First week in Sydney:

Sat - Well getting there was a nightmare, after flights to Dubai, Brunei, Brisbane, a night spent attempting (and failing) to sleep in Brisbane airport and then finally Sydney my ankles were swollen to the width of my knees and I had no idea what time it was meant to be! Then nobody was there for the airport pick up! Another two hours and about seven phonecalls later they had arrived and I walked into my room in the Woodduck Inn to find 4 snoring nearly naked people in two beds (turns out only one of them was actually meant to be there!!).

Not the best of starts, then found out my week orientation didn't actually start till Monday either, when it was only Saturday morning. Spent the rest of the day wandering and in internet cafes feeling very lonely!

Sun - Turned up at 7am for a trip to the Blue Mountains I had managed to get on a week early, but by 8 nobody had come, so gave up and went back to the hostel only to find I was then locked out of there too so again had to wander internet cafes feeling even more disheartened than the day before!

Mon - Met the rest of the group - none of whom were English, though ended up making friends with 6 Swedes by the end of the day, did all the practical things like set up a bank account, tax number, medical care, mobile etc etc. Even found a bottle of Irn Bru outside the medical centre!!! Also sampled my first (of many so far) McDonalds. Not much difference! Though they put bacon with almost everything and there are a lot more options.

Tue - Walked through the botanical gardens where we saw thousands of bats - litereally - see the photos when I get them up, on the way to the opera house and bridge. After a few photos we got a ferry to Watson's bay for a nice walk around a scenic route, fish and chips (well chicken nuggets for me) on the beach and then a ferry back.

Wed - Free day so went to Hyde Park with the Swedes and our laptops to latch onto the free internet there - well the internet of some hotels around there that stretched to the park anyway - and look for jobs and flats (unsuccessfully), as well as the obvious Facebook check. That night we sampled the Gaff, where if you buy one drink you get two free drinks, a free meal, and a free lift - bargain!

Thu - Got woken up at 6 by Aaron the old room mate packing up and moving to a room downstairs, then coming back to get his sheets off the bed, then a hostel worker changing the sheets then two new girls arriving in the room and turning the lights on without realising it was only 7am for us!! Was far from impressed but turned out that one of the room mates from Manchester is still with me two weeks later and we are looking for a flat together along with another from Glasgow who we met the next day.

Did a trip to Coogee beach where we did a cliff walk round to Bondi, where it started raining!! On the way we saw some massive lizards, but no whales though we were told to look out for them. In the evening we went for a BBQ at a hostel down the road where the tables are surfboards and there was entertainment from an aboriginal, his digeridoo and clapsticks.

Fri - Another free day and the Swedes all left for Byron bay, was invited but decided there would be more job opportunities in Sydney so stayed on with Becky and Kirsty. They were both on the orientation day I had done on Monday so went to try and job hunt and food shop alone. Not very productive but tried. Went out with Becky in the eve to 'one of the best clubs in Sydney' - it was rubbish and we left after about 20mins and Becky had bought one tiny glass of wine - more the size of a champagne flute for $10! Rip off. Especially compared to the Ozzie favourite drink 'Goon' which is basically a 4.4litre box of wine which only costs $10 but obviously tastes far from nice! Surprisingly better than good old Mildert Echo Falls though!

Sat - Surfing at Palm Beach where they film Home & Away, though they film on Wednesdays and Thursdays apparently. Nearly drowned a few times and wasn't strong enough to catch many waves, but was good to try! So sore all night afterwards though. Kirsty had a mini jellyfish on her board, which turned out to be one of the most dangerous! Luckily no shark incidents though - had my eyes peeled all the time just incase though!!!

In the eve went around the local area of Kings Cross with Becky and Kirsty looking for a new hostel for the next week - an interesting experience as every other shop either has a prostitute or junkie outside or is some sort of adult-based shop anyway. We literally thought we were about to get killed in the second one we went in to look around, the teeny tiny man was desperate to show us every single room even though they were obviously practically the same and we had already said we weren't interested as it had no internet and was double what we were paying in the current hostel!

Sunday - Actually got on the Blue Mountains trip. Not sure it was worth the wait!! The tourguide - "JC or call me John or Juan Carlos" (all three of which were listed on his name badge) did NOT stop talking the entire day - all 13 hours of it that we were with him for!!! His favourite words - beautiful, exactly, actually and however appeared at least a few times per sentence and he was never out of bad jokes! The mountains themselves were nice, though not particularly blue, and full of interesting wildlife JC made up a load of rubbish about - including an ordinary yellow flower he told us was known as bacon and eggs because it "clearly looks exactly like bacon and eggs".. it didn't. He also gave us severe warnings about venemous birds, but when questionned further they have never ever really attacked people so it was quite unnecessary! When we lost four people he decided it was best to carry on without them anyway - though this was where the student recently went missing for days! He did let us get amazing ice creams to take on the bus though. In the afternoon we could wander down 1000 steps in our own little groups and get cable cars back up again in a minute and a half which made the hour long walk down seem annoyingly pointless!!!! On the way home we managed to stop at a nature park and see three kangaroos though and also stopped at the 2000 Olympic site though it is now known as the ghost town - for obvious reasons once you're there. Eventually we got dropped home - with headaches thanks to JC and managed to get the tv room for the three of us to watch a film.