Ok, I know another back dated one, and boy do I have a lot to catch up on it's scary!!! Ok so I'll try and whizz through this as time is money!!! So lets go back in time (AGAIN) to Sydney....

So after the 12hr night bus ride, we were very grateful to be picked up by my Uncle Simon and Partner Nel, and taken on a quick tour of the main highlights of Sydney, a couple of photographs by Dawes Point so we could see the bridge and opera house for the first time - now we felt like we were in Oz - and a traditional brekkie at Harry's cart. Then whisked back to their house for some much needed relaxtion having not slept much on the bus!
The next day we went into the city to meet up with a couple of friends we met in Melbourne and have a scan of what Mum and Dad call the second greatest city on earth - Dad I wonder what you think is the first......hmmmmm??? :) As we had arrived during the easter bank holiday weekend, there was the annual Easter Show at the old Olympic grounds, recommended by Uncle, we went along on Easter Sunday and had an awesome day looking around the stalls and seeing a fantastic motorbike show in the evening. One of the main attractions was the amount of chocolate you can buy in goody bags there, though rather disappointingly the Cadbury's choc in Oz is far too sweet for my liking, so my favs such as crunchies and twirls were too much for me! However since being in Oz, dan and I have consumed countless bars of Top Deck and our particluar fav Choc Fudge Brownie - Oh MY GOD the most amazing cadbury choc ever!! Why don't they do these flavours at home the variety here is amazing! Sending one of those each home in a parcel - so don't eat it all before I get back!!

Whilst in Sydney we obviously had to pay a trip to Bondi, luckily we had fantastic weather for a few days, where we hit clear blue skies and temperatures of 27+! Bondi gave us our first experience of Ozzie beaches, and their flag system - though I have to say further up the coast in Surfers Paradise I was more impressed by their system and beach than Bondi!

As we had been saving some money at my uncles, Dan and I decided we would really regret it if we didn't climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At nearly $200 it was a big expense, but oh so worth it!!! Having been up the Oz tower during the day, we decided to do the night climb on the bridge. It was an experience I'll never forget, seeing the whole of Sydney lit up sparkling away at us, it had that magical glow and I found myself taking a deep breath to take it all in and realise here I was standing on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge where I had always wanted to come!!!

We also took a day trip to the blue mountains, again we had fantastic weather which made the views even more breathtaking. We also took a ferry over to Manly, though sadly that day the weather just rained constantly so we didn't really get to fully enjoy the ferry ride or Manly itself. I also met up with one of my friends whom I used to work with that has moved to Oz, and we had lunch Ozzie style - in a pub where you bbq your own food!!! I'm getting quite a dab hand at the old barbie, though I stil want to try kangaroo and crocodile before I leave!

We spent a total of 12 days in Sydney and then moved up to Byron Bay, another 12hr nigth bus, arriving in the hippy village the next morning. It was quite a change from the city pace of life, and considering we had been city hoping for the last month was a nice change! Byron was quite surreal, people in an assortment of brightly coloured clothes, smoking pot, and just playing a variety of instruments on the street and people dancing to it!!! The first night we walked past a two guys, one had brought a whole drum kit and postioned it outside a bank whilst he was accompanied by a man on the guitar singing away, and people just bouncing from foot to foot dancing around - it was quite a sight, so a pic had to be taken!!! ha ha!
We booked a surfing lesson, when in Rome!, I gave it a good go however due to my leg and ankle problems the positions for surfing were not helping and not wanting to cause myself an injury I had to give up half way through which was rather disappointing. THe guys however managed to get up and surf through a couple of waves!
There is also a famous lighthouse walk in Byron, where you can stand on the most eastern part of land in Oz, so we took that lloooooooong walk!!!

Then we moved up to Surfers Paradise, one the best kttted out hostels, with tennis courts, a games room and a spa!!! Surfers is more skyrise, and even though I haven't been yet, reminded me of LA or Miami, or what I think looks like an american beach town. Lots of shopping and bars. I quite liked it though, the beach was gorgeous and the sand was the nicest we had seen in Oz, white, so a couple of days were spent relaxing and then we booked ourselves on the famous Bar Crawl!!! And here is where Megan got horribly drunk for the second time on this trip!!! Imagine waking up the next morning wiping your face and blue glitter coming off, and being fully dressed with no idea how you got back but realising you have 20mins to vacate your hostel and sitting up makes you wana ly back down again for an eternity.... The bar crawl consisted of many free drinks starting at 5.30pm, so very early, and as usual megan only really drinks wine so got quite tipsy. Dan and I got chatting to these 4 other girls and we all spent the eveing together going round the bars in this group. At the last point, I remember playing a drinking game - though when I say play I mean I didn't hav a clue what was going on but Dan just kept nudging me when it was turn - and thinking I must be really drunk coz I don't have a clue how this game is played!!! Then I remember a LOT of free Champers, and winning a goody bag which contained blue glitter and we all put it, army style, on our face. I vaguely remember going outside and feeling very drunk and the bouncer not allowing me back in, and then calling england (not sure who I called) or at least attempted to and then realised I'm on the other side of the bloody world and they can't help me!!! Anyway apparently I must have begged the bouncer to let me back in and got Dan, and said I needed to go home. Outside I apparently became a dead weight and Dan had to carry me back to the hostel, being stopped by 5 policeman on the way back to check if everything was ok - whoops!!!!

