day 221 – when i checked into the hostel (the day before) i got a sydney city map which also had some coupons attached. one of the coupons was for ‘breakfast with the koalas’ at sydney’s wildlife centre. it sounded good, but required getting up early.
i walked down to darling harbour and was disappointed to find that the wildlife centre was shut. i found an employee and he told me that the breakfast idea had not been popular and they’d stopped offering it. damn! so i headed back down to circular quay and the opera house for another look around.
i went back to the hotel, checked out, and decided to see if i could get a bus to canberra. four hours later i was wandering the streets of our nation’s capital looking for the local yha. i bought a yha membership, which gets me a 10% discount on yha globally, checked in, had a late lunch and spent the afternoon wandering around london circuit (canberra, not england, lol) and checking email.
day 222 – i wanted to make a big day of it today, so that i could try and get more done. i jumped on a bus after breakfast and headed straight for the new parliament house. the federal politicians weren’t there, so i wandered around for a while. parilament house is really nice and it was fun to look around.
i saw ‘blue poles’ by jackson pollock (the biggest and most expensive piece of crap in the world) and looked at all the portraits of former prime ministers. i couldn’t find john howard’s portrait, which is a good thing, cause i might have torn it down and pissed on it … which would have got me into trouble (maybe not, nobody likes john howard).
i walked around the outside of parliament house and down to the lodge (where the prime minister lives). i had a look at the outside but couldn’t go in (obviously). i had also considered going down to the federal mint, but i didn’t know exactly where it was, i didn’t want to spend $20 on a cab fare and it was too far to walk. so i went back to parliament house and had to wait nearly an hour for a bus back towards town.
then it was off to the national library for a spot of lunch and a cruise around the nick cave exhibition. i actually liked the nick cave gallery. there were some great photos and diaries cave used to write his song. on the walls were boxes with ‘open me’ written on them. i opened one and nick cave’s voice bellowed out at me, explaining some aspect of his career. it scared the absolute crap out of me.
the afternoon was getting late and i was starting to think of heading back to sydney. i had spent a lot of money and didn’t want to spend too much more. i wandered around the mall, looking for buses, trains and flights back to brisbane. most were too expensive, so i came up with a plan to wing it and pick up a last minute ticket on the train. i returned to the hotel, had dinner and spent the evening on the internet.
day 223 – i went to bed at 2am, which was probably a very stupid thing to do … considering i had to get up at 5.30am to go to the train station. surprisingly, i woke up at 5.30 (without an alarm), grabbed my gear (quietly so as not to wake the other people in the dorm) and headed to the train station. it was a fast run to the station and i was a little bit panicky, not knowing exactly whether the train was leaving at the right time and not knowing whether i could actually get a ticket.
it turns out that i had 30 minutes to spare and there were plenty of tickets. the train ran through to sydney where i had already bought a connecting train to brisbane. while on the train to sydney i was so hapy i celebrated with a pie and a coffee for breakfast.
the trip to sydney was only a few hours and i had a lot of time to kill before the train to brisbane. i realised that i’d forgotten to take matilda to see the opera house, so i checked my bag and headed back into town again. this time i walked across the harbour bridge to kirabili. i had some fish and chips for lunch and while i was eating it started belting down rain.
i braved the rain and walked to luna park to take some photos. then i jumped on a ferry which took me back to circular quay. the rain had started to ease up and i managed to get back to the train station. i got some coffee and listened to music while i waited for the train.
the trip back to brisbane was fairly unadventurous. i had a conversation with the carriage guards who were interested in my camera and angry at the people who were secretly smoking in the toilets.
since i had the whole seat to myself, i curled up and managed to get some sleep.
day 224 – i arrived in brisbane early and caught the train to craig’s house. i caught up on my sleep and lazed around the house for the day. in the evening, four of us went to the norman hotel where i ate a whopping 600 gram steak. despite the size, i polished off the steak, and the vegetables, and two beers. hehehe … it was a huge meal.
day 225 - after all the recent adventures, i needed a break. i stayed at craig’s house and caught up with web stuff.
