DAY ONE...PART TWO Friday 06/05/2011

Getting off the plane and making sure everything was in order was an exhausting process but it didn't mean we weren't both extremely excited and welcoming every moment that drew us nearer to this eye-opening experience. We jumped onto the travelator with joy smiling and joking, only to realise that we had very little energy left. This didn't help that we were about to face the dreaded... customs line.

Whilst Sam skipped over to the US Citizens line I looked ahead and sighed to myself as I saw that there were maybe 8 people on our flight who weren't citizens. I didn't mind the wait too much, I was nervous about reaching the front and somehow getting myself denied entry. But as we inched closer all I wanted to do is get out of there. An Australian couple stood behind me, not failing to complain EVERY single time ONE person went through in the line next to them. I never quite realised just how much Australian people whinge and how racist they really can be. Big life lesson right there and I hadn't even entered another country...officially.

So I got through, was fingerprinted and interrogated by the customs guys who really confused me. I was polite, slightly jokey too when the opportunity arose and though he joked back to me and talked about how amazing my journey was about to become his tone was so straightforward and boring. Like, everything he was saying were just a part of the questioning process. And now that I think back to it he must encounter people like me too often for him to ACTUALLY be interested in my particular story. Well... whatever then 'Alex'. That's right... I remembered his name. How?

Sami was waiting for me on the other side, we took a $20 airport shuttle bus to our Downtown Hostel and was told by the guy behind the counter that they began check in at 2pm. We were there at 11:30am... Bummer.

We chucked and locked away our huge bags into the locker rooms, which I promise Mum and Dad, WERE secure...sort of, then we headed to 'wander around'.

Excited took over at first and fuelled our extremely jet lagged brains and we found that the street on our Hostel just happened to have a whole bunch of small fine art galleries. After looking at the works of Toulouse La-trec we moved on, deciding that we needed some substance in our stomachs.

We moved forward walking past Victorias Secret, Macy's, Barneys...etc. There was a cute square which just so happened to be exhibiting an artists show with all the artist there for questions. It was like a nice little welcome from San Francisco.

Somehow, we found Starbucks and we settled there, grabbing ourselves some frappuccinos and falling into the couches there. We sat there, making good use of the free wi-fi, trying to get The Office to load... but it didn't. We did get onto Facebook and let everyone know we were alive.

A few hours passed and we decided to walk home. I wanted and received a true American hot dog on one of the corners, Sam got herself a pretzel... it looked good.

Walking through a different part of town and taking a route to the hostel that we weren't 100% familiar with I encountered my first crazy woman yelling at me... It sucked. I was trying to enjoy my first American hot dog and she made me spill all my 'Special red Onion' sauce all over me... It was the first day and already I had laundry to do.

We got back, I was in a pretty bad mood and we finally got to check in. Room 418 which held two bunk beds. There were two other girls staying there, 19 year old Germans who were quiet but extremely nice when they actually spoke. Alex and... Fie, I think.

We settled, they left and we decided that we both needed naps. I wrote... quite angrily and tiredly in my travel diary and fell asleep, no sorry, passed out. What was only a two hour nap felt like we'd woken up the net day at 5pm. We were refreshed and completely different people.

Actually smiling again we both had showers and left to keep exploring and get dinner. Chinatown was really pretty. There were red lanterns everywhere and the street was full of Chinese restaurants and discount or souvenir stores. We found a place, bought two entrees, a HUGE main and two rices for $25. Not even close to a chinese meal in Sydney. We walked home satisfied and happy. We slept very well that night... After I watched four episodes of 30 Rock.