Bye Sydney. Hello Melbourne!

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I think the fact this is my first blog entry since I arrived in Australia shows just how busy I've been. Finding the time to stop and write has been difficult, but I wanted to now to record my experiences of the last few weeks before I forget it all. The most logical place to start this blog is directly following the last one - my time in Sydney. I had 9 days in Sydney in total and I made sure I saw all the best bits. The weather was glorious and the G&Ts flowing.

I was sharing a room in a hostel with 3 other girls that journeyed over as part of the Working Holiday group I was in. The hostel was pretty good, had a big kitchen, cinema, TV lounge, decent bathrooms and a rooftop terrace (where we spent a few evenings drinking wine as the sun went down, with great views of the city skyline). The group all got to know each other pretty well, and everyone is just so nice, which really helped me ease into life thousands of miles from home.

After dreaming of travelling around Australia for so long it felt just amazing to finally be here. But it only really hit me when we, on day 3, walked down to Sydney Harbour. As the Harbour Bridge and Opera House came into view on the horizon I felt my heart begin to race with excitement. I practically skipped right into the harbour and stared up at these famous sights completely in awe.

Other Sydney highlights include a trip to Bondi Beach (where I well and truly learned my lesson about the need for regular suncream application), the Royal Botanical Gardens, Manly and it's beautiful beach and the Blue Mountains. However, I'm not sure I can really say I've seen the Blue Mountains. Following a week of 40+ degrees all week, temperatures dropped to around 10 degrees, which felt insanely cold. Especially when I was dressed for boiling weather. The Blue Mountains were cold, wet, miserable and covered in mist, and a few of the major attractions closed. Couldn't see anything for the mist. Big disappointment! It was somewhere I was desperate to visit and the guidebook and others we'd spoken to highly recommended it. But the reality was that I dragged a group of 10 people onto a train for 2 hours there, 2 hours back, to spend a miserable day in the cold not seeing much and walking up ridiculously steep hills. Add a helping of guilt to the disappointment!

Blue Mountains aside, Sydney was fun. Had our fair share of nights out, cultural activities and shopping (window shopping in my case - Sydney is ridiculously expensive1). We even managed to find a bar that served an English Sunday roast dinner; something many of us were craving. A great start to the Aussie adventure, but to be honest I got quite bored of Sydney. And it's high prices. I was ready to leave when I did. I jumped on a domestic flight and 1.5hours later I touched down in Melbourne. I have a friend who lives in Melbs and she was awesome enough to pick me up from the airport, and put me up for a couple of weeks.

Melbourne is the most amazing city! It's a lot more cosmopolitan than Sydney and there seems to be a lot more going on. I've had some amazing times in Melbourne and the state of Victoria so far, with many more to come. There's also been several lows. But all of this I'll put into the next blog to save this one going on forever and ever. Tune in next time for tales of a trip to "The Dong", Australia Day, my developing blueberry muffin addiction, wildlife spotting, a tedious job hunt and more dumplings than you know what to do with :-)

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