It was heartbreaking to leave South East Asia after six months of adventures but we where also extremely excited about Australia. We had a seven hour flight to Sydney. At the airport we where greeted by friendly Ozzie accents…good day mate!

Back to Western society and back to realizing the value of money. It was a bit of a shock to the budget paying 30 pounds a night for a bed in a hostel sharing with eight other travelers compared to four pounds for a bungalow in Asia!! We stayed in a great hostel in the center of Sydney. At least they had clean beds and sheets and a free breakfast with tea and coffee…what a winner! Ross got eaten alive by bed bugs on the last night and we where not impressed. In Sydney we went to all the sites; The Sydney Opera House, The Botanical Gardens, Circular Quay, Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. We walked in the quant streets of The Rocks and we where amazed by the stunning much loved Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ross took about 100 shots of the bridge because it is a true icon and an amazing structure. Sydney screams coolness! The following morning Ross did the once-in-a-lifetime Bridge Climb tour. It took 4 hours to climb to the top of the bridge and back, he loved it!

The next few days we explored Greater Sydney. We bought a day tripper travel card which gave us access to all the ferry’s. We went to Sydney’s favorite seaside resort called Manly. We walked up to Shelly Beach lookout and enjoyed beautiful views. A seaside town comes with seafood delicacies so fish and chips it was and reading the daily Mail lying on the beach. We ferried to Darling Harbour where all the posh people live…oh sweetie darling!! Rather than going to Bondi Beach as most backpackers do we chose Coogee – a golden sand beach with green blue water and surfer’s favorite. We stayed in a dorm room with ten smelly boys; we had a really good time in the end. We did the coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi and loved the ocean views of Waverly Cemetery, Clovelly, Bronte Bay and Gordons Bay. Coogee is a party town and we went to a club called The Palace with everyone from the hostel and got horribly drunk on free snakebites that Ross won in a basket ball shooting game.

The following morning we went to the beautiful Blue Mountains. We stopped at a national park and saw our first bunch of kangaroos. They where very tame and a couple of the mum’s had Joey’s in their pouches – so cute!! We went to the Three Sisters rock formations that have spiritual meaning to the Aboriginal people. We enjoyed a free wine tasting and went on a scenic bush walk to the waterfalls and had glimpses of the majesty of the area. On the way back to the top of the mountains we rode on a train that goes at a 45 degree angle to the top…it was pretty amazing and a bit scary. We saw all kinds of colorful parrots at the top, there are amazing birds in OZ.