Beach & Harbour night walks

31/3/10
Had such a brilliant day today. Although it started out quite stressfully! I went on a beach tour today organised by the hostel.. and the ONE morning I need to make sure im up early and downstairs, my body decides that it wants to sleep! So I was in a bit of a mad rush to get changed/sun creamed up and downstairs but it all worked out OK in the end :) Note to self: whoever let me under the false impression that Australia was hot all the time was lying! It was a pretty cold/wet day.. but it was still awesome as I hadn't been to any beaches yet. Our first stop off the bus was Coogee Beach.. then we walked around the coast past Gordon's Bay.. Bronte Beach where Heath Ledgers old house was (probably a little too impressed with this fact!)

and then finally Bondi Beach :) - really impressive at first sight! I started talking to a girl Rachael from Norway and she had an awesomee camera that i'v got some really nice quality photos from that put mine to shame! We stopped at Bondi for an hour and got fish & chips and I couldn't help but get myself my first deep-fried Mars bar :D ...so bad but so so good!

Classy.......

Afterwards had a little walk on the sand and headed back on the bus back to the hostel :)

After talking to Rachael, I met a girl from Scotland, Sarah who she's sharing a room with and Dani a girl from Finland (?) and we all decided to take a walk down to the harbour at night time as we were all pretty eager to see it with the lights on. It was brilliant :D and we got some really good photos. I managed to stay up later than 7pm which was an achievement for me!

Food Glorious Fooood!

31/03/10
Today I woke up super early at 6.30 and decided that I couldn’t live on Mcdonalds anymore no matter how satisfying they are! So I got myself down to Coles (Asda type equivalent supermarket) ..but the problem was, what does someone buy who has never food shopped for themselves before and only had 4 days left in the hostel? :S I was pretty clueless to be honest.. although I think I ended up with a pretty good basket full :) box of Coles own-brand of cereal/margarine/loaf of bread/ salad/milk/cheese.. so today iv had a lovely fat bowl of coco pops and cheese on toast . It was sooo good :) Think I will top myself up with another bowl later! Unfortunately though my skin is starting to peel like some reptilian creature :(... it’s definitely NOT a good look. The weather has been so miserable and rainy today that im pretty much stuck in the hostel in the snug/TV area watching crappy TV!
Observation from Australia... there are so many Chinese/Japanese people – like literally they’re everywhere! I have probably run into more Chinese people walking the streets of Sydney than Australians. Also... quite a number of homeless people which I didn’t expect and loads of smokers... and British!

tour booked :)

30/03/10

Not too much has really happened in the past two days to be honest. Yesterday went for a lovelly walk back around Darling Harbour then went for my usual naughty breakfast of Mcdonalds burger & strawberry milkshake! Then headed back to the tour agency but unfortunately the 42 day tour of the centre of Australia and the east coast doesn’t actually begin until the 23^rd April which is waaay too late.. I mean im really enjoying Sydney but not for another 3 and a bit weeks – I think it would drive me slightly insane. Plus the fact that it is just a party-party-party hostel which is cool but not the reason im here whatsoever. The long-term people who are staying here seem like slightly jaded souls whose purpose for being here is more like drinking every night as oppose to getting out and seeing the city and the rest of Australia. Anyway..in the end I have booked myself onto a 3 week tour through the centre of Australia which actually sounds completely awesome :) These are the guys I booked my tour with

I leave this Saturday which means I had to book myself another 2 nights in this hostel.

Syd--neeeeeeey

Went to the Sydney vs Saints game last night - was probably the most confusing game of any sport that i have ever witnessed! it was brilliant and good fun to go out with loads of people from my hostel but by the end of it I was equivalently as confused as when i first sat down! Unlike rugby there looks like there is absolutely zero strategy behind it. The rules are there are no rules apart from your not allowed to punch someone in the face (?!) and its a perfectly circular pitch that appeared to be split into quarters.

I was soo sleepy though I went back to the hostel and completely zonked on my bed. Woke up this morning and felt super dodgy.. then realised that I hadnt really eaten anything since i got here (3 coffees and mcdonalds pancakes in 2 days is not good for you) So I went to the hostel cafe and had a big breakfast and felt 100% better.. then nipped up the street to McDonalds where they have free Wifi and had another breakfast of burger and milkshake! Mmmmm :) Havn't really done too much today. Although I have decided that I think I will be booking myself onto a tour around Australia as oppose to travelling around myself. I went into one of the agencies today and im really looking forward to booking it. I can travel completely up the East coast and through the centre where Ayres Rock is which I was really eager to see.. only problem is it is proper expensive but I get accomodation and meals in with the price and I dont have to worry about where my next bed will be for the night or how im going to get to my nest destination - Just basically taking all of the stress out of the whole thing which I love! It sounds so good:
http://www.adventuretours.com.au/the-big-trek-days-road-trip-sydney-to-sydney-australia-2/
But we will see - Im pretty such that I wont be out here the whole 8 months. Now im here it's absolutely fabulous but just an unrealistic target that I have set myself. The tour would last 42 days then I would be making my flight over to New Zealand.
Just sitting in the library at the minute after walking from the hostel (found a much easier & quicker route!) and got completely hoodwinked by two christian aussies who I ended up having a quite in-depth half an hour conversation with about God ! It was totally bizarre.
Another early night for Liane after slathering herself in moisturising cream to stop from peeling - fabulous.

