Manly beach, scooters, drinking and Ewoks!

Opera house at night from the Manly ferry

Manly beach

One of our tidy dorms!

The harbour by day

This morning after having a nice lie in till after 9 me, Lisa, Jennifer Parsonage and Donna headed out into town. We had a few things that we needed to sort out...... Firstly we wanted to check out prices for hire cars for our planned trip to Melbourne. Secondly, we only have one more night in this Hostel and we needed to book ourselves in somewhere else, until we leave for Melbourne. Thirdly, we wanted to see a bit of the city and do some shopping.

So firstly we headed towards Kings Cross, where there are a few car hire places. We managed to get some quotes and some ideas for what we can do to get to Melbourne. We have to wait a few days though until we know who is actually coming along and then know what size car to get!

We took a walk towards Westfield shopping centre where we spent a while looking through the shops and I found out that England had beaten Australia in the 2^nd test. I did a little dance in the street and then got split up from the girls! Bugar!! I sent a quick text and managed to catch up with them in a chemist.

We grabbed a little bit of lunch from Coles (The Australian version of Tesco) and then headed back up Pitt Street to where our choice for Hostel for the next few nights is. We are looking at moving into 'Westend Hostel'. It turns out that its cheaper and easier to book online, so we decided to head back to our hostel where we have good internet, grab a bit of lunch and then do some bookings!

It had already been a long day and so we sat on the floor in our immaculate dorm room and booked the hostel for the next 4 nights for me and the 4 girls. We then stopped off at a travel store on the way home and Lisa finally bought herself a new rucksack/backpack to put all her gear in!

I wanted to go and check my booking for the Hotel I am in at New Years eve, whilst Jennifer Parsonage wanted to visit a Vodafone shop that we had seen on the way, so we both headed back out and left Lisa and Donna sorting out more internet stuff – trying to find themselves somewhere to stay in Sydney for NYE.

I managed to confirm my booking at the Hotel and we found the Vodafone shop after Jennifer Parsonage had spent half an hour on the phone to her mate in Melbourne!

We finally managed to sort out how the daft Australian prepaid sim card works and then started back towards the Hostel, before realising that Jennifer Parsonage had lost her 2^nd set of sunglasses!! It turned out that there was a sunglass seller just by us, so we both bought our selves a new pair and then went back home.

Later on we were sat around the room wondering what to do with ourselves and helping Lisa pack her stuff into her new backpack. We got chatting to the other people in the room and also got a visit from the Bar manager next door who gave us a few tickets for free shots in the bar. He also nearly caught us out drinking vodka and coke out of the coca cola bottles we had.

I got a call off Keri and after running downstairs and out into the street in my bare feet,finally managed to have a decent conversation with her. Hopefully I will be able to get over to Manly tomorrow after we change Hostels and then spend a bit of time on the beach with Keri and then maybe have a proper Australian barbeque at Frasers house!! Tonight I'm going to help Lisa move to the Hostel we are moving to tomorrow and then have a quiet night – honest!!

So, its now tomorrow and the quiet night wasn’t to be!!

Me, Jennifer Parsonage, Lisa and Mills, helped Lisa with all her gear up to Westend Hostel and then went for one small quiet drink on the way back...... But the highlights of the cricket were on TV, the girls started on sparkling wine and we had already had some booze back in the hostel.... Suddenly it was gone 1am and we were buying even more wine!!

Eventually after a kebab, me and Jennifer Parsonage said goodnight to Lisa and made our way home, getting in just after 2am. I laughed as Jennifer Parsonage tried to find her way around our 10 bed dorm with her torch and soon we were all asleep!

Lisa went back to Westend and had a good chat with a few of the other backpackers, before heading off to her bed.

This morning we were all a bit worse for wear but managed eventually to get out of bed and book out of Base Hostel. We took the 15 minute walk up to Westend and met up with Lisa, who was booking into our new dorm. It turned out that the room wasn’t ready, but if we wanted we could have a 5 bed family room straight away! We took it and moved in!

We then split up for a bit of admin – Lisa and me had breakfast from the Chinese! Donna went out to do a bit of shopping and Jennifer Parsonage stayed in the room to sort out her bags. I also managed to get my haircut and a new Australian number for my phone. Then we all met up, back in the family room and got ready to go to Manly for the afternoon. But as sometimes happens, the plans changed!! It was already early afternoon and the girls wanted to do a bit more rest time rather than travel all the way to Manly, so I left them to have a mellow afternoon and I took a walk straight down Pitt Street, to Circular Quay and the Manly ferry. I just missed one ferry, so had 30 minutes to kill before the next one departed. It was a nice day so I took a walk around the cafés and shops that are found around the Opera house. Its is a beautiful place, but really relaxed and chilled. There are tourists taking photos every 5 feet, but its not too busy so everyone can just do their own thing. It is a great place to eat, drink and just watch the world go by.

I finally made it onto the 3pm ferry and sat on the deck as the harbour bridge and opera house went by. The views from the ferry are spectacular and a really cheap way to see it all.

I arrived in Manly and arranged to meet Keri on the beach – so a 5 minute walk down the main shopping street, brought me out with a great view of the locals and tourists chilling out on the clean bright sand and just enjoying the weather. This is what a beach should be like!!

I sat and watched a while, until I heard a noise behind me and saw Keri dismounting from a scooter. Not a proper motorbike type scooter – but one of those kids ones that you stand on and push yourself along! Haahaa – I suppose its better than walking.

We sat chatting for a while and then headed to the Wharf, where there is a lovely outside bar, overlooking the sea. A couple of beers later and we were joined by Fraser and Jock for a drink, before we headed off back to Fraser’s for a BBQ.

His house is spectacular with a massive patio with views over the sea! I couldn’t believe it!

We cracked open the beers and I showed them a few pics from the bus trip whilst Fraser cooked the steaks and Keri prepared the salad and prawns. It was a really nice mellow night with a few good stories – Especially jocks story about and autistic kid locking a dwarf in a garage because he thought he was an Ewok! Haahaha!1 I nearly pissed myself!

They all had work in the morning and I needed to catch the ferry home, so Keri and I left and she dropped me off at Manly wharf. I really enjoyed the ferry ride back in the dark and the views of the harbour at night were a great end to a really good afternoon. It was then just a 20minute stroll back to the hostel and to bed. The girls were already in bed and I met with Lisa s friend – Andrea – in the dark and said hello, before I went to my bed.