I've reached Sydney!
After Byron i went to Coffs. After Coffs i went to Newcastle. After Newcatle i'm here. It's been a busy week.

I half regret leaving Byron after 11days. i could have stayed there for another week but that's what everyone says. i had to be strong!

I made some really cool people in Byron and i'm still in contact with Aya and Dan, and i'll probably meet with Isabelle and Eddy when i reach Melbourne.


I almost didnt make the coach to Coffs Monday. I was too caught up in drinknig my cappucino and talking to Aya etc, ready to say goodbye and then the shuttle bus pulls away. i had only 20minutes till the Greyhound coach left so i gave up and knew the walk up there would take longer.

I ask Michelle, the fiest little Canadian woman who works at The Arts Factory. She's in her early 30's and always smiles which is nice. i tend to just look confused whatever i'm doing...

Anyway, she says 'Laurence why are you still here?', i'm pretty sure she's sick of my face by now.

I tell her the situation and try and book another night at the AF.

Because we talked in the bar, because she somehow remembered my name and because i couldnt open my door that time i think she felt obliged or something, but she drove me up to the town in her own car. The car was lived in with towels everywhere. It was like a launderette on wheels. I mention Vietnam as i know she's heading off there on a one way ticket in a couple months. Would be nice to know what her travels. The only thing that comes to mind when i think of Vietname is napalm...


It was almost like leaving home again, leaving Byron. Although i'd only known everyone for a little more than a week, it felt like i've known them for months. Spending so much time with certain people in a certain place makes it feel less temporal.

In fact it feels like i've been away from home for 6months already. When you're this far away from home, the time difference, the travelling and everything new, everyone new i feel distant from the place i grew up. I'm not especially homesick, but it's a bizarre feeling and i can't agree with people when they say the time flies by.


As soon as i got off at Coffs there were two guys with brochures. One fella one from YHA which was $29 a night- pretty steep for such a small town! Then there was Baracuda Backpackers, $23. Seemed fine with me. i followed the guy, his name is Brett, 21 and seemed sort of nervous. I was expecting a van with the hostel name on the side but instead is was a old blue car... when i got in i seriously thought he was going to drive away into the forest and rape and kill me. No one else got in the car, it was just me, so i asked for the leaflet again to make sure it was official. Luckilly it turned out that it was an independent hostel and there was no raping involved!

The place looked like a bungalow with a long corridoor, peering down it looked like around 10rooms or so. There seemed to be a group of Koreans and a group of Germans and that was all i had. I cant merge into eaither one of them, they'd blank me after minutes, possibly reject me first off. They are a pack and i am not one of them. So, i watched a crappy Korean film on their digital tv instead and walked to the town highstreet after dinner. The place was sprase, just a pub with a quiet atmosphere under a hotel. After a pint, i walked back and the guy that works at the recption was eating dinner with a couple other what looked like long term residents in this hostel. They were avid on fishing. I suppose you'd expect such a hobby in Coffs Harbour.

I was sharing a room with this girl called Ash and her feet stank out the room so i tried creeping in quite late so i didnt have to stand it for a great deal of time.


The following day the weather was good. the last couple days had been extremely cloudy and rainy at times but today was clear which was good for me as i lazed out on the beach for a bit (still damn patchy tan i have though!) then took a walk around Coffs Creek and shops. I headed back to the hostel around four, had some eggs,onions and avocado and tomato with lea and perrins on the side. A meal that i struggled to finish! I had in mind i'd watch a film at the cinema that evening, so i saw Surrogates with Bruce Willis. Some futuristic robot film which was alright but nothing better than pretty good.


I took the earlier time to watch it, at 7.20pm as i got a message on facebook from Dan that he'd be in Coffs for 10pm. I called Aya and she said she missed saying goodbye to him, so i had the mission to take the phone to him so they could say their farells (Dan doesnt have a phone. Neither does my best mate Greg. Greg, buy a phone! it's been too long).

Its half hour from the hostel to the highstreet. Along the way i talk to mum and spit out a tonne of words before my credit runs dry. Its a bit hard though as those huge American type trucks drive by, over a dozen of them along the way!

Once i head down the street i call Aya and shes on her laptop back in Brisbane now telling me the road i need to head to in order to get to Dan's hostel which i completely forgot about before booking Baracuda! I remember leaving the cinema at 9.15pm and looking at my watch at arriving at Dan's hostel after back tracking several times. It's nearly 11pm now and there's a pincode on the main door so i knock hard, try pins, stand on a trolley to call over the fence to people. Soon after a German calls over a pin and I'm in. It already feels like a week since ive seen Dan but it's not even been a couple days. Ive passed my phone on and Aya and him part ways verbally.

I carried a bottle of wine with me so i finished that off and then trecked back to the hostel at 1am. It took an hour and i was sick of walking and my shoes so i walked in my socks.

With just a little time to spare, to pack the things in my bag i notice Brett is wandering about. I think he's a bit of an insomniac but he was telling me how he's got Asbergous (however you spell it), but it seemed quite easy having a conversation with him. Instead of calling for a cab he gave me a lift so i still had money in my wallet for the next day! At 2.55am i caught the Greyhound to Newcastle. I arrived at 10am in Newcastle. Surprisingly i slept till 8am/ Must've been all that walking!


