OzIntro week

So I’ve been in Sydney for almost 2 weeks now and I’ve been ridiculously busy! So expect this to be a long blog and Im sorry if its boring!

Just so you’ve got a general idea of who I’m talking about in my blog, my OzIntro group included: Rachel, Helen, Kate, Shweta, Lauren, Lynn, Mitika, Will, Tom, Jack, Aaron, Martin, and Nicola (our group leader).

Jo and Leanne are two girls who were in Base hostel, Jo was on my plane and Leanne was in the bunk-bed next to me.

The best way for me to do this is to do a quick diary style thing:

Saturday 30^th April - Lauren (OzIntro girl), Leanne (Hostel buddy) and I went wondering around the city today, looking around some of the shops, generally just exploring our surroundings. In the evening, Lauren and I met up with all the other OzIntro girls for dinner at a pub/bar called Scruffy Murpheys. It was pretty cheap for food, and we all got to know each other a bit. It was a really good night, everyone was really nice! Afterwards, Lauren, Leanne and I had a girly night in my hostel’s living room watching a film, eating popcorn and painting our nails. All very exciting!

Sunday 1^st May - Lauren, Leanne and I got up bright and early to go and visit Manly beach. We got a free shuttle bus to the harbour, where we saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. It was amazing! It actually felt like I was in Australia, it was so weird seeing the Opera House in real life!

Anyway, we got a ferry from the harbour to Manly beach. It was so nice there, the sun was shining, the beach was full of surfers, it was exactly how I imagined an Aussie beach to look. We spent the day sunbathing on the beach and then got an ice lolly for the ferry home J

We met up with Jo (the girl from my plane) and cooked pasta at Lauren’s hostel ‘Wake Up!’ and watched a film in her common room. Today was a really good day!

Monday 2^nd May – Today I had to check-out of Base Hostel at 10am and meet Lauren at her hostel. I felt like a right nob walking through the city centre with my backpack on lol. The cutest little Aussie man (I think he had special needs) asked if I needed help with my bag (he was small enough to fit inside my backpack!) He was fascinated by my accent too, cute little old man!

Eventually I got to Lauren’s hostel, had some brekkie and we waited for the OzIntro bus to come and pick us up. Mitika and Lynn (two other girls from our group) waited with us. Then the bus took us on a mini tour around the city and stopped off at the botanical gardens. We saw flying foxes, parrots and a huntsman spider! The spider was HUGE!!!!! It was literally hanging off a tree, so I’ve learnt to look where I’m going now! 

After that, we went down to Sydney Harbour and went jet boating. This was ridiculously fun! We got absolutely soaked from doing 360-degree turns and driving into the waves, all to the sound of dubstep songs. I really want to do this again!

We got the bus to Coogee (where we were going to be staying for the week), had dinner at a pub/bar called Five O’s. Everyone had a few drinks here and then moved onto a bar called The Palace. After The Palace, a few people in our group went off to buy some ‘goon’ (basically cheap wine in a box) and carried on drinking in one of the bedrooms at the hostel. I tried some of this ‘goon’, it was disgusting. Apparently its all the crap bits of wine that is good enough for the nice bottles, and is rumoured to have traces of fish eggs and bones. Nice. Its fair to say that the majority of our group got pretty drunk!

Tuesday 3^rd May - Fortunately today was quite a chilled day after a late night last night. We just sorted out our Australian bank accounts, medicards and general stuff like that. We went to Sydney Aquarium in the afternoon, which was pretty amazing. I went around the aquarium with my friend Mitika, because to begin with, we were both quite bored but the further you go around the aquarium, the better it gets. We saw all sorts of amazing sea creatures; we were able to touch a shark egg, watch the mantarays and stuff being fed. It was really good.

In the evening we went out to a place called The Gaff for Nicola’s birthday. Nicola was our OzIntro group leader, she was so much fun (and from Essex too!) so we had a lot in common! The Gaff was like a bar I’d never seen before, they had things like wet t-shirt competitions to win money or travel prizes. Just so you all know, I didn’t take part!

I felt a bit sad all day today, really missed my friends and family, but Jo came and met us at the Gaff and cheered me up!

Wednesday 4^th May – Ok, today was without a doubt the best day. Surf lessons!!!

Our group got taken to Cronulla beach, the only private beach in Australia for our surf lessons. The surf instructors were called Rohan and Owen, so as you can imagine, I kept getting really confused when Owen would say ‘Rohan’s going to get you all a wetsuit’. Surfing was sooooo much fun, but really hard work! I kind of crashed into a few people, Helen now has a HUGE bruise on her arm thanks to me! (Sorry Helen!)

But when I eventually got the hang of standing up on a surf board, it was the best feeling in the world! I cant wait to go surfing again!!

