Monday 24th November - Sydney and Canberra

I got to the hostel Friday night, and during the night the 3 girls that were sharing a room with me came in. It turns out that they were from Caernarfon. It was nice to be able to speak Welsh for a change. Though I have been told that my accent has got stronger again since spending time talking with them!!

I spent Saturday walking around Darling Harbour in Sydney, and also I visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship. Other than that I didn't actually do much, but that took up a lot of the day.

I had planned to go and see a band playing in Coogee with Sinead on Sunday. We caught the bus around lunch time to go out there, and it turned out that the band had cancelled because of the bad weather - yes the weather still isn't great out here. It was so much nicer during my first couple of weeks in Oz. I checked the temp the other day, and it showed the min temp in Sydney was exactly the same as that at home. Now that's not fair!!!!!

Even though the band weren't playing, we decided to have a drink in the bar anyway. It was strange being back in Coogee because that's where we all stayed during our first week in Sydney. After hacing a drink we decided to move on to get food, so we went to the restaurant that was right beside our old hostel. It's the one that had the $5 meals. They also serve pints which is rare in Oz!!!

After finishing food we decided to catch the bus back into the centre. There is a bar across the road from the hostel I was staying in, so we both decided to head there for a drink. The tv was showing the Wales v New Zealand rugby game from the previous day, and even though I knew that Wales had lost, I was quite happy watching the game. A guy from New Zealand then came over and joined us, and said he was celebrating because NZ had beaten Aus in the final of the rugby union the night before. After a couple of drink there I headed back to the hostel coz I needed to pack before getting up early this morning to catch the Greyhound bus to take me to Canberra. I had decided that I may as well visit the capital coz I was over here. It's not something that many people do because there isn't that much to do there, but I thought why not.

I got into Canberra by lunchtime, but couldn't check into the YHA where I'm staying until 1pm. I put my bags into a looker and decided to head off to explore because I'm only here for 24 hours. I decided to visit the War Memorial because a lot of people talk about it, and say it's one of the few things worth visiting in Canberra. They were right, it was really interesting. I spent a few hours there. It talked about Australia's involvment in the 1st and 2nd World Wars. It also explained what ANZAC day was, which I'd noticed was a big deal out here because a lot of places only close on Christmas Day and ANZAC day. ANZAC day is commemorated on 25th April each year to honour members of the Austrlian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War 1.

On the way back to the hostel, I stopped off at the shopping centre, which happens to be a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. It seems to go on for ever. I've decided to pay another visit tomorrow, because I have to check out of the hostel by 10am, but my bus doesn't leave til 12:30. Oh dear ;-)