Birthday + Boat Party
The week after my Burwood Beach adventure (see the Albums page!), I headed to Sydney with Filip to attend Palm Tree Music Festival on my birthday. Kygo and Tiësto headlined, with Frank Walker, Sam Feldt, and Lost Frequencies opening. The venue was indoors (which I have to say I was quite disappointed about as it was a beautiful night out), but we had a blast! Kygo even played my current favorite song (video below). We were able to take trains straight to the venue – the ride back was the most packed train (really the most packed of any form of public transportation) I have ever been on or seen in my life. It was crazy how many people squeezed into the cars. I spent the night at the Sydney Central YHA hostel, and the following day, Filip and I explored Sydney on foot (see the Photolog page!). I also treated myself to a nice birthday brunch (bacon croissant benedict) at the cute cafe right next to the hostel.
The following weekend, I headed into Sydney again, this time with 60 other exchange students for the UNESN (University of Newcastle Exchange Student Network) Boat Party. Come to think of it, I’m not sure that I’ve mentioned UNESN yet at all! They held a pub crawl during the first week of school that I attended with other exchange students and hold some really cool events throughout the semester such as a wine tour in Hunter Valley and a trip to the Blue Mountains (neither of which I attended due to being busy with other plans, but just want to illustrate the types of events they put on!). One of the leaders of the group is an American named Anna who came to study abroad a few years ago and never left. She’s super nice and so is everyone else I have met through the group!
The Boat Party is one of the biggest events they put on each semester. It was A$100 for a ticket, which included free drinks during the entire three-hour boat ride, and free pizza. I took the train down with my housemate Byron, and Luna, my Swedish friend. Byron is obviously not an exchange student – he had tagged along to the pub crawl a few weeks previous and had heard about the Boat Party, which anyone can attend. It’s just cheaper if you are a member of UNESN. He was very excited, and (typical of the 21-year-old boy) started drinking as soon as we left the house around 10 in the morning! We got to Sydney just in time to change at our hostel. Luna and I had booked a room with a single bunk bed at Maze Backpackers as it was the cheapest we could find, and we liked the idea of being by ourselves instead of in a room with a few other girls. They didn’t allow guests, which was problematic because Byron also needed to change, but we managed to convince them to let him come up for half an hour in exchange for his ID while he was in the building.
Once ready, we walked about 15 minutes to Darling Harbour where the boat would pick us up at 4 pm. It was ridiculously hot, so when we boarded the boat, we all grabbed drinks and chilled inside for a bit. There were three levels – two inside, and a rooftop. The boat took off from Darling Harbor and drove past the Opera House before just mosying throughout the harbor for the three-hour ride. Our unlimited drink options included seltzers, wine, and beer. Free pizza came about halfway through the event – we had to pull over to the side of the harbor where two delivery workers were waiting to hand off the pizza (I swear this was much funnier than it sounds).
After the boat ride, we (there were about fifty of us altogether) went out to the bars right on the harbor. The first place we tried to go into denied me entry, claiming I was too drunk. I will admit, I was a bit drunk after a three-hour boat ride with unlimited drinks, but I was certainly not the most drunk – there were boys there that downed close to, if not exceeding, twenty drinks, and I had less than half that. I was not stumbling, slurring, or doing anything that I would deem as ‘too drunk’! We were all confused, but I told Anna and she turned the whole group around to go to another bar a little ways down the harbor and we got into that one with no issues. After that, we bar-hopped all night, saw some fireworks over the harbor at 9 o’clock (although none of us could figure out what the occasion was), and turned in around midnight – pretty early for me on a night out, but it had been a long day!
The next day, Luna and I booked a direct coach (bus) back to Newcastle. The trains weren’t running on their normal schedule that weekend due to (I think) construction, and the previous day we’d had to take multiple buses and the train to get to Sydney. The direct coach home was only $20 apiece and with no stops, it only took two hours instead of three, which was really nice.
If you’re reading this, don’t forget to check out the Photolog and Albums pages as I have updated those recently with other adventures that are not discussed much on the blog. Bye for now!
