The Blue Mountains

When we first arrived in Sydney, our plan was to stay in a hostel for a few days, get settled in, and then try a few different ways of traveling. One thing we wanted to try was couch surfing (via the website – couchsurfing.org), and meet some people that live in the areas we are visiting. We really enjoy staying in hostels. It's easy to meet fellow travelers and like minded people, much easier than say a hotel. There's definitely a community feel to them. However, mainly they are filled with other foreigners. It's not bad, but it is nice to interact with the locals. If you're not working among them, though, it can be challenging to meet the natives. Ultimately, we thought couch surfing might be a good way to meet the locals and see how they live. After sending out many requests on couch surfing, we got many “nos” and many no responses. Turns out that this time of year in Sydney is a very popular time for visitors. It's the summertime in Australia, and being in the Southern hemisphere means that northern areas here are hotter and southern areas are colder (the opposite of how it is in the States, it's colder in the north and hotter in the south), so during the summer everyone goes down south to escape the heat.

Feeling a bit discouraged by all of the rejection, and a little anxiety on what exactly our plans would be, we decided to expand our search for places to stay just outside of Sydney, which we probably wouldn't have considered before. We had heard from other people staying in our hostel that the Blue Mountains nearby were really beautiful. Matt and I love hiking, so we messaged someone on couch surfing that lived close to the Blue Mountains. I'm so glad we did! We finally got a yes response, from a couple living close to the mountains. Things work out, given enough time and patience.

Our hosts were so nice, and we learned a lot about little cultural nuances. We asked them all sorts of silly questions about Australia and Australian culture that we normally wouldn't feel comfortable asking, or wouldn't remember to ask. Little things we would notice, and then ask about. I felt like a young, inquisitive child. Our hosts had several videos of Australian comedians that we ended up watching, which was a bit of a learning experience in itself. I'm a fan of the sarcastic sense of humor the comedians had. It was fun, but I felt like I learned a lot as well.

The day before we left, we went on a hike of the Blue Mountains. It was about a four hour hike through one of the most beautiful areas I've ever been to in my life. It was filled with amazing water falls and dynamic views down into the valley. There were times I felt like I was in an isolated jungle, or land of the lost, expecting to find dinosaurs around the corner (because there are dinosaurs in every jungle, of course). I jumped at the sight of something moving in the bushes, I thought it was a snake, but thankfully it ended up being a lizard.

From Sydney & Blue Mtns

After our long hike, we went to see the “Three Sisters” rock formation and did a little more hiking there. It was a cloudy day, that kept threatening to rain, but it stayed clear and the clouds made for some beautiful views on the overlook to the Three Sisters.

From Sydney & Blue Mtns

The following day we flew from Sydney to the next leg of our journey in Tasmania.