Times of travel. Sydney shortie

In the space of a day and a half I'm travelling from Thredbo in Southern NSW to Port Macquarie on the North Coast. Early start from Thredbo but the roads were clear and the drive back up was fun. I even saw some non-dead wildlife - deer and a wallaby put in an appearance. Filling the car up back in Canberra only cost me $40, cheaper than I thought. Part two of mad Monday was getting to the train station for the 5hr ride into Sydney. Train was early this time too. 

Now Sydney has never really been high on my places-to-visit list, I've never been hugely attracted to it and my impressions haven't changed since then. I did take a stroll to the harbour bridge and opera house which in the harbour setting is amazing but the rest of Sydney is pretty poor I feel. The people aren't as friendly, it's not as easy to get around, it's much more cramped than Melbourne. In general it reminds me a lot of London and that's never a good thing. There was an extraordinary amount of homeless people too, all seem to be walking in the same direction as me, swearing and stinking of god knows what. The roads are constantly congested and by god it's expensive. On the plus side though the yha in the rocks area is good, first yha I've ever been to with Green Day and Blink 182 playing. So overall I'm really not rating Sydney. If you want to come then do just for a day and base yourself around the harbour. Then go to Melbourne and savour how much nicer it is! Tomorrow I travel onwards to Port Mac. Did some research today and it's a small intimate hostel with just 36 beds (this sydney one has 350), close to the beach with free body boards etc. hope the rain holds off because that sounds much more like my sort of place. 

Had a frenchie and two Germans in my dorm last night (there's a lot of the latter around!). The Germans left at stupid o'clock and the frenchie was still in bed when I went for breakfast. On my return to pack and leave he was randomly doing push ups on the floor as if to say "look at me I'm a fitness freak". At 9.45 he's back asleep as if to say "I'm a lazy frenchie, 5 push ups was enough for today. 

The train up to Wauchope today seemed to drag a little, we didn't seem to go all that fast. There were a few young children in the carriage but as usual it was the parents making the most noise. Can't take them anywhere it seems. 

I keep finding amusing signs and messages today, I have photos so will upload them when I can. my favourites so far are one advertising a free goat curry in New Zealand saying goats are pests and your doing your bit to save the country by eating one, it was a big finger poke at vegetarians who it said could cuddle a goat instead. Another advertised the benefits of a private dental service. The number one benefit was categorically stating that you would experience absolutely no pain whatsoever. That may be a no-work-lots-of-money dental practice. Finally a local free newspaper had a short story on a website called 'failbook' which pays tribute to thousands of stupid entries on Facebook including someone asking "what's a double digit IQ?" getting a reply of "I don't think you need to worry about it!" and amusingly a girl wrote on here ex's wall (instead of a private message presumably) "sorry I probably gave you herpes!"