I'm Not a Tourist... Promise....

So we've left Sydney now and are in Byron Bay. But obviously we've been getting our 'tourist' on while we've been out and about in Sydney...

• Opera house,
• Harbour Bridge,
• Botanical Gardens,
• Walking Tour,
• Kings Cross (most importantly)
• Pylon Tower,
• Manly,
• Bondi,
• Bronte,
• China Town (on our 4th continent!),
• Blue Mountains.

So we definitely filled the tourist role... UNTIL...we got asked by Sydney siders where they could go for food WOW...

We officially look like we live there, obviously until we open our mouths, but we were pretty pleased with that. Obviously that declined into a horrible continuation of a very drunken night. ScuBar...food.. some seedy random place that was actually open at 4am, unlike pretty much everywhere else! So weird after being out in Buenos Aires where things don't even start until 2:30. Han and I are now permanently off pace because we're never ready in time to start the predrinkage at 8 rather than 12!

We also went for a couple more messy nights in Kings Cross. We stayed with our friend Lorna that we met in Peru... she showed us Kings Cross Aussie style which led to a pretty good night.  Largely down to the fact that on arrival and after therealisation of the drinks prices Han and I quickly took off, purchased as bottle of champagne from the local bottle shop (the ONLY place you can get alcohol which is weird - you can't even buy it at service stations or supermarkets!) and then took to the trains (as we have free train passes) to drink it out of the rain (and the beady eyes of the police). Brits on tour a little bit I feel. But excitingly champagne is one of the cheapest things to drink out here!

We also went to World Bar... after being repeatedly told to go here by other aussie travellers it had to be done. Now this is a place where you really do Brit Abroad it as you drink shots out of tea cups! I don't think its possible to get more British than that.

Obviously its not ALL about the drinking  (even if that is pretty important) and despite the rain we got most of the sights in too.

The best way to do it really is to go on a walking tour of the city. They're free and just work on a tips basis. It gives you a good way to get your bearrings, work out where things are and see the sights all in a couple of hours. We did one in BA too and will be hunting them down all over the place where possible!

Top Tip from the free tour was to dress up posh and go for a drink at the top of the Pylon Tower. They only let you in if you look like your going to spend money, so we ditched the travellery clothes and put on our frocks and managed to by pass security for our drink with the best view in Sydney. The bar is on a rotational platform so while your supping your cocktail you slowly move around, obtaining a truely panoramic view of the city by night.

We managed to fit in a couple of beach days around the rain... Manly is a cute little island a boat ride away from Sydney... you can get it all included on the week bus train and ferry pass. We had the BEST fish and chips ever there! Then we also squeezed in Bondi (home of Bondi Rescue and therefore some pretty fit lifeguards) and Bronte beach.

you even get a slice of lemon!

We also went along to the Blue Mountains for the day. Make sure you get up EARLY if you go because the train journey takes FOREVER and is not as frequent as you think it might be! We managed to spend longer on the train there and back than we actually got to spend at the mountains because it took so long! Kind of exciting though as all the trains in Sydney are double deckers. 3 hours there and 2 hours back seems a bit ridic really, but the view was worth it! I felt like I was at the Grand Canyon!

After our little (VERY LONG) trip to Blue Mountains we HAD to go for a Chinese in China Town. Its a tradition that we have decided to uphold from BA... we realised that we have now managed to do China Town in 4 continents... Europe, America, South America and now Australia. Obviously we will be hunting one down in Asia too so that we can complete the set.

So despite hanging out with our fair share of Sydney siders I think we managed to get ourselves the tourist label while packing in the sights of Sydney... we even won flower lays at Scubar which is a pretty international sign for tourist!

apologies for the lack of rotation!

Youtube Symphony

On Saturday Han and I were lucky enought to go and watch the preview of the Youtube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. Such a clever concept - basically thousands of people auditioned via youtube for the chance to play in the symphony. Those that got through spanned 33 countries and all came together to play for a week in Sydney - social media take over or what! Made for a pretty awesome event though - the opera house is stunning inside and the musicians were amazing... heres a bit of a sneak peek.

Bye Bye BA

So its finally time that we have had to say goodbye to South America and most sadly goodbye to Buenos Aires, our favourite place to date.

