Nov182009
Hulkamania
Filed under Uncategorized by Kerry at 10:08 pm on Nov 18 2009
Tonight’s our last night in this shitty hostel. I’m kind of sad to be leaving it. Between the Dutch hookers fighting outside at 4 am, a helicopter circling over us in the middle of the night, and the monkey I’m convinced lives in a tree outside our window, it’s kind of grown on me here. We’re going back to the middle of nowhere for the weekend and booked for next week at another much nicer hostel at The Strand Hotel. We went by it today to get a tour and it was like the Ritz Carlton compared to our current hostel. By the way, the dump we’ve been staying at is called The Pink House. I highly advise against staying there unless you enjoy French dudes sitting on the stairs in their tightie whities.
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My oldest brother has been on town this week on business. He’s been staying at the Sheraton at Hyde Park and was nice enough to give me a key that allows us to access all the facilities. I think the entire staff there knows Mandi and I, we’ve definitely taken advantage of all the amenities. They have free drinks and appetizers every evening from 5-7:30. As you can imagine we’ve been there every evening. We’ve even been making it to the free breakfast there, then lounging around for a couple hours. The staff must wonder why the hell we’re even in Sydney since we spend all day sitting around a hotel. I even stole a few wash cloths from one of the bathrooms. Basically anything that’s not bolted down in the Sheraton I think it’s OK to shove it in my purse. I really have acquired a homeless person’s mentality the past few weeks. Someone who shall remain nameless stole a roll of toilet paper out of the garbage earlier this week (hint: her name rhymes with candy).
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So yesterday we were walking out of the hotel after being complete freeloaders all day and Mandi gets my attention. I turn around to see the back of a huge orange man with long bleached blonde hair. It was Hulk Hogan! We just stood there dying laughing for a while. How random is that? Why the hell is he in Sydney?? Obviously I immediately googled the official Hulk Hogan web site to find he and a bunch of other old school wrestlers are doing a tour around Australia. I know that Aus is kind of behind in a lot of things (see my last post re: mullets), but this is really pushing it. I don’t think anyone gives a crap about Hulk anymore at home. I’m so upset I didn’t get a picture with him, but I felt kind of dumb going up to him. Anyway, we went back to the hotel that evening (free drinks, remember?) in hopes we’d see him. We saw a few other wrestlers but unfortunately no other Hulk sightings. If I see him again I’m gonna ask if he’ll come with us to some apartment inspections, maybe that’ll yield some results for us.
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Last night my brother took us out to an extremely swanky Asian restaurant called China Doll at the Woolloomooloo wharf (Russell Crowe lives in one of the condos there). We did the tasting menu which was at least 10 courses. I’ve never had a restaurant experience like that, it was incredible. I kept an eye out for Russell Crowe but had no luck. Apparently everyone here hates him anyway so he stays undercover.
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We’ve completely changed our plan of attack as far as housing goes. We’ve been looking for places rented out by the owners instead of going through the real estate agents. Some of you have commented on here that’s the way to go and it seems that’s the only way we’ll have any success. Today we’re going to see a place in Wollstonecraft in the Lower North Shore. It seems like a pretty good location. Not party central by any means but at this point we’re wanting something more residential anyway. The couple who owns it is going traveling for 3.5 months, so it would be totally furnished. It looks great in the pictures. So hopefully after we kiss their asses at the inspection they’ll pick us. It would at least give us time to get jobs and look around more areas.
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Speaking of jobs, I’m really enjoying not having one. You know how some people say they’d get bored if they didn’t work? I’m definitely not having that problem. Maybe Hulk will loan me some cash so I don’t have to work the rest of the year.
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P.S. They DO have Reese’s peanut butter cups. We paid $4 for a king size pack. I just paid $2.50 for M & M’s and I paid $2.90 for a bottle of water earlier today. The ridiculous prices don’t really phase me anymore.
2 Responses to “Hulkamania”
1 mcon 18 Nov 2009 at 11:35 pm
Funny, when I lived in Sydney, a friend traveling with his wife and parents stopped by. His very rich parents took us all out for a meal at… China Doll! First we had drinks at their hotel bar (the one in front of Opera House, right under the harbour bridge). Then our host mentioned something about a taxi waiting so we walked out to a boat that took us to Cowper’s wharf. The cocktails and the meal were great. Swankiest nite I had in Sydney!
2 Waking Up in Oz » Sydney Hostels: The Good, The Bad, The Uglyon 11 Dec 2009 at 11:47 pm
[...] I would almost put sleeping on the sidewalk above this place. I’ve already written about it here and Mandi wrote about how we had to evacuate here, but there is plenty more to say. The only [...]