To the city!

Two hours sleep is not enough sleep. It's definitely not enough sleep when you're already suffering from lack of sleep! I packed my things and went downstairs. Ben, the host, approached me and apologised for the previous day, so we left on good terms. Carla, Pierre and I left the house at 9.30am so that Pierre would make it on time to the airport.

We got the bus but Carla and I got off a few stops before the train station so that I could visit the small suburb of Brighton. I'd seen the name-sake of my home town when I first arrived but my sister noticed on Google Maps that there was a street with my surname in the suburb. I had to get a photo!

The walk from there to the station was longer than I had realised. It was only 10am but the sun was already scorching and we were carrying our big bags. A couple pulled up in a van and asked us if we needed help and then kindly drove us to the station. It made us so happy and gave us hope after the Couchsurfing situation the day before.

Carla went to stay with another host she had already made friends with and I booked in to a hostel in the city centre. It was my first real dorm of the whole trip but I had no choice due to the ridiculously high prices of accommodation in Australia. The average dorm bed is three times the price of a lot of private rooms I've had in Asia

I dumped my bag, had another shower and went in search of food. I was directed to an area called South Bank with a market and a great pub called The Plough Inn. I hadn't really eaten much for 24 hours so I ordered a full rack of pork ribs and a delicious pale ale. I then got a message from two English girls I'd met back in Laos to say they were in the same pub (having no idea I was just upstairs). It's the second time I've randomly met them at lunch. The girls helped me eat the insanely large portion of ribs (we still didn't manage to finish it) while we had a catch up.

In the afternoon I met up with Carla and her Italian friend for gelato and then we went back to South Bank for a drink but by then I was really running on empty and desperately needed to sleep so I went back to the hostel for an early night.