Following the carnival we had our last few days back to normality for us (attempting to speak Spanish, getting drunk and going out until 7am, eating copious amounts of Italian food) in Buenos Aires.

Going back there felt like going home as we were warmly greeted at Milhouse - our hostel that we stayed at the whole time that we were there before, and by the restaurant round the corner. Open 24/7 which means that they have seen us at every state of the day - hungover in the morning, predrinking in the evening, wrecked in the early hours. That place is largely to blame for the copius amounts of Italian food consumed while in BA - that is actually more cultural than it sounds as theres a pretty strong Italian influence in the country - hence the good looking men and the big hand gestures!

Han and I basically spent the last few days there revisiting our favourite things and discussing our action plan to move out there... either by working at the hostel, which means free board and food or somehow stumbling across a large amount of money so we can get ourselves a sexy apartment quickish! All this was discusssed over our final Freddo ice cream by the harbour which was obviously suitably amazing and proves that we have become naturals at our ice cream chosing as we managed to do it all by ourselves without the assistance of Lucas and Guido for the first time!

We also had our last dinner (more Italian) with our fave peeps and said some very sorry goodbyes before jetting off to Australia. Which of course involved eating even more ice cream - how can we see those boys without ice cream being involved? We sampled the last of the four top places to go, but I can safely say Volta still comes out as number one. We also went to an English pub with them which was quite weird - prepping them up for the trip London side in the near future (we hope!)

Anyway tshirts all signed and ready to go, it was time to hit the plane. It felt very very odd to speak English again as we touched down in our next continent. Its taking some getting use to, Han and I have resorted to speaking to each other in garbled Spanish - keeping south America alive just a little bit!

But wrekky of South America done and next trip planned there for September!

Hot Water Causes Fires?

We have officially crash landed from our amazing time at the Marriott and officially discovered possibly one of the worst hostels going. Eco Arco Verde... really it says it all in the name. There were that many ants there that you definitely felt VERY close to nature and very eco.

That wasn't really the worst of it... well, not even scratching the surface. There are so many amusing anecdotes to tell of this hell hole, but I think I will just give you the two best ones.

To start with I should set the scene. Hannah and I have just been out for the first day of carnival, we have been drinking since midday and the hangover has started to kick in. Its about 2am at this point so we're getting pretty tired and just want to go to bed.

We turn up at the hostel to be told by this cranky old woman that we only have 1 bed for the two of us to share for the night. Now we're not unreasonable, but bear in mind that we booked this hostel in October and were paying 50 pounds a night for it as its carnival time (usual rate is about a tenner), we were not impressed to have this explained in shouty Portuguese, sign language and diagrams!

Following our shouting match with the cranky woman Han and I admitted defeat and got comfortable spooning it up in our SINGLE bed (I'm sure she loved it really) muttering to ourselves about finding a new hostel and refusing to pay them.

As if it couldn't get much worse I jumped in the shower in the a.m to have it explode into flames whilst I was in there. How to make a grumpy morning even worse... I told the woman, only to be told that "hot water makes fire"... quite how water makes fire I'm not sure but apparently this made sense to her. Meh, no sleep, nearly electrocuted, all in a normal day hey?

The moral of the story is, don't cheap skate it up too much during carnival... its probably worth spending the extra 10 pounds a night to actually have a bed to yourself. As for their hostel bookers review, I can't wait to rate it with a big fat 0% on every account. I have never been so happy to leave a place as I was to walk out of there and back to the lovely comfort of our previous hostel.

To top it all off, I'm now in Australia where I've found out that all four of our cards got frauded in Brazil! In Arco Verde metro station of all places... so as much as I loved Rio and thought I'd escaped with no more than eating a few ants and nearly getting electrocuted in the shower, instead I found that some nasty Sao Paulo person tried to nick a good 700 pounds off me! Don't worry though I've got it all back, finally Natwest did something right by continually blocking my card!

But don't let all this put you off Rio, its amazing... Just be careful where you stay (I would recommend Stone of a Beach Hostel and be cautious with using your card!)

Carnival Arrives!

My faves.... Unidos da Tijuca

We went to the sambodrome a couple of nighst ago at Rios famous carnaval. It was AMAZING!

These guys were definitely the most impressive - last years winners. They were sooo inventive with what they did and the costumes that they wore, it was unbelievable. The theme of their procession was movies and they covered everything from Avatar to Chicken Run to Harry Potter.

