Mad Trip Day 15: Sydney

[galadriel1010]

I left Lefaym in peace at about ten in the morning and caught a bus to the nearest railway station, then a train to central station and then a tram out to Glebe. I had to get a separate ticket for the tram, so I got the $15 one that covered me for the monorail and the tram all day, to make the most of it.

I got into Glebe and got lost, having not made a note of the location of the hostel I was staying at, or even the address. I got onto the right street and stopped into a pub for a glass of cola and to watch a bit of the cricket and saw two wickets fall (Australian wickets) which made me very happy, but possibly unpopular with the locals. From the pub I wandered further down the road, then further, and finally found the hostel I was booked into. Wandered into the wrong house, then the wrong section of the hostel, and finally got myself checked in, bags dumped in the room and maps collected. After half an hour's flop I headed back out and caught the tram to the exhibition and conference centre to visit the TI office there. They were very helpful and confirmed that, yes, my bus, rail and ferry pass would indeed get me out to the Blue Mountains without having to get a $99 trip, and they gave me lots of maps and brochures to look at.

I also sat at the edge of a fountain and cooled my feet in the water (it's one of those that's designed for walking in), and managed to drape my skirt in it as well so that the back of my skirt got very wet, and I had to dry it out by sitting on the warm boardwalk, looking out over Cockle Bay, where the exhibition centre is. It's a hard life.

When I left Cockle Bay I had a wander through a shopping centre, then got on the monorail. I went all the way around the circuit, and then around again to get off at another shopping centre. From there I made my way down into town and sat in Hyde Park for a while, then started to head back to Glebe... in the wrong direction. *Facepalm*

Got back to the monorail in the end but I was too tired to get off and walk across the bridge as I had intended, and I was carrying 2 litres of cola and my laptop at this point as well.

Getting back to the hostel, I flopped in the TV lounge, where I could get strong internet signal and power at the same time, which is always helpful. It was all going so well, until a break in my music let me hear the TV, and I popped my headphones out to be able to hear better. The lady watching TV asked if the volume was okay and checked that she wasn't disturbing me, and I assured her that it was more than fine, because it was Stephen Fry's voice. One of the guys in the room then told me that I didn't meet the requirements for him, as if it were at all relevant, so I told him that I didn't want him anyway, or any other man for that matter. He asked me why, and I said, not really knowing how to answer that question, that men are hopeless.

Big mistake.

Apparently saying 'women are more aesthetically appealing' would have been a mistake as well, because I said something similar and he accused me of being shallow. But I was subjected to a half hour argument about why feminism is demonising men, why I've tarred all men with the same brush based on my limited experiences, that I've clearly not gone outside my comfort zone because I've not found the right man for me yet. Oh, and he told me that he'd come over and prove to me that I actually am interested in men. All whilst trying to claim the moral high ground with anecdata about his abusive childhood and violent exes.

Now normally I would have been extremely sympathetic about his childhood, and about his exes, but not after he's threatened me with corrective rape and told me that I couldn't fight him off if I wanted to.

And I pretty much couldn't get a word in edgeways until he did his summing up and declared the conversation closed, at which point I just wanted him to shut up and go away.

To be fair, he wasn't threatening or skeevy, particularly. He was just obnoxious and ignorant. And, yeah, threatened me with corrective rape.

You get some really interesting types in hostels. And the worst bit was the fact that he seemed to think that he was right.

I did wonder if they hadn't got the fact that I was telling them I'm gay, and thought I was just admitting to a frustration with men, but another guy who was there at the time, and laughed along with the corrective rape conversation, came in and asked me if I was still a lesbian, because the main perpetrator was sitting there eating his dinner with his shirt off (so as not to get it dirty whilst he ate spag bol, but he never asked if either of the women in there before he came in minded).

The second time he showed up, for the shirt off thing, I was talking to someone else, so I made my escape as soon as was politely possible and went to bed before I could throw anything at him.

I think that had he known what he was saying, he would have hated himself. But actually thinking about it would have been too much to ask.

Also, they provide duvets. Duvets. In the middle of Summer.

Next entry

Comments

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Ack! I'm so sorry you encountered those douchebags. D: D: D:

I hope they're not at the hostel anymore?

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

They might be, but I'm not :D I'm at the Railway Place YHA, with two (I'm guessing here) gay guys, who call out 'Elpheba' every time they walk past me wandering around the place instead. They're a lot more entertaining.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's good to know!

As I said in the text message I just sent you, if you feel unsafe, you can come back to my place, but it sounds like they guys you're hanging out with now are awesome. :)

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Thanks hun :) I never felt unsafe, just mightily pissed off.

Current company is a gentleman from Hong Kong asleep on the sofa next to me *amused*

[ms-bekahrose.livejournal.com]

OMG. I just... You are a much, much stronger (and smarter) person than I because I'd have let that guy have it with both barrels. It's one thing to be a loud-mouth, arrogant pain in the arse, another thing entirely to even *think* that threatening a complete stranger with corrective rape is funny and normal.

I am so sorry you had to listen to their bullshit. Also... someone should have pointed out to Bottom-Dweller #1 that it's the height of rudeness to sit at the dinner table without a shirt. It's called get a bloody napkin.

Here's hoping the rest of your journey is Idiot-Free.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

I was prepared to argue it out until it became apparant that my primary problem was going to be getting a word in edgeways. And then getting him to listen to them.

[bk_forever]

Gah! the sort of obnoxious people who, no matter what you say, will say you're wrong and set out to prove it. As for the threatened corrective rape - he just managed to prove you right and himself wrong.

You're way braver than I would ever be - I've never been able to go somewhere I didn't know, alone, because I panic when I get lost! Really hate not knowing where I am (or where I'm going)!

The fountain and boardwalk sound lovely!

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That bit happened fairly early in the conversation as wel, at which point I figured that his argument that there were some decent men in the world, which seemed to hinge on proving that he was one, had just fallen down.

I'm pretty good at mooching aimlessly. It's one of life's great pleasures, imo.