Wow well I've just finished my first full day in Aus! But I'll start from the beginning…

Walking away from my family was the hardest thing ever! Thinking about it I honestly didn't think I would go. But I powered through like I do and go onto the longest plane journey in the history of mankind!!! Having Danielle there helped a lot to take my mind off it all J Things started off great with going to a bar in the airport and getting waved over by a guy to his table. He turned out to be going to Australia to but down in Noosa which is where I will be stopping on my bus journey! At least I know one face. That really just showed how friendly the Australians are.

From there we basically got onto the flight instantly as we boarded an hour before take-off. Of course, being England, we had to wait for the plane to be de-iced! Typical!! But to be fair we had a six hour wait in Hong Kong ahead so any time wasted there was less time in Hong Kong, and at least with that going on we were entertained by the crane outside the plane spraying some sort of liquid onto the wings. Plus we were really amused by the remotes for the TV. You know, small things J

The flight seemed to go on and on, although the entertainment was pretty great. If I can remember right I watched Dinner for Schmucks, Despicable Me, Get him to the Greek and Salt all whilst nodding and my eyes shutting but as soon as I tried to sleep trust me not to be able to! I think altogether I got 2 hours sleep on that flight but in half hour bits which is actually better than I expected. The games were also great; I actually thrashed loads of players from the plane at Texas Hold Um!! Turns out I can bluff pretty well when people can't see my faceJ. Food was actually alright we got given menus so had a choice out of something with beef and a chicken stir fry so I took the stir fry. It came with the best chocolate mousse though!! It was all pretty as well which I was happy about as Laurens hand wasn't there for me to squeeze when I got nervous and I didn't think Danielle would be happy about me using hers since Id literally met her a few hours ago, don't want her to know how strange I am just yet! The breakfast was OK too. It was a frittata with bacon and mushrooms. Jam and bread was the best part though!

Landing in Hong Kong was strange. It was really hazy, I'm guessing because the countries so industrialised. I managed to make a classic dippy moment by saying 'is that a really big boat?' to which Danielle replied 'no Lucy, it's an Island'. Turns out we were a lot higher than I thought so the island looked like a big tanker ship to me lol. I was a bit embarrassed when we actually did see some boats that looked like ants still because of how high we still were!! Landing was a bit horrible though as we were getting so close to the water and couldn't see land anywhere until right at the last minute. Thought we were going to get to use the slides in the plane so I was actually quite happyJ. I did get to see some of the sky line of Hong Kong and a few mountains but there wasn't much.

Getting in to Hong Kong airport I was actually amazed at how big it was! We had to head to a transfer desk which was quite confusing even though we were following signs. The first desk we went to sent us somewhere else but wasn't really helpful in direction so we asked someone who didn't seem to know so just stuffed us on a train!! Thankfully it turned out to be right in the end when we asked someone else at the other end of the stop where we had to go and it was just around the corner. Stupidly though we didn't even need to go to the desk because we had already checked in online!!!! We went to the departure lounge then and it was huge! Bit of a tease though because we didn't realise a part of it was being built and they were getting new restaurants so the signs for Ben & Jerry's and Pizza Express were a 'what's coming' sign rather than a 'this is what we have here' which was pretty disappointing!! So instead of stuffing our faces with ice cream, which would have been heaven, we found the free Wi-Fi and I managed to contact my mum back home with Skype. It was so lovely to speak to her again even though it had literally only been a few hours since Id said bye at the airport.

After doing that we went for a wonder as we had spotted a spa sign and a massage after that plane journey would have been lush! We couldn't find it though since the airport was so huge so ended up just wondering around a bit and looking at some of the shops. They were all high priced designers though so couldn't really go in many since I always feel like they look down on us, especially in the state we looked then! So we went back upstairs and thought we should sample some of the local cuisine…noodles!!!! They were gorgeous! And we had such a laugh trying to eat them with just the chopsticks and spoon they had given us. Turns out I can't use chopsticks for the life of me! So I came up with an idea of using the chopsticks like a fork and then twisting the noodles on the spoon like spaghetti. Didn't want the Chinese to see though… only slightly embarrassing!!!

