I just want to start by saying I love Goldbergs!! It has old charm and isn’t a manufactured café with all the modern designs, they have old ‘gentleman’ chairs and have old posters hanging up. This is one of the only old style cafes in Newcastle, although it can be squishy at times it just adds to the charm! There’s a courtyard out the back if you want the garden feel and a section out the fount of the café on the footpath. If your heading in for breakfast, my favourite time, make sure you arrive before 8:30am (especially on weekends) otherwise you might not get a table. Everything on the menu is a good portion size and you won’t leave hungry! I can’t give a rating on the coffee because I don’t drink it but my friends and family say it’s pretty good! For lunch and dinner they offer a range of heavy and light meals and wine to match. All meals are presented well and the taste is amazing! Sometimes the close surrounding people can be annoying but when you start eating they seam to fade away and the only thing that matters it the company and the good times!! One thing that I’ve found wasn’t up to par was the cakes, some over the cakes can be a bit dry and a bit over cooked, this has only happened on a couple of occasions but both times I have sent them back for a fresh piece so I recommend viewing the cakes before ordering. If you feel that Goldbergs isn’t your cup of tea you just have to walk ten meters either way and you can find more cafes that seam to never end. Hope you like it as much as I do!!!

Coming from Newcastle I thought that I’d write a guide for climbing the big dick!! First of all be sure to bring water and food if you haven't eaten in a while! Remember your camera because it's a long way to climb down to get it! Before walking up have a look at your surrounds, get a map if you can and that way you will ok the sites when you see them! (If you can go with a local, they can point it all out for you!) Start climbing up those stairs, at points it seams like it’s never going to end but keep going it worth it! At this point I should probably mention that on a windy day the tower will move as you reach the top, it’s a normal occurrence. But when you reach the top take your time and enjoy the view. Fun Facts: The top part of the tower is only open from 6am - 8:30pm all week unless it’s raining or too windy. The tower has 180 steps and is 30 metres high. Hope you have fun and let me know if you come to Newcastle!!

Fanny's Night Club is an OLD Favorite of mine,.. At the age of 18 I practically lived there... Now that I am much older Lol (all of 21..lol) it's not on my List of Favorite places... Don't get me wrong I still go & I do enjoy it whilst i'm there...But.. To be Really honest with you I find it a bit sleazy these days & it's over run with 18 year olds...lol So Fella's If u r looking to hook up in Newcastle, Fanny's is the place u r more likely to Pick up than anywhere else in Newcastle Lol xo

I loved this place. Besides the fact that I become good friends with a lot of the staff members whilst working there in exchange for free accommodation, the hostel is really good. It’s an old building with lots of character, and all rooms are fairly spacious with tall ceilings. I had a room with a shared terrace and it was perfect for chilling out at night. There’s a massive communal lounge with old Winchester sofas and a big fire place. The kitchen is also spacious, I think there were 4 or 5 cooking stations, and the dining room is pretty big, bigger than any other hostel I’ve been in. The showers are great and there are plenty of them. I can also say that because I was part of the cleaning workforce, the standards of cleanness are very high, and I have heard other residents comment on this. The location is good, you can walk to all major attractions and there is a stretch of road close by where you can park your car free all day. The only complaint I heard was in regards of the internet, the service was expensive ($4/h) and it was slow. However, the library has free internet for 1 hour per day and is only 25 minute walk from the hostel. I also found a ‘free’ wireless spot along one of the major roads. Like most hostels, you can book various day trips. I joined the wine tasting experience for $50 and it was worth it. We all had a great time and our guide, Tex, is the funniest aussie I have ever met. It’s worth going on the trip just to meet him!

Quick stop in Newcastle . . .

Our way of keeping track of the distances traveled during our journey . . .

Ok, when I told my dad that I was scrubbing toilets and showers in a hostel for free accommodation, he wasn’t very impressed, did I spend 5 years at university for nothing he said!  Still, I thought this was an opportunity too good to be missed. I worked 2 hours every day in Newcastle’s YHA, changing beds, cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming halls, and didn’t have to pay for my stay (about £30, which is roughly what you would get paid for 2 hours work).  I even found the odd ten pence piece here and there, which reminds me of a time when I was little; I picked up a coin in the street and was so excited that I told my mum I wanted to become a road sweeper when I grew up so I could find more :-)  Anyway, working at the YHA was great, I was free to check out the sights everyday from noon and went out every night for a few drinks with the other guests.  I was told that most YHA along the coast offer this deal, so next time I’m on the move I always ring up the local YHA to find out if they have any vacancies.

