Further South to Sydney!

---

Hello there from a cool, yet sunny, and rainy, but cloudy, Sydney! Yes - you have guessed it- I have absolutley no idea what to wear :)

When we left you last we were in Brisbane which is definately one of my most favourite Australian cities so far. Let's see if Francis agrees...in a recent poll of [2] backpackers, 100% agree that Brisbane was pretty cool! It was a great city to stroll around and take in the fab views and do a bit of shopping. While here we also got to meet up with Helen for a catch up and a few pots which was a great treat :)

From Brisbane it was a quick jaunt in the bus to the seaside town of Byron Bay for 3 nights. The weather wasn't really on our side here but we got to walk to Australia's most easterly point for sunset, and finished second in the hostel table quiz. Quite the feat I hear you say, but when I explain that most of the hostel weren't alive to know the answers to the questions you'll understand better how we finished second. My skill of recognising a raisin @ extreme close up also helped in the score tally. They say you learn a lot about yourself while travelling and a talent for reconising dried fruit from a zoomed in photo, was something I did not know about myself until now.

From Byron Bay we took an overnight bus to Sydney. Whoever said that 'travel is part of the journey' has never been on an overnight bus with a drunk, dwarf aboriginal woman who had just been released from prision, and was sure that the whole bus wanted to hear her stories from the 'inside' and her ABBA Gold CD into the night. True story.

Sydney was, well it's MASSIVE! We spent our first day strolling about the Botanic Gardens, Opera house and Circular Quay in glorious sunshine. The Monday we went around the Kings Cross area and met up with Michelle and Richie for a few glasses of wine, and on the Tuesday we walked from Coogee to Bondi Beach and hung out around the beach and Bondi Junction for the afternoon. That evening then we met up with Francis' cousin and his girlfriend and went for an absolutely amazing meal around Darling Harbour.

Today, we took the train 2 hours north to see the Blue Mountains. The driver called the stop and we started packing up to get off the train...as we did it seemed we drove into a cloud. A rain cloud. It was so heavy we couldn't see the station never mind the mountains!! Blue mountains?! More like grey mountains! We couldn't see a thing!! We ended up getting off the train, getting a coffee (and lashed on in the process) and then sitting on the train for 2 hours back to the Sydney! 5 hour round-trip for a coffee!!!! Now, it was a good coffee but in fairness.....

So, next stop on the travels is Melbourne which is going to get it's own blog entry as we know it's going to be just AMAZING!!!!!!!

---