Travelling Post No. 10 - A post which has now ended up just being about the first week but started of as Australia so far.

Tomorrow it will be 3 weeks since I landed in Australia, and after a conversation with Dad, I realised I hadn't posted very much on what I had been doing here so this may be a long post, but I'll try not waffle (no promises though.)

So we arrived at the airport on the morning of Monday 6th November, after a baggage handler's strike in the morning, which meant there was a huge backlog of planes in the to off load their cargo. 45 minutes after sitting in the already landed plane we were off, a further 30minutes later we were through customs on the bus to our first hostel, Sydney Central YHA, (clean but not the best atmosphere, as all YHA's are.) Our first night in Australia started at the YHA's roof top BBQ where I tried Kangaroo, surprise surprise here, but i didn't like it. From there we moved downstairs to the YHA's very own nightclub Scubar. It was crab racing night (the crab I sponsored didn't win) and the place was packed. It had a student vibe and with $7.50 jugs it wasn't too expensive; a jug is 2 pints.

Despite a late night and a somewhat large intake of alcohol I awoke early for the IEP introduction (IEP is BUNAC's sister company in Australia) without a sore head. After the 2-3hr introduction many of my anxieties were reduced. IEP offer lots of support and help with finding accommodation, advice on where to travel, help with jobs etc. etc. and they also offer free Internet (although I'm paying for it at this very moment, free Internet is fine but when you have to pay to get the bus to just to use the Internet - it's pointless, plus it's Sunday and they aren't open.) Since I have arrived I have been in IEP for one thing or another once every two or three days. The introduction also has gotten rid, mostly, of my fears about spiders and snakes. We also got a talk on beach safety from a Surfcamp Australia rep, which wasn't as pointless as I expected, the guy also gave a pitch on the Surfcamp Australia, which I bought into and went surfing a week later.

Wednesday was job hunting day, demoralising at first, as expected, but we did view the two houses I have previously posted. We decided upon the cheaper option of $160 a week, its still only 5 minutes away from the beach though :-). All we have to do now is decide upon a housemate, we have 1 bed to fill, in this 10 bed house, and after hearing nothing for ages I have had three emails today from 2 girls and a bloke. I don't think I can make this decision on my own, picking the prettiest, single girl may not make others happy.

So anyway, that's a decision i have to make after writing this post, back to what I have been up to. On my birthday, Friday 10th (cheers for the happy birthday's for those who sent them) I paid for Surfcamp and then all 10 of us went to the Aquarium at Darling Harbour. It was a great Aquarium, you can see some of the creatures we saw below, but the damn fish wouldn't pose for pictures so it wasn't easy to take them. The Aquarium was made all the better by the fact we had free passes from IEP.






A Saltwater Croc













Jellyfish













Shark, don't know what type though










All the sharks would lie on top of the ceiling at the tunnels entrance as it was at that point where warm water was pushed into their tank. I am amazed that in this tank there were all sorts of fish and the sharks weren't eating them. Which would have been great to see.









Dory, she kept on swimming so I couldn't get a very good picture.













Some Coral







After the Aquarium we wandered to The Rocks, an area near Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House to get some fish and chips and we sat at Circular Quay Harbour with one the best views for fish and chips ever. The Fish and Chips were really nice, although they weren't greasy enough and the chips were really fries, but that is just me nit-picking. This was also, possibly, the last time all 10 of us would be together, we haven't been since and Brendan is leaving for Melbourne soon, in the house it will just be the 9 of us, and barring Christmas day can't see us doing much if anything all together. That isn't a bad thing, it is actually pretty amazing that 9 of us manage to stay together in a house and after a week all 10 of us were still doing things together.





The view from Sydney Opera House on my birthday. During the day it looks like it needs cleaning but at night it looks pretty darn spectacular.






I realise at this point I haven't mentioned the weather, which is very un-English of me. It has been pretty dismal, no real hot weather for the first week up until the first Saturday, which was when I went to Bondi Beach. It's a good beach but overrated, it is just a beach after all. Manly is much nicer which I visited a few days early when on the hunt for a house.

Sunday I didn't really do anything and that is the end of my first week. I will post on the other two weeks another day, I wanted to do them now but this has taken me too long to write.