Sydney, U2 and the whole crazy holiday thing!!!!

I have just had one of the most exciting weeks of my life! Ok, well that may be an exaggeration, but it was pretty awesome!!

It all started on the 10th November because that was when I offically started my 2 weeks holidays (that afternoon after you get home from work is just the best feeling)! Not having to get up for work at 5:30 the next morning was absolute heaven!! My mum also came up to visit me that night, so it was nice not to have rush off to bed at 9:30 either!

The next day was great too coz I had the pleasure of a visit from Deborah! She was on her way home and it was great to catch up with her for a while as she passed through Bathurst. I love having visitors there! The rest of the day was spent tidying up and packing for my trip to sydney that weekend. Sounds like I missed out on a pretty good games night at home though, but that always happens - serveral things always happens at once!

The trip to Sydney on saturday was long and boring though! I was meeting Liv in Sydney as she was already up there because she had done a study block and a few exams the week before, so I had no travel buddy. But in these times, the CD player in the car makes a wonderful substitute! It doesn't judge you when you sing at the top of your voice, ever so slightly out of tune!!
After a lovely drive, I dropped my car off at a friends house in Richmond and awaited the arrival of my taxi to take me to the train station (No way was I going to battle Sydney traffic! I can get as far as Blacktown, but that's it! From then on, it's public transport all the way!!). Evidentally, getting a taxi in the city is a lot harder then getting one in the country. I had to wait out in the blistering heat for almost an hour while I waited for a taxi to get to me from Freeman's Reach, which I didn't think was that far away! But anyway, after a few hit and misses, I got to the station and on a (air conditioned!) train. Meanwhile, Liv was getting bored being by herself in Sydney and kept messaging me, 'where are you?', 'are you close yet?'! She'd walked down to central already and I still had 2 hours travel to go! I thought driving my car half way up would make the trip shorter but apparently it doesn't help much! Train trip was also a little annoying as my mp3 player decided to stop working the night before, so I had none of my tunes to groove to!

When finally got to Central it was 4:30pm, but Liv had settled by then and took me to the hotel, which was only 2 blocks from central (nice when you have to drag your stuff around). After I dumped my stuff off we went for a walk around Darling Harbour. It's so nice there with the sea breeze and everything. We even got to see the little bridge there swing open to let larger vessels into the harbour. I didn't know it did that! We also had a walk around Queen Victoria Building - I love old buildings and they had this huge Christmas tree sat up that went all the way up to the top floor, and it was covered with Swarovski crystals, it was sooo pretty!!!

The next day was just spent browsing around the many shopping areas in Sydney and catching the monorail (such a novelty!). We also headed out to Circular Quay to try and see if we could see Kristy and Shane do the bridgeclimb (Kristy used to work with liv and got us the tickets to the concert) but everyone looks like ants up there so I think we were just waving to random people. We also wandered around the Rocks for a bit, which I always love (again with the old buildings). Liv had some drunken Irish dude come over and try to hug her, which was a bit amusing (if it was at night it would have been terrifying)! I managed to untangle her and we weaved our way into the markets so we lost him. City living's a bit tough for a country girl like me! We headed back into the city at about 5:30 and had dinner by the water in Darling Harbour. (this is going to be a very long blog!)

Monday was the day the whole weekend was planned around - the final concert from U2 in Sydney! While I wasn't what you would call an 'over the top' fan, I liked most of their music, owed a few of their CDs and I knew people who were going so I thought I'd tag along. Good thing I did too because it was AWESOME!!!!! We were in the standing area so in order to get a good spot we had to line up all day! It wasn't too bad though, we got there at 11am and the line was fairly short, so that was good. Unfortunatly, the weather decided to be unkind and it stormed for about 40 minutes, so we all got nicely drenched. I had also mistakenly worn jeans :(
I consoled myself with the fact that at least it wasn't hot, but it was still annoying. If it was a nice day, it would have all been very relaxing, but after the rain the ground was quite wet so it made it a little difficult to sit down comfortably. The gates didn't open till 5:30 but everyone started to get excited and edgy at around 4 so we all had to stand up and be smushed up against the gates - not real fun! When they did open the gates, everyone made a rush in (even though we were told numerous times not to run!) and crammed into the elipse area ('mosh pit?!'). Luckily Kristy and Shane made it first and Liv and I managed to crawl our way in to them. I was feeling a little uneasy being crammed into that small area with that many people, but as soon as the concert started, I didn't care! We were second from the front, centre stage! You could actually see their faces (as opposed to just random people in sunnies!). It was a long wait though because U2 didn't come on to stage until 9 (the opening act started at 7, but then we still had to wait an hour after it finished). But when the music started and everything, all the hunger, sunburn, wet jeans and sore feet were forgotten!
As I said before, I wasn't what you'd call an obsessive fan, but when you actually see them perform live and know the songs, and the atmosphere, it was just fantastic. They annoy me sometimes with their political stuff and some of the lyrics irritate me as a christian, but mostly it's ok and I just enjoy the music. They are very good performers though and know how to put on a good show! I will definatly be going again if they happen to head back here before they're too old to rock! Bono definalty isn't camera shy though, so I managed to score quite a few good photos! It was cool coz even though the stadium was packed, Bono and the lads managed to make the whole show very personal and are probably one of a few bands that actually sound better when they sing live! I love the song 'Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own' even more after I've seen done live. It's kind of a sad song but uplifting at the same time. Have a look at the lyrics one day. It's a beautiful song and the emotion in it when Bono did it live was just astounding. I don't know what is was about it, but it just got to me - the whole stubborn father and son thing. Needless to say (like you can't tell already!), I've become slightly more of a fan now. Some songs still irritate me though!

Anyway, I was buzzing for the rest of the night and the next day! Tuesday I travelled back home to Parkes to do some more holidaying and to get ready to head to Canberra the next weekend! But I think I might have a rest and cover that in another blog entry! I've been busy having fun!!