My first stop ... Sydney !

So day 4 , woke to the most beautiful weather . We all rocked down to our hostels cafe and had a gorgeous breakfast in the sun . This was the first time I met Scott , who Daisy had been speaking to the night before . Scott was 27 and we all got on like a house on fire . Extremely funny guy , who had taken a liking to me and Daisy who were incredibly dipsy together at times . Most the morning already was spent in hysterics .

Today we decided to take a trip down to Manly Beach and catch the Ferry from circular quays . Joe later joined us , we waited for him as he bought his ticket , then realised he had booked a separate service so wasn't even on our Ferry .Joe such a sweet lad and very endearing at times . Didn't want to leave him but he said he would catch up with us at Manly Beach , his Ferry was due to leave after ours .

Ferry ride was great , got some fantastic pictures of the opera house and Harbour bridge ( in the sun this time! ) , this was a great way of seeing some views of the City . Arrived at Manly beach harbour .

' Wow is this it!? '
Tiny bit of sand on each side of the harbour . 'No ria this is the dock !' Lol

2 minute walk and we were there . Stunning , although busy , stunning . Waves were crashing in , and there many people in the sea swimming and surfing . Announcement was later made for all people in the sea to return to shore as the waves were too big and the life guards were having to rescue the weak swimmers . Several announcements were made until everyone was finally out of the sea, think it was when we were told the beach would be closed lol .

Laying in the sun with three funny people made my day . Daisy asked why the tide came in at times . And questioned whether it was because a shark was near by and breathing ... Hhhmmmm .. Really ?, Really ?? REALLY ?? Daisy lol !

Had a nice lunch at a Grill on the beach front . Wow do the waitresses in OZ want to get a tip or are slightly manic . They were literally pulling our drinks and plates away from us even as we were eating . Think they asked if we needed anything or were finshed every 2 minutes ! Not even exaggerating there !, Was pretty funny .

I caught a great tan at Manly , so did Daisy . Joe and Scott just burnt ha ! : ) . We all were pretty exhausted from night before so decided to have a chilled one at the hostel that night .

Day 5 , I had the Blue mountains tour . Had to get up at 6 am to be picked up at 7 am . Our tour guide was a very small but FIESTY, slightly eccentric Australian woman . My god was she scary at times or shall I say crazy . She drove like a maniac trying to miss every red light, and if someone tried to cross the road when they shouldn't have she was speeding up the coach to try and hit them ( and yes she really was doing this ! ) . I had been seated at the front of the coach with her . I don't know whether this was a good thing or extremely unfortunate for me .. : /

First stop on this tour was Featherdale wildlife park . Absolutely brilliant! . Kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, Snakes , Crocodiles you name it ... And all for us to to meet and touch . Took some great pictures . So cute seeing all the baby kangoroos lined up just staring at the glass container that stocked all the ice cream cones that we could feed to them . Somebody opened the door to get one out . They couldn't be bothered with that and two were straight in there helping themselves so funny I started crying !

On this trip so far I had met a young couple name Caroline and Tom, and a french girl named Melissa who had been living in Melbourne for 3 years . Spent about 45 minutes at Featherdale because this woman was adamant we stuck to the schedule and she did not want to be late to anything .

The tour guide made a point at the start of the journey that if we were late back to bus , she would quite happily wait maybe 2 minutes , 4 would be pushing it and if we were any later than that she would leave us and we would have to make our own way back , ha ! Brilliant .

After Featherdale we were taken to a spot where there were several viewing platforms to see the Blue Mountains . Let's get this straight the mountains are NOT blue , but the trees are what they call ecoloptus trees of which release a chemical . This mixed amongst the dust in the atmosphere creates a Blue haze and that's what you can see surrounding the mountains . Its very beautiful . Told that the best viewing platform was down several steps . Was great walking down, and I believed there would only be a few , oh my were there alot! , but I was half way there now so was not going to stop . Yes in the back of mind I was thinking of the climb back up .. Bearing in mind our crazy tour guide may just leave us/me there : /

Scenery was amazing , saw the waterfall and in the distance a huge rock called the three sisters . The walk back up as I expected was a killer especially in the heat , and each step was huge !! Well for me anyway : ) .

We were then all taken to lunch at a golf course . Food was buffet and nice , until I bit into something I thought was chicken , oh no it wasn't chicken it was SQUID!! Those of you who know me , can imagine how horrified and upset I was. Felt like crying but kept my cool : ) .

We were then driven to Leura, a very small Australian town near the Blue mountains . Loved it there so peaceful , some gorgeous shops and a lovely little community . First time I got to see a bit of real Australia.

