Sydney, Australia: City beaches, the world's best harbour and settling into Australian life

I've officially made it to the other side of the world! Well, I've actually been here for over a month now but the time has flown by so quickly it almost doesn't feel like it.

Spending a long time living in a totally new city is very different to the kind of travelling Ben and I have been doing in Asia up until recently. It's been a shift from trying to see all of the most beautiful and exciting parts of a place in just a couple of weeks (or even days) to having a daily work routine, joining things like local fitness classes and finding my favourite local places to get coffee or lunch.

When we first arrived here, I spent the first couple of weeks busy not just exploring the city but also trying to find a job, somewhere to live and looking for fun things to get involved with over the next few months. It's been a great experience overall but it was definitely a bit overwhelming at first!

It takes me a while to feel fully settled in a totally new place but I don't think we could have picked a better place to have to get used to! Sydney is such a fun, friendly city which basically has it all; a lively atmosphere, good weather, a beautiful harbour and the nicest beaches to relax on. I've met some lovely people out here, had some great new experiences and have been really enjoying working in the city centre where there's so much going on.

After spending the first couple of weeks living with a friend, we're also now renting a room in a lovely shared house on the North Shore. So, several weeks in, I'm feeling more at home and ready for what the next few months will bring.

One of the best things about living in Sydney (and the reason we ended up choosing to live here instead of starting in Melbourne) is how close you get to be to so many amazing beaches. We spent our first day taking full advantage of this by taking the ferry across Sydney Harbour to Manly and Shelly Beach. Both were a lot of fun but my favourite part of the northern coast so far has definitely been Palm Beach, which feels really quiet and peaceful compared to some of the beaches a little closer to the city centre. Palm Beach also has a really nice Lighthouse Walk, where you can wander up to the top and admire the views over its two shores.

The view over Palm Beach

Palm Beach at sunset

The southern beaches in Sydney are also incredible! A lot of people from the UK live next to them (I missed the memo there) and the vibe around that whole area is really young and fun. You can walk right along the coast from the busy Bondi beach across to Coogee beach and pass some amazing places on the way; from white sand bays and lively picnic parks to swimming pools in the middle of the ocean.

The busy but beautiful Bondi beach

On the coastal walk to Coogee beach

Another one from the coastal walk

The Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club

Summer in Australia ended officially the other day but in-between the cloudy or stormy days (which randomly happen quite a lot here!) we've had a lot of sunshine. This has meant loads of beachy weekends and just generally wanting to be outside.

Aside from the beaches, we've also ticked off a lot of the touristy places in the city centre. Sydney Harbour is every bit as impressive as I'd imagined it would be and the Opera Bar there is such a chilled but beautiful place to have a drink.

Nearby, Darling Harbour is really fun at night and the area around The Rocks (the slightly older part of the city) is a really cool part of Sydney's centre where you can find pubs, markets and restaurants along its cobbled streets.

I also had an amazing day at Taronga Zoo looking at all of the Australian animals, watched a Sydney Sixers game at the Sydney Cricket Stadium, took a day trip to the flowery Dangar Island and spent a hot day relaxing in the Botanical Gardens. We've definitely been keeping busy but it's easy to when there always seems to be something going on!

Just a few days after we arrived, the country was celebrating Australia Day, so we spent the day by the harbour soaking up the atmosphere before heading into town at night. A couple of weeks ago, I also went to Sydney's famous Mardi Gras festival and parade, which was really colourful and fun.

At Sydney Harbour on Australia Day

Ready for Mardi Gras

It wouldn't be much of an overview of Sydney if I didn't also mention how amazing the coffee culture is here - as well as how many fun restaurants, cafés and bars there are all over the place. To name just a couple, Bar Luca makes some of the best burgers in the country and you can't beat El Camino Cantina for their giant frozen 2-for-1 cocktails! I can see why people warned me it would be hard to save money here! I am trying hard, though. I've started cooking properly again (after quite a long break in Asia, where every meal out only cost a couple of pounds!) and have been avoiding all of the incredible-looking Australian shops and malls. That said, living here still feels a lot cheaper than living in London, mostly because Sydney's rent and public transport prices are so much lower - and the wages are higher too.

I know this post has been a bit all over the place but a lot has been going on since I left Asia! There's still lots more I'm excited to see in Sydney but luckily, with none of my future plans set in stone yet, I feel like I have plenty of time to do it all.

El Nido, Philippines: Tropical island hopping, secret beaches and kayaking in the Big Lagoon

I loved our Winter break in Japan but flying straight to the sunny Philippines afterwards was definitely the right move. Outside of the budget hostels we've been staying in, this part of the Philippines is basically paradise!

