Sydney

The start of our stay in Sydney was quite eventful. We arrived at the airport and were lucky enough to grab a free bus to Central station as the trains weren't running. However, our luck changed when we arrived at the hostel in Glebe... out room was dirty, unsafe and the staff weren't around. We immediately knew that we'd made a bad choice by booking to stay there and asked for our money back. Seeing as we'd arrived so late, we plucked up the courage to stay the night, booked the 'Bounce' hostel located by Central station and left immediately in the morning. Bounce was great! Clean, safe, staff were friendly and although a little expensive, we were more than relieved to be staying there in a female dorm. I highly recommend it!

We made out way to Darling Harbour and grabbed some breakfast, sorted out our Sydney budget and made our way to Paddy's Market, full of stalls selling everything you'd ever need as well as food stalls selling fruit and veg. We picked up food for the next few days and headed to the supermarket near our hostel. We passed by a bookshop selling everything for half price and bought a lonely planet guide to New Zealand. Jenny and I can't stop reading it, we're really excited to travel there!

We headed to Bondi Beach by late afternoon. The beach was so clean and there were loads of people surfing. The sun goes down at about 5pm here, so after that we had a coffee looking out over the beach and headed back to the hostel to cook kangaroo burger. We kept saying how we needed to try it before we left Australia. I'd say it tastes better than beef!

Today we got on the Sydney Explorer Bus, which is a hop on hop off bus taking you all over the city for $35 (student price) which was great because of the running commentary. We hopped off at the Sydney Opera House. We were surprised by the amount of runners out on a Monday lunchtime, there were so many! After a picnic in the Botanic Gardens we walked along the Circular Quay and saw a few street performers, one juggling a chainsaw! We walked up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I'm still in awe of it, it just looks amazing from the harbour!

Back on the bus and down to Darling Harbour for some free wifi. Think we'll be reading more of the New Zealand guide tonight!