blue mountains etc...

Yesterday i had to get up at the crack of dawn (well, 6am) to go on the blue mountains trip with the 2 americans who are staying in my room. They are lovely girls - one is really loud and chatty, and the other is so quiet i keep thinking there is something wrong with her. They are my age which is cool, and they work in the military and are on a weeks holiday from their services in korea...you definately meet some interesting people in these hostels!!

Anyway, off we went to get our bus at that god-early time. It was worth it though..had such a good day. We started off by going to a wildlife park about an hour out of sydney. Here we could feed the kangaroos and have our pictures taken with koalas etc. Also, you get a little animal passport, and around the park there are stamps that you can put in it for a souvenir. Very cool.

After the park we went to a village called Leura at teh blue mountains, which was very quaint. It was actually build to be like an english village and a lot of the trees and plants etc were imported in from england to make it that way.

After lunch we headed to the mountains where we took lots of pictures and rode on a monorail and a train around the area. It was really beautiful - so glad i went.

After the mountains we were back on the bus and we drove for another hour anda half to a winery where we got to sample loads of ausralian wine. Obviously i didnt buy any cause i'm a poor backpacker, but it was nice to have the free drinks!!!

From there we went to the Olympic Village - nothing special, but took some pictures before we got onto the ferry to take us back to Circular Quay.

At night a couple of us went and got some thai takeaway then settled down for an early night. There are new poeple in my dorm - 2 18 year old girls from Newton Mearns! small world! anyway, joelle, i was trying to find a common person that we might no and it turns out that they know george..one of them was in her modern studies class (jennifer, i think?) anyway, thought i'd let you know.

Moving onto today - 5th Jan

Got up early and decided to sort myself out. Worled out how to work the laundry system in the hostel so did some washing, and spent some time trying to find a hostel in Surfers Paradise to stay at.

Got a bus into the city and have been wandering out the shops and Darling Harbour and am in Chinatown at the moment. I leave sydney tomorro night for Byron Bay so the next time i update this i'll be out of the city.

Keep the messages and e-mails coming
Missing you all

xxx