So yer I felt rough as when I woke up and dragged myself to the shower, all I wanted to do was be at home curled up on the couch watching Hollyoaks, but no I had to pack my rucksack and move my ass out of there. Dragging my weary body I mumbled to dan I needed food and headed to the cafe for a fry up. Where I felt even worse and ended up (I think I was still drunk) half laughing and crying at my current state!!! I honestly would have laid down on the pavement if he had let me, I felt that rough!!! But no we had to catch the bus to Brisbane, so we got to the bus station and I fell asleep on the bench for an hr whilst we waited for the bus! After the three hour bus ride and some much needed sleep I felt some what better, and was ready to get myself to the next hostel and chill out.

We only spent two days in Brisbane, and most of those were spent organising what to do next up the coast of Queensland, booking Fraser Island, WHitsundays, Cairns and Cape Trib etc! Brisbane didn't seem to have much to offer, we went to THE WORST EVER art exhibition and the Museum of Modern Art. Having studied art, and knowing how out of the box modern art can be, both Dan and I honestly thought that at the end of the exhibition there was going to be a sign saying the whole think had been a joke - a take on modern art today and how weird people find it, but nope this guy was for real. For example he had taken a picture and entitled in the left point of the end of the rainbow - it was just some random road, and then the right point of the end of teh rainbow. He had then done this blob of red and yellow paint and the text read what I see when I poke myself in the eye!!! It was hilarious, but this guy was deadly serious!!! Check the photographs on Facebook!!!!
I met up with another friend in Brisbane, whom I knew from uni who is working out here and had a drink with her for the evening, exchanging travelling stories.

Next we went up to Noosa. Again we forgot it was the bank holiday weekend, so we arrived and everywhere was booked out!!! We finally managed to find these apartments, where we could have a twin room in this apartment for $25pp/pn! It was great there was a livng room with TV and DVD, Kitchen, bathroom etc. The only problem was we were sharing it with an alcoholic 45+ man who spent most of his life living in Barli so had skin like old leather, smoked about 50fags a day so coughed like he was coughing from his toes, had obviously lost the ability to lift his feet up so shuffled everywhere, and thought he knew everything so would constantly rival what we doing. The first night we arrived he was obviously already plastered on his red wine, breifly spoke to us, and whilst I was cooking he tried coming over (coughing and spluttering everywhere - I told Dan to cover all food as soon as I saw him get up off the couch!!!) and telling me how to cook bloody pasta and that I needed more water! I felt like saying you stick to your poor diet of wine, fags and boiled chicken legs mister and leave me to my healthy air and food thankyou very much!!! Anyway he got so drunk he went to bed at 7pm, which was great as gave dan and me the night to watch TV and some DVDs we picked up in Thailand and ones my uncle had given us.
Next day was pretty miserable so we spent the day in town doing laundry and booking a few bits, when we came home we greeted by 'Alchy' who had no recollection of who we were and thought we moved in that morning!!! Praying he would go to bed early, no such luck instead he fell asleep on the bloody sofa - it was a disgusting sight, the guy made me feel physically ill being around him. He manged to sleep through a lot of noise, as some other guys who were also renting a room came back and were downstairs playing drinking games till god knows when!!!

The next morning we were up early as we were off to the Steve Irwin Zoo. The weather was with us that day luckily, and we had an awesome time! Dan and I both got to hold a Koala and had a few pics taken. We also walked through the Kangaroo park, where all the kanagaroos just ly around and you can feed them and ly next to them. Dan fell in love with the Roos, and we spent a lot of time taking some funny pics with them, mimicking kanagroos etc!!! That night we came back hoping that 'Alchy' would be well on his way to drinking himself into oblivion, at first we were happy to see the house empty but a few mins later he shuffled in, my face dropped, he murmered something about going to get cigarettes and go for a few drinks at the beach club so we waved him goodbye happy to think we could eat and relax in piece. Around 2hrs later we were just a 1/4 way through a DVD when he saunters back, saying the place wasn't even open! Well god knows where he had been for 2hrs, but he was definatly drunk. We hoped he would see us cosy watching a DVD and would go upstairs, but no such luck, his plonks himself down on the chair, his dirty feet up on the table and to my absolute horror out of the corner of my eye he removes his top and is sitting there topless, beer belly and hair all on show!!! Dan just whipsered in my ear "Would you for 10 million" - ha ha - I wanted to throw up!!!!!!!

Right well that brings me to the end of this installment, I have just got back from an awesome three days on Fraser Island, and on Monday I'm off to Whitsundays, so I shall write about those both together in the next week or so - I know I say this, but hopefully I will!!!!

Take care for now xxx