World Cup diary: Katie Zelem on being a tourist in Brisbane and 'really special' Australia

Our first ten days in Australia have been really lovely, the first few days in particular were really sunny and that definitely made getting over the long journey here a bit easier.

It feels like we’ve really been able to sample the two sides of Australia so far, and that’s been a really nice experience. It’s definitely a really special country that’s got so many things going on in such different environments.

We started off on the Sunshine Coast, which was a great first base for us to get into things both in training and then in our downtime with the beach and a more secluded side of things generally.

And now we’ve moved on to Brisbane, so we have a real city vibe around the new hotel as we look towards the first game on Saturday.

I’ve enjoyed both places so far, I really liked being by the beach of course but I definitely do enjoy the city more with lots to see and lots to do.

I’m a bit of a tourist really, I like to visit all the top tourist attractions whenever I go somewhere new so I’m very excited for the chance to have a look around Brisbane in my downtime later.

We had another special welcome here when we arrived from the local community of Brisbane and Meanjin, including the Yuggara-Chepara dancers, the traditional Aboriginal women's dance group of Migunjin-Brisbane, who so warmly welcomed us last night!

Thank you to the community of Brisbane / Meanjin, including the Yuggara-Chepara Dancers, the traditional Aboriginal Women's Dance Group of Migunjin-Brisbane, who welcomed us last night! 👏 pic.twitter.com/HX2ZgECaOW

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 18, 2023

We then we had a welcome talk from FIFA which was amazing so it definitely feels like the tournament’s about to get going now. Even when we’re out and about, more people are noticing that we’re here and you can see how big this World Cup is going to be.

We’re all so excited and we want to catch as many games as we can while we’re here, so I’m sure a few of us will be tuning in when it all starts on Thursday.

On the pitch, training has been really good and getting better and better with every session. Obviously, we’ve been together for almost a month now including St. George’s Park, so every single session has contributed to where we are now and where we want to be going into the tournament when we kick-off on Saturday