Sydney

So after waving goodbye to Alex at the airport (she was waiting for the arrival of a friend) Nisha and I started our Sydney adventure! We were greeted by a thunderstorm - and it wasn't particularly warm - totally not the image of Australia we were expecting!! We were at a massive hostel - which pleasingly(!) was full of school children! Loads of them! After the initial shock we realised it wasn't all that bad... although suddenly the little pool and sauna were not so appealing while surrounded by 15 year olds!

While in the city we took in all the sights, and had a day trip to Manly, across the water - which is a beautiful serene beach area from which people commute to the busy city by a half hour ferry! When you see an area like this you can really understand why people want to live in Sydney - it's stunning!

We did a coach tour up to the Blue Mountains which was really good fun. It's quite a long way away so it worked out quite well to go on a bus trip and see the sights! On the way we stopped off at a wildlife park - it was good to see all the australian animals but there were way too many people there and the koalas just didn't look happy at being patted over and over again, and the kangaroos didn't want to be fed anymore - so it wasn't the best experience. However - the rest of the day was pretty good - made all the more hilarious by a couple of random french blokes who took a shine to us...

At this point we had a change of scenery and moved to the Bondi Beach YHA - and it was quite an experience! This is definitely a surfer dudes hostel - really not the plain jane usual YHA type! The place was not that clean - the kitchen was tiny and noone washed up at all! However, this was balanced by the fact that all the guys (surf dudes i should say) would be stood in the kitchen cooking topless! So random!

We headed off to Hunter Valley to do a wine tour on Saturday as a birthday treat for me (we did it the day before thinking we might go out on saturday night..) We got up really early to meet our bus & it was hilarious! We were stood with this group of young girls in the city waiting for the bus - but then they all turned out to be on a different tour! We appeared to have opted for the oldies tour which was quite funny - as obviously we had no intention of buying any - we were in it for the samples only! The tour was great fun - it was possibly the hottest day I've ever experienced, but we learnt loads and got to try lots of different wines at different places in a really beautiful setting!

For birthdays it was all beach beach beach. Another beautiful day so we decided to do the walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee beach which had been recommended to us - and it was lovely. Added to that a pizza dinner and a glass of wine - perfect day!

Our final day in Sydney was surprisingly not hot at all! Our attempt at the beach was short lived due to the attack of sand blowing at us! (i'm still finding it in my hair now!) But never mind - we were off to get the overnight bus in the evening to Melbourne anyway!

xxx