Dec 6 - Back to Sydney and Fantastic Four Reunion

Early start this morning, with the airport shuttle driver banging on the front door of the hostel 5 minutes before the already stupidly early 3:20 AM pickup time. Apologized to the annoyed driver and he took us to the domestic terminal at Perth airport. We checked our baggage with Virgin Blue (never flying Jetstar again) and my overtired and thus bubbly personality was a hit with the check-in girl, who switched us to the emergency exit seats, which have significantly more legroom. Positive attitude for the win! Had a hot breakfast at the cafe on the other side of security and boarded the plane. No TVs on this one unfortunately, but there was loads of leg room and some armrest radio to plug into along with a new edition of the in-flight magazine, so these factors made it a quite enjoyable flight. Landed in Sydney and went to wait for the bags. Brennan's came out right away and we waited for mine (which should have been right after since we checked them one after the other at the Perth airport) and waited and waited... Just when I thought my bag had been lost, out it came...relief. Strapped on the backpacks and took the train to our hostel. Literally. Our hostel is the railway station YHA that is right next to the central train station. It's awesome when you know how to get to your hostel easily (and have pre-booked one for that matter). Checked in and went to the room, which is an old railcar converted to a dorm on the inside. The one downside is that the train tracks are right outside our window, so might be woken up by trains in the morning. But the hostel is big, nice and clean and no deposit for keys or plates/cutlery and there is a/c in the rooms. It's like heaven compared to Perth.

Then we got down to being productive. Walked to a Nab bank and put more money in our accounts, then continued to a mall where we enjoyed some Nando's for lunch (a chicken place like swiss chalet or something that has custom hot sauces for its meat), then researched mobile internet at JB hifi on their mac computers that were on display, then got some Krispy Kreme donuts (seriously once you have these you can't go back to Tim Horton's crap donuts) and then we went to an Optus store. Optus is Australia's second largest wireless carrier in terms of phones and also does internet. We picked up a wifi mobile modem that gives us 8 GB of data to use in 2 months and up to 5 devices (laptops, iPods, etc) can be connected to the internet via this device, anywhere in Sydney (or any major Australian city). Once we run out of data, we have to recharge our time and there's different amounts, but 4 GB is $50. But Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. (basically all social networking sites) don't count towards the data limit. So we can go on Facebook and chat and upload photos all day everyday and not run out of credit. On the way back to the hostel, we pass a big movie theatre where people are setting up fencing and ropes and laying red carpet. Checked online what was going on and it turns out it's the Australian premiere of the movie Love and Other Drugs, and Jake Gyllenhal and Anne Hathaway would be attending it. Cool almost brush with fame... Back at the hostel we tested out the new internet device and it worked like a charm, then we headed over to the YHA central hostel (about a block away) for a $5 BBQ that included a beer. Lo and behold, who do we meet up with but Sarah, our traveling buddy from New Zealand. Chatted with her and had some kangaroo on a bun with a beer (Brennan had beef instead) and caught up about the last week we each had. Then we ventured out to check out the harbour, but along the way were enticed by the bright lights and tasty food of the Woolworth's, so Sarah got groceries and Brennan and I got milk and cereal for tomorrow morning. But now we had to go back to the hostel to put away the milk...dumb. A couple blocks later and we randomly run into Enrico (another of our traveling buddies from NZ) and he joins us in our walk. We drop off the stuff at the hostel and the 4 of us walk through the Darling Harbour, which is beautiful at night and even moreso now that it's all decked out with Christmas decorations and a huge neon tree. Looped around the whole harbour then returned to our respective hostels. Sarah, Brennan and I are going to Manly beach tomorrow and Rico said he'd meet up with us on Wednesday to hang out somewhere. Wednesday should also be the day Dan (from our NZ group) arrives in Sydney, so we'll have 5/6 of the super 6 group back together for a short while. Oh, and we're going to look for jobs sometime soon too.