CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

February 16, 2023 — As you can see from the title of this post, I moved back to Sydney proper today.

I checked out of the hostel in Bondi around ten that morning and took the bus back to Circular Quay. I was on the bus, about ten minutes from arrival in Circular Quay, that I realized I’d forgotten my cold food bag in Bondi. Oh, the joys of travelling. I lugged my bags off the bus and through the laneways and up stairs to my hostel, The Rocks Sydney Harbour YHA. I have to say, this was probably one of my favourite hostels. It was right in the middle of the action and had incredible views of the harbour.

Once I had my other bags stored at the hostel, I got back on the bus to Bondi and picked up my cold food bag, then took the bus back to Circular Quay again. I actually had to reload my Opal card in order to do this, so my new balance certainly got a workout.

Back at the hostel, I had a little lunch and then was finally able to check in. I arrived at my dorm room, which was a four-share female dorm. It was really nice and had an ensuite bathroom. I also got the bottom bunk here (score!).

For the rest of the afternoon, I did some admin-type stuff. I had to head to the post office for stamps, mail a souvenir home, picked up a Sydney postcard, and bought myself ice cream to make the walk down to the post office and to my other stop: an outdoor store.

Why did I have to go to an outdoors store? Well, my packable bag from Mountain Warehouse (which had been doing an awesome job, by the way) started ripping out at the zipper and the hole was getting bigger. I’d first noticed a few days before and was hoping that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue, but I also knew that the hole would continue to grow and that that would not be helpful if I ended up in the rain some day. Which is certainly likely to happen.

I ended up at Mitchell’s Adventure in Sydney as I’d read that they sold Osprey gear, which is the direction I was leaning in since I know that my bag has been doing a really good job and that Osprey has their All Mighty Guarantee on their products. I was also planning on doing the Blue Mountains the next day and I wanted a bag that would be good for real hiking.

I bought the Osprey Sportlite 15 as it was close to the same size as my bag I had before (and therefore would still count as a personal item on a plane). It also has really good strapping, with hip belt and sternum strap in addition to the real shoulder straps. There is also room for a hydration pack if you carry one, which could come in very handy next summer in Iceland. It has outside pockets for water bottles and a good amount of space inside. It came with a $120 price tag, but I have high hopes!

After that lovely hit to my budget, I headed to the grocery store and was finally able to find mini shampoo bottles (it’s so hard to find travel size items! I don’t understand it). I couldn’t get a big bottle because I was flying in a couple days, so I’d been watching for small bottles for a little while. I also picked up a couple things food-wise and some plastic sandwich bags.

All geared and loaded up, I headed back to the hostel and sat for a little while on the roof before heading back downstairs to make dinner. I packed the leftovers away and headed to bed for some downtime, during which I did a load of laundry to try and use up some of my laundry soap before I flew out on Saturday.

The best part about staying at the Harbour YHA was the nighttime view from the roof, so I’ll leave you with that beautiful image.

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