Week 1 - Sydney

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After a long 24 hour flight and having completed lost a day, I finally touched down in Sydney at 6.30am on Saturday 27th February. As we were coming into land into Sydney airport, the sun was rising and the sky was a beautiful colour of red/orange. The pilot advised that the outside temperature was already a toasty 20 degrees - all in all, a great start to a great adventure!

The taxi journey to the hostel in central Sydney was an experience to say the least with the driver being a particularly wrinkly 75 year old man (obviously a keen sun worshipper) with the temper of your average boozed up reveller looking for a fight on a Saturday night! Several blasts of the horn and swear words later (his not mine!) I finally arrived at my new home for the next 10 days - Sydney YHA Central. Its a huge building located in the centre of Chinatown which is a bustling area always with plenty of goings on of one sort or another.

Since the sun was shining i decided the best plan of action was to dump my bags and take the 45 minute walk down to the Harbour to catch a glimpse of the bridge and opera house. As you can imagine, both are very impressive and of course much bigger than you would believe! The heat was immense, reaching 32 degrees by midday and sending me running for shade at every opportunity. Little did i know that this was the last i would be seeing of the sun for a few days so i really should have been making the most of it!

As i opened the curtains on Sunday morning, the dark clouds that filled the sky looked ominous. Not being put off by the intense humidity, I joined the joggers and took an early morning stroll over the bridge and spent some time on the opposite side of the harbour with the fishermen to take in the pretty views. With the promise of lunch with Stewart and Nick, i headed back to the hostel for a quick freshen up. As we headed over to Darling Harbour which is only 20 minutes walk from the hostel, my earlier suspicions were confirmed and the heavens opened...it rained, and rained, and rained. Having said that, it was warm rain so i cant really complain.

After lunch, and the privilege of meeting Nick, I got the guided tour of Stewart's pad which is just beside the Kings Cross area. Up on the roof terrace, we took in the stunning panoramic views of the harbour, bridge and opera house before it was time for me to head back for some shut eye in the short lived luxury of my private room.

9 a.m Monday morning saw a group of 20 eager hostel dwellers (including me) gather for the Initiation meeting at the Work and Travel Company who, along with supplying us with our aussie mobile sim cards, lots of information of things to do and see around Oz, how to get jobs etc (yeah right, Im on holiday!), introduced us to the other newbies. After being bombarded with information for 3 hours, i had worked up a serious appetite so along with Sinate (the Norweigen girl i had met at the meeting), we met up again with Stewart and returned to Darling Harbour for lunch and to shelter from the rain. Its so good having Stewart here because he was able to show us round and keep us orientated more importantly. We took in several shopping centres and bought sunglasses (although brollies were a more appropriate purchase) and suntan lotion. As we arrived back at the hostel, the tanoy announcements made up our minds what were were having for tea that night...Kangaroo! The barbie was set up on the roof terrace by the indoor pool and in the pouring rain, we tucked in. A cross between pork and steak I think is the best way to describe the taste of Kangaroo - very tasty anyway and at only $5 for some grub and a drink, who can complain. In an attempt to remain awake and try to combat the ensuing jet lag, we headed for the in-hostel free cinema to watch a film - all in all, another very busy but good day.

Today is Tuesday and without the luxury of a private room, Im now staying in a four bed dorm which is fine. Our (as in me and my new friend Sinate) first task was to head to the Oz Experience office to book the bus for next Tuesday to take us to the first stop which is Spot X which is where we have a one night stop over and in the morning get a 3 hour surf lesson before heading onto Byron bay - how exciting!

I think that rounds up nearly everything that I have got up to so far. Hopefully the sun will be back again soon...fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading
Ang x

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