The Night I Got Drunk For FREE at a Gay Rights Lecture in Sydney, Australia

Another of my weird and wonderful travel stories now. If you follow my blog, you’ll know I’m a cheapskate and I cut corners, and I’ll take anything if it’s FREE. Zoom back to November 2009 and I was living in Parramatta on the western edge of Sydney. I shared a room there with a couple of my best travel buddies (Neil and Daniel) and we split the rent in three while saving for our next adventure. We also lived with three other guys (Rebecca, Ruben and Pete) in the same flat. One day Rebecca came home from work and invited us to a night out in Sydney the following week.

Initially it was like “nah we’re trying to save money, we don’t need another night out”. Then we were told snacks and ALL drinks were completely FREE. We were straight in there!!! That day I worked a day shift in the pub, PJ Gallagher’s Irish Pub and met Dan at the station. We got the train from Parramatta to Sydney Central and headed to the Masonic Lodge for the lecture. We were only going because we were offered FREE snacks and drinks.

We arrived about 30-40 minutes before the lecture started. At this point we just knew it was a lecture – no idea it was for Gay Rights! Straight to the bucket which was HEAPED with beer. We got straight into the beers and must have had 3 or 4 each before the lecture even began. Nobody else was drinking at all! There were soft drinks available too but Dan and I were on the piss. Then we are told it’s a gay rights lecture! We’ve just been introduced to a few people. Dan and I are both completely straight as were my two flatmates who went, Rebecca and Ruben! Yet here we were attending a gay rights lecture!!

I’ll be completely honest and admit that I didn’t really listen to what was said. Half an hour into the lecture I popped outside to get Dan and I another free beer. We were also the only two people drinking inside the massive hall. There were a few hundred people there I’d say.

We just kept drinking the whole time, and after the event we basically cleared the fridges out of beer before ending up in O’Malley’s in King’s Cross on a drunken night out in Sydney!

For the record, the Gay Rights Lecture was held at the Masonic Lodge on 279 Castlereagh Street in Sydney.