Meet The Locals

I just wanted to do a post dedicated to all of the fabulous locals that live in The Kings Cross area in Sydney, it most probably holds the largest population of colourful characters in a small area on earth; From the weird and wonderful to the slightly scary you can find them all here, this is my small rundown of the best and arguably the worst characters to see:

My favourite is the black transvestite, whose name is apparently Kelly Fabuloso!!! He / she can be seen on Darlinghurst Road form around 12pm until 12am, usually on the bench outside of the Sugar Loaf, sporting a spectacularly tacky dress but always looking fabulous - of course. This is my favourite person always happy and usually dancing he / she once proposed to my friend Harry as he looks kind of like prince harry, and apparently he / she was apparently the princess of Nairobi cast out from the family, as he / she fell in love, he / she was then abandoned at the altar and is now on the lookout to marry a prince!! On a separate occasion he / she also told me that he / she had been a runner up on Australia’s Next Top Model!!! Love it.

There is of course the old lady, who randomly joins peoples tables in bars and has a little rant - oh how I miss her, my favourite line from her was “F**k you lot, I’m going to be late for my taxi to Darwin” as she left the bar! That is one expensive taxi ride.

I cannot forget Animal – king of the pimps! One morning me and some friends popped out for some breakfast and found ourselves at a table full of pimps and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, I was asked if I wanted to be a stripper and ride on his bike – I politely declined. You will recognise Animal if you are from Sydney he is the crazy looking dude on that Harley.

The crying girl – I have never met or seen this one, but I have heard her repeatedly outside of my window at night time just screaming “its night time, its night time” …. Yes we F*****g know it’s night time and we are trying to sleep.

Finally there are the classics who I will never forget: man with singing deer robot, man dressed as old pregnant lady, prostitutes, and junkies and of course Terry Tibbs. I love and miss seeing every one of these people every day – they are all just so god damn intriguing to watch. The Kings Cross locals are awesome.

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The Blue Mountains

Whilst living in Sydney I made two visits to The Blue Mountains; the first visit was an innocent affair, me, Adam and Martjin caught a train from Sydney to Katoomba, and then walked down to the three sisters. The Blue Mountains do look incredible – not so much the three sisters which is essentially a rock formation, but the sheer vastness of it all; Bushland that stretches for miles on end. Walking down to the base level at the bottom can take hours but you will see some truly stunning scenery; cascading waterfalls, a possible koala and beautiful bushland. There is a train that takes you back to the top again and I would suggest that you take it, because I didn’t and the walk back to the top was arduous and, funny enough, not as enjoyable as the walk down.

My second trip to The Blue Mountains was not nearly as innocent a little visit.

Roommates

After a few days of living in the hostel we were told that we were going to be moving into a smaller room, as our room was having its door fixed. We were going to be moving into that room with our new long term roommate Dee, and our on again, off again roommate Martjin.  I just thought that I would post about these two people as I would be living with them for a considerable amount of time, and they will inevitably become a part of my travels. Soo how do I describe Martjin and Dee - well I think that I will start with Martjin.

Anything But Clothes

On my second day living in Brado’s “the party hostel” I felt slightly embarrassed about the night before, I mean I did get really really drunk and have to get carried home – and my boyfriend did, kind of throw up all over the hostel. I tell myself that “Today is a new day, and I will not embarrass myself”. The next thing I know the cleaners come into the room to find me huddled in a blanket, looking like death asking me what I plan to do about Adams sick – and now I’m embarrassed already!

Other than the sick issue my day goes without a hitch, I spend another day being all touristy and doing touristy things around Sydney. Upon return to the Hostel Tom and Liam tell us that everyone is going out and that we can’t wear clothes!!

Selling Lightbulbs

When a potential employer asks me “what is it you were doing whilst you were in Australia?” I like to reply I was an Energy Consultant advising CEO’s of mega corporations on energy efficiency, or I was part of a direct marketing team focusing on energy efficiency within the B2B market or maybe I was simply a lighting specialist. From any of these “job descriptions” you may think that I was doing something clever, important and high paid – you would be wrong. Although each description is technically correct it in no way describes the job at hand. Let me take you back to my first day:

 

Kings Cross – Brado’s Backpackers and Goon!!

So after we checked out of the Hostel with the no alcohol policy and out of his uncle’s house with a compulsory alcohol policy we had dwindling funds. At this point you might say that we were hobo’s with around $100 each, Adam with no job and me with one but not getting paid for over a week. So I got onto the internet and found us the cheapest hostel in Sydney – Brado’s Backpackers.

Brado’s was situated in The Kings Cross witch from what I heard was the red light district of Sydney – and if you ask a local the most dangerous, disgusting place around. Sounded awesome so that’s where we went. Coming out of the train station at Kings Cross I can see why the locals might think the place horrible, streets lined with night clubs, strip joints and fast food restaurants, heroin addicts and Sydney’s local crazies pouring out of every brothel; there was transvestites in fluoro pink tutus and a prostitute singing “let’s talk about sex baby, let’s talk about you and me” either very sad or a genius PR stunt – not sure which.