Back at home, I had prepared some sweets in the morning and made some vegetable curry for the evening; so we tucked into that after lighting some candles and diya's (little lamps) aorund the house and saying some more prayers. Yummy!

written by  Priya&Tim on October 27, 2006 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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So as we got settled in our new home in a lovely part of town - Ultimo near Darling Harbour - and got quainted with our housemates. I quickly got into the routine of work, but Priya still had to find something....however a few days here and there took her around Sydney and into the city centre. So here goes nothing...."Hi Ho Hi Ho, Its off to work I go...."

written by  Priya&Tim on October 20, 2006 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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So we returned to Sydney with the aim of finding ourselves a place to stay for the next few months and a job to cover our costs and save a little for the rest of travels. We booked ourselves into a hostel on Kings Cross - it being a center for backpackers and a hub for the nightlife of Sydney. We had been warned and to be honest we were curious and it would be a place of interest or rather an interesting place ticked on the list. The latter was an understatement!!!! ;o)

We found ourselves in a dingy place and argued a dorm of our own because we were initially placed in a dorm with four other guys who had clearly been on a boozy one the night before - at the 7am the room did not smell pleasant!!! The room we were put in, was actually quite nice and we were happy with it - besides it was only going to be for a few days. We got straight on the internet and sorted ourselves some viewings on an ongoing basis as with the applications to various agencies etc.

Kings Cross is quite a pleasant place with shops and cafes and the usual city bustle, until about 4/5pm. In true Richard Attenborough style - "this appeared to be the time when the more unusual of the human species started to come out to play." Streets would be littered with drunks, and hobo's and at the risk of being really racist - abo's everywhere drunk and out of their mind, along with the druggies and the pimps and ho's. Thats right....Kings Cross is the Red Light District and it was a great place to have a bit of fun and see a totally different side to Sydney! Even the tourist buses come through for a cheeky peek! As for Tim and I, we enjoyed just watching the weird and wonderful world below us from the comfort of our room, where we had a balcony (being on the third floor) allowing us to have front seats of the pimps, pushers, prostitutes and all the revellers in their supe'd up cars with ridiculous alloys and loud music and neon lights galore! Fantastic!

But the fun had to end, and we decided to move on to a hostel in the City Center where we were more accessible to find work. By this point we had already found ourselves a place to stay - we just couldnt move in until the end of the week. So off we went, and didnt look back.

written by  Priya&Tim on October 4, 2006 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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We spent some time in Melbourne exploring the city and loving its more European feel, particularly with the huge cafe culture here. We also took advantage of the dining out experience and the huge range of Australian Wines, they're not half bad! We ate a lovely Italian Restaurant that did wonderful pizzas - filing too and the tastiest we had since arriving into Australia. We also did a stop at the Melbourne Museum and got our first insight into the varied landscapes of Australia and even did ourselves a Rainforest Walk. We also got our first insight into the Aboriginal ways of life and their history in Australia before and after the Europeans arrived. The whole experience was interesting since we hadnt done a museum in a little while now, however, we found it to be quite disorganised and that did make it all a bit frustrating because it was a shame finding out that there were more parts to the museum that we just did not have the time to appreciate. In a nutshell, the museum was more of an exhibiton for a bit of science, natural history, environmental issues, human evolvement, biology, zoo-ology, australian history, politics, art.....you get the idea; all a bit disjointed and a serious lack of focus.

We did some more sightseeing of the city including a surprise viewing of the AFL team as they were due to be playing the Finals at the weekend. Screaming girls and one of the players named 'Ricky' wasnt cool, so we got out of the mayhem and saw an open air exhibition of photos from the sky around the world. The exhibition is called 'Earth From Above and sound familiar to some. It takes a look at things on Earth from a different perspective. In fact it was the same exhibition as the one that toured Birmingham while we were at uni, but they had a different selection of photos so it was nice to look at them all again.

So after putting a smile on Tims face with the MCG thing, it was time for a smile on my face - that meant a shopping spree!!!For work clothes, of course, or so that was the plan and in the end it was Tim who manged to get fully kitted for work, and me, I got the one pair of shoes. Boo!

All good though, I still had a glass of wine to hand, and my scarf! We finished Melbourne after much investigation as to whether or not we could live here and get a job. In a word, No. It just wasnt as finacially feasible as Sydney. So a bus back it was and time to get ourselves sorted with a roof over our head and a job. Not before a stop over in Kings Cross though!

written by  Priya&Tim on October 2, 2006 from Melbourne, Australia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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We took a walk back through the city and saw the landing point of the Pomms from back in the day. Saw a beautiful cathedral, walked past the Olympic Training Simming Pools, saw a few statues, and monuments and took a walk through 'The Rocks' - an older part of town, etc, etc....

To start wrapping the end of our tourist stay in Sydney, we also took a trip to Manly, which is on the other side of the habour and Sydney City, to get there we took a ferry from the harbour. It is basically the Bournemouth of Sydney, where everyone goes to get out of the city and enjoy some quiet beaches and take a promenade walk. But the good thing is, that it isnt full of retired people, and the beach really is lovely. We took a walk along the beach and chilled out there for the most part of the day. I'd never seen people surf before, its kind of weird watching them do their thing, you look at them, and you would think its almost impossible to stay on top of the waves like that, but they do and it looks great! I envy their sense of balance so much!

After some sand, and surf we decided to get more sun and took a walk around Manly Town and basically did a trail of their parks and the cricket oval. At one point there was an unexpected bush walk which wasnt cool when we were both in flip flops and we had to be extra careful because of the broken glass bottles. Ah, the joys of having nothing better to do when youre 15!

Anyway we walked back to the beach and started to think about dinner, and with that it was time to get the ferry back and get some food in us! And the views of Sydney harbour at night, is really something special!