As a ‘member of staff’ I had a bed in one of 3 rooms with a share balcony, allocated to casual workers, so making friends wasn’t difficult and one of my best buddies was my room mate, Frank.  At first I though he was really creepy and dodgy, he sounded like Borat, didn’t speak much and kept a 2 litre bottle of coke in the lockers, just that, nothing else.  As the days went by, I found out that he was from Romania and had left his wife and two kids back home to find work in the Australian’s mines.  He had been in Newcastle for 7 weeks and had not even been invited for an interview.  Sad story, which made him quite miserable at times, however his accent was so funny that I couldn’t help laughing at him whenever he spoke.  This is one of his typical stories, bare in mind he was totally serious when he told it and you have to reed it with Borat’s accent, wawaweewa: 

When I come here first time, I go to restaurant and say to waitress ‘I want to eat something Australia’… She gives me fish and chips!  Next day, I go to restaurant and say to waitress ‘I want to eat something Australia, but no fish and chips’… She gives me chicken schnitzel and chips!!  I no go there again. 

I should talk about Newcastle but I feel particularly uninspired because I simply didn’t like the place.  It was rough!  Oh man, I went out on the first Saturday to watch a gig and I saw 2 street fights; a nasty car crash; one mean-looking guy kicking the door of a driver because he took his parking spot; 20 or 30 police cars patrolling and a fair few ambulances; plenty of drunken youth with smudged makeup and miniskirts the size of a belt (bless ‘em!); and even one guy who asked me to piss on him in the club toilets!  Wasn’t very pleasant, I mean the night… I didn’t piss on him really!

After that shocking night I decided to chill out for the next few days with Frank and the guests in the hostel.  Mind you, the weather also turned pretty bad, and most of us were stuck inside whether we like it or not.  Predictably, as I travelled south, I was leaving behind the sun and I had to dig out my jumpers from the bottom of my rucksack, which had his advantages in that I found some stinky old socks and a pair of pants I thought I had left on the beach on Fraser Island!

On Wednesday morning Frank got a call about an interview, he was so exited he talk to me in Romanian, ‘Frank I don’t understand what you are saying’… so he swapped to English, ‘Frank, I still don’t understand a word you are saying!’ Eventually I got the message.  He had an interview next Tuesday.  For the rest of the week he couldn’t stop talking about it, so much was riding on this interview that even I started to worry.       

leave cessnock get into yha by the beach arse about, go out for the night, pretty shit spot. fannys

Arrived in Newcastle last night to rain, I think its following us! Wandered around the town today and along the beach. Working up the courage to go in the sea this afternoon, its kinda grey and rainy still but some good waves so will have to be brave!

Did brave the sea, was fun, went bodyboarding. Went the next day too and also to a nature reserve where we saw emus, kangaroos, wombats etc...

I haven't updated this for a few days, mainly because I haven't had too much to say. Stayed in Bondi for the last few days getting more and more bored by the second. Picked up my bank card and Medicare card; just waiting on my taxfile number now. I went out with Carla and her housemates a couple of times; spent way too much money on alcohol and then felt rough the next day. Aussie beer has too many side effects, I'm moving back to Becks methinks. Spent Easter Sunday with Alex's brother Matt, his wife Simone and Simone's family. Really nice that they invited me, but ate far too much and felt like I was intruding on a family get-together a little. Saturday and Sunday Bondi hostels were fully booked for the holidays so spent two nights on Carla's couch.

Finally on Monday I started my East Coast trip. Took the bus from Carla's to Bondi Junction, caught the train to Central and then waited an hour and a half for my Greyhound Bus to Newcastle. With Greyhound you buy a kilometre pass (in my case from Sydney to Cairns) and then the day before you want to travel you go online and book a sector. So in my case I booked to go from Sydney to Newcastle, which took 2 hours 45 minutes. My next sector is likely to be Port Macquarie. That way you get the same bus route and just hop on and hop off as you feel like it, all the way to Cairns.

