Days 309-311: Return of the Rain

While the rain wasn't constant, it was definitely regular, especially the first day. I spent a lot of the day in the hostel reading and using the internet. I had one trip out to China Town for lunch that ended up with me getting soaked, but by the evening the rain had died down enough that I ventured out with one of the girls in my room to try to find a place to each and watch the Australian Open men's final. Everywhere we went they either weren't playing it, or were playing it without volume. We found one place that had it in, but didn't serve food. We had a couple of beer there, then decided to hop over to McDonalds to grab food quickly between sets. Coincidentally they were actually playing the game in McDonalds, and we got talking to a few other people watching the game and ended up spending the next 2 hours watching tennis in McDonalds while eating 30 cent ice cream cones.

The next day I ventured out into a few of the Sydney districts further from the harbor. There was a small art gallery/shop in Surrey Hills that was my main focus for going to that area, but there were lots of the out of the way independent shops, restaurants and little bits of art that I enjoy so much.

From Surrey Hills I walked over to Newtown, which is another area that had been recommended to me. I didn't really know where to go though, and the main street of the area wasn't as interesting for me as Surrey Hills had been. I did find a burrito shop which had the best burritos I've had since leaving Canada, so it was still worth the trip over. In the evening the hostel had an activity out to a bar where you got a free drink and fries if you went. I have a hard time turning down free things, so I braved another period of pouring rain to go out. The free fries was actually massive plates of both fries and potato wedges. I didn't really stay out much beyond the food and drink, but Australia is so expensive that anything free helps.

I spent a lot of the next day in the hostel planning things and talking to the new round of people going through. One was having a birthday, and we decided to prepare a dinner of vegetables, rice and kangaroo steaks from the grocery store. We went out for drinks afterwards, but I didn't stay out too late since I had a train to catch in the morning.