Sunburnt Christmas

Sydney, New South Whales

Australia

Only moments after landing in Kingsford Smith Airport, I was on my mobile coordinating the nights debauchery. That night some

cabbed it, some walked and some even found ferries to Stone Wall on Oxford Street, the hub of the gay scene in Sydney. Another great night of Lady Gaga and Screwdrivers.

I was lucky to find a great group of kids on the Whitsundays trip, who were all going to Sydney for the holidays. By the way, ALL of Australia and New Zealand go to Sydney for the holiday season.

A post from my Facebook wall, from a friend I met months earlier at Gagaju Bush Camp:

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Farhan Kazi hey happy new year. how was it? i think i saw you in kings cross last week sometime, you were walking near the coca cola with a box of beer, only after you walked past i realised it was you. anyways hope the travels are going well. x

January 4 at 8:31am · Comment · · See Wall-to-Wall

EVERYONE goes to Sydney for the holidays. Therefore, it's wise to make accommodation arrangements sooner rather than later. Most people book holiday accommodation around August, being as I was only booking my flight in August, I was not most people.

Therefore, if you do wait until later, you risk ending up staying in an overpriced but rundown hostel, located in King's Cross (the Red Light District), directly above a strip club, next to a 24-hour McDonald's, for two weeks. Welcome to the Sugar Shack!

I ended up with a pretty chill room (of ten), but I was lucky. There are reports of prostitute roommates, syringes left out in the bathrooms, cockroaches and of coarse the 7AM cleaning crew; the cleaning crew is unfortunately a reality even for my room. The cleaning crew is comprised of one girl who busts in at 7AM only to vacuum the doorway, flush the toilet and slam the door behind her. 7AM has become our midhangover wakeup call.

Yesterday, my friend Anand convinced us all to take a surfing lesson at Manly Beach. Manly Beach is the known for being the best surfing in Sydney, and Sydney for being the best surfing on the East Coast.

We all dragged our hungover butts out to Manley Beach at 11AM, only to be met with the coldest, windiest day I've ever attempted to surf. In the past I've been able to get up on my board, but it was so choppy, I could barley even get out to where the waves were breaking.

Standing in a row at the water's edge, we watched our classmates throw themselves into the break, red-faced from the harsh cold water, flailing trying to fight the cross currant. As we watched in horror, Anand was like, "It's like going to war." I didn't think we were doing to make it past wading that day, but then the hot instructor dragged us each out int the rip roaring waves, letting us fight for our lives only to be washed up on the shore.

As we emerged from the water, snot-nosed with bloodshot eyes and shivering we all agreed that that was the most interesting Christmas Eve we'd ever experienced. Maybe just hot cocoa nest year.

After the surf lesson, we went to Wake Up!'s own Side Bar, where I spent my first weeks (nights) in Australia. Such good music, like from home and there was a massive countdown to Christmas. I also have to privilege of meeting Santa Claus picked me up, spun me around and wished me a Merry Christmas. Special.

Today, we went to "Sunburnt Christmas" on Bondi Beach in Sydney which should have been spectacular. It was meant to be a huge beach party for all the travelers and students in the area on Christmas. DJs posted along the beach and all the party goers clad in bikinis and Santa hats.

But in the end it rained the whole day, so we were forced inside for the festivities.

The boos were pretty pricey, as was to be expected, but then then they ran out of food. So we went to McDonald's. On Chirstmas. And by that point I was so ill I left my friends and just back to the hostel and back to bed. I tried.

Merry Christmas, miss you all!

XOXO