Our tour guide informed us that we must visit the Candy store at Leura . They sold every flavour of lolly you could think of . The candy shop was full of many temptations. They had every type of chocolate you could think of , well that I could think of anyway and classic 'candy' (sweets) . I bought a 3 way kit kat , willy wonka chew toffee apple chew bar and a Reeses chocolate bar. Yummy : )

After Leura we were taken to Scenic world . This was amazing . A few of us got the Sky Way across the Mountains , of course I stood on the glass platform that you could see through , the height of which we were at was unbelievable. Once transferred over I got the railway down the mountains , steepest train ride in the world ! And yes it was nearly vertical and nothing to hold you in , I loved that : ). Then we took the Cable Way back up the mountains , this was fantastic and caught some of the best views . Scenic world was great.

All aboard the coach , and oh wait .. Caroline and Tom were missing . Tour guide did not appear happy , 4 minutes were up so she decided to call the young lads number ... No answer , I swear I could see steam coming out of her nose and mouth . 10 minutes later they appeared just as she was ranting she was about to leave them . Her so called 4 minute deadline was clearly a fibb . When she caught sight of them she started hitting the horn and as they tried to climb on board she reversed the coach . I didn't know whether to laugh or cry ! Lol . Crazy .

Didn't help that this couple were laughing , her face literally was red with fury . We were all then taken to a Harbour near by and caught a Ferry to Darling harbour . Once we had arrived I sat and had a bite to eat with the young couple that nearly got left at the Blue mountains and we reflected on the day .

That evening most of us gathered onto level 1 the communal area of the hostel and played drinking games until most people went out . Daisy and I decided to stay in long day for me and her.

Last day in Sydney was overcast, hot but no sun out . I chose this as a day to do a bit of window shopping/shopping in Sydney . Daisy took me to a shop that had a clearance on , I wanted a few more vest tops and this shop had just that ! Bought about 8 for 25 Dollars not bad : ) . Joe turned up and we had a drink in the shopping mall . I needed a new camera charger as mine had suddenly stopped working and I couldn't go without a camera ,that's a huge no no . We all caught the free 555 bus to Circular quay and I bought my charger . Think we sat about an hour for the free bus , without any of us realising it had stopped running at 15 30 . Silly really when we knew it ran every 10 minutes , think we were all busy talking to even notice . Joe said we could catch the train back to central station . This is when I saw the Double decker trains ! One word Amazing . Well I thought they were anyway , I'd never seen one before , and my Dad being a train driver and all I thought this was pretty cool . Had to take a few pictures : )

Scott was cooking dinner for us tonight at the hostel , we were having another quiet one as I had to be up at 6 am to catch a 12 hour coach journey to Byron Bay . Daisy had to get up at 5 am to catch a 10 hour coach journey to Spot X , she would then join me at Byron a day later . Dinner was surprisingly nice, and free : ) lol . Over all my few days in Sydney had been great , didn't plan on staying long in Sydney as I'd be back in 8 weeks to live and work for 6 months . Now I was ready to see more of Australia ! : )

So I arrived in Sydney at around 22 40 on the 1st February 2012. Flight went relatively well . I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to get drunk on my first flight to Dubai . Drinking Vodka and Baileys first thing in the morning when you have a 23 hour journey is never a wise thing : ) .

When I landed in Dubai I felt incredibly dizzy, exhausted , drunk and had the most horrific head ache . Can only blame myself really . I walked around Dubai airport for a while before I found a chair to relax on , fancied a Mcds, walked in the wrong direction of this pretty simple terminal 3 , only to find that the food court was closed so ended up eating a rather disgusting sandwich . Decided to then walk towards my gate only to find that Mcds was in the opposite direction and was right next to my gate ..yeah not impressed!

Next flight was due to leave at 01.40 am Dubai time. At this point I already had decided I was not to drink any more alcohol , so was not a good idea on that morning flight . I had this great idea that I would watch as many movies as possible as so this flight would pass by . Managed to watch The Help which was a good movie . That was about all I eventually watched , and literally could not keep my eyes open for more than a few seconds , missing food trolleys and drinks as they passed me by ..hhhmm . Sad thing was I still did not sleep on this flight.

So I arrived in Sydney , picked up my back pack . Then put it back down , wow it did not feel this heavy when I left my house ! Spotted a trolley and put it on there as I walked out the airport . I know I know not exactly back packer style . Defeats the object of a back pack huh ! : ) . Jumped in a taxi and was charged 35 dollars to be taken to my hotel in central Sydney ! I don't know whether that was a good price or not , but I really didn't care . The apprehension was intense at this point and I felt slightly disorientated . Taxi driver was very pleasant, said he had visited Horsham in victoria . Helped me unload my bag (backpack) and gave me his number in case I needed anything/info . Can't figure out if this was being friendly or damn right creepy .