That was pretty much it for Hong Kong; I think we must have seen every tiny bit of that airport since we had six hours of literally doing nothing! We had to get another train to find the gate though which just shows how huge it is. I sat there and charged my laptop whilst talking to mum again since we still had a few hours wait for the plane. This plane was a lot smaller than the first one and had far less people on it, especially Chinese people! There were actually rows free which I had decided I was going to use as a bed once we had taken off but unfortunately someone beat us too it. I was so envious of the man in the row next to us who had the entire row to himself and he lay across the seats and slept for the entire flight!

The films were the same so I didn't have many more to watch but I did watch the latest series of scrubs which I love! I managed to sleep this time too, I think having the window seat helped as I could lean into the corner. Probably got about 4 hours on and off altogether which was alright. The food was different on this flight thankfully, as I was a bit worried about it being the same. I forced dinner down me though as I knew it would be ages until the next meal but I really wasn't hungry. I worked out why at the end of the flight…in the 26 hours we had been travelling we had had 6 meals altogether!! Breakfast I couldn't even touch though, even the smell of it made me feel a bit funny so I just had the croissant and a bit of fruit.

It actually took us 3 and a half hours to fly over Australia to get to Adelaide. It was nice when we got a bit lower as I could see the outback a lot and we flew over Alice Springs. Whilst landing, Danielle and I did the typical tourist thing and took lots of pictures of the city. Adelaide airport is nice and small so we didn't need directions this time. We went to the toilets to have a freshen up first, got our bags and then had to declare all of the chocolates and sweets that we were bringing through. I think they must have thought we were bringing drugs in as we were the only ones sent to be sniffed by the dog! Once the dog was finished we walked out to the main area of the airport where we were met by Carol and Betty. We walked straight out the car and the weather was gorgeous!!!!

Carol took us on a scenic route to the hostel which was nice. The houses out here are amazing, I love them. They are all so unique and fancy. It was strange driving into the area we are staying in because I recognise so much of it from Google Maps! We left our bags at the hostel in the locked room and went into the city to sort out phones and bank accounts. We managed to sort them easily and people were impressed out how organised we were which I found quite funny as I didn't have a clue what I was doing and was in quite a daze with the jet lag! Carol bought us Coffee which was really nice and we sat there looking at the Christmas decorations which were so strange to see in the sun! The main city of Adelaide is actually really nice, lots of shops and all quite compact as well.

We then went to Woolworths the supermarket and bought some food. $2.80 for 5 packs of noodles, bargain so that's what I'll be living on for a while! We then got dropped off at the hostel and checked in and had an explore around Glenelg. We looked in some of the shops and then went down to the beach and had a walk. The beach is gorgeous! Really nice sand and really clean. I'm not going in that water though as I found out today they have sharks in the deep areas….possibly great whites!! No freakin way am I getting in there!!

We decided to go to sleep early since we didn't want to wake up to late the next day so that we got into the swing of the time here. Spoke to people back home in the McDonald's outside the hostel by using their free Wi-Fi and then headed to bed at 7. I think that's the earliest I've been to bed since I was about 5! Fell asleep straight away thankfully and hardly heard any of the rest of the girls come in later. We had been invited to a bbq they were all having in the hostel garden but literally couldn't function so needed to sleep! I did wake up at about 3am though as it would have been around midday at home. From then on I was quite on an off and I think because of the tiredness I began to get really emotional and miss home a lot. I did manage to drift on and off until about 8.30 which was nice. Had my first shower and thankfully no spiders appeared which I was sooooo relieved about! Breakfast provided at the hostel was simply toast and jam which isn't too bad but I would have liked some fruit or something at least…I don't want to eat pure rubbish for the next 4 months!

This was the beginning of today. The weather has been pretty shocking...rain!! I think I must have bought it from England, I'm so annoyed! It was freezing and I stupidly thought it might brighten up later so I would still wear my shorts. It didn't. We went into Adelaide City Centre and since the trams were so luckily on strike this morning we had to wait for a bus in the freezing cold (20'C) for about 30 minutes! It's strange what we can think is cold now. We had had a tip from a girl in our room that the chocolate factory is a good place to head when the weather is bad as it is free and you get free chocolate samples so I was well up for that! Since we didn't know how to get there from the centre we went into Haighs chocolate shop and asked. Turns out we had to book before so have booked a place on the tour on Monday which should be good. We headed for the tourist info centre to find things to do and have begun looking at car hire to possibly share with a few people and go for a trip around Kangaroo Island. We also found a Ghost Tour around Adelaide Jail which could be quite a laugh…we might be doing that tomorrow. I want to jump out at people :p. Since we now had a free day I gave Carol a ring to see if she wanted to see my Mum's old house and school in the afternoon and also go to see Betty and Monty. She said that would be great and that she would be about 45 minutes so whilst we waited we went on the free city loop bus to see a bit of Adelaide centre which was good.