So I arrived at Newcastle at 5.00pm on Monday 24th. I know it is Bank Holiday Monday but I was amazed at just how quiet and dead this place is; it's like a ghost town. Even though Newcastle has beaches apparently at this time everyone goes away en masse.

I'm going to have to type quickly because this hostel charges net access at $4 an hour and doesn't have the unlimited 7 day access cards I could get at Bondi. I'm staying in the Newcastle YHA which used to be an old Gentlemen's Club. It's actually a really nice building, the common room is a big wooden room with comfy ornate couches and it resembles something you might imagine the Reform Club to be like in Around The World In 80 Days. The atmosphere is great; the first two days there is a free meal that you can sign up to in an Irish pub down the road. One of the hostel managers takes us all down there. I get chatting to a cool guy called Tim from near Liverpool who is a great guy and a bit of a PC gam-loving geek like me. He makes his own dance music as his day job and does alright for himself. Then there is a fairly quiet calm and collected Irish guy called Andi and a Grand Prix loving, hard drinking Dutch guy called Mike. We have our free food and then go out drinking for the rest of the night.

The next day I get up late and then go for a walk exploring Newcastle. The vibe about this place is strange; it reminds me of some of the now semi-derelict beach towns you get on the south coast of England. It's almost like the party used to be here and then just upped and left. I notice that everywhere I look there is building work going on; maybe with the right injection of cash in ten years time this place might be happening again.

So I walk for miles in the baking hot sun, again stupidly without a hat or water. Cue Migraine City later on. I pass something called "Bogey Hole" which is basically kind of a cave dug into the cliff side, and then the sea runs in and forms a little pool on the ground. Eventually I walk to Bar Beach and the town of Mereweather. Not much to do here so I wait and get the bus back to Newcastle. Quite by chance I bump into Tim; we head off to a little cafe where I get a bacon and egg roll and a latte for 6 bucks. It seems like Australia is home to bacon and eggs rolls; they're everywhere I go and they're absolutely delicious.

In the evening we have another free meal in the Irish bar and then a quiz night. Tim and myself hook up with an Aussie girl called Alice and two Scottish guys who I learn are going on the same Hunter Valley wine-tasting trip with me tomorrow. Amazingly, our team does really well; we place fourth and are in fact the highest ranking backpacker team. Then it's back to the hostel and off to sleep early in preparation for the Hunter Valley.

decided to go to newcastle for the weekend. very pretty city, all those old brick houses and the green parks surrounded by beaches and more beaches... very different from sydney! will post pics as soon as i get the other computer to behave and connect :S 

Stockton Beach is an adults playground. You need to have a 4WD to get onto the beach or join a tour. I haven't been on a tour so I'm not sure how much they are. If you don't join a tour you have to purchase a pass. These can be purchased from one of the nearby service stations, or a visitor centre. They cost about $15 for a three day pass or about $30 for an annual pass. Camping is permitted and doesn't cost any extra. Dogs are allowed, but on a lead. Fires are also allowed.

LOL.. LOL .. I have to put this on here.................................. "The Big Dick" is Newcastle's Eiffel Tower Lol It is a Huge Stairwell which eventually makes it up to a look out tower over the Newcastle Habour..... U may not find this in a travel magazine but this attraction is commonly referred to by locals as "The Big Dick' because well... It really does look like a big Dick... See if u can spot it in the Photo lol...

This is the best Accomodation in Newcastle .. Just like anywere the more you pay the better room you will get.. But you won't get a room here on a back packers salary ... the rooms are form $216^ a night.. You will have great Views of the Harbour and it is Smack Bang in the Centre of Newcastle's Night Life and it is very close to Shops, Food, etc...

If u happen to be in Newcastle on a Sunday Afternoon, The Queens Wharf Brewery is the Place to be... Just Imagine, Live Music playing while sitting on the wharf right next to the harbour eating lunch or drinking a Yummy Cocktail (Or Both).... U Will find my friends and I there every Sunday afternoon Running-A-Muck..Lol (Ladies, Just be Careful of the Gaps in the Wharf, U may get your Heal Stuck..I am speaking from Experience..lol). There is always a really good crowd there, from what I have seen the age group varies from ages 20 - 45...