'm more of a get in before it's light out, sleep, hopefully not have a hangover then take it easy the next night. Maybe this makes me a bit of a pansy, but who cares.

I opted to stay in the all girls dorm whilst I'm here, because let's face it....

 

It's been pretty good in the girl's dorm, much less stress when you're getting dressed in the morning, no-one snores (though the dutch girl on the bottom bunk does occasionally talk in her sleep) and there's usually a hair dryer/spray/clips etc that you can borrow when yours end up going for a stroll. Now I'm not saying life is perfect, there's a hole in one wall where the fixed a leak in the showers next door and haven't yet fixed it, but the room and bedding are clean. We're on bunk beds, and it's the general consensus that the bottom bunks are best as people tend to tie sheets around them and make them into a little den, but I haven't found the top bunk too awful. Though our bed doesn't have a ladder so a little clambering is involved! It's also the squeakiest bed in the dorm, but as I'm the one making the squeaks it doesn't really bother me.

 

 



As I'm travelling solo, by staying in a hostel I've been able to make some friends, lovely folk that I can go to the beach with, chill out watching movies with, cook with and have some great nights out with. A lot of people are in the same boat (travelling on their own) and when I first got here I was a little daunted because everyone looked like they had known each other for ages and were chatting away, but once you make the effort to join in it's clear that some people have only just met, and so immediately I felt welcome.

Now for nights out, the hostel has a rough plan for events every night. Sometimes this is just movie night with free hot chocolate, or heading out for the "best pizza in Sydney" (it is pretty good actually), but there are some more messy nights out. On my first night out I found myself at a paint party and came home covered in pink paint, there has also been a Halloween night out, trips to see fireworks, specific nights in different pubs/clubs where our hostel entertainment managers wrangle us a free drink or two. In some ways it's a little like being back at uni, and though it could be easy to spend a fortune on drinks (things are a wee bit expensive here) if you plan your free drinks right and have soft drinks/water then you can save some pennies, avoid nasty hangovers and still have a great time.

Overall I would recommend the hostel experience, and if you're in Sydney then check out the Kings Cross Backpackers. There's a little renovation work going on at the moment, but it's a clean, friendly hostel and there's free brekkie and unlimited free tea...what more do you want!!

Tales of a Shiny New City

Sydney... home to famous landmarks,  numerous backpackers and, if we believe the film, a dentist with a fish shaking niece.
It's also the city in which I find myself at present and where I'm likely to be for some time, even seeing in Christmas and New Years - to which effect my preliminary plans include a bbq on the beach and THE fireworks.  Jealous yet? Well if I'm going to be here I may as well do the expected, and besides who knows if I'll ever be here at this time of year again.

So, I've been here for two weeks and in that time I feel like I've done a lot of sitting and wandering around doing very little, yet I also realise that I've seen and done quite a few things. A peculiar situation indeed. I also feel like I've neglected this blog for a while, it started filled with great intentions and expected loyalty, not too dissimilar to how I started most diaries when I was younger, yet like those childhood diaries I find the entries become sporadic and I have a 'I'll do it later' approach. Well 'later' must be now, otherwise I fear more things will happen and any entries will become more of a list than a personal account.

Enough preamble.

My first full day I decided to go for a walk, the route from Kings Cross, where my hostel is, to the Opera House and Bridge would take me through the Royal Botanic Garden - so three big sights in one day. I definitely recommend a leisurely stroll through the gardens if you get a chance, it's peaceful and full of different little sections to explore and I've never found it to be overly crowded, a patch of shade under a tree or a nice bench can always be found in which to sit and read in peace. Basically all my requirements for a good park were met.

As I continued round the gardens I came to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, a seat cut into the rock by convicts in 1810 for Mrs M to sit and watch the ships arrive from Great Britain. I figured I'd  take a seat and check out the view, the trees that seem to have sprouted in the interim blocked the view a little but it wasn't bad as far as 200 year old sandstone seats go. Whilst I was perched, a group of Asian businessmen arrived and began taking pictures, this somewhat disturbed my musing and I politely went to move out the way. As I clambered down the gentlemen started gesturing and telling me to stay, at which point one man, whom I assume was the boss, came and stood next to me, put his arm around me in a friendly sort of way and I smiled nervously as the other 10 or so started taking a photo. I got one of them to take a pic with my camera too. Needless to say it was a weird moment.

 

I then continued with my wandering and meandered around the Opera House, it was smaller than I expected and surrounded by building works. I was reminded of my visit to the Acropolis and the scaffolding and construction I was privy to there...maybe that can be a mission of mine, to see the famous landmarks of the world encompassed in scaffolding. It would be different at any rate.

 

So that was my first day, I also wandered around the Rocks and then went onto have a fun night out.  Perhaps more of that in a different post.

 

My time in Sydney has also featured a walk across the Harbour Bridge, a ferry ride to Manly, beach time at Bondi and a few other miscellaneous trips and journeys, not to mention fun times in the hostel and out with new friends. But more of that  in subsequent posts, which I shall try to  feature more of...though this is an intention of mine whenever I write a post, so we shall see!