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Okay, well I'm off to Sydney and my first hostelling-Australia experience. I'll post tonight... if I make it. ;)

I'm going to miss Canberra and mayakitten. *sadness* Australia shouldn't be so far away from the UK, so I could come back easier. At least I get to bug chickybee32 again though. :D

To Sydney!

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So I made it to Sydney without mishap or misadventure or misagetting-eaten-by-backpackers. I did end up pissed at Googlemaps for the first time ever though, because 477 Kent Street is most definitely not the same at 235 Sussex Street, yet that's where it directed me to head for and since the streets were adjoining I figured maybe the hostel had entrances on both and Googlemaps magically knew this.

There was actually a Base sign at 235 Sussex Street; however, it was a travel office. I was kindly directed to walk up the next crossroads and walk back down Kent Street, which was my original plan until I thought I'd Googlemap it to be sure and foolishly followed that instead of my own common sense. Usually I wouldn't care but my backpack is rather heavy and Sydney is rather warmer than Canberra for some unexplicable Australian reason and I was sagging somewhat by the time I stepped over a backpacker to get into reception. Fail Googlemaps. Not total fail because you did get me here but at least partway fail.

Then I paid for the seven days of unlimited wireless (I have a timer counting down in the taskbar from 6 days, 23 hours, 54 minutes... it's creepy) and after a second, unhelpful trip down to reception to try to work out just why the hell my laptop wasn't picking it up, I figured I'd try sitting in the lounge with it. What a surprise, the hostel wireless pops up on my list of networks. -_- So no in-room internet after all (it was too good to be true) but unlimited access in the lounge and not only have I already spied a guy with a cup of coffee but there's a plug point right next to where I'm sitting now so I could happily sit here for a couple of hours while stuff like Primeval downloads. Not that I've found the kettle in the kitchen yet, mostly because I've been in twice to refill my water bottle, couldn't spot a kettle on first glance and didn't want to hang around looking lost like a noob.

On the plus side? There're only four beds in my all-girls room and only one of them looks slept in. My cunning deduction is that it belongs to a Japanese girl (there's a guidebook to Oz in Japanese on the bed) and she's a longterm resident (there's posters on the wall beside her bed). These are all Good Signs because I've found Japanese to extremely polite, helpful and if she's longterm then she'll know where everything is. Like the kettle.

So so far I've found my hostel (eventually), worked out the internet, approved very much of my room, found the kitchen, been daunted by the kitchen, found the laundry mostly by accident (I got lost. There is a lot of hostel here) and decided that actually, this might not be as bad as my initial "the internet won't work. >:-/ Maybe I should leave and book into a hotel!" reaction.

Now I'm starving and want to go in search of food...

...except someone just handed me a glass of wine and some cheese cubes. Clearly sitting here for hours on my laptop is an excellent policy (it's actually wine I can drink too which is shocking. Possibly it's mostly water. But still free!) Hostelling is decidedly bizarre.

I can see why everyone's been telling me that I'd love Sydney.

I love Sydney.

I decided on half-random, half Cardiff-Bay-has-nice-restaurants-so-maybe-Darling-Harbour-will-too basis to head for the harbour in my search for food. This was mostly an excellent decision - there were so many nice restaurants - and also a bad decision - so many nice restaurants that I took almost an hour to pick one.

I liked the look of the beautiful Asian restaurant I passed first but in the name of exploration walked all the way around the harbour to check out what was on offer. Along the way I got mistaken for someone called Sarah by an extremely cute guy (I didn't say "For you baby, I could be" in a Shrek's Puss in Boots tone but I was tempted), dashed the hopes of a lovely Japanese waiter who tried to tempt me into his restaurant (alas it was mostly fish, which I mostly avoid), almost fell into a bizarre water feature that I can't believe health and safety let them get away with, but that's all the prettier for the insanity (I'll take pictures in the daylight when it'll show up better) and was almost tempted into two restaurants that had nothing else to endear them (one was pretty but almost empty, which was odd when everywhere else was packed and the other was on a boat which is cool but it was mostly full of old people and looked surprisingly dull) because they were serving kangaroo steaks. In the end the beautiful Asian restaurant won and I walked all the way back, bypassing even Starbucks. I'm glad I did because the food (duck with vermicelli rice) was delicious and cost less than £10 which was... surprising but awesome. The staff were lovely too.

I think most of the restaurants I passed would've been good though. Cardiff Bay, possibly my favourite place in the world before now, has nothing on Darling Harbour. Okay so it edged towards tacky in places but still, awesome.

I also stopped at a convenience store and bought water and TimTams, but forgot milk. Dammit. At least I have tea, coffee and limited sugar though; I can get milk tomorrow. After I go to the Aquarium, I think. The Zoo is tempting but I'm thinking I might try it Friday. There's a leaflet I just found with how to get there and ferry prices.

One thing is certain though; I won't be sticking to my 'don't get any more money out in Sydney' attempt, because just looking at the admission fees for everywhere is burning holes in my wallet. However, I just checked my bank account and I have an extra £100 that I wasn't expecting so... whatever. Go nuts.

I love Sydney already. I really do.

(The other girl in my room, Yona, is actually Korean and is a *student*. She's living in a hostel while being a student. I'm so in awe because holy crap, was I a coddled and pampered student in comparison. She's really nice.)

(I just went to tag this post and for some reason 'Sam tyler' is already typed in the tag bar. Wtf? My keyboard must've jumped and it autotyped it maybe but... seriously, wtf?)