Walkies!

27/03/10

Had a nice evening last night.. had a new guy Duncan come into our room who I got chatting to and we decided to head down to the bar and get some foood which he nicely paid for (don't worry rob, you would have been more his type than me) Chatted for a bit then went to bed as still having regular waves of extreme tiredness at bizarre times of the day!Today woke up an my usual early hour of 8am and decided to head back to the Harbour for a bit more of an explore :) Plus I wanted to head to the Sydney Library as yesterday on our city tour we were told that you could get free WiFi there.
It was a really nice walk today - minus the extreme pain from flipflops! :( I ended up walking as far as I could get around the harbour then decided to go back and across the harbour bridge to the other side and see what i could find. It was pretty brilliant - really good weather again and nice to do some more walking. I ended up buying some gifts from the souvenire shop and was surprised to find taht some of the delights they were selling were: stuffed toads (?!)...toad skin purses.. kangaroo paws and the pièce de résistance - kangaroo scrotums on key chains?! I was so confused/horrified/filled with the desire to fondle them.
Anyway back to the bridge.... half way over I found a little tour/museum of the making of the bridge which i went into which was actually really interesting - got some great shots of sydney harbour as it was so high up.

Eventually got to the otehr side and discovered a random little market which I bought a few bits from and then stumbled my way back over the bridge to the Library where I am now :) Really good day but absolutely nackerd. Am going out tonight as the hostel has organised a trip to an Australian football match (a bit like rugby apparently) so going to be there from 5 - 8pm and you get drinks in with the price of it aswell. Looking forward to it actually .. but looking forward to the prospect of my bed more! Will next update the next chance I get to come to the library - it's about 30-40 minute walk.. which isn't so bad - I am in Australia after all!

city tour

26/03/10
Helloo there UK-ers :) Soo.. begin from the beginning.. pretty easy flight over to Dubai where I swapped flights and headed straight to Sydney. The flight really started to lag after the first 10 hours :| Thank god for in-flight entertainment! Disney films kept me going pretty happily for a while! It was really strange when we finally flew over the first bit of Aussie land, Perth area, and still had another 4 hours to go just to get to the other side of the country.

Had a bit of a treck at the airport when I arrived and have come to the ultimate conclusion that Australian signs are rubbish! Finally arrived last night at Wakeup Sydney hostel...
Got into my room and the guys already in there were still awake so chatted to them for a while and found out some handy info on the hostel. Thank god they’re relatively normal human beings! Jake and Liv, the couple from UK and Rachael travelling with them. Jack the Scottsman with the extreme accent! And the guy who was in the bed next to me Charles who is covered in awesome tattoos who left the hostel this morning. 
Apparently there’s two girls from Cambridge and two guys aswell who I haven’t really met yet.
Had a really unsettled weird night’s sleep last night but feeling surprisingly awake today! Had a bit of a wobbly this morning after realising that I was actually in Australia completely on my own – I blame extreme sleep deprivation and not the fact that I am indeed just a complete woos! Went to the Hostel’s cafe and drugged myself up with coffee and met a really nice couple whose names escape me now who had also pretty much only just arrived aswell.
Got myself onto the hostels City Orientation tour this afternoon and ended up walking around Sydney for 4 hours. It was pretty amazing but some idiot forgot to put on her sun lotion and now resembles a ripe tomato :( Boo. The tour was well worth doing and walked via China Town - Darling Harbour – Sydney Harbour – Botanical Gardens – Hyde Park.

Seeing the Harbour Bridge and Opera House was brilliant :) unfortunately was only a brief look but will be going back there within the week to possibly do the bridge walk. Sydney Harbour & Botanical Gardens were pretty awesome. In the gardens there was a really high pitched screaming sound which turned out to be trees and tress of thousands of bats in the middle of the day in bright sunlight – it was so bizarre.

Think am going to have a little mid-day snooze now as am seriously lagging! Then me and some of the guys in my room are going to have a little drink and maybe venture into the hostel bar this evening if im still in the world of the living tonight.

numero uno

24/03/10
So here goes.. my first blog entry on my quest for greatness and divine and exciting adventures to lands afar! Am currently sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow and waiting for my flight to open at 12.30pm. Was pretty calm all this morning and the whole thing only really hit me when I said goodbye to Mum Carly and Rob and turned the corner and in that second the realisation hit me that I was actually completely and utterly alone. The realisation that months of stress and organising had finally all come to a head and I was actually putting my plans into action and actively doing it has come as a bit of a shock!! Im OK now.. I think.

 Its currently 12.00 and my gate opens in half an hour. Im pretty eager to just get on the plane and then have my emotional breakdown! Typical though I got beeped at the metal detectors and body searched (how incriminating do I look?!)

The departure lounge is packed (loadsss of Chinese people for some reason)

Had a bit of a stress last night as I decided to leave it until the last minute to jam everything into my backpack and suddenly realised that my mantra of “travelling light” was not looking very promising. But we got there in the end. For one reason or another, my internet isn’t finding a connection here so I’m writing this on Word then will upload when am next on the net.