Our road to Down Under was a bit rocky. Making further travel arrangements with the laggy hostel WLAN in Auckland, we ended up having only an hour to reach the airport before the check-in would close. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but karma would have it that no airport bus showed up for 45 minutes (they're supposed to run every 15 minutes) and we ended up sharing a cab with a scot who was skipping work to go the airport to see his girl after 10 months of separation. And he seemed to be in even more desperate hurry than us :) In the end we made it with good 5 minutes to go before closing time and made it on the flight..
And on to Sydney, the crown jewel of Australia's territory capitals and quite a hefty city world wide. Now, we are not big believers in advance reservations (read: we're lazy) but it hasn't been a problem before; this time, however, we'd walk around the town for 4-5 _hours_ and ask in 50+ places before finding a bed in a strange chinamen hideout on the outskirts of Chinatown. The less-than-clean ramshackle room and the stale stench of noodle soup was nothing after having almost given up and slept on the street. Phew! We had 2 days to spend in town for sightseeing, but decided that our little town walk through Central - Chinatown - Kings Cross - Harbour was kinda enough, and just visited the zoo across the bay to make sure we saw at least the kangaroos and koalas on the visit. Even with all the forewarnings from fellow travelers, we'd still be quite appalled by the prices in town: a beer could easily cost 10-12$ and a backpacker hostel room could be as much as 170$ a night. Gnnh.
Then it's off to Darwin, a laid back small town of a capital for the Northern Territory. Getting a place to stay was straightforward this time, the first place we asked had a cute room with a pool, and for less than stated in LP. For once! Like most of the Australia's tropic seaboard, Darwin's beaches are not swimmable thanks to the possibly lethal box jellyfish that infests the coastal waters. That's where having a pool comes handy, as the daytime temperature could climb up to 35C or more at this time of the year. With pretty much no plan to do anything special, we just hang around town, hoping to see a crocodile and trying out the local beers.
Darwin is a brilliant mix of aboriginals and local Crocodile Dundee look-a-likes, with enough small town feel in it to make a traveler weary of busy Sydney feel at home. Handful of bars on the central Mitchell Street are packed every night with the handful of tourists mingling with the overly friendly local folks. We spent the afternoons at the poolside bar in our hostel talking to the mostly Aussie crowd (thanks to the extremely strong AUD foreigners cannot really afford to travel the country properly at the moment) about their splendid huge country and adventures in it far and wide. After sunset it's time to head to the awesome Shenannigans pub, chatting and enjoying Victoria Bitter lager and Guinness.
And on to Sydney, the crown jewel of Australia's territory capitals and quite a hefty city world wide. Now, we are not big believers in advance reservations (read: we're lazy) but it hasn't been a problem before; this time, however, we'd walk around the town for 4-5 _hours_ and ask in 50+ places before finding a bed in a strange chinamen hideout on the outskirts of Chinatown. The less-than-clean ramshackle room and the stale stench of noodle soup was nothing after having almost given up and slept on the street. Phew! We had 2 days to spend in town for sightseeing, but decided that our little town walk through Central - Chinatown - Kings Cross - Harbour was kinda enough, and just visited the zoo across the bay to make sure we saw at least the kangaroos and koalas on the visit. Even with all the forewarnings from fellow travelers, we'd still be quite appalled by the prices in town: a beer could easily cost 10-12$ and a backpacker hostel room could be as much as 170$ a night. Gnnh.
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