After an exhausting day, we all went to the Coogee Beach Hotel for a few drinks and a game of pool. My friend Jo came and met us, and the new quy Aaron (he only arrived today) managed to persuade me, Jo and Rachel to head into the city centre to explore the clubs. We only went to Scruffy Murphey’s, but it was such a fun night. We didn’t end up leaving til about 5am, went to Maccy D’s  - which had just started their breakfast menu lol, and then headed back to Coogee to get some sleep!

Thursday 5^th May – We all had to meet at 9.30 this morning, which was a killer after only having about 4 hours sleep! We had a travel talk before getting the bus to Bondi beach. The beach was lovely but it was really windy, so we couldn’t go in the sea or really enjoy the beach. Sand kept going in our faces and whipping our legs. Not great fun! But we did the Bondi to Clovelly coastal walk, which was really good. When we got to Clovelly beach, we had a BBQ and played vollyball. We were supposed to go snorkelling but it was too cold and the sea was too rough L

Friday 6^th May – Today was a really good day. We had to get an OzExperience bus at 6.30am for our trip to the Blue Mountains. Our bus driver was called Smokey and he was an absolute legend. He told some really interesting stories about the Aboriginals, and told us all about the history of Australia. At our first stop at the Blue Mountains, he pulled over so we could see some wild kangaroos. It was so cute, we saw a little kangeroo family, a mum and dad and a baby kangeroo! They were a lot bigger than I imagined. Smokey also showed us a huntsman spider, which was scary because it kept jumping off the piece of bark that Smokey was holding!

After this we arrived at the mountains and it was an incredible view. We walked down the mountains, seeing how the Aboriginals lived, seeing all the waterfalls, and different plants. Smokey showed us what bushtucker was, showed us what a eucalyptus tree looks like, showed us where tea tree came from and which plants to avoid! We had to be really careful about where we walked so that we didn’t come across any deadly snakes or spiders. Pretty scary! We saw the 3 sisters, which is a weird rock formation, it was really cool. We climbed over 1400 steps on this walk, but had to get the worlds steepest train back up the mountain. You have to pretty much lie down inside the carriage so that you don’t fall out, and it travelled for 80 metres up a 52 degree slope!  

Saturday 7^th May – We had a day off today, so Mitika and I got the bus to Bondi junction to have a look around. We found this amazing pet shop that had puppies and kittens in, so we went in and played with the puppies lol. They had baby pugs and baby beagles, they were so cute!!!!! I didn’t want to leave!

In the evening we all had to get ready for our pub crawl on the party bus. We all dressed up in a rave/neon theme. It was so much fun! The party bus bans you from sitting down, it was like a mini club with the disco lights, loud music and amazing atmosphere. We started off at a bar along Darling Harbour, where there were fireworks, then went to Scary Canary, Side Bar and then ending up at The Gaff, where we stayed til about 5am. Best night out ever!!!

Sunday 8^th May – I got up surprisingly early today.., so I just lazed around on the computer til everyone else was up. Mitika, Kate, Lauren, Rachel and I all went down to Coogee beach because it was a really hot day. Didn’t really get much of a tan though! In the afternoon, I went with Helen to drop some things off at her friends house, then we all got ready in the evening for a meal at the Sydney Tower. We ate in a revolving restaurant at the top of the tower, overlooking the city. I tried kangeroo, which was like a tough, rank tasting piece of steak, but I wasn’t brave enough to try crocodile or emu. It was a really nice farewell dinner J

Monday 9^th May – Today we all packed up and left our hostel in Coogee. Helen, Kate, Rachel, Shweta and I booked in to stay at Base hostel for the rest of the week, so its nice that we’re all together. I booked the next part of my trip for after Adelaide, and I cant wait!!! Im not going to tell you what it is yet though!

Today was a fairly dull day, just a lot of organisation.

Tuesday 10^th May – Today Helen, Rachel, Jack, Will, Tom and I did our RSA course. This means that we’re able to work in bars while we’re here. The course is a piece of piss. The teacher basically tells you what pages all the answers are on, gives you a briefing in the laws on alcohol and then gives you a test and a textbook. The whole day took about 6 hours but the teacher was so chilled and laid back that the time flew by. In the evening, Kate, Helen, Rachel, Mitika and I went to Scary Canary for dinner. We got a huge portion of pasta each when we bought a drink. Pretty good deal! We also joined in the pub quiz, our team won a round (with a tiny bit of cheating) so we each got a bucket of drink! We came 2^nd in the quiz, so we did pretty well!

Wednesday 11^th May – Today Helen, Kate, Rachel, Mitika and I went to the Randwick Royal Races, just outside of the city. I put on a few bets and lost! Most of my horses came 2^{nd or 3rd}, one was extremely close but in the end Kate’s horse won it by the tip of its nose! It was nice to do something I wouldn’t normally do.

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So far my trip is going well, I haven’t suffered from jet lag at all since being in Australia, which is lucky! Probably because I slept a lot on the plane! I can’t wait to leave Sydney and get exploring!

P.S. Sorry for the long blog and all the spelling mistakes, internet costs me a fortune so I don't have time to proof read!!!