Good days, bad days

I haven't written in this blog for a while because I just haven't had time and sometimes it's a bit difficult to get a chance to use the internet. I know I should write more often though. Loads of things have happened since I wrote last time and I'm still alive here and any spiders or snakes haven't eaten me (yet).

My life in Australia didn't begin very well because on the second day in Sydney I heard very very sad news from Finland. After that I didn't really feel like doing anything or writing in my blog but I can't really stop doing things here so I've had to move on even though I felt like I wanted to go home rather than be here. Apart from that everything has gone alright.

On Monday 14th we went for a walk tour around Sydney with a big group from the hostel and saw some popular places and sights, such as the Opera house and the harbour and some nice parks. It was a very hot day and I felt like boiling all the time. I didn't even have sun cream because I hadn't bought any, but for some reason I didn't get any sunburn this time... And after the walk tour we got a free beer or a glass of wine so it was good. Before the walk we got some information about different things what we have to do now that we're in Australia and start looking for a job soon (hopefully...). The information thing was only for those who had booked the starter package from Kilroy travels or the Wake up hostel package. We got a SIM card which is an Australian network so now I have an Australian phone number. And the best thing is that because I chose the $29 network packet I got a free Facebook in my phone, yay. And quite a lot of credit for texting and calling other Australian numbers.

I also opened a bank account so now I have an Australian bank account which is still empty though. Anyone want to sponsor me an put some money in it? I found out it costs quite much to transfer money from Finnish bank account to this Australian account so I don't know how I'm going to put some money in it... Maybe the best option would be getting a job, but I can't get a job quite yet.

On Wednesday the 16th  there was another walk tour which was a beach walk and we walked in some rock areas and saw some Sydney beaches. We had to go there by bus and then walk a very long way and there were loads of stairs and hills, so it was kind of good exercising at the same time.

I met some very nice Finnish people at the hostel and we went out on a couple of nights and spent some time in the centre and went to shops etc. What I have noticed since I first arrived in Sydney is that it's a very very expensive city, and I really mean very expensive. Even if I wanted to buy something very simple and small, like a chocolate bar or a bottle of water it cost at least twice as much as it would cost in some other city for example in Europe...

I left Wake up hostel after 4 nights and stayed in some other place for 2 nights (it was much worse than wake up -hostel but it had  free WiFi connection in rooms, which was maybe the only good thing about that hostel...) and after that Pauliina finally arrived here, 24 hours later than she was supposed to come because she had problems with her flights.

We stayed in Sydney for a few nights and one day we visited Manly, it was a nice place. Manly is a small town near Sydney (I don't know if it's a part of Sydney or something, but anyway) and you can go there by ferry from Sydney harbour. So we took a ferry to Manly and walked around that place. We found some nice forest path and then it started raining a little bit.

One day I went for a day trip to the Blue Mountains, it was a great experience! I had a voucher for that and I wanted to use it while I was in Sydney. The trip strated early in the morning and there was a small group of us that went there. Our guide was a very nice Australian man who talked a lot and explained many things to us and told us about some history and things about Australia. When we were on the bus going to the Blue Mountains he also told that some dangerous and huge spiders live there... and he showed a picture of them. Then I thought I might not want to go into those forests...
We stopped in some place and got off the bus and there was a kangaroo in the forest! It was quite funny to see a wild kangaroo and it was quite big as well.
The weather wasn't very good and it was raining a little bit so the walk in the mountains and rainforest wasn't the best possible, but it was still awesome. We walked a long way at the mountains and went through some rainforest areas and the on the mountain paths and the landscapes were amazing. The Blue mountains is a huge nature area with all the mountains and forests and if the weather is good, the landscapes are absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately the weather was rainly all day so when we climbed back up to where we started from, we couldn't see anything anymore because it was so foggy!
We missed our second walk tour to the valley because it was raining and the guide said that the stairs are dangerous when they're wet.
I still think the Blue Mountains were beautiful and it was great to see some real nature (and especially the kangaroo!) after seeing only traffic in the centre of Sydney.

We had planned to go to Melbourne with Pauliina from Sydney but we didn't have any idea what day we should go and we realised that we actually didn't want to stay in Sydney for too long, so we spent a whole day only for planning what to do next and where to go and when.

We ran from office to another asking about bus tickets and train tickets etc. but I don't think it was a very good decision to go to a travel office before we had even planned which direction we are going to go. The man in the office wanted to help us but I bet we were the most difficult customers on that day because we just said "we are planning to go somewhere maybe tomorrow" and when he asked where we want to go we said "to north or south, maybe to Melbourne or Brisbane." Then he looked at us like idiots and said: "they are in different directions!" Yes, we knew that but we just couldn't decide where to go :D so he was very frustrated because we didn't even know the amount of money we want to use to go somewhere, as he was trying to sell us some expensive packages that include some other things as well. So we left the office and decided to buy the bus tickets at the bus station instead. After many hours we finally decided to get bus tickets to Brisbane and not to go to Melbourne at all. Everyone said to us that the east coast is very nice and it's better to go to Brisbane than to south Australia. We really wanted to see Melbourne and the Great Ocean road too but it's too late now, as we already are far away from Sydney on the east coast in a place called Byron bay!