So I arrived in Sydney, Australia, last Wednesday after almost 36 hours of travel. I left Toronto at about noon on Monday afternoon and caught a WestJet flight to Vancouver. On my flight there were several members of the B.C. Lions football team who had just defeated Hamilton in a playoff game the day before. I’m not sure if this really counts as a celebrity sighting, seeing as how I could not name any one of them and most guys on the team work another job in the offseason. Ironically, that morning my sister who works at the airport had checked in the majority of the team and complained that they were acting like asses on the plane and not sitting in their assigned seats. So even if they aren’t legit celebs, at least they know how to act like it! That night, I had about a 10 hour layover in Vancouver before my flight to Sydney. Unfortunately for me, the airport had free wireless internet and I lost over $500 playing online poker while waiting for the mothership to carry me off to space, err Australia.
My 15 hour flight to Sydney was pretty uneventful, consisting of lots of TV watching, very frequent urination (why, I don’t know) and a bit of sleeping. Upon landing on what was now Wednesday morning, I took the airport shuttle to my hostel (The Original Backpackers [7/10]) and grabbed a quick nap, although this proved difficult to do as my body was not used to the 16 hour time difference and the fact that it was +35°C. And to think that it’s only spring here! After my quick little siesta, I headed out into the city for a quick stroll around and then decided that I needed to go the casino. On my way to the casino I walked past a guy who I could’ve sworn was a former pro wrestler from the tag-team the Nasty Boys. After arrival at the very nice Star City Casino, I made my way to the poker room and deposited a couple of hundred dollars into the local economy. Note to any poker players going to Sydney: the rake is atrocious and for the most part the players, myself included are not very good. Upon my return to the hostel, I logged on to my computer and the main article on Yahoo! Australia was how Hulk Hogan and Rick Flair had gotten into a scrap at the Casino that day while promoting an upcoming event. In the picture, Hogan was being led away from the stage by the guy from the Nasty Boys I had seen earlier in the day. Super celebrity spotter Brent in full effect! That night I drank my sorrows away with a couple of dudes from Ireland and Germany and vowed to not visit a casino for a very long time, or until I get to Melbourne, whatever comes first!
Thursday morning, I had to get up bright and early to catch a ride to the airport to meet my girlfriend, Leeanna, who was coming in from Auckland, by way of Los Angeles, by way of Calgary, by way of Toronto! Somehow in the chaos that is that airport I managed to find her and corralled her back to the hostel. After we got settled in our room, we took a stroll around much of central Sydney and spent part of the afternoon around Darling Harbour trying to determine if there were more Asian or British people in this country. Either way, Australia is very much like Canada in regards to the fact that it has a massive immigrant population. Ironically, that afternoon after I had told Leeanna about my D-list celebrity sighting the day before, we walked right by the guy from the Nasty Boys along with Jimmy Hart and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. Talk about scoring the ultimate early 90’s wrestling jackpot! That night we took it pretty easy and just chilled in the hostel courtyard with some cold beverages and chatted up these two broads from Germany who I’m almost 100% certain were the biggest lesbians this side of the Indian Ocean. And no fellas, they were not the adult film kind of lesbians, more like the schnitzel-eating kind with hairy armpits (No, I did not inspect).
Friday consisted of our visit to the world-famous Sydney Opera House. We walked there through the Royal Botanical Gardens, which is a fantastic green space right in the heart of the city. The craziest thing about the gardens was the fact that there approximately 25,000 bats living there, which could be seen everywhere in the trees. And these weren’t your standard run of the mill bats, but rather Flying Foxes which more closely resembled baby elephants in size! Needless to say the bats are killing all the trees in the park, and the government is working on a massive relocation project for the bats. The Opera House and Sydney Harbour were as expected, although one unique thing was that they had the stage set-up for Australian Idol outside the Opera House. We watched the recitals for a while, as they were preparing for the grand finale this weekend, although sadly Ben Mulroney was nowhere to be seen. Leeanna and I also checked out The Rocks, which was the first part of Sydney to be settled by the Europeans in the late 1700’s. That night, our hostel had a BBQ which was delicious and we ended up hanging out with the German Muff-Diving Team again over post-dinner drinks. That night we found a cockroach in our room that Leeanna killed on the wall and a couple more came scurrying out of the common bathroom. I was able to get one of them, but his mate scurried into someone’s room. Welcome to Australia!
Saturday was when the Brent of old came creeping back in. That day was our first official day of really not doing much of anything, which is sometimes a good thing. We took a leisurely stroll around the city during the day and just chilled with the wide assortment of Irish, German, Israeli, Canadian, Scottish, American, and everyone else under the sun that night. Early in the evening, I decided that Leeanna and I needed to get rid of all our booze as we would be leaving Sydney the next morning. We had almost a full box of goon (Australian slang for a 4L box of wine) and 12 beers. Add into the mix a few x-factors (some whiskey, it was a Saturday night/party night, McDonalds) and you arrive at the end of the night which consisted of me and another guy ditching Leeanna in a McDonalds for no good reason (I was blacked out at this point). Apparently my very pissed off girlfriend found me trying to get into the hostel a short time later, but I was too wasted to know how to use this new technology they call a “key”. In conclusion, I went to the room and puked up my McChicken combo and Leeanna got all drunk-emotional and called her Mom on the other side of the world and told her I had food poisoning and was throwing up everywhere…So that’s what they call it now, eh?
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