{"id":55,"date":"2015-12-22T15:17:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T20:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2015-12-27T16:35:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T21:35:16","slug":"08-8-25-00-scubar-sydney-central","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/?p=55","title":{"rendered":"08: 8-25-00 Scubar, Sydney Central"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday<\/span><\/p>\n

4:30 PM<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Beer-VB\"Uh, my aching legs! \u00a0I believe I over-compensated for sitting on planes all yesterday \u00a0As I sit here in the <\/span>Scubar<\/span><\/a> beneath Sydney Central, I\u2019m hoping this cold <\/span>Victoria Bitter<\/span><\/a> will soothe the pain. \u00a0And what a day it\u2019s been. \u00a0Wore me out, it did. \u00a0I\u2019m just amazed I haven\u2019t had any jet lag.. At least not yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Editor: Scubar is described by Google as a \u201cRaucous basement bar in a backpacker hostel, with DJs and Hawaiian decor, plus themed party nights.\u201d]<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Hit the ground running today. \u00a0As soon as I stepped out of the airport I stepped onto a bus and headed into town. \u00a0And boy was it cold this morning. \u00a0The captain reported it to be 7 \u2103. \u00a0Cold. \u00a0I could see my breath. \u00a0Anyhow, I made my way to the hostel, a bit early I may add. \u00a0Too early to check in. \u00a0so I tossed my bag in a locker and grabbed a quick yet satisfying shower. \u00a0Brushed my teeth, too. \u00a0Feeling quite refreshed, I took to the streets.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney

Sydney Harbor Area<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tree

Tree full of Grey Headed Flying Foxes<\/p><\/div>\n

I made my way down Pitt Street, cut across to Macquarie via \u00a0Martin, and went into the Botanical Gardens. \u00a0I could have spent the entire day there. \u00a0Beautiful. \u00a0absolutely beautiful. \u00a0Wow. \u00a0My main objective was to make my way to the point to snap photos of the Harbor area. \u00a0But the birds! \u00a0I had to look at the birds. \u00a0Oh, and the <\/span>flying foxes<\/span><\/a>! \u00a0It was so great every animal I looked at was a lister for me. \u00a0I had already ID\u2019d my first Australian bird coming from the airport, however.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Wood

Wood Duck<\/p><\/div>\n

On a whole new continent, on the opposite side of the earth, and the <\/span>first bird<\/span> I see is a starling! \u00a0But the Gardens made up for it. \u00a0<\/span>Ibis<\/span><\/a> were everywhere, <\/span>Wood Ducks<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Mynahs<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Magpie<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>fairy-wrens<\/span><\/a>; I loved it! \u00a0I did of course find my way to the photo spot. \u00a0After a while I made my way around Farmer\u2019s Cove to the Opera House and the <\/span>Quay<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0The rest is kind of a blur. \u00a0A long blur. \u00a0I went through <\/span>The Rocks<\/span><\/a> over the bridge, everywhere it seemed. \u00a0Not that I didn\u2019t enjoy it. \u00a0I was getting tired and hungry. \u00a0I took care of the latter with a meat pie. \u00a0Not too bad. \u00a0Nor too good. \u00a0I finally decided to make my way up Pitt to the hostel. \u00a0I did take time out to listen to some live flamenco in the square. \u00a0Practically sleepwalking by now, I made my way to the hostel and attempted to check in. \u00a0That was a blunder, let me tell you. \u00a0Looking in this bag, dumping out my money belt, trying to get into the wrong room. \u00a0Lots of fun. \u00a0And here I sit. \u00a0The train to <\/span>Byron Bay<\/span><\/a> leaves at 7AM tomorrow. \u00a0Thirteen hours. \u00a0Yipee. \u00a0Oh, how could I forget?! \u00a0The voucher I paid for in full through Council Travel is no good! \u00a0How about that. \u00a0So I bought another.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not to sure what to think of the place so far. \u00a0Certainly haven\u2019t experienced the overtly friendly atmosphere or the deep love for Americans. \u00a0But then again, this is Sydney. \u00a0Not the \u201ctrue\u201d Australian experience, perhaps. \u00a0We\u2019ll see tomorrow. \u00a0Hope I can put up with all of those hippie backpackers. \u00a0Damn, I need to take out these contacts! \u00a0It\u2019s only been 48 hours straight or so.<\/p>\n

Oh, here\u2019s a quick impression: \u00a0everything is backwards! \u00a0Steering wheels, where they drive, the bigger coins are worthless\u2026\u2026 it\u2019s crazy. \u00a0I\u2019m going to get killed crossing these streets. \u00a0Oh, and I\u2019m not looking forward to my return to Sydney – after the world drops in for a visit. \u00a0Oh, and why are all of the guys here at the hostel 40 years or older? \u00a0don\u2019t they have better places to be?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t get any of it.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

KC<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 4:30 PM Uh, my aching legs! \u00a0I believe I over-compensated for sitting on planes all yesterday \u00a0As I sit here in the Scubar beneath Sydney Central, I\u2019m hoping this cold Victoria Bitter will soothe the pain. \u00a0And what a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thewalkabout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/KevinCroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}