19th -22nd February Sydney and Byron Bay!!

19th,
We finally arrived in a very wet Sydney after a tiring 24hours door to door trip. We checked into our 'spacious and clean' hostel hoping maybe for a little snooze but after we entered a very small dark room with just the light of a girls laptop, ipad and phone... we opted to have a shower and make a swift exit. Our fellow room mate wasn't the most inviting and talkative. Although it was raining it was surprisingly warm and we walked to the Central Quay where the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are. We took some wet pictures incase the weather the next say wasnt any better and decided to relax in a nice Irish bar and watch the people of Sydney go by. It was surprisingly quite on the streets but it was a nice stroll back to our hostel in the warm rain. We prayed for sunshine for tomorrow. Although we were initially apprehensive about our nights sleep it was surprisingly comfortable and the only disturbance was the Taiwanese man (on the bottom of Katrien's bunk) cleaning him phlegm from his throat into the toilet...

20th,
Today we made plans to see our new friend Stan for lunch and it was an absolutely beautiful day, 28° and not a cloud in sight!! We walked to Circular Quay to meet him and after a little confusion about a meeting place and an hours walk trying to find him we went to a lovely rooftop bar with him for some lunch and a drink. It was a spectacular view and you could see accross the harbour with the boats coming and going with the Opera house in the background.  We then caught a bus to Stan's university to look around and went to the museum of human diseases on his campus! It was very interesting. We then caught another bus to Bondi beach and did the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee beach. It was a 5km walk around the coastline along the clifs! Although it was a long walk it was beautiful and completely worth it! By the time we got to Coogee it was getting late so we jumped on the bus back to te city and headed for dinner and bed as we had another early start to our next destination- Byron Bay!!

21st
Not much to report today we sat on a bus for over 12 hours snoozed and watched breaking bad. We had a lot of problems trying to sort out accommodation in Byron as the hostels we have passes for were fully booked and so were some others we tried. Luckily we had booked a guest house beforehand and and managed to find another hostel for a good price!! We arrived at Byron Bay in the evening and headed to our guesthouse which although was an unexpected cost it was lovely and we met a really nice couple. Meeting them just showed how small the world is... The boy lives just outside Sudbury and went to the same school as Katrien!! Its also nice to hear good things about Mulberry court in Australia, well done Gerhard you saved his dog too!!

22nd
Today Byron bay was over cast and rained all day! we went to the beach and sat on the Rocks before the rain got too heavy and we looked around this lovely costal town. It has some nice boutique shops and lots of cafes and restaurants. We sorted a lot of travel arrangements out today which was good. The hostel at the moment is really cool, we are sitting enjoying the warm afternoon (although with on and off rain) with a nice cold drink! We have our Surf lesson tomorrow so will update you all on those antics soon!

We are absolutely loving our time away but hoping all is well at home!!

Love to all!