Sydney, Australia!!

Welcome to Australia!!!

Where do we begin....6:30am, Sydney airport, Anna (France Anna) met us off the plane! What a nice change!! Most importantly, before actually socializing, we were able to have a Starbucks coffee..that is a BIG deal! 2 months without Starbucks! After 24 hours without sleep!! We were definitely too excited to sleep once we arrived, so we decided to do a tour of the city before heading back to Anna's house, which is about 45 minutes by car from the center. Anna gave us a guided tour of the city after taking us to a cute little cafe for brunch. We headed down George street to Circular Quay and got to see Sydney Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge!! Sensational!!! It was SO sunny out, but we are NOT used to having to wear more clothes here!! We actually had to go out and BUY warm clothes to be comfortable. Too bad eh?

We had our FIRST home-cooked meal, a warm bed and a fantastic family to stay with (Thank you Anna!!!). We are so lucky!

Next day we went to Taronga Zoo...ferry from Sydney harbour and then a gondola up to the zoo!! Still in an asian frame of mind, we wore tank tops and t-shirts and absolutely FROZE on the ferry AND at the zoo. BUT we got to see koalas! And kangaroos! And a platypus!! Claire and Catherine (the other Rennes girls from France) met us at the zoo. It was quite the reunion :)

Still freezing, we went for dinner at "The Rocks", the old quarter of Sydney, and met up with another canadian friend Rachel for pizza and we tried our first Australian beer!

Our tour guide (aka Anna) took us on a road trip to the Jenolan caves (more stalactites and stalagmites) and the Blue Mountains..which was a lot like the Grand Canyon with trees. SO gorgeous! It was a LITTLE windy, and COLD (check out the pic)!!!

Seeing as we're taking full advantage of the Vidot family's hospitality, we decided we should do something for them, so we made them french toast for breakfast (see pic)!! We even bought maple syrup, to make it a true canadian breakfast, but unfortunately it wasn't the real stuff. Later that day, we went to the famous Bondi beach and had fish and chips for lunch...we did the walk along the coast to Bronte beach, but again, not too warm! No swimming or suntanning :( Are we going to lose our tans!?!?

We're so spoiled being able to stay with a family here, we took advantage of the shopping and the REAL coffee and the cute little restaurants before booking our bus up the east coast. We leave tomorrow morning bright and early on our Oz Experience bus for Surf Camp, yay!! It's only an hour lesson, but hopefully we'll get lots of time to practice up the coast! We spend one night there then head to Byron Bay, and then who knows! BY THE WAY...LH turns 23 on monday, which we will be celebrating in Byron Bay. She will be accepting cheques directly deposited into her bank account :)

We're not too sure how often we'll be able to e-mail, as internet here isn't QUITE as cheap as in Asia, so keep checking and we'll do our best!

Lots of love and hugs,

L and L