Last Week in Australia!

After seven amazing weeks I found myself in my last week of my trip! It started off on a high, with the amazing Blue Mountains, and the fun continued for the next four days!

On the Tuesday night I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to see Scottish comedian Danny Bhoy - my two cousins were going, originally with my uncle, but my aunt and uncle insisted I take the extra ticket, which was so lovely of them. Despite him being Scottish I had never heard of him before, but he seems to be really popular over in Australia. His show was brilliant, I laughed till I cried, and getting to see something in the beautiful State Theatre in Sydney was amazing!



The following day I took a trip into the city again to pick up some souvenirs for my family and friends! I also met Gemma for lunch in the restaurant at Darling Harbour we had her birthday dinner in - unfortunately I've managed to competely forget the name of it, but they do $10 steak and chips all day every Monday to Wednesday! It was a glorious day and the water in the harbour was so blue!



After a nice chilled out evening on the Wednesday, the Thursday was Anzac Day - a bank holiday in Australia. My uncle was off work, so we all went out on a family picnic at Brooklyn Marina, a picturesque spot just twenty minutes away.







We had such a lovely afternoon, and headed back to the house just in time for me to get myself ready, and out into the city to meet Gemma, Emily, Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend, to go for some drinks and then to the Sydney Opera House to see Tegan and Sara!! It was amazing to be inside the Opera House, and the concert was brilliant!



That night I stayed with Gemma and Emily in their flat in Bondi, before heading back to my aunt and uncle's the following morning for the daunting task of packing! My flight wasn't until 9pm though, so I had a nice lazy day getting organised! I booked my flight home with STA Travel, and got an amazing deal on an Emirates flight, which flew me from Sydney to Dubai (14hours!) and then Dubai to Glasgow (8hours), with a two hour stopover in between. I didn't manage to sleep at all unfortunately, but I did watch a lot of good flims and tv shows, which I'm going to do a separate post on actually!

My time in Australia was absolutely incredible, and I feel like it did me the world of good! Again, I'll do a separate post on that, but thanks so much to everyone for reading my posts along the way - it's been great :)

So now I'll be getting back to a lot of my regular posts! Weekly Favourites will be back as of tomorrow, and I have a couple of blogger event posts to write up, one from the INAA #shaba event last Monday, and I'll have another to do after the Grazia Live Beauty Parlour in Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh on Wednesday! If anyone is going along, let me know!

Back to Sydney - The Blue Mountains!

After my trip to Melbourne I flew back to Sydney for the final two weeks of my Australia adventure! I had a couple of things on my 'to do list' before I flew home to Scotland, and one of them was to visit the spectacular Blue Mountains.



The Blue Mountains is just a two hour train journey North of Sydney, and if you have the chance to visit them you must!! Emily and I set off at 9am on the Monday morning and arrived at Katoomba train station at 11, ready for a day of walking (note: take appropriate footwear for hiking in the mountains... we did not and boy did our calf muscles pay for it the following day!!).



You could spend days exploring this amazing place, but we decided to do the day trip on the Hop On/Hop Off Blue Mountains Explorer bus, which you can do for $49. That includes your train ticket from the city to Katoomba and your bus ticket for the day. There are 29 stops on the bus route, and it is entirely up to you which stops you choose to get off at! We pretty much followed one of the walk suggestions in our guide book which took us down the Furber Stairs (an hour long walk almost entirely downhill, with some amazing views!), Queen Victoria Look-Out, Echo Point and the Three Sisters (a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains), the Leura Cascades, Bridal Veil View and Gordon Falls Lookout.


Amazing profile of a face in the rocks, known as Witches Leap!


The Katoomba Falls

Katoomba Falls and the Scenic Railway

After our initial hour long walk, we found that we had reached a point where either we had to walk all the way back the way we had just come, or take the Scenic Railway up to the bus stop. It cost $14 for a two minute journey, but since we had a lot more walking to do, and a limited amount of time to do it, we relented and took the railway through the cliffside and got back on the bus. We hopped off at Stop 14, Echo Point, which has an incredible lookout point and views of the Three Sisters, and a really nice cafe where we got ourselves some lunch!


The Three Sisters

Posing with the Three Sisters!

Beautiful View from Echo Point

Our next walk took us from Stop 17, the Leura Cascades, to Gordon Falls Lookout, with the breathtaking Bridal Veil View on the way. This was a long, but beautiful walk, which took us around an hour. Due to one part of the walk being closed off, we were told to look out for a slight detour, which would take us back up onto the main road, and then back onto the cliffside path, just before we reached Gordon Falls. This resulted in me having a minor panic attack at one stage, convinced that we had missed the detour - poor Emily had to put up with five minutes of a ludicrously stressed out companion. There something so incredible about being out there, in what seems like the middle of nowhere. It's so rugged and untouched, and such a massive difference from the busy city - just like the rainforest in Port Douglas!


The Leura Cascades

Amazing scenery - high up at Bridal Veil View!

Emily and me at Gordon Falls Lookout Point :)

After my brief nervous breakdown - brought on by the fact we hadn't seen another human for around half an hour! - we were back on the main road and managed to reach Gordon Falls before it was time for us to get the last Hop On/Hop Off bus of the day to the train station in Leura, and catch our train back to the city. Not before we hit Woolworths for necessary supplies though...


Obligatory cookies for the train journey home!

