Saturday 7 May 2016

Sydney

My next adventure has already begun! While I was working in France my Facebook newsfeed flooded with pictures of my friends travelling (and very occasionally studying) Down Under and it's fair to say I got a little jealous. So, with my placement over and a bit of time and money on my hands I went ahead and booked myself flights to Australia! Big shoutout to my buddy Charlie from Peterpans for organising my trip for me. First stop: Sydney.


2 planes, 7 movies and 20 hours of travelling later, I arrived at Wake Up Hostel on Tuesday night where I was greeted by very friendly staff and was upgraded to a 6-bed girls dorm. Somehow I miraculously managed to beat the jet-lag, probably by refusing to let myself sleep during the flight from Hong Kong to Sydney and going straight to bed after a chat with the lovely girls I was sharing my dorm  with.

Wake Up was a fantastic place to stay - great facilities (they even provided hairdryers), amazing location (across the road from Central Station), and organised activities both during the day and in the evening. The following morning I headed on the coastal walk tour from Coogee to Bondi Beach after a quick trip to the market in Chinatown to pick up some exotic Australian fruit. The walk was beautiful, taking you all along Sydney's stunning beaches and finishing with a lie on the sand at Bondi. Later I caught up with my uni friend Katie J for a long catch up over a glass of wine (or three).


Thursday was my tour to the Blue Mountains organised by Barefoot Downunder. Our tour guide Ben (basically a Chris Hemsworth lookalike) picked the group up bright and early and drove us to the incredible Blue Mountains National Park, stopping off to see a couple of kangaroos on the way! We went for a hike to Wentworth Falls, scrambling down ladders into the depths of the valley before realising we had to climb all the way back up. Afterwards we took a trip to some of the best view points in the area - Elysian Rock, Echo Park and the Three Sisters. In the evening I headed off to Sydney Harbour with a couple of girls from the hostel to see the Opera House by night.


On Friday we headed along to brunch at Haven, an incredibly hipster café as featured on Buzzfeed Australia, followed by the hostel-run city tour, which took us around Hyde Park, The Royal Botanical Gardens and Sydney Opera House. A few of us then took the ferry across to Manly - $15 return with an Opal card - for froyo on the beach before taking the ferry back at around 16:45 which coincided with the most amazing sunset.


Following drinks that evening and dinner at the Chinatown night market, the hostel bar was looking a little dead so our room ended up having an early night. Unfortunately, however, we were up again at 2:45 thanks to a very kind person deciding to set off the fire alarm and causing all seven floors to congregate on the street outside in their pjs for an hour. At least we got free coffee in the morning to make up for it.


For my last day in Sydney, Jen came up from Wollogong for the day and we went for lunch down by the harbour then crossed the bridge over to the Luna Park. A long walk around the city - around 35,000 steps according to my iPhone - and we finished off with dinner at Darling Harbour before she headed back to get the train home. I had time to return to the harbour for the Saturday night 20:30 fireworks display which were actually quite impressive.


Just boarded my Greyhound bus now ready for the 12 hour journey to Byron Bay.

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