This parade was like nothing I've ever seen before. The videos don't really do it justice but they go some way to letting you see what it was like. Just imagine that amazing parade in front of tens of thousands of people all waving flags and singing along to the songs. The atmosphere is electric as is the show. They spend millions on the costumes. Particularly on the Sunday show which is the climax of the competition and when all the big wigs have their moment. Every samba schools parade kicks off with a massive fireworks display as they eneter the arena and each school goes for about an hour and a half.

Its a serious event... so serious in fact that the carnival queen even has plastic surgery to suit the theme of the parade. I know they're pretty fond of going under the knife here (honestly you should see some of the women on the beach) but that does strike me as going a little bit far!


We didn't even arrive until 11-30 and we were there for the best bit... as you can imagine we didn't leave until about 4-30 and that was actually vaguely early. The whole show actually finishes at 7, but about 5 nights of getting in at 7am had started to take its toll on us just a weeny bit.


The sambadrome is just where it starts with carnival as well. The streets are taken over by hundreds of different street parties. I've been told that there were close to 500 different parades throughout the city which means there were probably at least double that many street parties.


These things start at 7am and finish 24 hours later. The Brazilians definitely know how to party... the English actually struggled to keep up, which given our reputation is surprising! Literally EVERYONE walks around in fancy dress constantly for the whole weekend - its actually weird to see people in normal clothes again after it finishes, and everything in the city grinds to a hault apart from the music, the dancing and the drinking.


Perfect.


It really is a well oiled machine. Carnival finishes on Tuesday and by Wednesday every sign of it has disappeared. The clean up operation is immense considering that every beach is FULL of people drinking, dancing and urinating everywhere for 5 days non stop. Its great to have such a massive party that is so whole heartedly supported by the government and the companies that endorse it. There are porta loos at every street corner. Beer for ridiculously cheap prices and police and stewards everywhere making sure everything runs smoothly.


I would recommend it to anyone... its the biggest party you can possibly hunt down and its not as scary as people think.Despite it being the wettest carnival in 15 years it was incredible!

Taxi to the Marriott please.

Probably the best line to leave my mouth since heading off in January...

´Take me to the Marriott Hotel, Copacabana beach please´

It would be wrong to say that the taxi driver believed me initially. Only after a couple of repetitions did he realize that we were serious and that we were taking our massive backpacks and upgrading for a couple of nights in 5* luxury.

I don´t think the porters really believed us either when the taxi pulled up and Hannah and I stumbled out looking like we haven´t seen a shower or a washing machine in months, let alone a blusher blush or mascara.

Eventually they all ran to help us when they realized that we were serious and we were actually going to enter the building. And what an entrance...

We had already scouted out the outside of the hotel in our excitement the day before, but we hadn´t really anticipated the inside. It was beautiful.

After a million wows and hestitational ´what are we supposed to do´s´we got to our hotel room. Sooo lovely, and thankfully daddy crouch had ordered extra feather pillows to make it all the better.

We were also told that we were allowed into the executive lounge... as if we weren´t already being spoilt enough. We thought that we would literally sleep in the hotel and use its gym and pool. Little did we realise that we were basically all inclusive in the Marriott Hotel. INSANE.

We got into the lounge and then saw loads of food on the side. We thought there might be coffee and snacks and that that would be lucky! We walked in, and then walked back out again to ask the concierge if we were actually allowed to eat the stuff... ýes its complimentary´was the reply... ahhh so i get this now, we should ask ís this complimentary?´rather than just ´shit is this all for free?`

As if we couldn´t believe our luck already we then found out that cocktails were also ´complimentary´ so yes, we could get drunk for free, eat dinner for free, get more drunk and then head up to our hotel room, for FREE.

All this, looking over this view...

I don´t know how many times its possible to say ´wow´and ámazing´in one day but I think Hannah and I have accomplished the record. We need new conversation topics really because if anyone listened to us we must sound very dull. All we have spoken about, solidly for the last 3 days is how ´amazing´ (yes I said it again) this place is.

Unfortunately we are crashing back down to reality with a bump this evening and we head back to the hostel. Only good thing I guess is that we avoid unwanted attention from various sugar daddys offering to buy us champagne and additional nights at the hotel, which was a little creepy coming from someone old enough to be your grandad to say the least.