1st week and a bit

---

After saying all my goodbye's with a few of the lads down the pub the night before, I had to get up pretty early the next day (around 4.30 am) for my flight. We left with loads of time to spare which was quite fortunate in the end as there was an accident on the motorway about 20 mins after I got to the airport!!!


The flight went pretty well, I just tried to drink and sleep my way through it. I got to Sydney at around 9 pm, it was surreal to come out of the airport and for it still to be around 25 degrees. It has been scorching hot whilst I have been here, its been 35 degrees most days but has got up to 47 degrees in Sydney and Melbourne the other day!!! I have heard that it England has had some pretty serous snow!! I also heard that everyone had Monday off because of it. Anyway, when i got to the hostel, I was staying in an 8 bed mixed dorm, upon entering the room there were around 20 people sitting round playing drinking games; in Oz most backpackers drink something called goon which is a big box of cheap wine, it tastes terrible but its redemption is that its filthy cheap and get you drunk v.quickly! I bought my box of goon and played some of the drinking games before heading out into Sydney central, it was a good first night of drunken banter and i met a girl called Rose whom I spent most of my time in Sydney with. I spent 5 nights in Sydney, I saw all the beaches and the Sydney opera house in the day and went out every night. I met some quality people but after about 5 days Sydney was starting to hammer my bank account quite badly so I booked my greyhound bus ticket and headed up to Newcastle.


When i got to Newcastle I hadn't booked any accommodation but after about an hour of looking i found the only hostel which was next to the beach. There isn't much i can really say about Newcastle, its a small student town that is fairly quiet. I spent my days on the beach and went out for a few beers at night but I left after a day and a half to head up to Byron Bay. It took 12 hours on the bus to get to Byron and I was shitting myself a little bit as I hadn't booked a hostel and all the places I had phoned were fully booked; there was a good chance I would be sleeping on the beach that night. However, when I got there after asking around for a bit I found a hostel that had a spare bed and it only cost $30, I felt like I had completely fallen on my feet, the only sour note was that I had to room share with this guy called Eddy , he was a white guy with long dreads and he had the worst BO I have ever come across, it was literally overwhelming!!! The next day I moved to a much nicer hostel (where I am still at), it has a swimming pool, loads of hammocks, volley ball court and is literally on the beach. I am room sharing with 9 lads atm. The night life in Byrob is AMAZING, the first night I went out with 2 lads from Bristol, to show how small a world it is I bumped into a girl from my senior school (it was frank Bruno)!!!!


Last night i went out with 3 lads from london, we hit the town, watched the Arsenal game and then went to a party on the beach after. These last few days have been quite crazy, a lot of it has been a bit of a drunken blur, there have been some times when it has definitely been hard travelling by yourself but overall i am having a great time. It would be nice to know how everyone at home is getting on, how the lads in Essex are doing? How is every from uni? the guys at IPD and IPD FC? Also how did Carter get on? Anyway I will hopefully speak to you soon, take care.............Glen.

PS I will get some photos on here soon!

---