Down Unda!

I take a Quantas flight from Shanghai to Sydney, then Sydney to Melbourne. I meet a guy on the plane and he and I get the entire row of seats to ourselves. We bond over our joy. I land in Melbourne and head to the hostel. On June 3rd, my birthday, I take a tour of The Great Ocean Road. It's a tour up the coast where they show us beautiful rock formations in the ocean and then take us for a "bushwalk" in the rainforest. This is where I see my first exotic birds, koalas, and kangaroos. The day is 14 hours and on the way home my new friend Emily has the entire bus sing Happy Birthday to me.
The following day Bec comes to pick me up. Her step brother and my step sister have been dating for years, and she stayed with us in London while she was on her world tour. So she has invited me to stay with her and her family for the weekend. She has great style and is such a character. She takes me around and shows me the famous beach boxes. Her family takes me out to dinner for my birthday which is so nice of them since they've only just met me. We eat snot blocks which are YUMMY custard in pastery, basically. The next few days we spend just hanging out, shopping, seeing Sex and the City, and we meet up with a few of her friends here and there. They are all so friendly to me. Having my own room and being in a house is such a luxury that I hardly want to gou out into the cold to do anything.
I book an overnight Greyhound to Sydney for Monday night. Her mom drops me off at the station and the twelve hour ride begins. The bus driver is awful. He chews, flicks lights off and on to keep himself awake, laugh to himself, breaks unexpectedly, and yells when he talks. It's a sleepless night. Finally we make it to Sydney. I find my hostel and pass out. When I awake, I can't wait to go see the harbor. I take a walk down to go see the Opera House. I sit down for a lunch and as I'm just about to be done the seagaulls swoop in on my last few bites. I freak out and stand up as the little old Vietnamese waitress shoes them away and grabs my tray promptly ending my meal. I meet Meg, a UC Berkeley student, and Joe who has been living in the Australian outbakck for 75 days with an outdoor school. He shows us picture of the huge spiders that he would wake up under. And yes, I mean under. These things are huge and he says more often than not he would wake up with one on his chest. We all get to know one another and share stories of our adventures. I can tell I'm going to like Sydney.