Canberra to Sydney

I packed up and moved out at a leisurely pace this morning.  Because of the four hour gap between checkout and bus departure, I had to carry all of my luggage with me wherever I went.  I found the state library and spent just over a couple of hours there on their free internet.  I was able to upload and send out the pictures from Canberra, but it was a slow process.

When 12:30pm rolled around, I went to the pet store in Canberra Centre to meet James (one of the tag-alongs on our outing last night...he works for Parliament and goes over to the pet store for "puppy therapy" sometimes on his lunch break).  I can see why he's addicted to them...SO CUTE.  Eventually he had to go back to work so we said goodbye (though his internship ends in three weeks and he lives in Melbourne...yay a friend when I get home) and I went to the bus depot.  I checked in and got on the bus (seat 9A this time...farther back, but at least a window seat) and fell asleep very soon after we left.  It was a 3 1/2 hour drive that went rather smoothly.  We stopped at Sydney airport before my stop at Central Station; I had to navigate the metro system and get to Kings Cross Station and then walk to the hostel.  This hostel feels different than the one I was just in and again, so far at least, I'm the only girl in the room.  The first person I met in my room turned out to be a guy with absolutely no ambition in life (he said so himself) so it was interesting trying to hold a conversation with him.  He has been here for six weeks and apparently isn't thinking about leaving any time soon.  He said that he just has to keep asking his business partner to send him money.  And then the conversation turned to drugs and he was disappointed to find out that not all Californians smoke pot or grow it in their backyards.  It was a very interesting talk that ended with him grabbing three beers out of the fridge to tie him over on his walk to the pub.  One the plus side, they have free breakfast here and I got an hour of free internet when I checked in which is nice.  I also received some coupons and one of them is for a free day at the gym which I am most definitely going to take advantage of tomorrow.

After dumping my stuff in the room I set out to get dinner at one of the top 10 restaurants in New South Wales (according to my travel book).  It was a little fancier than I expected and I felt a little strange eating there alone, but the gnocchi I had was delicious.  I turned in early because I was still tired from going out, but I had a nice talk with the two Canadian guys in my room before getting to sleep.  They were working in the Gold Coast and are returning home, but not without major delays due to the ash cloud in South America.  They are pretty much stranded here until they can get a flight out which is super frustrating.  However we found out that we have Thailand in common...they were there earlier in the year as well and did much of the same things as I did.  It was fun to reminisce with them about that, and it's always nice to have someone to commiserate with about it being winter in July.