It's been 5 days and I'm already having the time of my life. I'm getting so used to this lifestyle, it's just fantastic!! Everyone's so relaxed and chilled out, its great stuff! I haven't sat down and watched TV once since I've been here, and I really like that! I've been finding myself just looking out from the balcony, or just staring up from the ground thinking to myself that I'm just really happy out here. It's a great feeling.
The second day brought about all the essential stuff, we were walking round Sydney sorting out bank accounts and healthcare cards, which took quite a while, but afterwards we headed off to the Sydney aquarium for about an hour and a half. Some of the stuff they have in there is amazing, we saw sharks and manta rays and loggerhead turtles, it was great. The other group went for a learn to surf day, and we switched round for Wednesday and went surfing as well. On Tuesday night, we went to this place called The Gaff, which turned out to be a VERY interesting night, with a male stripper for the girls and a wet T-shirt competition for the boys, with some of the girls in the group taking part! I've got quite a few stories about that night, not quite appropriate for here, but I'll be sure to tell you when i get back! The drink is really expensive, Sydney is hugely expensive as a whole, and it is extortionate in some places!
So Wednesday was the surfing day, and we were taken to a secluded beach called Boat Harbour beach and got the sea completely to ourselves. Only problem was, the surf was tiny. I was quite disappointed really, the waves were only about 1-1.5 feet tall. But we made the most of it and tried our best, with quite successful results surprisingly. I got up a good few times, so I was pretty pleased. A few people in my room went for a meal that night, and we've sort of turned into a sub-group within the group since then. Everyone's kind of separated a bit into friendship groups, mainly groups of 3, but we're all still good friends with each other too.
Thursday started with a work and travel talk from the Ozintro group, and it really helped everyone start to make proper plans in their head, cos I know I didn't have any plans at all! Afterwards was a trip to Bondi Beach, the most famous in Sydney, and for those of you who are sad enough to watch it, we DID see the ACTUAL lifeguards from Bondi Rescue! We did a bit of sunbathing and swimming there, and then walked along the cliffs to another beach where we had a BBQ and played some volleyball, with plenty of Top Gun high fives being put in for decent points :D It was a long old walk back, the bus left at a certain time and most of us just walked back later, but it was a lot longer than we expected, with a large number of steps that didn't exactly help. The plan for Thursday night was to go back to the Gaff, and we were standing waiting for a particular bus that was supposed to take us there, but it never showed up. We started getting into taxis, but half the group just thought, "nah, its not worth the hassle" and walked off into another bar just down the road. It was actually a really good night, and I think I had a better night there than I would have done in the Gaff. We headed back around 11.30, but the Gaff group didnt reappear til 2am, and considering we had to get up for 7.15am the next day, it wasn't the best of ideas. There's a group of people that have been going out every night and getting drunk on goon (cheap wine in a bag in a box), but I really think thats a waste of money that could be used for travelling.
Friday was our trip to the Blue Mountains, and it was a very early start, although we'd been getting up reasonably early anyway, so it wasn't too bad. There was a bucket load of traffic on the way though, and we were getting really hot on the bus, but we had this fantastic tourguide, he was just so funny, so it didn't really matter. He would go on and on and on, just like he was talking to himself, and he just made some great jokes. Once we got out the the mountains, he was still just as funny, and he knew so much about everything, so it really made it interesting, despite the heat. The views were incredible, it is just such dramatic landscape, and we were taking all sorts of trails and steps down into the rainforest and having a look around, coming back up on the worlds steepest funicular train. Unfortunately, I sunburnt my head cos the gel in my hair had exposed my scalp, so I was feeling a bit rough that evening, just feeling really ill. But it cleared up a lot from just lying down for a while, so I joined the others going out that night. We started by just sitting under a kind of beach hut shelter, drinking our goon and just chatting away, but whilst a few of us had gone to buy some more, the police moved everyone on, so we had to find somewhere else to go. We ended up going to a bar just up the road from the hostel, and Helen (one of the girls in my room) and I were just sitting chatting to a couple of Canadians in our group, and they are so funny! They're a little bit mental, but we're really getting on with these guys, they really are brilliant!! Before we knew it, it was 3.30am, so we headed back to the hostel. We sat on the step outside whilst Helen had a cigarette, and whilst we were there we saw this guy getting arrested by the police and pinned down just down the road! It was quite funny, cos his friends were shouting at the police to let him go, but they were never going to, so the attempts were just futile. It was about 4am when we eventually went to bed, and everyone apart from Helen and I was asleep, so we were desperately trying to be quiet getting into bed. 4 hours later, we were both up again, getting ready for Saturday!
So now, we're waiting to have a chat with our Ozintro leader, but the general plan is, that I'm going to find a flat with Shaun, Trevor, Natalie, Helen and Laura (all people from our room) in Sydney and work for a couple of months before going travelling. That's the plan at least, but it will more than likely change a bit along the way. Mum, you would love Trevor. He's 27 and originally from Paisley, but now lives in Edinburgh, and he is just so funny. We've been cracking each other up all week, mostly at Shaun's expense (that's my group of 3 I was talking about earlier) and I think you'd get on with him like a house on fire. Helen's Scottish too, from Dumfries, so we've got a little Scottish contingent going out here! :)
Anyway, it's about time for our little chat with Bec, and I think the outcome will be job- and flat-hunting either today or tomorrow, which is really weird. I still can't get over the fact that my first flat is going to be out here in Australia, how crazy!! Everything is moving a lot faster than I'd imagined, but it's all good. We're off for a themed pub crawl tonight, which is bound to be MESSY, so I'm going to need to go and prepare. Bye everyone, missing you all!!
Lots of love xxxxxxxx
