galadriel1010: (Default)
galadriel1010 ([personal profile] galadriel1010) wrote2010-12-09 08:19 am

Mad Trip Day 17: Sydney


Today was a day for walking. And walking. Aaaand walking.

I had to move out of the hostel in Glebe, because I was only booked in for two nights, so I got all my stuff packed up, slathered on the suntan lotion, flopped my hat on my head and set off down the road. I was going to walk right down into town, but it was too hot and my back was too heavy, and I got to the first place I was heading for, a bookshop, to find that it didn't open for another hour, so I caught a bus instead.

Tried to check into the YHA, but I was about four hours too early, so I shoved my bag in a locker for $4 and flopped on the sofa to use the internet for a while instead. A couple of hours later, at an appropriate time, I got up and went into town to explore the Paddy's Markets an MarketCity. The market is cool, but not the best market I've ever been to, and I didn't actually end up buying anything there, apart from a spring roll for lunch (I didn't dare ask what was in it.)

Question: Why is it so easy to buy a box of chicken noodles in Melbourne but bloody impossible in Sydney? Am I just looking in the wrong places?

From the markets I went for a wander around China Town, nosing into the gift sops and avoiding the restaurants and the people trying to get me to go into them. From there it was back to the YHA to check into my room and use the internet a bit more, because it was noon and far too hot to be outside. Got my bags dumped in the room and decided that making the bed up could wait for later.

When it had cooled down a bit, btu not a lot, I headed out again to try to find an opal shop that there's adverts everywhere, and the famed Oxford Street. I got lost. Very lost. I started out looking for the stall where I got my cake on the Blue Moutains trip, which I found fairly easily. Unfortunately, I couldn't work out where I was supposed to be going from there.

A couple of hours later, having looked at record shops and clothes shops and decided against buying another vibrator, I gave up and headed back to the hostel again, this time settling down for the night. The two guys who made me grin the night before are staying at the same hostel, and when I returned to the main room from having a shower, with wet hair tied up in a bun to keep it out of the way, one of them was wandering around in one of those bodices with velcro attachments for a skirt, but he wasn't wearing the skirt because it's so big he can't get through doors in it. I would kill for legs like those. Or a figure like that.

One of the guys, the one who wasn't in drag, calls me Elpheba whenever he walks past me, and I've still not quite managed to establish why. He turned around and spotted me watching the other one posing for photos, and said "Oh, it's Elpheba!", to which I replied that if he kept calling me that I'd sing at him, and no one would like that. Trust me to threaten to sing Wicked at one of the flying monkeys. He's a professional dancer.

Being very tired, as usual, I went to bed at about ten, where I actually talked to some of the girls in my dorm because they'd gained a grade 8 creeper, who followed them to the door and they were apologising for his behaviour. They were awesome.

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bk_forever: (Christmas Weevil)

[personal profile] bk_forever 2010-12-08 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Shame you didn't find the opal shop. I think all the best opals come from Australia. (I have a small raw piece, very pretty).

Sounds like me meet some pretty cool people on your travels. Hope they outnumber the less appealing ones like the guy from yesterday!

[identity profile] fiwen1010.livejournal.com 2010-12-18 09:49 am (UTC)(link)
I found it the next day! Still lots of catching up on writing to do, but I have two triple opals in my bag.
bk_forever: (Film Star Smile)

[personal profile] bk_forever 2010-12-18 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
Ooooh, lucky you! Bet they're gorgeous!

[identity profile] fiwen1010.livejournal.com 2010-12-18 10:40 am (UTC)(link)
They are. Sadly not for me =[

[identity profile] ms-bekahrose.livejournal.com 2010-12-09 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Your "Protip for Tourists"... does not actually apply only to tourists. :\

Sounds like the folks at the YHA are a heck of a lot nicer than the ones from the hostel in Glebe.

[identity profile] fiwen1010.livejournal.com 2010-12-18 09:51 am (UTC)(link)
That is very true, but I'm very bad at it because I hate looking like a tourist. Normally this is fine, because I have a good sense of direction and the cities I frequent are small, so it's easy to find where I started and go again. But Australian cities are big, and a lot hotter than I'm used to, so going all the way around for another try can easily lead to dehydration and sunstroke.

And yeah, YHA folks are always lovely, I've found. Sometimes a little bit mad, but always nice.