Still in Sydney and really enjoying it. I have done so much while staying here I don't know where to begin! I guess the first thing would be to tell you I moved hostels; staying in Base Backpackers for a couple of months! It's a good hostel, I met some great people all staying long term... good to have the same group of people for so long! Secondly, I found a job!!! A server at Hard Rock Cafe on Darling Harbour; a wicked place to work with great people and an awesome view of the Harbour and the city. Really enjoying the work, great people, good pay and not bad tips either haha!

Since the last blog though I did carry on with the more touristy activities. I went to the Aquarium which was fun; stayed there all day having lunch and checking out the more exotic marine life found in Australia. On the wednesday I went to the IMAX cinema! The biggest in the world to watch the new Batman!! Awesome experience but I did feel like there was so much going on that the screen might have been a little too big... I did go to the normal cinema to watch it again and I did miss certain bits; still happy I saw it first at the IMAX though.

With these along with chilling at the Botanical gardens, over a week had passed. Georgie had got back from Fiji and was leaving the next day! I caught the ferry with James, a friend from the hostel, and made our way to Manly to see the beach again and say goodbye. We got there a little early so wandered over to the view point past shelly beach. It was beautiful yet again and here we waited for Georgie. She came 15-20 minutes later looking great as usual and really brown from her little holiday! Heading back to the main beach we got some fish and chips again and then said our goodbyes! Big hugs I wished her a safe journey home... I'm going to miss Georgie!!! We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay after a few drinks at a German bar (happy hour haha!) The view was great again, coming back to the city at 5ish the sky was a beautiful colour quite difficult to put into words. Yet again a wonderful sight and another great day in Sydney.

Over the next few days I decided to stop procrastinating and find a job! Money was low afterall!! I ammended my CV and headed out to see what I could find. I printed out 10 copies and only ended up handing one out haha! Everyone's gone electronic now! What happened to old school first impressions! Anyway one was all I needed, they rang back and an interview later offered me the job...Good times! It was funny because I actually got offered another job at a call centre; would have been good money but not sure I could handle the same routine 9 to 5 job just yet...One CV I get two jobs, not bad!

With work going good, sometimes only starting at 5.15 I could sit out in the sun and enjoy my day. Meeting people was easy and on my days off I went out to see more of Sydney. One of my favourite days was catching the bus to Bondi beach with two Canadian girls Megan and Ally, both staying in my dorm room. We walked on the beach, had dinner and then did the coastal walk which took you to different beaches and a pretty awesome cemetery further down the coast. The cemetery was one of the oldest in Sydney and being right on the coast, upon a cliff it was one of the more spectacular too! Great ocean views it was a beautiful location, nice to see that it's not been replaced by a hotel or something and had all its origional graves. Quite impressive! Taking some wicked photos of the girls and me and it was nice to be out and about doing something different on my day off...another good day.

So I'd been staying at the hostel now for a couple of months and just about sick of it. They raised the prices to $230 a week and that was in a 8 bed dorm! Me and a couple of friends (Rick and James) found an appartment near central station at only $170 a week with everything included, not bad for central Sydney. The appartment was great, loads of space, and cool people. Definitely happy with the change of living arrangements...should have moved out ages ago!

Time was ticking over quite nicely, work was still great and I was loving the new appartment. Just chilling on my days off I decided to go on a tour to the Blue Mountains. I caught a tour bus with a friend from the hostel (Lara) and we set off to the National Park. We got there after an hour or so driving, learning about the culture of Australia and our first stop was Jamison lookout; a really nice view out to the valley and the mountains. Blue sky, mountains in the distance and trees everywhere! They had a blue haze about them...our guide Smokey said it was due to the Eucalyptus trees around the valley... hence the name I guess! :)

We walked down trails to check out the more popular views heading for Wentworth falls. It was hundreds of steps down to the bottom of the waterfall and walking along the cliff edge was pretty cool. It was a wicked sight, a high cliff with a curtain of water flowing down over it. The sun in the background was great and it made the water sparkle in the light. Best view we saw I reckon!

We climbed back to the top of the cliff which was well tiring, and made it back to the coach. We stopped off for lunch at a little picnic area and then drove to a national park to the three sisters; another popular tourist spot in the blue mountains. We walked down to the view point and saw the rock formation, it was quite cool but the story was the best. In the past Aborigional people used to make stories to teach their children life experiences...the story behind this was about three young women who wouldn't listen to their father (who happened to be a powerful witch doctor!!), they failed to stay in sight on the top of the cliff and instead ran to a nearby tribe to "fool" around with men...on the third occasion of not listening he turned them to stone! Moral of the story...do what your parents say haha!

Well after the three sisters we walked to the bottom of the park and caught the cable cart back to the top. Annoyingly the train to the top was under maintenance...gutted. Back at the top it was on the bus for the drive back to the city. Another good day on my day off !

And that's another couple of weeks worth of Sydney. I definitely still have loads to talk about...but probably going to break it up a little bit; it's my Sydney Sequels haha!

Until next time.

Nathan