Sydney

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  Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

We arrived in Sydney after a short (5hr) flight full of expectations on this famous city. We got on the free shuttle bus into the city. Big mistake!! What should have been a 30 minute journey turned into 2hrs as we had to go to all these random drop-offs and pick-ups along the way. Anyway, we arrived at the City Resort Hostel in Woolloomoo looking forward to getting some food and then relaxing. As soon as we walked through the door, I knew that pre-booking 7 nights had been a huge mistake!! The place was REALLY dirty and had what seemed to be hundreds of chinese (students?) hanging around in the corridor. My heart sunk even more when I saw the notice saying 'No refunds - at all!' We went to our room and I saw our escape - I had booked a twin ensuite - we had a twin with a shower and sink, but no toilet. I went straight down and had a 'discussion' with the manager about the definition of ensuite and managed to get a refund for 6 nights (it was too late to find somewhere else thanks to the long shuttle bus ride!). We then went in search of food and accommodation for the next week. On the recommendation of a guy we met in a (fully-booked) hostel, we arranged to stay at the Ambassador from the following night, then finally got some pizza before retreating to the toilet bowl called City Resort.

We got up early the next day and got out of City Resort before 9am (it was that bad!). We walked the 15 minutes to the Ambassador, in the heart of Kings Cross (our second mistake!). As soon as we walked in, we again realised that this was not a great place. We didn't want to be trudging around Sydney with all our bags, so we just booked 2 nights hoping that we would find somewhere better in the meantime. We must have spent about 3hrs checking out various hostels - all away from Kings Cross, where it was normal for 'dancers' to be touting for business at 8.30am! Most were either really expensive or they were full, or they were just as bad as where we were! We then took the train out to Bondi in a desperate attempt to find a hostel that knew the definition of hygiene. Bondi Beachouse YHA answered our prayers - it was 10 minutes from the beach and was clean (we insisted on inspecting the rooms!). We went back to the city looking forward to moving 2 nights later. Things changed when Amanda spotted a cockroach in our bathroom that evening - we immediately phoned Bondi Beachouse and got a room for the following night. This meant we lost $35 each for the night we didn't stay at the Ambassador, but by that time we didn't care!!

Bondi was brilliant, we had breakfast/lunch in the cafe across the road every day, and loved being away from the city noises and smells!! We had decided to buy a campervan as it would give us far more freedom than any bus pass - plus we would save loads on accommodation costs!! Everyone we spoke to said it was the best way to see Australia, including many Australians!! We got lucky and managed to find a van at Kings Cross Car Market for $8400. It took a few days for checks/repairs and paperwork to get sorted, and then for us to clean it up and get organised, and then we left Bondi, heading down the east coast for Melbourne.

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