Turned out to be perfect timing as we met Carol as soon as we were getting off the bus. She took us straight to Monty and Betty's where we had a lovely lunch complete with cheesecake!!! Yummy!! We also got to see her garden which she loves and she let us take some oranges from her tree so that we could at least get some nutrition. It was so strange seeing Monty though as he is so similar in some ways to Grandee but from things I hear also so different. His mannerisms are extremely similar to Grandees, simply from how he pushes his glasses up when he speaks to how he says goodbye with the hand shake and hug all at once. They also have a very similar look and he even has his own chair!!!

From their house we headed to Oaklands Road and found the house. They were in so I literally popped my head round the corner, snapped a photo and ran. They must have thought I was a strange stalker or something!! Round the corner was then the school which I imagined my mum running away from on her first day! It was a strange feeling to think they had been there. We headed back to the hostel then and went to McDonalds to make use of their free internet. I had to book my bus trip first leg for Wednesday and I spoke to mum and Lauren who so kindly showed me the snow outside the house which I actually think I would have preferred to the weather here today; at least there is something you can do with snow! I miss them unbelievably!

For our first night out we went to get some cheap drink as Danielle had discovered a bottle of Corona was $8 to buy out which is ridiculous so we went to the liquor store and bought a $9.95 bottle of red wine between us which wasn't actually bad! After that we went back to get ready and another girl called Rachel was getting ready in our room even though she had never been out in Glenelg before and didn't know where she was going. We so kindly invited her to join us J So we sat in the room having a girly chat in the room with a couple of bottles of wine which was really nice. Heading out we went to the hostel garden first and met some of the others staying here. They all seem really nice so will be good to chat with them more tomorrow! The club we went to is a 2 minute walk, if that, from the hostel so no taxis yeyyy!!! It was pretty great, all I need is a dance floor and I'm sorted for the night! Thankfully Danielle and Rachel dance as much as I do too! We went up on the small stage and danced which was nice since I didn't wear my heels out and was beginning to feel slightly claustrophobic and also didn't seem to get as many of the 'your tiny' comments from people. It was also great as I could see more people and managed to get dancing with a group of lads which was a good laugh! Danielle had hooked up with an Irish lad who she was talking to so I stuck with them for a while and had a dance which was good fun J She came back later with a group of the Irish lad's mates, one of whom took an interest in me which wasn't really mutual, but I got a couple of free drinks out of him purely for dancing in a group with them so bonus!!! I still fell over so just shows I can travel half way around the world and I'll never change!

They invited Danielle and me back to theirs for a party which I thought was a bit dodgy. I said maybe as I was going to ask questions when we got out of the club and could actually hear!! We went out and they said at first we would have to get a taxi so I was like no way!!! But the lad Danielle was with had a house a 10 minute walk away so we began walking there. On the way though I had second thoughts as I knew this Irish lad would try it on with me and to be honest I couldn't be bothered with the whole turning down process so I just told Danielle I was going back to the hostel.

She walked back with me which was nice of her and I told her to be really careful and not go in any taxis! She said she would do and she would text me when she was there and coming home. Fingers crossed she will be OK. So that's where I am now. God damn time change is doing the opposite to me now and making me not tired so I thought I'd take the opportunity to right my first blog entry which is long overdue! So at this current moment I'm sat, half ready for bed, on the stairs just outside of my bedroom. But it is 5.30pm where you are so that must be 4am here so time for bed for me! Things look like they are going to get a lot better than I first thought thankfully. I am missing home but I think once things are rolling everything will be fine. I'm simply looking forward to Sydney!!!! Will write again as soon as I can, it's just tough finding the time! But for now night love you all and enjoy your snow xxx