Having endured another overnight bus journey with another crazy Greyhound driver, we arrived in Sydney bright and early. We spent the day wandering around and doing some shopping. It wasn't as cold as we'd expected, but as we'd found in Brisbane, our summer wardrobe just wasn't enough anymore. In the afternoon we headed over to Balmain, to my mum's friend Maggie's house where we would be staying. Having done all our catching up with Maggie and her daughter Heather it was great to have a home cooked meal and relax in a house rather than a hostel!

On Friday we started our day with a ferry to Manly, one of the beach towns nearby. It was lovely and sunny and we spent some time walking round before heading back into Sydney late afternoon. That evening we had been instructed by Em to go to a night called Purple Sneakers, and it just so happened Heather's friend was djing there, so off we went. It was a great night, but having arrived early we seemed to drink a lot without realising it...something I noticed the next morning! However, it's a tough life being a backpacker, and we struggled out of bed the next morning to head to Glebe to visit the cool weekend market there. Glebe is a really sweet place and we enjoyed wandering through town before walking into the city to the lovely Botanic Gardens. Late afternoon we met up with Em's friend Mark for a drink or five (all "I'm not gona drink today" declarations forgotten) at a bar by the harbour, then headed back to Maggie's where Heather had cooked us dinner.

On Sunday we went to an exhibition with Heather that her brother was part of, then had lunch and walked over the Harbour Bridge. We climbed one of the towers which had an exhibition in it, and a great view from the top. Next stop was the Opera House, where we went on a tour about the building and its history. It was actually really interesting and cool to see the inside. From here we went to the Sydney Ice bar, as the name suggests its a bar where everything is made of ice. Sounds great but was quite a disappointment.

Monday was our trip to the Blue Mountains, which is not too far from Sydney. We had a great day stopping at various viewpoints to admire the scenery, and took a ridiculous amount of photos!

Tuesday was our final day in Sydney and we went to do the well-trodden walk from Coogee to Bondi beach. The weather was lovely and it was a great day to do it, really nice walking along the coast from bay to bay. On Tuesday night it was back onto the Greyhound for our final coach leg to Melbourne. Loved Sydney and would love to go back and spend more time there. It was also such a nice change to stay with Maggie and Heather in a house rather than staying in yet another hostel!