Drinks in Newtown

I'd signed myself up for the Jackaroo school starting in Dec, so that’d give myself about a week in Nimbin and a week in Tamworth to explore. I went to Kmart and Target with Cam, about 25min from Railway, to buy some cheap work clothes, sleeping bag, and boots for the Jackaroo. I was able to get Tshirts for $5 and a sleeping bag for $30, but I couldn’t find boots I wanted for less than $100. After shopping we stopped by the Abercrombie for their $10 meals and jugs of beer. We both had the chicken schnitzel and it was absolutely declisious and a nice portion too! The pub itself seemed a bit run down but it’s got a nice outdoor beer garden and a lively crowd!

Just a day after I signed up for the Jackaroo I got a call from one of my applications on TAW (Traveller’s At Work website where you could find 2y visa jobs). I was actually hung over when I received the call early in the morning. I basically flustered, and the thick Aussie accent that I was still getting used to didn't help. He said his name is Godfrey, that sounded like "Gadfray" to me. I asked him a few questions regarding the job, as well as his email so it'll be easier for me to communicate with him rather than guessing everything he says over the phone. He said I'd be doing 5-6hrs a day and just some general duties and cleaning, including accommodation and $400/wk pay, and that he'd like me to start work on Monday! So now I just gotta figure my way out to the farm which’s about 5hrs west of Brisbane, and also what to do with the Jackaroo school as it’ll contradict with my new work. As it was nice out and I’ve just got a job offer, me and Cam decided to go check out the Botanic Garden close to the harbour. It had a nice pond, and I was still amazed at all the exotic looking birds I see all over, including bats and wild parrots! As we were walking towards the harbour I got another call from another farm. Eventually we came to Sydney Harbour and I’m sad to say that it took me almost 2 weeks to finally visit the Sydney Opera House. It was very tourisy with lots of families and kids running around. We got hungry and wanted to find something to eat in the area but the Opera Bar was way too busy. We walked to CBD and I wanted to try Jamie’s restaurant and it seemed busy as well, and a bit fancy for our pockets. I didn’t realize how far we’ve walked all day and Cam was starving so we just settled on some Mexican food in a food court, which turned out pretty good, and I even got some leftovers! By the time we got back to the hostel we were both exhausted, and Cam was actually limping having walked all day in thongs which he wasn’t used to.

The next day I started looking into ways of getting to the farm. I thought I could take either the Greyhound or the train so I could check out some scenery, but that would’ve taken me more than a day to get there! Taking a flight wouldn’t be much cheaper either as it was last minute and all the flights were over $100! I ran out of wifi at the hostel and I didn’t want to buy anymore since I'll be leaving soon so I decided to head out and look for free wifis at nearby cafés. On my way out I ran into Emily and she told me that there’s a café just right around the corner where you could get free wifi for buying a coffee. So I went in and met Silvia the barista there and we chatted for the longest time. She's Italian, also on working holiday, and she's been in Sydney for about 2 months. In the end we exchanged numbers and planned to meet up for a drink in Newtown where she’s staying after she gets off work that night.

I was only booked till Friday at Railway so I wanted to fly out then, but the tickets were all over $200 with really bad timing. So I decided to stay couple more nights in Sydney and take the earliest flight on Sunday because I’d still need to take the Greyhound to Miles where I get picked up by the farm. Flight is booked at 7AM and the hostel is conveniently right next to the train station that I could take to get to the airport. However, when I tried to extend my stay at Railway it was all booked up! I looked up couple other ones nearby and they were all booked too, considering it was the weekend and the holiday season is coming up…. I settled on YHA Sydney Central, it was bit pricy, but at least it's close just a couple blocks down the road. Cam was also booked till Friday as well and I told him about the situation, so he quickly tried to ask around but nothing came up and Central got booked up soon after me I guess, even most hotels in the area were full. The closest hostel available was 45min bus ride away, or hotels at $300/night!

After dinner I asked Cam if he’d like to join me and Silvia for a drink. We took the train to Newtown just 10min away, where she met up with us at the station. Then we walked down King Street, the main strip in Newtown, and just went into bars as we liked. We had a great time as we’re all around the same age and we had a lot in common. Silvia was very open minded, unlike most of the Europeans I’ve met so far (no offense!) who tend to stay with people who speak the same language. We moved to another bar, where I learned that in OZ they tend to call bars/pubs “hotels.” For the longest time I wondered why they have hotels in just about every corner in Australia! We had a couple more drinks there but it was getting late and me and Cam had to catch the train back. Silvia walked us back to the station just in time for the last train and told us to run for it and it was free as well! Before she left we made plans to meet up again next day because she knew I was leaving and I was totally down for! Even after all that drinking me and Cam still wanted to get some more beers after getting back to Sydney because midnight was just too early to go to bed for the both of us. We were going to buy some at the Red Bottle but it was closed, so we went further down to Abercrombie. It was a busy night there and by the end I was pretty drunk, so it was nice taking that walk back to the hostel and just pass out in my bed.