lost

This weekend saw me riding my motorbike to Sydney, taking 4 hours (each way) and then an extra 30 minutes or more spent lost around Sydney. It was very funny! And I was very happy to get off the bike!
As a Learner I technically can't go over 80kms/h in NSW, however the speed limit on the highway is 110kms/h. So I was pottering along at about 95kms/h and made good time. It wasn't too uncombfortable. My seat is quite nicely padded, so it was probably just my shoulders that ended up hurting.
I made three stops on the way up - one for McNuggets at Macca's, one shortly after then to put on another jumper (it was a bit cool), and one to put in some more petrol. But then once I was in Sydney I had to stop and consult the GPS on my phone 4 times before I found my way to the hotel!!

On the way back I had to stop once to check my directions as I had gotten lost again, and then stopped twice on the way back. Once for food and a much needed toilet break (I was close to pulling over to the side of the road!), and once for petrol. All up I put about $20 worth of petrol in the bike, didn't pay for parking and I'm waiting to see if I get any toll notices. That is a big difference from the $110 it would have cost me in the car!

But the funny thing about getting lost on a bike is that it is quite difficult to read a map while you're riding (it's actually impossible), so I had to pull over, turn off the bike, and get out my phone so that I could use the GPS to work out where I was. But even though this is quite incconvinient and in a car I could just look at a map while I was driving, it really isn't at all stressful. I just kind of ride around aimlessly looking for the right sign, hoping I don't end up on some road that I can't get off of.

And the traffic in Sydney is not as bad as I thought it would be. In Canberra if you put your indicator on and try to slot into a space in front of the car next to you, the person in that car takes it as a personal insult and tries to kills you. In Sydney no one really cares. So I was slotting in and out of traffic and I didn't once feel like I was going to die. I also think that in Sydney people are much more used to driving close to people and so are actually maybe a little more aware.