G'day from Sydney,
Had a bit of spare time so thought I would let you all know how I'm getting on.

So when I last left you I was in Melbourne having a chilled Sunday. After that on the July 10th and my last day in Melbourne I went into the city and had a wander round the botanical gardens and the war rememberance which was impressive, however I left me camera at the hostel so couldn't get any pics!! Had some more Dim Sum and headed back to St.Kilda walking this time just so I could see more of the city and stopped off at a few places for a drink. When I got back to the hostel I just chilled out and packed ready for my Oz experience the next day.

So I started my Oz Experience on July 11th which was a 2 night 3 day tour all the way to Sydney. Now looking at my itinerary and what we actually did were not the same!! I am assuming that the tour is open to changes!! But got on the bus and we all did our introductions, there were 12 of us in total. I never caught the name of the 2 Japanese people on the tour and they were just refered to as Team Japan!! There was also a lady from Malaysia who's name also escaped me and don't recall actually hearing speak except when she did her intro. We had a father and daughter combo from Holland, I didn't realise they were related till later on and again never caught their names either!! We had Charlotte from Belgium, I do remember her name!! Then Kenny from Sydney who was an interesting character. We had the twins Amy and Ellie. Then last but not least Danny and Aimee from Scotland. Oh and our tour guide Trakker.

The first day we travelled to the Southern most tip of Australia, but couldn't actually see anything because the weather was that bad!! We then stopped off at Richmond for some Koala spotting. We got on probably the most unimpressive ferry I have ever seen, I could have jumped across the water!! But we managed to spot 14 Koala's which is a record for our guide. We took the w*** ferry back across and jumped on the bus again and headed to our spot for the night, I forget the name of the place!! We stopped at the bottle shop and stocked up on beer and then sat in the common room of our hostel listening to some tunes on the guitar and having a bit of a laugh.

It was another early start the next day as we headed to Jindabyne to actually go up a mountain and hit the slopes!! I honestly didn't think I'd be seeing snow whilst I was in Oz and this was a bit of a pleasant surprise. We had lunch and got kitted out in all our warm gear and hired some sledges and made our way up to the mountain for some fun in the snow. We got a pretty good hill and threw ourselves down it with wild abandonment. Kenny was not quite so keen to have a go though and stayed at the bottom of the slope. Eventually Danny convinced him to come to the top of the hill and hang out with us. In the end I managed to convince him he'd enjoy it and it was perfectly safe, so he took my sledge and went down the hill and the whole slope heard him as he was screaming the entire way down!! Then at the bottom he gave the sledge back to Danny who broughtit back up to me, but whilst I was waiting Kenny managed to get wiped out in the most spectacular fashion I have ever seen my some little kid coming down the hill, I mean he went up in the air wiped out!! I know you shouldn't but I have not laughed that hard for a while. So poor Kenny hobbled back to the bus to wait for us.

After we all got tired out on the slope we headed to our hotel were we were spending the night. It was full of snowboarders and had a bar attached to it. So we hit the bar that night and got pretty drunk. I recall there was some dancing and Amy giving her bra to Danny for a competition he had entered!! Due to various key issues we had had that night I was sent out into the cold in just my boxers to see if Ellie was coming in whilst she was 'talking' to a gentleman she had met that night, must have looked an impressive sight me coming out in me boxers drunk!!

We had a bit of a lay in that morning, we could stay in bed till 8am!! We had breakfast and then headed to Canberra the capital city of Australia. People do say it is a boring city and I can see why, didn't feel like a capital city. It was designed by an architect who won a competition in the 30's to design the city and 90% of the population work for the goverment. It comes under federal law though that says a person can posses marijuana and until the invention of the internet was the only place you could buy xxx porn and last but not least is the only place that you can buy fireworks. Oh and I also learned that the reason they have the kangaroo and Emu on the national flag is because they are the only native animals that can't go backwards, hence the saying 'Australia, always moving forward'. There you go don't say you never learn anything from these blogs!! We visited the parliament house and did the tour, all that s***!!

We then powered on into Sydney and got here about 6pm. I am staying in a great location at the Wake Up hostel by Central Station and is on George St, which is the main street in Sydney pretty much. The plan was to have a reunion in the bar attached to the hostel, but only myself, Danny, Amy and Ellie turned up. Turns out Danny's is the party room and Amy and Ellie's room is the chav minging room!! So we had a few drinks in the bar and then headed out into the night and stopped at an Irish bar were I was ID'd which i was not expecting and had to use my fake student ID card!! Had a few snakebites in there and then headed to a bar called Pub, had a couple of beers in there when the girls started some random rude chat!!! Got back and I crashed out in my very quiet room were there is only one person staying!! I missed the fun and games of Amy and Ellie staying in Dan's dorm room and Dan turning into the bed police tellling everyone were to sleep because he was desperate for some shut eye!!

Then next day we did the free walking tour from the Hostel. I say walking tour but it was more like power walking, the guy never gave you a second to take a picture or anything and would just carry on walking, we well lost loads of people along the way!! The weather was a bit rubbish, but we saw Darling Harbour, circular quay, the Opera House, the botanical gardens, Hyde Park and wandered back to the hostel for our free drink!!

After the free drink and with it been Dan's only night in Sydney before heading off on his tour I went back to the Sydeny Harbour bridge with him in the pissing rain and walked across the bridge. I have to admit at this point I s*** it slightly and did not enjoy the experience!! The walkway on the bridge bounces with all the traffic and trains going across it and creates a strange feeling. But am glad we did it, it is a wicked view and we got to have a walk round one of my favourite area's in Sydney the Rocks.

On our way back in the pissing, soaked through rain we picked up a box of the infamous Goon, which is basically the cheapest nastiest box of wine you can find and you drink it before going out to get you a bit wasted!! There was a party in Dan's room so the 4 of us got stuck into the Goon before heading out. We were all most definitely wasted when we left to go to Home Bar in Darling Harbour, which, when I was last here was the place to go, now it's a bit s*** to be honest!! But we had a pretty good laugh and was pretty wrecked. I remember leaving the bar but have no recollection of getting home.

Got up yesterday and felt fine, bit of a headache. Dan had to be on his tour at 6:30am and got a text off him earlier informing me that he threw up on the bus and they had to stop and clean the bus!! Poor fella, but a good story.

The bridge climb here is a bit to expensive so I decided to do the skywalk around the Sydney tower which was actually really good, watch out for the pics of that. I had planned on seeing Harry Potter last night at the Imax, but disappointingly it was sold out. So we decided to go to the Ice Bar last night which we had all said we wanted to do. So we got changed and headed down there, but couldn't find it, only to be told that it had bloody well shut down!! Totally gutted, I didn't go to the one in Melbourne now. So we wandered over to th Rocks and went to the rooftop terrace bar whcih overlooks the opera house and the harbour bridge, lovely view.

Hopefully the weather will hold up today, off to Bondi Beach for a bit of a wander.

Hope you enjoy this latest offering and I'll see you all soon,
Mup