Oz Intro - Day 1

So there I was in Sydney 16 degrees at 7am feeling pretty pleased with myself for deciding to come here, got my bags and visa stamp 'no worries' and made my way through to arrivals expecting a warm welcome from the oz intro crew...what I got was a very hungover manchester fella who's hand was wet when I shook it. His opening line 'the van's this way'. That's ok mate I'll carry these bags myself you've got your coffee to look after, and if you're driving me I hope you've had a few of them! After a while he explained he had his farewell dinner with his previous group the night before and that he 'isn't much of a morning person'.

It was about 8am by the time I got to the hostel and the reception hadn't opened yet (pretty sure they were hungover too) but even when it did they said it would be 11 before I could get into the room. The lounge area looked like a frat house had exploded in it but I dug a hole and tried to catch a few hours sleep. Pretty soon the residents started to get up and come in looking for food or their underwear from the night before so I decided sleep wasn't going to happen and just started chatting with a few people who happened to be in my group. At 11ish we got our room so I met the rest of them. Of 14 people there were 3 Canadians, me, and the rest were English. The second group in the room next door was the same makeup.

After a while our guide for the week Trent came in - he seemed lovely & a bit of an Oz pretty boy, but I was just happy to meet someone Australian at last. We got in the mini bus and headed into the city. We were all so distracted by chatting and Trent's informative tour e.g "there's a park...it has grass and stuff", that when the bus stopped and I looked out the window the Opera House and Harbour Bridge were just across the water from us - I didn't get the wow factor I thought I would but it still had that 'now I know I'm in Sydney' feeling. After a walk through the Botanic gardens (kinda like Belfast's only it's bigger, sunnier and home to huge Bats!) we made our way down to the water to get our jet boat. Zipping round the harbour getting thrown about and soaked through, all with the bridge and opera house as a backdrop - I got the wow factor! amazing sights and really good fun!

We headed back to the hostel and I had a wee look round Coogee Bay, a nice little beach resort but definately a big back packer population. By 7pm I succumbed to sleep and passed out on my bunk. I slept for a good 12 hours despite a drinking session going on in our room. I woke up briefly around 3am to catch a great English chat up line "give me a kiss or get out of my bed" shockingly I don't think this worked! Turns out a few people from the room next door had fallen asleep so some our group had to double up. club 18 - 30 begins