I love the irish

Newcastle
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We had to get up stupidly early but consoled ourselves with take away earl grey teas before getting on the bus, with the two coolest old aussie men driving. We watched sydney fly past the window and felt we were leaving a home; having been there a week we felt quite settled. However, we were also real excited, as we were setting off on our travels YHA hopping :) We ate pre-prepared chocolate spread sandwiches and then slept.

We arrived in newcastle which is a homely hostel. We wandered around the local beaches (nobby's beach and horseshoe bay) and wished we could go swimming, but being attired in normal clothing this was not possible.

Don Lou and irish shane
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Newcastle hostel does free meals 5 days a week, friday and saturday being the exclusions. Sadly we arrived on thursday and are leaving on sunday so only got the one. But it was good. It was quite a snazzy joint we went to, The Brewery, and had BBQ and 2 for 1 drinks and did a trivia quiz in which our team (Second Helping Sausages) got a disgraceful 13 out of 24.

There was some live music on, the geekiest looking boy who played guitar and sang beautifully like elliott smith, but then we decided it would be more fun to go to somewhere new along with our new friends, 4 irish lads and an irish gal, rather than watch the other bands.

Mr Dolphin
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The taxi drivers decided that we would like to go to The Kent. Now i wouldn't usually trust a taxi driver's advice on where to go, but they proved me wrong and took us to a really fun place where there was cheesy karaoke. The irish boys were craaazy dancers so we had a LOT of fun boogying to some old classics. They were hilarious and very irish and the funnest people we had met. They had bought a van and are driving up the coast, and sadly left this morning. I love irish accents.

Today we went to Port Stephens on a bus, to Nelson Bay. We got a cruise boat out for some hardcore dolphin spotting, which was really lovely if a little overcrowded with shrieking japanese people.

Hannah and me?
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We returned and cooked a delicious meal in the kitchen, i myself had microwave fish in sauce, and rocket and tomato with some mayonnaise, and a buttered roll and made a HUGE VAT of lovely mashed potato with phillie and cheese and butter and milk which we couldn't finish by ourselves sadly so had to enlist the help of our fellow hostellers.

I've got some photos but not enough time left to upload them so you shall have to wait. Tomorrow we go wine tasting in the Hunter Valley. Exciting!

Elly Berry
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Today was WONDERFUL. Our friendly driver Tex told us history about newcastle as we drove out of the city; apparently its full of coal. Well, you know what they say about coal and newcastle. And ice and eskimos. The hunter valley scenery was quite incredible, i have a million photos of grassy vineyardy landscapes.

We went to a lot of wineries and drank many drinks of wine. You start with white then move onto red then to dessert wines. We looked at the legs and took deep sniffs and swished it round a bit. We broke the drinking up with visits to an olive and chutney type place, and a cheese making place (yum) and a lunch at 'the village'. The only one i can really mention that anyone will have heard of is Lindeman's, who made us taste their wines which are perhaps not so much sold apart from directly from the cellar door. There was an amazing white which tasted exactly like passionfruit. And champagne that was strong red wine. Lindeman's also had a fudge tasting bar!

At the end of a day of wine tasting with chilli schnapps
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We finished off with a trip to a place that specialises in schnapps and liquers and tried about 5 of them. The last one was chilli and rosemary and blew your head off a bit, but yum.

I really wished i could've bought something but my bag is packed full to bursting with clothes. We did buy a brie however. I think i learnt a bit about wine. Choosing a good wine is much like making love to a beautiful woman... Kidding. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Drinking wine that is.

Australian people seem so friendly and laid back compared to everyone else. I think i could happily live in this country.