10TH - 14TH MARCH

We had decided that we wanted to check out the world famous Bondi beach. We arrived back into Sydney around 1.30 p.m. We’d had a good flight and were treated to some great views especially as we flew over Sydney Harbour but no photos unfortunately due to us being rather slack and packing away the cameras - doh!!! We decided to get the shuttle bus to Bondi rather than attempting public transport as this involved a couple of bus changes, and basically we couldn’t be bothered and figured a door to door service for a couple of extra dollars was a far better option! What we didn’t realise was that we would have to wait for nearly an hour for the pleasure - ah well, not the end of the world, especially as the bus was effectible a taxi given that we were the only passengers ! Our shuttle finally arrived and we got picked up by a really friendly Turkish guy, who had done quite a bit of travelling round Europe in his youth and met his wife, who was from Oz on his travels. So he‘d

lived in Australia for the past 20 odd years. He was a really interesting guy and it was a pleasure to sit chatting to him. He kind of gave us the impression that one night in Bondi would be enough, and for us not to expect to much!!! How right he was - our first impressions of the world famous surfing beach was one of a somewhat rundown English seaside town - not really what we had expected. The weather was rather cloudy and grey so I don’t suppose we saw it in the best light but nevertheless, it did look rather grotty. We got dropped off right outside our hostel and went to check in. Australia hostel syndrome all over again, there was the most grumpy German guy working behind the desk, he really didn’t seem to be enjoying his life or maybe he was just having a bad day - who knows, but he was a miserable son of a gun. We paid extra to get a double room rather than stay in a dorm, and en-route to our room we were both looking at each other and thinking blimey this place looks a bit of a dump, how