Welcome to Sydney! It's batshit crazy here!!

There are large bats living in trees outside my hostel. They fly at night and sound like mice. They come out around dusk, earlier if it's been raining. I know some bats carry rabies. If a person is inflicted with rabies, and left untreated, they will begin to show signs of zombie-ism. Slurred speach, staggering, aggressive behaviour, uncontrolled mania, drooling, spasms, hallucinations, trouble breathing, itching. Or a Friday night at the Cosmo in Moncton. I wonder if that place is still open.

Huge freakin bats in Sydney!

I arrived by plane a little over a week ago. My room mates at the hostel were 3 young Finnish folks. One of them, whom I became friends with, told me that there were alot of crazy people here. I didn't know what he meant. A few days later he pointed out a lady sitting on a bench in the park across from the hostel. She was chanting/screaming/wailing/speaking in tongues. Antti (my new Finnish buddy) told me that a few days earlier he was out for a smoke (Europeans all smoke for some reason) and he saw her staring at him and it really creeped him out.
A few nights later a group from the hostel was sitting in the park late and the woman was worked up into a frenzy. Yelling, wailing, laughing. A couple of the young drunk Brits harrassed her a little. Classy I thought.

Someone told me that 50%  of Aussies will experience some sort of mental disorder.  Thats a big number. (Mental disorder could mean anything, and I have actually sourced it. I'm no journalist, do your own research if you're so concerned about it).

The next day I was walking down the street to see an apartment. An old bedraggled man with a matted beard, long matted hair was coming the other way. I had my head phones on and was rocking out to The Dirty Heads. As we passed he suddenly screamed. Like a bark or a grunt or something. Scared the shit out of me. He did it on purpose too. I was going to fight him over it but I realized that he'd probably infect me with fleas. It is most likely his super power. Besides he had to get back to being Rob Zombie.

Days later I was visiting one of the harbours and I noticed an older, very drunk man feeding the pigeons, as well as these freaky assed long beaked black headed birds that are ugly as sin. They were surrouding him, landing on him, on his hands, his head. People slowed to watch and he seemed to relish the attention. Later he ran out of bread and packed, then repacked his bag. Then he staggered a bit and circled his bench. He then staggered to another bench where a middle aged couple, who looked kind of dorky, were sitting near the edge of the bench. I'd say there was half a cheek left on that bench to sit on. The bird man of Circular Quay decided he'd sit on that narrow wedge of real estate. So he sat sideways and fell into the dork on the bench and sort of leaned on him. He was promptly pushed to the ground for his troubles. Poor bastard. He staggered back to his own bench .

One night, I was standing outside the gates of my hostel and this couople was walking and incredibly inebriated (probably crazy) guy home. His hostel/halfway house is next to mine. He was barely able to balance his own weight. They asked if he was ok and he slurred yes, then they asked if he could get in ok and he thanked them for their kindness and said he'd see them later. He was speaking as if underwater had a hair lip.  He went through the gate then darted around again. He looked at my, I was fiddling with my iphone, and said, "Wherszit?!?" I just looked at him. He spun in a circle patting his pockets the way a dog might if he thought he'd left his tail in his other pants.  He then said "Maphone! Fuckngo!" Apparently he lost his phone. I suppose his sponsor's number is in it which would make it very important to him. He then stagger-ran up the street. He looked behind him as he went and ran straight into a post, which slung him around unceremoniously and dropped him to the asphalt. None the worse for where, he got up and moved on. What a trooper!

Last night a girl visiting the hostel was punched in the mouth by and Aboriginal lady. From what I heard it was unprovoked, but its been my recent experience that drunken Brits are probably asking to get punched in the face.

The theories about the crazy like behaviour in Sydney have ranged from something in the water, to too much, sun, to a degenerative disorder caused by the inbreeding of a nation of criminals over several centuries. All scientifically sound hypothesis-es. I however, don't think we should count out the bats. I mean, where does bat shit crazy come from anyway?

Here's a vid of the bird man. I missed most of his more entertaining antics.