This journal was written as a physical diary by me during my gap year. I am typing this up to share my gap year experience. At the beginning of travels I was 22. I travelled with a friend (Kieren) and anybody else involved will be introduced during the journal. For more details, check here.

To spend a year in Australia, we got working holiday visas. These allow up to 1 year of travel and work in Australia. Find more information here.

Check out the last instalment here.

25th October 2017

We hired some bikes and had a lovely bike ride to Maroubra Beach, where we chilled for a few hours. It was really nice to just relax on the beach, to be honest.

The hostel did free spaghetti bolognese for dinner – great because we didn’t have to cook! We headed out to sit on the beach because it was a lovely warm evening.

26th October 2017

Walked some of the Coogee-Bondi beachwalk but ended up stopping at Clavelly Beach. Very cute beach!

Clavelly Beach.

Dominos for lunch – $5 for a pizza! What a bargain! I then did my first run in Aus, which was difficult because I hadn’t been running in a while (since we started travelling 1 month ago).

Lovely evening stroll around Coogee and Randwick. I really like staying by the beach and even though we haven’t made friends in this hostel yet either, I feel so much better.

27th October 2017

We got the bus into Sydney to go to the Friday Foodie Market at The Rocks (near Sydney Harbour). Not a lot there but I did try a kangaroo skewer and a crocodile skewer.

  • Kangaroo – similar to lamb, would be nice in a burger
  • Crocodile – tastes like a tough steak but is white meat

Crocodile and kangaroo skewers at Friday Foodie Market.

We met up with Clem and Debbie*, and went for pancakes. I got chocolate orange crepes and a strawberry ice cream soda.

I finally managed to get my Ray Bans fixed**. I got nose rests put on at the opticians but then the entire rest fell off! So then I had to go to a jewellers who welded it back on!

Spent the evening drinking cocktails in Randwick.

*girls I’d met the previous week.

**after a monkey had broken them in Bali.

28th October 2017

I decided to do the Coogee-Bondi coastal walk again. I’ve done this loads already but I’m just a huge lover of the beach so I love it! We bumped into Debby and Holly and we went for a coffee.

Bondi Beach.

I had a lovely few hours on the beach at Bondi but it clouded over so I wandered back to Coogee.

We had a nice night in Sydney – we went to the oldest pub in The Rocks. There was great live music but we were the youngest there by far! We also went to a lovely bar on Darling Harbour with amazing views.

29th October 2017

Today we checked out of Coogee Beach Backpackers and headed back to Sydney. We checked into Nate’s Place Backpackers in Kings Cross, but our beds weren’t made so we ended up just dropping our bags off. We moved hostels because we made a split decision last night to book a plane to Melbourne.

When we arrived in Sydney we didn’t have a plan of staying or going – I thought I’d probably really like it here and I’d stay to get a job. But probably because of the bad first week we’d had (the people, not the activities), neither of us particularly want to stay here. So, we’re going to try out Melbourne! And, it’s easier to get to the airport from here rather than Coogee.

For the last day in Sydney, I wanted to visit Manly Beach so we got the ferry there from Circular Quay. This is my favourite beach so far in Australia! I went for a lovely swim and the waves were great! The ferry back to Circular Quay was during sunset so I got to watch the sunset over Sydney Harbour!

Sunset view from the Manly Ferry.

When we got back to the hostel, they’d messed up our booking. We got into the room and there was only 1 spare bed. The rest of the hostel was fully booked so we ended up having to share a single bed*. But at least we got a full refund so actually ended up getting a free night in Sydney for 2 people.

We went to a cool rooftop bar (I don’t remember the name of it) then had a drink in O’Malleys.

*this was no easy feat because Kieren is 6ft 5in. Obviously not the most comfortable nights sleep I’ve ever had…

Check out the next instalment here. Tomorrow we head to Melbourne!