I arrived back at my aunt and uncle's house at 8oclock that night, absolutely exhausted, but having had such an amazing day - you can see how beautiful it was from the photos. If you don't have time to make a weekend of it (there are lots of hotels, hostels and B&Bs at the Blue Mountains, making it easy to spend a few days there!), I'd definitely recommend going for the day! You might not have time to see absolutely everything, but you can go on a couple of amazing walks and see some stunning views you'll never forget!

Thanks for reading - watch out for my next post which may well be my final Australia post!! And be sure to check out my final Australia vlog which includes our day at the Blue Mountains :) Thanks for reading guys!!

Melbourne: Day Two :)

After a relatively good sleep in the hostel (my one issue with the Melbourne Central YHA was that being in such a central location on Flinders Street meant that there was quite a lot of street noise!), I was up and out to explore some more! First stop was the Crown Casino, which my friend Lynsey had insisted I visit, preferably at night, but I knew I wasn't going to have time for that. So at 10am I arrived at the amazing complex, which is just a five minute walk from Flinders Street, and went in to have a look around!













After exploring the casino I wandered along the river side back to Federation Square, and saw some amazing wall art on the way!







I enjoyed some lunch in the square and then headed back to the hostel to go off on the Neighbours tour!! I'm going to do an entirely separate post on that, since I took so many photos! But here's one for this post anyway!


Outside Harold's Store!!!

After the amazing Neighbours tour I took a long hard look at the tram timetable and jumped on a tram to St Kilda, another part of the city I'd been told to check out for its cool, artsy vibe. St Kilda is the studenty bit of Melbourne, and definitely feels a bit grungier and edgier than the centre of the city! I got off the tram at Luna Park and was amazed at the noise in this part of the city - it's so loud, with music blaring everwhere.



I headed straight for Acland Street to get a cake as once again Lynsey had told me that I would love the cake shops there - and she wasn't wrong!



I devoured a lovely cupcake from Acland Cakes and made my way down to the beach at St Kilda, just so I could say I had seen it! By the time I got there it was late afternoon and dusk was sort of setting in, and there were some really interesting clouds! I also got really overexcited about this amazing sand sculpture of a turtle with candles in it!





I headed off from the beach to get a tram (and then a train!) to Chapel Street, one of the hugely long streets in Melbourne, to meet Stacy and her boyfriend Chris for dinner and a drink. Then it was back to the hostel to shower, pack and a get a good night's sleep before flying back to Sydney the next day!

I had an absolutely brilliant time in Melbourne, and I'm so glad I went! Keep your eyes peeled for my Neighbours tour post - it was so much fun! Thanks so much for reading!

Melbourne: Day One :)

After an amazing week in Port Douglas I decided to fly to Melbourne. Since none of my friends were able to join me, this was the first part of the trip I was really doing on my own, which was a bit daunting to begin with! I knew that I really wanted to see Melbourne though, and so regardless of who was or wasn't able to make it, I was going to explore this city!

When I say I was alone, that is true for the most part. I flew there and back on my own, stayed in a hostel on my own and explored the city on my own. However, one of my friends from uni happened to have just moved to Melbourne, so I met up with her and her boyfriend to go to the museum the first day, and for dinner the second day, so it was nice to see a friendly face! Spending time in a new city on my own, however, wasn't half as scary as I thought it might be. I'm comfortable in big cities - as long as there are signposts and lots of people around I'm happy!


Flinders Street Station

The first day I wandered along Flinders Street where my hostel happened to be, and found myself at Federation Square. According to wikipedia Fed Square is a civic centre and culutral precinct in Melbourne, and was opened in 2002. It's such an interesting space, the buildings are angular and the pavement is covered in writing, and it's often used for big events in the city. St Paul's Cathedral sits across the road on one side, while Flinders Street Station (pictured above!) sits on the other side.








St Paul's Cathedral pictured from Fed Square

I then headed off past Fed Square and took a walk through the Queen Victoria Gardens, before turning back and heading past the Natinal Gallery of Victoria and the Melbourne Arts Centre.





After exploring that part of the city I set off down one of the many interesting little lanes Melbourne has to offer! I chose Degraves Street, a narrow little lane off Flinders Street which is full of cute cafes and restaurants, book shops and jewellery shops, and it has such a good atmosphere. My friend Stacy and I ended up having lunch in one of the cafes here and it was so lovely to sit outside (even though it was cloudy!) and people watch while we caught up!





That afternoon Stacy and I headed off to the Melbourne Museum where we met her boyfriend and spent a good couple of hours wandering around the different sections. We got there mid-afternoon, but you could easily spend most of the day there, and at just $10 standard entry it's not a bad deal.













When the museum closed at 5pm we went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Richmond, another part of the city just a train ride away, and had a really nice meal before I headed back to the hostel! The hostel I stayed in was the Melbourne Central YHA and it was great. I was in a four share girls dorm, with three other really nice girls, and the bed was perfectly comfortable. The staff were lovely and while I didn't actually use the kitchen, the bathroom was amazing! The showers were huge and always perfectly clean, with a shelf to put your shampoo etc on - they were the best showers of the three hostels I've stayed in in Australia!

Keep your eyes peeled for Melbourne Part 2 which features a very exciting trip to a famous television street...

Thanks so much for reading, let me know what you've been up to in the comments below :)