Bitcoin wallet very slow sync

MakeUseOf has piqued my interest in Bitcoin and I have decided to give it a go after seeing the number of merchants accepting it as payments increase. I downloaded the official Bitcoin client (wallet) and am now waiting for it to finish syncing. The progress bar at the bottom filled to about 60% after leaving the software running overnight. However, when I checked on it in the morning, progress is painfully slow, about 1 block every 20 seconds. It slowed down with around 50, 000 blocks left/40% to completion.

I left it on for two more days and still have over 35, 000 blocks left. Is this normal? For those with experience, how long did it take for your Bitcoin wallet to sync? Consider your internet speed when responding as mine is 3 Mbit/sec down and 0.333 Mbit/sec up.