We’ve stuck to just exploring El Nido (a municipality in Palawan Island) while here because there are so many cool places to see in this area alone and after such a packed couple of weeks, we just wanted to just slow down, relax and enjoy the warm weather for a while. Besides, with there being over 2000 inhabited islands in the Philippines (!), it’s hard for anyone to ever say they’ve seen that much of it.

The first beach we visited, Las Cabanas, was just a few-minutes ride (in a quite loud and rickety tricycle - the Filipino alternative to the tuk tuk!) away from our hostel in El Nido town.

Las Cabanas was such a beautiful beach, and really popular with travellers in El Nido, meaning there are lots of nice beach bars and restaurants along it. But despite there being quite a few backpackers chilling there it didn't feel crowded at all.

Las Cabanas beach

There's also a really highly rated zipline over Las Cabanas. We never actually got round to doing that, but we did make the most of the incredible sunsets there! In the evenings, we sat on the sand with our super cheap cocktails watching the sky turn gold and pink.

The sunset over Las Cabanas

In the town itself, the atmosphere was really laid-back and fun (even if it was pretty touristy there). El Nido's streets were mostly lined with beachy souvenir shops, boat tour stalls and countless cafés, bars and restaurants. I loved the pizza at the famous Altrove restaurant (definitely worth the huge queue!) and the ocean view at the Greek restaurant Café Athena. I don't think we went one day in El Nido without picking up a fresh fruit smoothie from one of the stalls in town.

The Canopy Walk was another one of my favourite things we did in El Nido town. The walk itself didn't take long and was super easy (they definitely went overboard making us wear a helmet and harness!) but the view from the top was great.

The Canopy Walk's hanging bridge

The view over El Nido's port at the end of The Canopy Walk

Island hopping in the Philippines

The days we spent island hopping around El Nido were my favourite days of the whole trip. We went for tours A and C because those were the ones we had been recommended by friends and the stops there looked the most exciting.

To kick off tour C, our group's bubbly guides Raf and Jomar took us straight to Helicopter Island (named after its shape), where we spent some time sunbathing, swimming in the ocean and drinking fresh coconuts. The coconuts here never taste as good as I think they're going to but I like buying them on the beach anyway because nothing makes you feel more like you're on a tropical holiday!

Next, we sailed over to Macinlot Island to have some lunch (an amazing Filipino buffet and fruit platter) and climb up the rocks to another beautiful viewpoint over the ocean.

The view from the top of Macinlot Island

Afterwards, we snorkelled by the nearby Star Beach and Hidden Beach. Well, I didn't snorkel for the whole time because it was really rocky around the beaches and - as I found out in the Phi Phi islands - having fish touch me freaks me out a bit! Still, the scenery was amazing and sunbathing and chatting with the others on the boat was a lot of fun as well.

Ben snorkelling outside Hidden Beach

We finished off the tour with a trip to Secret Beach, which we could only reach by swimming through a narrow cove. The rocky floor there was a bit treacherous - and there were so many tourists around that it definitely did not live up to its secret name anymore (!) - but it was still really beautiful inside.

At the not-so-secret Secret Beach

As fun as Tour C was, I thought Tour A (which we did the next day) was even better! This tour started very similarly to our last as we sailed to more tucked-away beaches (like Seven Commanders beach and the Hidden Lagoon) to swim, relax and enjoy the sun.

On the boat

At Seven Commanders beach

Having some time on the beaches was great but the most memorable part of the tour was definitely our visit to the Big Lagoon, which looked like something out of a movie!

The water was bright and crystal clear, the lagoon was pretty uncrowded and all the limestone cliffs around the water made you feel like you were really in the middle of the wilderness.

We hired kayaks to explore the lagoon, and even though none of my smudgy Go Pro pictures did the lagoon any justice, it was definitely one of the most magical-looking natural areas I've seen in Asia so far!

The entrance to the Big Lagoon

Kayaking through the Big Lagoon

Staying on Nacpan beach

After hearing from some other travellers that Nacpan beach was one of the most beautiful beaches on the island (and that it's apparently been rated the best beach in Asia!), we had to go and see it for ourselves.

When we arrived on Nacpan beach, we immediately got why it was so popular. The water was even bluer than it had been at Las Cabanas and the sand stretched on for miles.

