First week of Australia - Sydney Mon 14th Jan - Sun 20th Jan

Mon- arrived in Sydney happy that I had finally arrived in Australia, it felt like a dream that I was finally here after years of dreaming! Our travel group BUNAC (about 20) of us all needed a much needed nap at the central YHA where we were staying. The YHA was huge (about 10 floors, complete with its own sun roof, cinema and massive kitchen) we all stayed in rooms with our fellow travellers which was more comfortable than being in a room with complete strangers!

After we had recharged we headed down to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Some of us (including me) took the opportunity to have a ice cold alcoholic beverage over looking both if the sights (when else would I get the opportunity!) at this point is still hadn't hit me that I was in Sydney. We then all headed back to the YHA where the hostel cooked kangaroo burgers and a beer for $5, the kangaroo tasted like a chewy steak and was surprisingly tasty!
After our meal we went next door to the YHA bar/club Scubar, where they were hosting crab racing! It was certainly an experience. The crabs were all under a bowl numbered from 1-20 and you paid for a crab to get to the edge of the board, I paid for one however my crab decided not to move and had a sleep!

Tues- went to the work and holiday centre who help you find work and set up a Australian bank account so you can get your wages into it. Also at the talk a surfer dude from surf camp spoke about the offers available to go surfing for a week. As it sounded amazing we all booked surf camp for a week starting the following Monday. The rest of the day involved walking around Sydney looking at all of the shops.

Wed - this was the day I finally felt like I had arrived in Australia. We decided to visit Bondi beach which as many of you know I have been raving about for quite some time!! It was just as good as I had imagined, however I did get a little sunburnt and turned a lovely shade of red onto back. The beach was beautiful and I even saw a glimpse of the life guards who star on the hit Australian tv show - Bondi rescue :) this was defiantly one of my best days in Australia to date!!

Thurs - all of us decided to have a lazy day sunbathing on the roof of the hostel. Later on in the evening we went to another local bar round the corner which were offering free hotdogs with a drink. The club - side bar had a snooker competition on which if you won you got a unlimited bar tab for the night, unfortunately none of us won...!

Fri - was another beach day, this time at manly beach. We had to catch a ferry from the docks next to the opera house which took about 30mins with a great view of the harbour bridge and the opera house. When we arrived at the beach it was so so hot reaching a top temperature of 46 degrees!! As I was already a bit paranoid about my sunburn from the previous beach visit I tried to keep to the shade and had a swim in the sea to cool off!!

Sat - we took a trip to the blue mountains which was a 1hr train journey on a double decker train. When we arrived there it was quite cold and nothing compared to the weather the previous day. Unfortunately we didn't get to see many of the scenery as we were int he cloud layer and the mist decided to descend. We did get to ride on a cable car across a huge river gorge which would not have been fun if you were afraid of heights as the cable car floor was made out clear glass!!

Sun -involved packing all our belongings and having a chill before surf camp the next day. We also went to side bar again as they were serving Sunday roast dinners with lots of beef steak aussie style. It was really a nice home cooked type meal to remind us all about home comforts!!