The one thing I never really got from all my previous travels and that I was looking forward to on this trip was the chance to stop and catch my breath in one place for a week or so at a time. Sure, things can get a little boring at times now that I've been in Sydney for two weeks and knew the place before I even got here. But on the other hand I've had the opportunity to really get to know the people who I'm staying with at my hostel. It's fun and all to bounce around and be in a new place every day, but it's also much more meaningful to be around the same group for two weeks or so where conversations and relationships move on from the standard, "Where are you from, where've you been, how long have you been here and how much longer do you have." And that's my philosophy schtick for the day.
One quick story that I forgot to mention in the last entry before I get to the play-by-play for the week. Those who have been reading along will remember my coincidental reunion in a Kings Cross club with Sharon, the Irish girl I met in New Zealand. Well, Friday morning, I'm sitting in the hostel's TV room when I see a guy checking in who looks really, really familiar. By the time that I came up with my theory on where I knew him, he had walked away. About a half an hour later I saw him and his girlfriend in the kitchen. I sized him up really quickly before moving in and asked, "Do I know you..." I could tell he was thinking the same thing, and at the same time we said "Whitsundays!" I was on the same sailing trip with him and the girl he was with (who looked familiar after closer look as well) in Australia. Two years ago. Not only that, him and the girl MET on that trip and have been together ever since. I know it's a cliche, but it's a small world.
Anyway...On Thursday I made my triumphant return to Coogee to meet my friend Anthony and his American girlfriend Courtenay (Anthony studied at UNC a semester before I went to Australia -- Courtenay lived on the same floor as me freshman year). Before meeting up with them I made a quick stop at the Coogee Residence to make sure it was still standing. After that, I went to the beach with Anthony and Courtenay and we bumped into a couple of his mates, including Dave, who I met when he studied in Chapel Hill with Anthony two years ago. I then walked up and down Coogee Bay Rd, and I'll repeat the sentiment from my first Sydney posting -- nothing, and I mean NOTHING has changed. With maybe two or three exceptions, everything is just as I remembered it two years ago. Even many of the bouncers at the Coogee Bay Hotel are still the same. Since we were in the middle of a record heat wave, we stopped at the Palace Hotel for a few cold ones. Thankfully, the Palace has changed. The Palace was one of those places that went out of its way to embrace all the Americans who flock to Coogee and Uni New South Wales every year, giving everybody a VIP card and holding "America Night" every Wednesday. Needless to say, it got very corny after a while and I didn't enjoy it much, aside from the free hour of drinking you got when you played Rock Paper Scissors for your drinks. But now the Palace has been completely overhauled to the point that those of you who know it wouldn't recognize it any more, but it looks really nice. When you add everything together: we had cold beers on a hot day, we hadn't seen each other in about a year and we were overlooking the beach, and life was pretty sweet overall.
Two days later, it was New Years and it was a sweltering 44 degrees. You don't need to convert that, just know that by noon I had already taken two showers. After raving about the weather for Christmas, this was taking it to a bit of an extreme, but I suppose I really shouldn't complain. We spent the first few hours of the day not deciding how we were going to ensure this would be the greatest New Years ever, before finally reaching the conclusion around 2 that we should at least be having the meaningless conversations with beers in our hands. Around 7, after splitting a slab of beer with my Canadian friend Craig, we embarked on a mini pub crawl through Kings Cross as we slowly worked our way toward the Harbour. We arrived at Circular Quay (the Harbour side) around 11, and as you might imagine, it was absolutely packed with people. We couldn't really get a proper view of the water so we headed back up through the Botanic Gardens to get to higher ground. The view we had didn't enable us to see the fireworks with the Opera House as a backdrop, but the display was still spectacular. Maybe because they'd been built up so much we were a little disappointed (the show went on for about half the time we expected), but it was still the best I've ever seen
As it turned out, it probably wasn't the worst thing we weren't in the Quay. Apparently it was even more packed right by the water and fights were breaking out everywhere -- so much for the year of love Sydney was trying to promote (they lit up three giant hearts on the Harbour Bridge to really hammer it home). The one thing that struck me as we walked with an unimaginable mass of people toward the city center was how little people were getting into the New Years spirit. In New York, anybody you walk by gives you a cheery "Happy New Years" and is more than happy to try to make a new temporary friend. It wasn't that way in Sydney at all. Thanks in part to alcohol, I was running around wishing everyone a Happy New Year, but got as many grumbles and weird looks in return as I did people willing to wish me the same thing.
After a half an hour of stumbling along, me, Tom, Sion and some girl we had just met, Meg, found our way to Scruffy Murphy's for a night cap. (Everybody else who I watched the fireworks with just went back to the Cross and went to the same bar they go to every night -- so boring). We got there around 2:30 to find out that Big Nyte Out (the band that plays there every Tuesday) would be performing a set at 3. It turned out to be a perfect way to open the New Year. My holiday spirit got a little out of control as I ran around buying rounds for perfect strangers, but hey, it's New Years, and they only come around so often. Especially in Sydney. By the time the band was done and Tom and I were ready to finally call it a day, the sun was out. Not rising. Out.
I didn't show signs of life again until about 2 in the afternoon where I scrambled to shower and get out to watch the end of the Giants game at the sports bar around the corner. Fortunately I found a table with three other Americans who were watching the game and had drinks out, so I didn't have to feel obliged to get something (I'm pretty sure my body would've hated me even more had I gotten anything that wasn't H2O). It was the first American sports game of any variety I've watched since watching the Carolina basketball game in LAX in late November. Good to see the Giants become the 2005 NFC East Champion Giants. Better luck next year, Al.
I leave Sydney Friday to work my way up the New South Wales coast before getting into Brisbane. Once that starts, I might have some more interesting things to say than, "Today, I got up, walked around, and then drank." There is always the chance, though, that it could just be the same thing but with "went to the beach" instead of walked around.
Cheers
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