The time had come for us to go to the big city, well, the city I was most looking forward to. Sydney has everything to offer, the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the shopping, the nightlife, the views, the weather and judging from the people I met, it has lovely people too. Simply I loved it, which is quite dangerous, seen as I was already considering coming back here to work for a year.

The Greyhound bus journey wasn't to bad in the end, I slept for a good chunk of it but it did turn out to be a 14 hour bus ride in the end. I woke up just as we was entering Sydney, as I started to see the bridge in the distance, I was calling Kate's name, who was sitting parallel to me to try to wake her up because I thought she'd want to see it, she wasn't having any of it. Still snoozing away, I eventually ended up asking the person behind her to nudge her a few times. There we was watching the bus drive over the famous Harbour Bridge, I got quite teary because we had planned our whole trip around being in Sydney for New Years and now we were here with 3 days to go until NYE. We got off the bus in the midday sun, rucksacks on our front and backpacks on our backs with a cool bag and map in hand trying to search for our hostel, finally we got to Redfern and found our new home for the next 5 days, we freshened up and headed into the city to see what we could discover. We firstly found Chinatown and plodded round the market stalls (as per), the girls needed some grub so we went to the underground food court, there was so much choice, we spent forever wondering around, luckily half of the menus were in English - it did make us think towards Asia and how difficult its going to be to order food, work out the currency exchange and even to get from A to B, gulp! After seeing a few whole fishes on people plates the girls ordered, I was pretty low on dollars at this point and couldn't get any money until I got to Melbourne so I saved my hunger for the 2 minute noodles back at the hostel. On the way out, we bought mini Japanese 'pancakes' but I think they were more like soft macaroons, luckily they were lovely but for only $2, we couldn't go wrong! After a naughty walk around another Westfield's shopping centre, we had to rush back to the hostel to get ready as we had been invited out for drinks by the gentleman that had invited us to his lavish New Years party. We had such fun that night, we went to the main party district of Sydney, called Kings Cross. Karam - the gentleman, had rented a table in a bar/club with a bunch of his friends, think it was called The Backroom or something. We danced, drank, drank a lot but Karam picked up the tab which was very sweet. The girls were tired from the bus journey and decided to go home. I had the party bug in me so didn't want to go home and I knew the gentlemen would make sure I got home safely later, everyone went back to one of their apartments and the views of the city were incredible, to see the skyscrapers and the bridge lite up in lights against the black sky was the best way to spend my first night in Sydney, not many people get this view so I felt very fortunate.

The next day nursing a fuzzy head, we had a chance to sightsee properly. We went to see the bars and restaurants on The Rocks, we did the tourist attractions, saw the Harbour Bridge, had photos in front of the Opera House, walked for hours discovering the wonders of the one off shops and dinky roads. We lived near an area called Surrey Hills, we ate their most days, we didn't have enough time there to eat in all the places we wanted to. After we went out for Thai food, I couldn't help but pass out, against my will, but obviously my body needed it. The next day we planned to go to Manly beach, we started the walk to the ferry, 2 hours later, we got to the harbour port and thought that $14 for the ferry wasn't justified so we walked to the Botanical Gardens and rested in the sun. That evening we met up with Kate's uni friend from home called Liv and a bunch of people from our Fraser Island trip for a pizza in the hills, it was nice to catch up on stories from different towns down the coast.

We woke up on New Years Eve nice and early for a morning at Coogee Beach, we caught the bus over to Coogee Town and planted ourselves in the sand. I dangerously napped in the sun but was lucky I didn't go the colour of a beetroot before the party. After stocking up on a couple of bottles of the cheapest bubbles, the girls got food (Kate sadly got short chained on her portion haha) and I got a famous Boost smoothie, we headed home to start the getting ready process. We pre booked a taxi to ensure we made it to Point Piper, where Karam's penthouse was, for the 9pm fireworks display, well the taxi didn't ever turn up so we had to flag one down, we assumed there would be traffic madness like it is in London on New Years but we were pleasantly surprised when we sailed there in 15 minutes. We pulled up outside the building, the guest list man took down our names, showed us into the lifts and pushed the button to the penthouse. The apartment was lovely, gorgeous wooden and glass staircase, show fire place, hooomungeous television and there it was, that view, the view of the lights glinting on the sea, the boats all lining up around the harbour, surrounding the cove of the Opera House, the sun had just set as the 9pm 'kiddie fireworks' kicked off. It was a taster of what was to come, us three clinked our glasses and said a cheers over the year that was our London 2012 Olympic year. There were waitresses serving drinks in one corner of the room and a DJ in another, we sipped down vodka cranberry sodas until 11.45pm when they let off a pre warn firework so people knew to get ready. We each downed a shot and filled our drinks then headed to the sun deck which was the top floor of the apartment, we got a perfect view and again started reminiscing on the year at was.. The sky was suddenly brightened with colours and smoke residue, they were spectacular, us three couldn't help but stand there and grasp each other shedding a little tear. The people we knew said Happy New Years and we went back down for a bit of a dance and a couple more cocktails. On our way home, it was impossible to get a taxi and the traffic around Point Piper was a nightmare, we naively started to walk it, both the girls had previously bought new heels for the party so their feet were burning. I can't remember how it came about but the next minute Kate was in a shopping trolley and Liv was asking me to help push!! We struggled and pushed for at least 15 minutes but when we got to a steep hill we told Princess Kate that her carriage is no longer in service, we carried on walking, Liv with her hand out, eventually a taxi man stopped for us (even though he was off shift), into bed we got, it was hard not to feel a little saddened by the end of 2012 and a couple of others bits that got me thinking so I didn't go to bed in the happiest of moods and unfortunately that mood stretched to the morning of New Year's Day, after a tear and a cuddle with Kate I sharpened myself up, we all went to breakfast at the 'Lemon' and had the most amazing fry up, although it was definitely a late brunch so basically lunch! We went to a nearby park to veg out in the sun for an hour then we split ways as Kate and I was going to meet the legendary Ledge, one of Greg's (my 2012 boss) mates that lives in Sydney and Liv was going to meet a very long lost cousin in the next town. Kate and I scooted down to a bar called The Winery on Crown St, we've walked past this place a few times so we were excited to go in. Ledge and his fiancé Marion was already inside, they were lovely people and a gorgeous couple. The four of us got on with each other instantly and started to swap stories on Sydney, Travelling and off course Greg. After a couple of glasses of red wine and a jug of Pimms (wow, we forgot how nice Pimms was in the sunshine), we headed off to the another bar near Ledge's apartment in Paddington, Greg had instructed us to make sure I had a Boags beer in The Royal so we did, we sat on the rooftop and looked out at the skyscrappers filling the horizon of the city. The next bar was the Paddington Arms, Marion ordered these lovely cider cocktail jugs that were delicious. It was so nice to drink and socialise in cool places with character again rather then pre drinking goon in hostels and going to sticky floored bars. After a nibble of chips we went to go to another place which was sadly closed but I'm secretly glad it was as it meant we got to go to meet Dominique, he was their friend and had an apartment just opposite where we was. He was a great host, lots of stories and funny moments, he also put me in contact with numerous people in India for when we travel there in April, so sweet of him, lovely guy! We needed to call it a night as we were flying to Melbourne the next day, so after a few for the road, it's was time for the ABF. We said our goodbyes and I said I would see them later this year. The next morning I was pretty dam hungover, we packed up, jumped in a cab, queued at the ridiculously overcrowded airport, bought our final Boost juice and boarded the plane. See ya soon Sydney!