It wasnt an impressive drive into Newcastle. The whole place looks like a model village with a big industrious site to the next of it. I've never been to Newcastle in England but i imagine it has more character than this Newcastle.

It was about 10.30 when i wandered round the highstreet, then i bumped into Marcel and Andrew from Byron Bay. They hitched from Byron and it took them most the day yesterday. Andrew ended up sleeping in the park as they arrived at 1am and no hostels were open. Marcel paid $150 at the TravelLodge! He was certainly annoyed but enjoyed a decent mattress for a change to the hostels spongy small ones. I ended up hanging round with them both all day. Soon after i bumped into them on the street, we went to the nearest food shop and bought some beefy sausages, the longest bits of bacon ever, eggs and white bread.

Andrew, being from Adelaide, south of Oz was a pro at BBQing. We found a BBQ in the park. i think theyre everywhere in Oz- Gas stoves you can just throw meat on and it'll cook like anything else. Andrew poked a hole in the slivces of bread and cracked the eggs on them transforming them to fried egg bread with bacon and sausages. Ah, it was tasty stuff! We were full after and i managed to drop egg yolk on my shorts. Nothing new there,

We walked around the small fayre Newcatle had on. It was as dull as the town itself. Today was cloudy like the first day in Coffs which dampened the atmosphere even more. on stage next to the teacups was a man that got quite an entrance. He was dressed up like superman, in tight spandex, with stick thin legs. the man was nearly 60 and he was called Super Hubert with the Super Hubert badge strapped across his chest. It was the reakiest childrens entertainment i've seen! He jumped about marching around shouting something i couldnt work out. Then he got out a brown box with an eye on and kept jogging round shouting 'Eye'... The kids seemed to appreciate it but i couldnt work out what he was doing. Marcel and I laughed uncomfortably and three of us left from there to walk on the promenade.

Later that day i walked up this huge hill to the Cathedral. Nothing too unique but i still like looking round churches/cathedrals at the architechture and history put into each one.


Walking back to the hostel i popped into the Lock-in museum which used to be the prison of Newcastle. It was interesting peering into the different cells and reading bits of information about this boring place. It seems like it holds onto it's history of convicts proudly. I got talknig to Suzanne. A woman in her 60's that worked there. She told me she goes to Bournemouth often. She also told me how Newcastle has the biggest coal exportation in the world.


Once back at the hostel, Marcel and i started talking to three Irish lads from Dublin. Keith, Andy, and Phillip. We ended up going to the pub with them seeing as we had a free sausage and chips meal from the hostel. We were still annoyed fish was off the menu. We noticed the other guys from the other hostel had fish so we blagged more food instead. The six of us drank a few jugs of beer then moved on to the hostel again. We bought GOON. Goon is a 5litle box of cheap wine which is popular for us backpackers. the 5litres for around $12 are bound to take make a lot of people messy. It did the trick for us, so we moved on to Fanny's, this club down the road.

We ended up going to three. In a drunken feud, Andy and Phil were not getting on. But it all ended up with hugs which was grand to see. We were mighty hungry on the way back at 2am so we bought 6packs of noodles from the vending machine on arrival back to the hostel. The night was fun, i'm not really into clubs but i had a great time hanging out with the Irish fellas and Marcel (Andrew had an early night). I'm sure the photos will be uploaded on facebook soon!

Well we all left the hostel this morning (08/10). We parted ways but i'm sure i'll see Marcel in Sydney as he was heading here today too. I got on the Greyhound coach and after an hour i got bored of the journey and kept listening to All You Need Is Love by The Beatles. I wrote 'There's no where you can be that isn't where you're meant to be' on my arm. It could be a cool tattoo. If i was to ever have a tattoo i'd have to seriously think about a decent quote. I like that Beatles line.

Well, i got to Sydney and bought a steak pie for lunch. it was small but it filled a gap. There was no information desk at the station but the fella at the bus ticket stall told me to get the 431 to Glebe for this hostel Dan told me about. It was cheap but the building was bleak and they were enduring a power cut so i gave up on that heap of junk and hiked over the bridge to the centre of the city. It took me a couple hours to find one that had a room available. I was hungover and sick of walking with what felt like a rock with straps on my back. I'm here at 790Backpackers now. There's something absurd like 700 rooms here. I've just thought, maybe there's 790 rooms. Could be the number of the building though. Ah, i dont know. It's a nice place though. Every room is spacious, the lounge area is chilled out with a TV, so is the kitchen and reading room. Evidently, they're big on TVs here.

I'm going to watch one of them now. but first i'm going to cook some food up. This Blog is far too long and i cant feel sorry for you who's reading it all.

Well, I hope i've noted my last few days down and not missed much out.

Good morning England. I'm sure there's a whole lot of Sydney to cover tomorrow.
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(It's tomorrow morning and i'm not feeling Sydney. It's early days yet i guess. I think i might trek to the Blue Mountains for the week... Still looking forward to Melbourne in November though!)

THIS WEEK I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN LISTENING TO:

Trouble: Ray Lamontagne, Do you want to come with: Stephen Fretwell, Man in the corner shop: The Jam, Wagon Wheel: Woody Guthrie, Poetry in motion: Johnny Tillotson, Love will tear us apart: Joy Division