Blogs from Oceania - page 6502

Arrived in Sydney, not really sure what I was going to do here! First thing to-do was to find a hostel, I plumped for a hostel in Kings Cross called Eva's Backpackers, I found it to be exactly as it said I would in the Lonely Planet "Friendly"! Paid a visit to the kitchen, (the kitchen / dining room (I found along my travel's) is where you get to talk to most people!) There is usually some frenetic action going off in the kitchen, most dishes comprised of Pasta (of differing kinds')with a tin of tomatoes or a meal of meat and 2 veg. Our South East Asian friends' would be cooking rice with strips of beef in a sauce made with a tin of tomatoes. But whichever hostel I visited in whatever country, the scene ... read more

First of all apologies to Coonabarabran for saying nothing happens there - apparently the day before we arrived, a gunman took over a house in the street next to the hotel, the police were called and the seige didn't end until Saturday afternoon, by which time we were ensconced in the hotel. From Coonabarabran we headed South west towards Dubbo. We were now on the fringes of the great plains to the west of the Great Dividing Range and everywhere you looked the land cried out for water, mile after mile of parched grassland and drooping gum trees. Many of the eucalyptus (gum) trees have a strange way of dealing with drought they loose their bark rather than their leaves and if it gets rally bad they drop branches before eventually succumbing to the drought. The ... read more

Hi! So, I'm here- sound as a pound. Its day two and I'm already in this awesome house with a few other people...but let me take you back to the beginning.... So- on Saturday Jan 20th- I got on a place to San Fransisco. It wasn't a bad flight, although the movie "The Guardian" featuring Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner was a bit of a let down. I transferred planes in San Fran which was totally an ordeal- I had to take a fancy train from one terminal to another. It all worked out, even though I was a bit frustrated having to go through the security check again (they make me take of my shoes which isn't nice for ANYONE) So, I got on this huge 747 jet to Sydney and was in a middle ... read more

Greetings again from the great down under. The last week and a bit has been interesting. Getting jobs has been our main focus. After turning down that soliciting job, we were all back at the beginning. We were spending a lot of time and money at the internet cafe down the road so we decided to get our own internet (thanks to neils dad for the laptop). Getting the internet set up was a little expensive, but we crunched the numbers and figured out that if we were to stay with the cafe, altogether we would have been spending 200 a month there, which is more than having internet at our place. I came across a recruitment company named Hays. I met with one of the Hays representatives (he actually came over) he was a really ... read more

Bonjour and eyup from Brisbane. First thing I hear when I check into the hostel is Fake Tales of San Francisco by the Arctic Monkeys. All the way here and I hear 4 lads from down the road. Wonders never cease eh! We've had to bypass the Gold Coast as everywhere is booked up cos of the big day out concert. Heard it's a good night out so I'll definitely have to call by before I leave Oz. Anyway, here's what I've been upto the past few weeks. From Sydney we headed up the coast to a place called Port Stephens and settled into backpacking hut in the woods. It's supposed to be Koala territory although they proved elusive whilst I was there. We did have a few possums knocking around though, especially when I was ... read more