Hotel was lovely , bed felt amazing when I threw myself on it . Had a shower and attempted to sleep . Unfortunately think I managed a few hours if that . Woke relatively early to find the heat in the room was extreme , excitedly peeked out the window to find it was cloudy and raining.!.. Hhhmm again not impressed. However today was a day I needed to get my registration sorted by presenting myself with ID and also collecting my debit card from the Bank . I ended up walking the city streets in the most unsuitable footwear for about 4 hours capturing all the sights and taking everything in, and oh did I pay the price the next day My feet and legs were in agony ! Ha ! : ) . I'd noticed that day they have a Burger King ( Hungry Jack's as the Australians call it ???? ) On every block , they must love their burgers out here !!. Also the roads are so wide you have to literally run across the them at the crossings ! , that man doesn't stay green for long and they (well some) drive insanley out here . If you cross the road when your not mean to , the cars bloody speed up as if they are trying to knock you down and teach you a lesson ! Crazy !?

So day 1 I pretty much sorted everything I needed to and got back to the Hotel to crash from about 18 00! JET LAG had hit me and I felt extremelly light headed . Next day I checked out the hotel to walk 2 minutes up to the Wake up hostel . Checked in , wi fi cost 20 dollars hhhhmmm .. Not happy lol . Straight away met a lovely girl named Daisy, 18 year old from Bristol who was also traveling alone in Australia , and had travel plans for the next 6 months . Wake up hostel were starting a city tour at 11 am and we decided to tag along . Yes it was hot in Sydney today BUT raining . Walked around the city and was shown all the main hot spots . We got to see the Opera house, Darling harbour , potts point and the botanical gardens . Then there were the bats ! Imagine seeing dozens of little furry vampires hanging from the tree tops , omg they started to move and I swear they were staring at me . Well not just me the whole tour group . No spiders but bats !!

Got back to the hostel and decided to have some lunch . Met my room mates who were all lovely girls . Three Swedish , one Brazilian and one girl named Sady 20 year old police officer from Manchester) . This first night at the hostel we all decided to chill and hang out in the tv room watching friends with benefits . Crashed out early but had little sleep , in preparation for day 3 !

Day 3 was a lot better , we decided to rock down to Bondi beach after we heard the forecast in the morning . I was introduced to Daisy's mate Joe , who had been in Sydney for 2 months so far working. Bus trip to Bondi must have been the most hilarious bus journey I've ever . Some of the quotes of the day
Joe ' I can see the sea' ,
Daisy ' where where!?!? , that's not the sea that's the sky you twat !'
Bearing in mind we were driving down hill so the sea went out of sight ! : )
Then with Daisy's excitement ' this is so great it feel like another country ! ..
Joe and I' That's because it Is daisy!' Lol
Most the bus were laughing at/with us the entire time there .

First sight of Bondi- beautiful ! Excitement about going to Bondi must have taken over , because we had all forgotten the bare essentials of going to the beach . I had no bikini bottoms or towel , Daisy had nothing other than a bikini top and Joe also .. Nothing lol . I decided to buy a Bondi beach babe towel ; ) , Daisy bought sun lotion , bikini bottoms and a towel , and Joe bought shorts . For daisy this mounted up to around 60 dollars !! Shocking , and annoying when we had all these essentials back at the hostel ! Lol .

Day at beach was brilliant , good company, weather , food and lots of laughter . Tan was coming along nicely now in preparation for our first night out . Now this is when I discovered the price of alcohol , I was gobsmacked !! They don't sale alcohol in supermarkets or shops over here . They have what they call bottle shops and they don't have many of them even for the city ! The nearest one to our hostel was a few blocks away . Together we bought a bottle of to my later discovery of rather disgusting wine ,which cost us 14 dollars !! Ridiculous. We spent the evening in Side bar which is the nightclub under our hostel . This is when I really discovered the price of alcohol here ... 10 dollars for a shot ... A shot ! ... A SHOT! Lol . So yeah that evening I spent or shall I say we spent drinking pints of local beer beer . Yuck, and oh my did I pay for it the next day ! Really messed me up , then again when do I ever drink pints and pints of beer , Never ! So can only blame myself really : )

All in all was a fantastic first night out in Sydney . I was really feeling settled in now at this point and enjoying every moment of this trip : ) . Its really hard to mention everything as there is so much to tell , so I'm summing most things up ! Will update you all soon on my next few days . Off for food now : )