Boat Cruise

I woke up super early to check out and drop off my bags at my new hostel. I had to keep them in their rental lockers though as their check in time wasn’t until 1pm. Afterwards I went back and met up with Cam and we had a quick breaky at the WakeUp Cafe. The food took a while and I thought we were going to be late but when we got to Ultimate there were only 2 other girls waiting. The actual orientation took place at SideBar, since it was mid-week there were only 6 of us in total and we were all Canadians, and two of them were actually from Vancouver as well, but they were only planning to be in OZ for 6 months. Our host, Danny, talked about writing CV's (resume) and getting 2nd year visa, which he did as well, I think he was from English, and basically just how to find work in general. Since we were such a small group he asked each one of us about our plans and tried to give everyone a more personal advise. He had mentioned about a one week jackaroo course where they show you how things are done on farms like mustering and sheep sheering, etc. I’m really considering about taking it if it’ll give me some leaverage in finding farm work. We were on a bit of tight schedule, so a few of their affiliated groups gave a quick showdown of what they offer like the surf camp, camper van rentals, and some tours up north.

We quickly met up with another group of people, and we started heading down to Darling Harbour for the boat cruise. We stopped by a liquore store to buy our alcohol. There was a group of Germans who were travelling together and they all bought goons (4L box wine for cheap), I just got myself a 6pk. There were about 20 of us on the boat. We went under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, passed by the Opera House, then we stopped by a little beach where people could jump into the water for a swim. We had hot dogs for lunch and the gulls were surrounding our boat. I got to feed one in mid-air which was pretty cool. Music was blasting and everyone was dancing and drinking and just having a hella time. Then they got us to play hot potato with the goon bag, whoever dropped it had to drink. In the end some people just dropped it on purpose so they could have a drink. It was a beautiful sunny day, but just bit windy, still warm in general. Met a couple girls from Hong Kong who were travelling together, they were planning to go to Melbourne afterwards and stay there for 6 months.

After the boat cruise I had a shower, then I met up with Cam and one of the Germans we met from the cruise, Markus, down at the SideBar for a drink. Cam got hungry, so we went upstairs to WakeUp Cafe and had a couple more drinks there while we watch him eat. He almost forgot about getting accom for the night, so he quickly went over to see if Railway has got any rooms left. Unfortunately it was the weekend, so they booked him a couple nights at the YHA in Bondi instead, but he’s booked himself for 2 weeks at Railway after that. Then I remembered that I still had my bags in the lockers, so I quickly went back to the hostel to check into my room, but I had a problem with my keycard where I couldn’t get into the room. The girl at the reception gave me keycard to another room but it was full. Went back to the reception and she said that apparently someone forgot to check out, so she just removed the old bed sheets and let me move in.

Afterwards I went back to the café to finish off my beer. Markus is so cute! He's only 20 and barely speaks good English, but he wasn't afraid to try! He's a farm boy from back home, so he's planned to buy himself a car and look for farm work to get his second year. It was getting late so Cam had to get ready to take the bus to Bondi, me and Markus stay behind a little longer, then it started to rain so we decided to go back to our hostels. Markus was still staying at WakeUp. He said he and the rest of the Germans were gonna go to SideBar and asked me to join. I told him I’ll meet up with them after my shower. It was a busy night at SideBar so I got myself a rum&coke and sat around for a bit before Markus could find me. I didn’t stay long because I was just too tired and have had quite a bit to drink on the boat as well, but I shall see Markus again tomorrow for the Bondi walking tour. I’m not sure how late they stayed but when Markus texted me later that night he sounded pretty drunk, they also pre-drank some goon before going to the bar.. Crazy Germans!

Half way through the night a guy from the reception came and woke me up because apparently I had taken someone else’ bed! I told him what happened earlier, it was really late, so he just asked the other girl to pack up and move to the other room. I was half asleep and was just annoyed getting woken up, but in hindsight I feel kinda bad that the other girl had to move all her stuff in the middle of the night…