Hello from Sydney!!

Been a few days since we have given you all an update and a few things have occurred. We went to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and it was nice. Now we are in Sydney

The End...

Okay, maybe we should put a few more details than that. We went to Katoomba last Wednesday, which was an interesting journey. We managed to miss the bus we wanted to get from Coogee so got a later train instead, which was most definitely a good thing. On Wednesday the freaks were out in Sydney station and they brought along many joyous times. Firstly, there was 'bin lady' she was looking through bins, then went into the coffee shop where we had all just bought a drink where she ordered three cappuccinos. Then when she emerged from the coffee shop she was only carrying one… So either she must have put them in her bag, or as Holly suggested, her pants. Scary lady. And then she was hiding round a pillar talking to herself. She was awesome.

We then meandered up to our platform preparing ourselves for a dull two hour train ride, and then commotion occurred all around us. Police officers and security guards were running towards our train. Millions of them, all pegging it to our platform. Big burly blokes pushing past us in some kind of extreme hurry. Except one rather large Asian woman. Who was running in slow motion, wobbling all over the place. We all looked at her, then at each other and cracked up laughing. She must have known we were laughing at her but oh well, it was comedy gold.

It turns out someone had collapsed on the train and they took him out on a stretcher, wish isn't so cool.But the freaks of Sydney did not stop there. Once we embarked on the train we managed to meet the biggest freak of them all. A priest approached me and Gary when we attempting to secure our luggage. He asked us if it was our first time going to Katoomba, where we were from, and all normal things. He then asked Gary "What is your mission?" to which Gary looked rather confused about and said that he did not have a mission, he just wanted to travel. He then asked "What is your passion?!" Gary replied with an uncomfortable smile and attempted to ignore this clearly mentally deranged weirdo. He then came and found us on the train and sat right next to us, claiming he was going to turn the train carriage into a chapel, and asked us if we knew what the first commandment was. A rather outspoken Australian piped up from the back of the carriage that he did not want to hear any of "that religious crap" so instead of leaving, the priest just whispered to us. He told us that Katoomba means healing, which is actually wrong. Katoomba is an adaptation of an aboriginal word meaning 'shiny flowing water' and an adaptation of the name of a tribe of aboriginals who lived in that mountainous area. He said a lot of weird stuff and then disappeared out of the carriage, thankfully.But oh no he was back. He had found a bottle of water and asked us if it was any of ours… which it clearly was not. He then attempted to make Gary swap his Mother energy drink with someone else's bottle of water, claiming that mineral water would "take away the metal" from Gary's body. He was a very odd man and we ran away as fast as our luggage would let us when we finally got to Katoomba.

Katoomba was more backwards than anywhere else we have seen in Australia so far. It had a ton of antique stores and cute boutique coffee shops, and not a lot else. We found our Guesthouse, yes that's right GUESTHOUSE not hostel, and it looked very quaint and cute. It reminded me of an old persons house, and we were 3 out of 7 people who were staying there. We thought the Cecil was great, we had a room to ourselves, there was a bathroom and just down the road was the beautiful blue mountains. We thought the Cecil was great until later that night, when it felt like we were in the middle of some haunted house horror movie. Right next to the reception was a board that had old pictures taken from Christmas' at The Cecil, really old fashioned pictures taken in the 1950's. I made the mistake of reading this board on my own, in the dark, empty, remote guesthouse… and got a bit too freaked out.

The wind became stronger against the old fashioned windows. The lights began to flicker. We were on our own in a dimly lit room next to the old fire place. Wolves were howling outside on the mountain side. There wasn't a house nearby for miles. Then, in the gloom we noticed something moving. The pool table began to shake. A large shape was coming towards us. We could hear it munching on flesh.

Then we realised it was just a big Ozzie bloke eating fried chicken.

In reality the Cecil was lovely, and the woman who worked there was really sweet. It was in a great place. The gorgeous Blue Mountains were literally just down the road. Katoomba itself was bit interesting but it was a great place to be in order to explore the awesome landscape.Katoomba was a very odd place. On our first day we walked down the main road in search for food. We found a really cute looking café called "Common Ground", when we stepped inside it was like we had walked into a pub in The Shire. We felt like hobbits. It was amazing. Inside was the most beautifully designed tangle of wood. There was a raised platform that really looked like it was naturally formed by the trees. All the people who worked there had long hair, beards and massive eyebrows, and that was just the women. The men looked like they were actually woodcutters, not waiters. They all looked related, and to be honest it seemed a little bit inbred. But hey, the nachos were awesome.

The Blue Mountains themselves were brilliant and a picture paints a thousand words, so go take a look at the pictures and you'll see what I'm taking about. We saw most of the big attractions like the three sisters. We also went to 'Scenic World' where we went on a cable car that had a glass bottom, high above the trees, it was amazing looking down being so high up. We also went on the steepest railway in the world, they say it's the steepest because it was vertical… so yeah… very very scary but a lot of fun.We also went to the Jenolan caves which was unbelievable. To be honest, the pictures don't really look like much, just a bit of rock but in reality it really was quite impressive. The guide told us about the first explorers and the crazy things they used to do in order to discover more about these beautiful caves. There was one cave that is called "The Cathedral". The acoustics were amazing in there and they actually hold concerts there, people also get married there. The lighting that they had set up was spectacular the whole way round the cave and they really had succeeded in making it look impressive. My personal favourite bit was when we were in the cathedral cave and they turned off all the lights. I don't think I have ever been in complete darkness before, at first when it went black you expect your eyes to eventually adjust, but of course they don't because there is literally no light. It was crazy. And really quite scary.

We came back to Sydney on Saturday and now we are back staying at the Wake Up. Got lots of sorting out to do about where we are going next etc. so we'll let you know what we're doing when we've done it!!

Love to you all xx