4 days later...

Helloooo

We've been in Sydney for 4 days now. Haven't seen that much of the city yet, but what we did see was really worth it. We're in our second hostell for the moment. It's located in Kings Cross, THE backpacker centre in Sydney. Tomorrow we'll be moving again. This time to a hostell in Bondi, famous for it's beaches and surferlifestyle. It's a bit out of the centre of Sydney, so hopefully life will be a little cheaper there 'cause living doesn't come cheap downtown Sydney. The last days have been stressfull. Paperwork, administrative stuff and looking for accomodation that suits everyone's needs have been keeping us from really exploring the city. What we have seen of Sydney was great. The harbour bridge and the opera are impressive. There's these strange birds here with a long strawlooking thing for it's beek that walks around like it owns the place. Huge bats (at least double the average one in Belgium) hang from trees in the Royal Bottanic Garden by day, and fly around the harbour bridge by night. We saw our first possum the first night we were here (hey i know, doesn't sound exciting but it was the very first thing we saw when we stepped out of the bus that took us from the airport to the hostel). And lizzards and iguana's stroll around parks cassualy barely noticing the interest we take in them... As we get out our camera's to take a picture them, the real Ozzies look at us with the same sort of amusement we do in Belgium when we see a group of Japanese tourists taking pictures of everything and nothing... It gives you a whole new perspective on these things :)

If all goes well tomorrow we should find a place where we can stay for atleast a week. That should give us more time to do fun things and get ourselves organised and get out of Sydney and start discovering Australia. We haven't decided yet whether we're going to buy a car or use public transportation. A car would be the best option (cheapest in the long run, and more freedom), but different agenda's of some of our co-travellers may make it an unpractical solution... Time will tell... but what is sure is that we'll be leaving south for Canberra and then Melbourne in about a week. If our budget is still up to scratch at that time, we'll take the boat to Tasmania and explore the island. Really looking forward to that. The island is well known for it's unique plant and animal life and there is a hickeroute called The Overland Track that shows off Tasmania's beauty in a 5-day-long walk. After Tasmania we'll be in dire need for cash, so we'll be looking for a nice job on the island or in the area of Melbourne then.

That's about it for the moment. Getting up early tomorrow, 'cause we still need to find a hostel tomorrow. Shouldn't be a problem though, as long as we get to Bondi Beach early enough.

Oh, and for the people who haven't figured the timedifference out: we're ten hours ahead of Belgium here :)

David.