CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

February 17, 2023 — The Blue Mountains are located about two and a half hours by train from Sydney. It was part of my original itinerary to stay in the mountains for a few days, at the YHA in Katoomba, but because I wasn’t able to book the Tasmania tour I had originally planned on, I’d had to make some adjustments and that included taking out my nights spent in Katoomba. However, after little deliberation, I decided that a day trip to the Blue Mountains would be the perfect way to work them in! It turned out to be an excellent idea, and I had an awesome day.

Although I planned to get up and moving at 6:00am, I fell back to sleep until almost seven. Luckily I jolted awake at that time and moved my butt. I got dressed, grabbed the last of my stuff, and had breakfast. After I found my bag. Which was moved. With most of my stuff moved out of it and on to the Free Food shelf.

I was extremely unimpressed at that, as I finally found my bag stuffed down in a cubby in the kitchen and gathered up what I could of my items. My leftovers from the previous night, which I’d planned on having for dinner when I got back from the Blue Mountains, were gone. Steam was just about pouring out of my ears. Unfortunately, it’s something that happens in hostels and I’m not sure exactly what happened — whether it was another guest or the hostel cleaning out the kitchen. In any case, I got my stuff together and put extra labels on my bag to make sure that someone didn’t get the wrong idea again. Or at least I hoped they didn’t.

I thought about asking reception what happened but at that point it wasn’t like there was much they could do about it, anyway, and I just had my muffin before leaving for the day. Not the best start to the morning, but I just had to shake it off and let it go.

When I got down out of the Rocks and out to Circular Quay, I had such a good view of the Opera House because there was no cruise ship in port yet! It was also the absolute quietest I’d ever seen Circular Quay and I revelled in the early-morning peach and quiet. I got on one of the trains at Circular Quay that was on its way to Central Station and once I arrived there, I switched to the Blue Mountains line, which ran to Katoomba in two and a half hours.

I spent the ride working on the blog and reading, watching the scenery whizz by as we rolled through little towns on the outskirts of Sydney and then into the little towns on the way to Katoomba. It was so scenic.

After disembarking at Katoomba, I walked down in the direction of Echo Point, which is one of the main sights and gives a good view to the Three Sisters rock formation. They also have a visitor centre, which is where I was hoping to get some information on the best way to spend my limited time in Katoomba.

The lady working the information desk at Echo Point was just amazing and she gave me an overview of an excellent hike! I asked for a medium hike of about two to three hours since I wanted to be back on the train to Sydney before 4pm. She recommended heading down the Giant’s Staircase (800 steps of awesome torture), along Federal Pass in the rainforest, and back up Furber Steps. It was a gorgeous hike.

When I finally finished heading back up Furber Steps (after having been stung by I-don’t-know-what on my finger), I was exhausted. I made my way to the bus stop (which was up a very large hill) and got on the bus heading toward the train station and which stopped near the Woolies grocery store. I picked up brie, crackers, yogurt packs, and a couple Gatorade and then walked the rest of the way to the train station. Unfortunately, I’d pretty much just missed the 2:20pm train back to Central, but the next one came at 3:20pm, so I sat down to wait and enjoyed my picnic-like lunch, replenishing my energy and electrolytes.

After another two and half hour ride back to Central Station, I was so ready to head back to the hostel but I decided to stop in to the Central YHA and ask if they’d had any luck finding my missing earbud yet. Unfortunately, they hadn’t, but I still have one more chance once I get back from Tasmania that they might have found it.

I hopped on the L train and rode it back to Circular Quay. I made my way up to the hostel and decided on finishing my noodles packages (I still had two instant noodles packs, which are similar to Mr. Noodles in Canada) for dinner, since I didn’t have my leftovers (I was still a bit miffed).

After dinner, I got some laundry going even though I didn’t have a whole lot, again because I needed to use up a little laundry soap and also because I knew I probably wouldn’t have much of a chance in Tasmania to do any laundry. I wanted to go to Tasmania nice and fresh.

Just after I finished my laundry, packing, and hung up with Mom and Dad, having discussed my early morning flight and needing to be up at 4:00am to take the bus to the airport, I checked my email and found out that my flight to Tasmania was cancelled!

!!!

Thankfully, the email indicated that I could rebook (for free, of course) onto another flight and I was so glad to see that their flight at 11:00am to Hobart was available and running. I would’ve preferred to be on this flight, anyway, but the 6:00am was cheaper when I was booking. I booked the 11:00am, received my confirmation email, and called back to let Mom and Dad know that I wouldn’t need a wake-up call. The later flight meant that I wouldn’t have to be at the airport until 9:00am, so I only needed to be awake at 8:00am (score!).

After a long — albeit incredible — last day in and around Sydney, I crawled into bed and wound down for the night.

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