We arrived in Australia bleary-eyed yet excited after playing the usual game of looking at the carrousel nervously hoping that it is not my turn to have my bag misplaced in a county miles away we gathered our bags and went outside that is when we reconciled back in the horror.

My rather naïve fantasy of the sunny Australia with locals walking around in their swim-wear disappeared. It was rainy outside with all of the people in their winter clothes. I had to double check to ensure we didn't get a flight back to England by mistake.

We got a free shuttle bus to our hostel and once we had checked in and led to our room ( We were all placed in same dormitory) We had a little tour of our new home, The general conclusion reached by the group is that the hostel looked more like a homeless shelter with loads of people lying around sleeping in blankets (Hangover I presume) It had a kitchen which allow us to cook our meals to save money which is ideal after days of restaurants and fast food chains in China.

We went to catch a tube to Opera House and Sydney's public transport system is really complicated! Most of tube station had three floors with two platforms per floor with no tube map. So we got off on platform 3 on the second floor then change to platform 6 on the ground floor! We bought MyMulti pass for a week which allow us to use all of the tube, ferries and buses. It cost 57 dollars but we planned to go to Blue Mountains one day which should cost us about 25 dollars return so it should be a bargain.

The trains were triple decked compared to London which only have one deck which was cool for us. There was also loads of school kids walking around which is weird as back in England it is school holidays!

We eventually had our first glimpse of Opera House and Harbour Bridge.....To be honest, the photos of it really glam it up because in the reality, the bridge looked ordinary especially considering the fact its backdrop is skyscrapers of normal buildings but Opera House looked really breath-taking and it looked even better close up. We also saw the dusk while chilling on Opera House and it is one of the highlight of my travelling so far.

We went to the supermarket and bought items for the dinner. Ashley and Dominic volunteered for the first shift and cooked spaghetti Bolognese which were good but it were unusual to share kitchen with other travellers. The weather was so bad that we had to buy cheap umbrellas which I really hope won't let us down.....