The Original Backpackers Hostel Sydney

Arriving has been painfull... this has been mainly Heathrows fault. My connecting flight from Manchester to Heathrow went without any problems and was almost enjoyable, the e-checkin system worked a treat. However, arriving in Terminal 5 late as the plane was delayed in the air, and then the steps took 20mins to arrive didnt fill me with confidence. After leaving the plane, I changed to Terminal 4 which was a nightmare. First I was told that i coulnt use go through the building and had to use...

It's the end of day three. I tried to add an entry right after I arrived at the hostel, but for some reason it wouldn't save. Let's see, where to begin... I think I'll do this in a couple of parts. I have really enjoyed NOT sitting in front of a computer, which is why it's taken me so long for the first real entry. I'll try to get photos up tomorrow night or Friday. Sydney is 7 hours behind Chicago time, but the next day. So, as I write this, it's 10:15pm Wednesday night here, but it's 5:15am...

DAY 1 After getting situated, I wanted to walk around and see some stuff and wear myself out so that I'd be able to sleep well. I headed for the City Center, Hyde Park, and then the Opera House. I come to really love walking places, because you can see so much that way. I decided if I saw something that interested me, even if it was off the route a little, I'd check it out. I made my way down to Hyde Park which is this wonderful green space near the down town or city center. As I walked, I ke...

And so I'm 21 now which probably means when I return to Edinburgh I willl be told countless times I'm old so to confirm YES I'M OLD (but your time will come....).

So that's that.

Anyway, yesterday was a very relaxing day interspersed again with periods of incessant walking. I took the train from Katoomba and arrived in a very sunny Sydney two hours later. After checking into my hostel again and moving money around I ventured back to Circular Quay to explore the harbour area on...

Leaving for this trip, I feel like I left a lot behind. A friend had asked me if I was running away and I honestly didn't know how to answer. After coming to terms with a tumultuous past year, New Years only opened a whole new Pandora's Box: losing a friend and it's implications, the seemingly impossible balance needed for an important friendship, the frustrating feeling of betrayal by those I had let in, the endless quest for acceptance and validation from those who only reciprocated with di...

Nachdem esvon Steffi Abschiednehmen hiess, was uns beiden nicht leicht gefallen ist, begann fuer mich ein neuer Abschnitt der Reise. Australien, mit seiner Hauptstadt stand vor der Tuer. Urspruenglich hatte ich geplant nicht so lange zu bleiben, da ich am Ende meiner Reise nochmals vorbei kommen werde, da aberein grosser Feiertag anstand, verlaengerte ich doch und so blieb ich von 21.04 - 26.04 in Sydney und erkundete Stadt, Nachtleben, Straende und Natur. Eine schoene Stadt, und ich freue mi...

Just a brief and short update. Have now arrived in Sydney and Australia after a slightly (5 hours) delayed flight, although flying on the awesome Airbus A380 which was incredible and is probably the most advanced plane ever we did get stopped from getting into Sydney by the might of the FOG! So we had to fly to Melbourne first and stay on their runway for 3 hours without getting to leave the plane due to Quarantine reasons, fun, nevermind made it here in the end! Have to say I am very happy t...

Left Airlie Beach on the 8:30am bus on Saturday the 2nd of June and was heading to a town called Bowen. I decided to do some from fruit picking to see what it was like and also so I could pass a comment on it, because I had heard different story's from different people. Anyway we had another crazy bus driver on the OZ experience bus. He name was Tricky. Bowen is only 40 minutes from Airlie beach with a population of 13,000. On the way in to the town there is a statue of a big Mango. All long ...

Monday the 4th of June I was up at 5:50am for my first fruit picking day. We drove there in a bus provided by the hostel. Most of the road was a dirt road, with just sand on it. We picked pumpkins all day. Basically there were 5 people cutting the pumpkins from there stalks and the rest followed a machine and picked up the pumpkins and placed them on a conveyor belt. It was my turn to cut the pumpkins in the afternoon, which is allot harder than picking then, because you are bent down all the...

We had a heart stopping couple of hours in Santiago as we checked in. My electronic visa for Australia didn't seem to have been registered, which meant that the airline would have to reapply with immigration in Australia on my behalf. Apart from this taking a fair bit of time the major problem was that the Australian immigration system wouldn't accept my passport details when the airline made the application for me and they didn't know why. A supervisor came along and called Sydney directly t...