Nacpan beach

Probably the most touristy photo you could take on Nacpan

Our hostel, Dandal Bay View, was also right on the beach, so we had an amazing view of the sea every day when we ate breakfast outside. There was no WiFi at all in the hostel (or really anywhere in Nacpan except for at one café a couple of minutes walk away) but it was actually great to have a really low-tech time in paradise.

There were a few little bars and restaurants scattered along the beach, but Nacpan did feel a lot quieter than Las Cabanas in general. My favourite place to eat was a Thai restaurant on the sand next door to our hostel (called the Sunset Bar). Sadly, the restaurant completely burned down a few years ago and is just getting started up again, but its Thai food was so delicious that for me, it beat all of the food we'd eaten in Thailand hands down!

I also loved the Sunmai Sunset bar on the beach, which did the best cocktails (and actually felt pretty fancy compared to every other beach bar in El Nido)!

Sunset views from our favourite beach bar

Our stay in the Philippines has been the best end to an incredible few months in Asia. With its happy, beachy vibe and incredible natural sights, I'd say it’s one of my favourite countries we’ve visited so far. Following Japan, which was my other favourite country, it feels like we accidentally saved the best for last!

I’m excited (but nervous) to make the move to Australia now, where I'm planning to live, work and get settled for the next few months.

Osaka, Japan: Colourful Dotonbori and a day at Universal Studios

Before arriving here in Osaka, we decided to spend a night in the city of Kobe. I'd never heard of Kobe before a few days ago, but the Japanese family who hosted Ben and I in Hiroshima had told us that it was worth seeing (and that the food there was amazing!) so we thought it would be fun to stop there for a night.

The first thing we did in Kobe was take a walk down to its famous port, which looked beautiful all lit up at night but was also surprisingly quiet. Even more towards the centre, the city felt really uncrowded, but on the way to our hostel we had one of the best ramen dinners I've tried since arriving in Japan!

At Kobe Port

Kobe was really nice but didn't feel like somewhere you could stay for a long time as a tourist. Osaka was only about a half an hour train ride away from Kobe, so we headed straight there the following day to soak up some more of the liveliness, vibrance and character of metropolitan Japan.

When we arrived, Osaka's famous bay area was super clean but busy and filled with countless food courts, shopping malls and an enormous aquarium. We wandered around this part of town for a while before travelling to my favourite place in Osaka; Dotonbori.

Dotonbori reminded me a lot of Tokyo with all of its neon advertisements, colours and general buzz, but was also very different in that through the centre, there was a long canal reflecting the glow of all the bright lights around it.

In front of the Ebisu Bridge in Dotonbori

Another unique thing about Dotonbori was all the huge, extravagant mascots which hung above lots of its shops and restaurants. They made the city feel even more fun, eccentric and different to home!

We had a lot of fun wandering around Dotonbori's streets, eating some of Osaka's famously amazing street food and trying Starbucks’ limited edition Japanese sesame latte (which was actually way better than it sounds!)

We also had to stop and get a touristy picture by the most famous street sign in Osaka - the Glico man - which has apparently been up there now for nearly a hundred years!

For the whole time we've been in Osaka, we've stayed in the Umeda Dormitory hostel, which is run by a really lovely, helpful Japanese man. It's only costing us £7.50 each night (!) and of course it's pretty basic but still comfortable and totally fine for just a few nights. At this point, we’ve definitely become experts at enjoying Japan on a budget!

That said, we’ve also splashed out on a few treats while here, and the biggest in Osaka was probably our day trip to Universal Studios Japan, which was super fun.

We'd bought fast passes for USJ in advance but we didn’t end up needing them because it was the first day back from school holidays in Japan so the queues were tiny anyway.

The only slightly strange thing about the theme park was not being able to understand what the characters of all my favourite childhood movies were saying. Japanese-speaking Dumbledore definitely sounded pretty different!

We finished up our trip with a visit to Osaka’s famous castle the next day. The castle itself was beautiful (bright white, multi-layered and very traditionally Japanese) and we spent quite a while there watching a funny Spanish street performer entertaining (and embarrassing) some other tourists and Japanese people in front of it.

Osaka Castle

Our time in Japan seems to have gone so quickly it’s become one big, amazing blur (like most of our travels so far, to be honest!)

I’ve always wanted to visit this country but never thought I actually would until we happened to have the idea just a couple of weeks before heading here. Everyone says it but it’s definitely true - spontaneous adventures are definitely the best thing about going travelling without all your flights pre-booked.

I’ve completely fallen in love with Japan while here. The people were kinder than I could have expected, the food tastier and the culture shock bigger! Hopefully, I’ll be able to come back one year in Spring when the cherry blossoms are out (and it’s a little warmer outside!)