September 15

**This is the view that I had at the hostel in Bondi Beach, BEAUTIFUL**
I arrived safely in Newcastle last night at about 5pm. During the ride, an older Australian woman sat beside me.. for about half an hour. She imiediately was talking to me about travelling & where to go and stay in Australia (she could see by my suitcase and bag that I was a traveller.) By the end of our conversation, she was giving me her name, address and phone number to call her if I ever needed anything or a place to stay. Isn't that nice??! I don't think many people in Canada would do that, I was amazed. The train ride took three hours. Only cost $17. Not too bad at all! The scenery was nice & I even saw a Pelican! Those birds are huge!
Monique picked me up from the train station & showed me the travel agency where she works. I met some of her co-workers and realized that until now I had only been meeting travellers, and today I actually met my first Australians! The city of Newcastle is about the size of London. Much more manageable than Sydney! The drive to Warners Bay (the suberb where they live) was lovely, all along the beaches. There were still people surfing!
Monique and Mark have been so welcoming, it's very nice to be here. We had Lamb for dinner last night. It was very good, I had never had it before! We watched a game of football (a kind I had never seen before and can't remember the name of) but it was an exciting game and the men wore the shortest short ever. hahaha.
I slept last night like I had never slept before! It was so nice to have my own room & nice place to sleep.
Before I came out here, I was getting a little worried. Everything was so expensive and crazy busy in Sydney.. and to be honest it felt like just a typical city. It didn't feel very Australian. Coming here has been a great mood lifter! I'm excited to travel north and stay in a smaller city like this one. & Get the real Australian lifestyle. YAY this is great!