First few days in Oz & beginning of OzIntro

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We have been in Australia now for 4 days. We arrived Friday night and stayed in the Sydney Mercure Airport Hotel as it was late and following a long flight.

It was a nice hotel and comfy after the journey but a bit pricey and not much around.

On Saturday 2nd Feb we got the train from the airport to Sydney Central and checked into the Wake Up hostel on Pitt Street.

We threw our bags in the room and went to the Paddys markets. Really busy and full of Chinese people.

We then went for a wlk and by some bizarre coincidence we saw a friend of ours who lives an hour and a half away in Wolongong. We had not arranged to meet him or anything!

We then crashed out back at the hostel. At night we went for drinks in Side bar (the pub/club underneath Wake Up). We then had a walk to a few bars ie Paddy Maguires, Scruffy Murpheys and the Chamberlain Hotel before heading back to Side bar for a late night boogie.

On Sunday morning we got up for a big breakfast at Wake Up and then headed towards Kings Cross on the train. I have been at night previously and it was certainley a lot quiter during the day!!! We had a walk round then stopped for a drink at Wooloomooloo before attempting to dodge the rain and catch a train back to Central station.

Once back in Sydney centre we headed towards Darling Harbour. We visited the free Maritime Museum which had some cool things in.

Following this we had a $10 steak at a resteraunt on the harbour and then walked across to the wildlife centre on Darling Harbour. We had a 25% discount that we picked up at Wake Up Hostel which was good and the wildlife centre was massive. There were alsorts of things in there including Koalas and Kangaroos which is what most people wanted to see.

We then crashed at the hostel again as the jet lag was creeping up on us. By the time we got up and headed back to Darling Harbour (the plan was for a nice meal for my birthday), the resteraunts had stopped serving. We caught the light rail back into the city and stopped off in China town for a Chinese which was ok. We both didnt really fancy more beer so headed back to the hostel for an early night.

We got up nice and early on Monday 4th to start Oz Intro - a week of activities set up by a company caled Oz Intro who also assist with bank accounts, phones etc.

We headed towards Coogee beach on the bus from Sydney and arrived at Surfside backpacker hostel right above McDonalds on Coogee Beach.

We got our rooms sorted (a dorm of 12) and headed to the Botanical Gardens for supposedly a walk and a jet boat trip around the opera house. It was lashing down however so we cut the trip short and headed for a game of ten pin bowling instead.

At night we went for a meal to a local place called five-o's (everthing $5 supposedly!!) and then onto the Coogee Beach Palace for some drinks. This place shut at 11 so we all headed to bed after that.

On Tuesday we were up bright and early for a day of learning to surf. This was a really good day where the rain kept off and everyone learned the basics of surfing. We also got lunch . We then headed back to Coogee and I am here writing this now.

Will update further as the week goes on and hopefully add some pics.

Lee & Alison

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