Day 37: The Jolly Swagman
Yes, that actually is the name of the hostel I'm staying at. I knew it was the right choice as soon as I saw it.
**I really wanted to put a Courtney Barnett song in here, since she's from Australia, but the wifi here isn't good enough to upload a song. So I might not be able to put music in here for the rest of my stay. Here's a link though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX0I0nlzWQY
I am officially in Sydney! I arrived early this morning at around 7:30am. Unfortunately the clouds from Japan seemed to follow me down into the southern hemisphere. It misted rain while I walked through the city on the way to the hostel. And it's still kinda cool. The temperature reached the sixties but I wasn't awake for most of it.
In case some of you missed yesterday's post, I was on a layover in Melbourne through most of the early morning hours, so even though today's flight was very quick (just over an hour), I was exhausted. I arrived at the hostel around 9:00am. This was early for check in, but I was lucky enough for the room to be ready for me. So I slept from 10am to about 6pm. By the way, since I'm mentioning a lot of times, it seems appropriate to mention that I am currently 14 hours ahead of those on the East Coast back home in the US. I think by the time I get back home I will have jumped ahead an entire day. So I'll hold that over everyone for a while.
The Jolly Swagman is an interesting place. I think some people stay here much longer than a few days. There are posters around advertising jobs, and a lot of the people staying here seem to know each other and the employees. Of course I haven't even been here a full day yet, so what do I know?
I do know that when I walked into my room it smelled like several teenagers had been living in there for three weeks without showering or opening a window.
Despite the smell (and by covering my face with my hat) I got a good sleep. When I woke up I walked around the area and found a pizza place. It was a relief to finally be able to easily communicate with the person behind the counter. I could explain that I wanted a pizza without cheese and there was no confusion. So finally I got my pepperoni fix in.
After I ate I returned to the hostel because I had heard that they were doing a movie night. It sounded like the perfect way to relax for the night. We ended up watching The Brothers Grimsby, Sacha Baron Cohen's heinous new comedy. Not a great movie, but a great one to turn off the brain for an hour or two.
Tomorrow I can really start exploring the city. I don't know exactly where I'll start but I'll figure it out. I know I want to see the bay at least. Get a good view of the opera house. Hopefully it's not too cloudy tomorrow.
Until then, thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.
