After a short 1 hour, 706km internal flight we arrived in Sydney, this is where it could be said the "real" adventure will now begin, we caught a train to the centre of the city and then checked into our first Hostel of the trip, dumped our bags and then went for a wander up one of the main streets towards arguably Sydney's two greatest landmarks, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. When we finally got to the Harbour it was a great sight, both very striking. It was a really nice day so we managed to get a few pictures and then went through the botanical gardens to get a different view. We also thought the other side of the gardens would be a perfect place to spend New Years Eve as it had a great view of the river the bridge which is where the infamous firework display would be. We headed back to the hostel stopping to get some essentials on the way back….a pair of sunny's each…believe me, these were definitely needed, for more than one reason! We went down to the Hostel's bar on the Monday night as they had a couple of Crab races, basically they set up a little race track in the bar, 20 crabs in each race, some of the people got to name the crabs and if yours won then you won a prize! Pretty funny to watch, and it was well busy. The winner of the last race was called "My Face", clever name, and lots of vocal support for that one!We headed out to Manly Beach the following day, it was a short ferry ride away, but allowed us to get on the boat and get some good views of the city. It was also really good weather, and unfortunately I got burnt! (Even though I did put heaps of sun cream on!) We went for some fish and chips for lunch, thought it was only right as we were by the sea, and they lived up to their expectations of being very good! It was good to finally get into the sea, which we did, despite all the commotion about the sharks in the seas around the whole of Australia! Luckily there weren't any that day, just some good waves! New Years Eve…..we left the hostel about 10am heading for the place we had seen on the first day, stopped to get some food for lunch on the way, when we arrived the queue was further than we could see, people had been queuing since 7am that morning, and the place didn't even open until 10am! We decided against lining up and so got in a taxi to the other side of the Harbour, we went to a place called Cremone Point, it was one of the spots listed as a good place to view the fireworks and as we had never been there it was a bit of a gamble, we turned up at roughly 11.30am not really knowing what to expect, it was brilliant view but did look quite busy, we did find a good space though and set up camp for the day! Only 12 hours to go! There was a nice group of Dutch people that we did end up chatting to, managed to get a taxi with them to the local shop to get some alcohol as this was a bring your own alcohol allowed area. Managed to get a 6 pack each as it was a very hot day, thought we would be able to manage a 6 pack whilst it was still chilled from the shop! (Quick change of writer, J.Barnes on the board)Those 12 beers lasted no longer than 70minutes I'm sure. But what C Jelf did next was nothing short of 'Heroic'. C stomped his way back to that shop somehow and as I sat in the boiling sun admiring the view, wandering whether we had drank our last beers of 08', he later appeared, carrying on his shoulder another 12 cold beers, and to top that off, with him he had also somehow purchased our equivalent of champagne, that's right….2 bottles of Magners, he confirmed shortly after that these were for 12o'clock. But it was an act of courage and bravery that won't be forgotten. A Carlsberg advert would perfectly some up that moment, "Carlsberg don't do travel partners but if they did they would probably be the best travel partners in the world."
As for New Years Eve! Immense C will no doubt tell you about the fireworks and that, but what a day!(Back to ME!!)So we managed to polish off the second lot of beer whilst watching the sun set down behind the Harbour Bridge and the 9 o'clock fireworks display, nice way to finish off '08, but it was nothing as to what we were about to see, probably one of the best fireworks displays in the world, there were 6 barges on the river letting off fireworks, 7 of the high rise skyscrapers, and then of course the Harbour Bridge, it said they had been planning this display for the previous 15 months and it certainly didn't disappoint, it was made all the better by the refreshing bottle of Magners!!New Years Days however……was probably spent much the same as most people at home, sleeping eating and generally recovering!! We took a day trip up to the Blue Mountains, the following day, this is a range of mountains about 90 minutes out of Sydney which appear to have a blue mist all around them. We stopped off on the way at the Wildlife park, had a photo with a Koala! We then got back onto the coach and headed into the mountains, our first stop was a Waterfall called Wentworth Falls, we then stopped for Lunch. After a very nice lunch we made our way around the Mountain roads to "The 3 Sisters" Which are 3 mountains that look (roughly) like 3 girls sitting on a mountain, there are many aboriginal stories about how this, one is that 3 girls were on the mountain watching their dad (A magic man), hunt down in the Bush land, when they started throwing rocks off of the mountain which awoke a "Bunion" which the aborigines were very scared of, the "Bunion" started making it way up the mountain to get the girls but their dad saw this and turned them into stone to protect them, the bunion then chased the dad and he managed to turn himself into a bird and fly away, but he dropped the magic bone in the process and so he couldn't turn the girls or himself back! Crazy story! Some magnificent views off the top of the mountain though! We then made our way down the mountain and the through the Sydney 2000 Olympic park, this was a massive area full of stadiums that were used in the 2000 Olympics, and also the magical stadium where England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003. We then caught a ferry back to Darling Harbour. All in all it was a really good day and good value for money. Now…staying in the hostel it works out a lot cheaper to actually COOK some meals for ourselves and I know it may come as a shock to some of you but…our joint cooking knowledge and meals isn't the best! But we have managed a couple of meals, mainly of Pasta, and also a few different varieties of egg!! Any cheap, quick and easy recipes that you think we could manage would be greatly appreciated!! We did manage to cook a stir fry this evening though and it was very good, although it was a joint effort with our Canadian friend…Miss Morningstar here's the shout out we promised for helping us make such a good meal! We all went to the food market, bought fresh veg and chicken and then some noodles, took it back and cooked up a right beauty of a meal! So the repertoire is slowly but surely coming along, all I can say is watch out to a certain Mr Oliver and Mr Ramsey!!!! Hope you are all ok and had a great New Year, our next stop is the surfing trip which takes us up the east coast. Take Care, and have a great '09 (P.S. We now have an OZ mobile number: 0424040049)C and Barnes
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