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.
You may think this sounds scary or intimidating but there is also a lot of police and it is all relatively harmless. It adds character and is actually humorous. The best part of Kings Cross and my favourite character is Terry Tibs. Phone Jacker fans will know who I mean. There is a man who has a shop that sells market stall tatt – he has a recording of his voice blasting out saying “final day of sale – socks for $1 – last chance to buy” He also stands out the front of the shop saying the exact same thing every day without fail, he is part of the Kings Cross furniture.
So anyway – I digress – we arrive in The Cross and find our Hostel Brado’s Backpackers there is stairs to climb the top. Our hostel is – well – something. Run down grotty horrible – but cheap, very cheap. We check in and Neville one of the owners warns me about a man called Freddy in my room. Okkay – so we go up to the top floor and into our room. It looked like a prison cell ripped up curtains tatty bunk beds with standard sheets, cracks and chips in the walls and Freddy hanging out of the window smoking a cigarette. He told us not to shut the door of the room, left his sheet in the door and disappeared. I knew I had made a bad decision but refused to admit it. Adam looked at me with the look of death “what the F**k have you done, this place is S**T” I was like noo its fine – it’s an experience. We had spent all our money we could not now afford to go elsewhere so we may as well embrace it. And I’m so glad that we did. If we had more money we would have left; and checking in here was the best thing that we could have done – in the end I made the best decision possible.
After our initial panic two guys walked in Tom and Liam – really cool guys who invited us out for the night. So we went downstairs with them and had our first experience with Goon. Goon is a box of cheap ass wine that we were drinking from the bag. We got f****D up – I got carried home – Adam got lost getting home from across the road ended up with a doggy handbag and no shoes in a pool of his own sick outside our bedroom door. All in all it was a pretty awesome night.
This Hostel is grotty, disgusting and gross but it has some great people in it, no rules and you have some amazing nights out. And even when I got a job got paid and was on good money me and Adam where still there 3 months later.
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