I arrived in Sydney and things didn’t quite go as planned. First of all to get my Vodafone SIM cards activated it took entirely too long and the customer service was basically crap. My hotel wouldn’t let me check in early and I need a nap extremely bad – I refuse to believe that every room that is clean is booked at this hotel. There is no free WiFi in the lobby which is crap and since my phones don’t work I can’t really access GoogleMaps to even really do some exploring. I’m tired and have a lot of work to do and this isn’t helping.
Eventually I paid to get online and then about 30 minutes before my 1pm conference call I went to try to check in again - the room was ready. I was pretty excited to take a shower and headed up to the room. I opened the door and inside were 2 beds and a nightstand - that was it. There was no bathroom and immediately I figured this must be a joke. I go back down to the lobby and ask the lady if there are any rooms available with a private bathroom. She says there isn't on available until Monday - I just laugh and say I need to cancel my reservation. I had already prepaid for the week and quickly realized that was a huge mistake. She said she could only cancel every day except for the current one and I figured that the cost would just have to be a loss. She went to the back and came back a few minutes later only to tell me that since the hotel is fully booked that she was going to be able to refund the entire amount - woohoo!
I opened my laptop and started looking for hotels and eventually found a reasonably priced one that was just a few hundred feet down the road. It was only available until Monday but I would worry about that part later. I just wanted a room with a shower. I went down to check in and the process was easy - headed up to my room and jackpot! The room was still pretty crappy but it had the basics and that was all I needed at the time.
I got online and finished up my work - took a short nap and then got ready to head out for the night. I was going to the Kings Cross area and it was 2 stops away from the Town Hall stop that I walked to. I got off the train and walked around a bit until I found a place that seemed interesting - downstairs was a relatively quiet hotel (they call pubs hotels here - it's quite weird if you ask me) and upstairs was more of a dance club. The downstairs area had an open window to the outside and I grabbed a seat - so far I haven't seem a bar with a waiter yet - everything goes through the bar. I went and got a drink - a local beer - Carlton. It was decent but nothing to write home about - just a regular light beer. Everywhere offers beer in 2 sizes from what I've seen - schooner (12oz I think) and a pint. I sat down and watched the craziness outside - Kings Cross was busy and I realized I'm getting old. I actually said to myself the US has it right with making the drinking age 21 - these 18yr old kids don't know how to act. Holy crap - it's official - I'm a geezer! Eventually a party bus pulled up in front of me and a bunch of kids unloaded - one of them was carrying a bottle of vodka with just a little bit left. He came over and offered it to me so I put forward one of my empty beer glasses and let it sit there while I drank my beer. About 2 or 3 minutes later a bouncer came over to me and said I needed to go with him - I was about to get kicked out of a bar it seemed. Everyone was looking at me and I was kind of shocked to be honest. He takes me outside and asked if those kids were my friends - I pleaded my case telling him I was an American that had just arrived that morning and had my passport stamp to prove it. I'd been sitting at the bar by myself the entire time and hadn't really talked to anyone. I guess eventually I convinced him and he let me back in. I went to order another beer and headed back to where I'd been sitting - the vodka was still there and as a present to myself for not getting kicked out I downed it. After another beer or 3 I headed upstairs to check it out - it wasn't my scene. It was getting to be about time to head back to the hotel but not before stopping by the wonderfully delicious McDs. It was absolutely everything I'd hoped for and then hailed a taxi back to the hotel.
geezer! Hahaha
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