We were dropped off the night bus from our final Greyhound ride at about half 9 thismorning, very tired. Sydney was looking good though and the weather was hot. As its my favourite city in the world, there was no way I would just sleep all day, and with only 4 days here, I made a pact to just get up and go.

We caught a taxi to our hostel with our bags - The Elephant Hostel on St James Young Crescent? This had been a very hard night to book into when we did it in Byron Bay. This weekend "Sydney is on fire" as I heard a local say:

• Rihanna is playing
• One Direction is playing
• it is the start of International Fleet Week
• it is the Randwick Races tomorrow
• it is the long weekend
• it is the NFL final on Sunday night!

Therefore, as expected, Elephant was pretty minging (although it was in a good location). We were in a room of 10 as it was the cheapest and we had two extra boys sleeping sneakily on the floor as they literally could not find anywhere to stay! The place could have been really grand back in the day when it was built but it is just shabby now which was a shame, and our room was pretty dingy. All that struck us was 'how are we going to get ready for the races tomorrow without being judged!!?'

Anyhow, we dumped our bags, got changed and headed out firstly to the Art Museum in the Botanic Gardens as it had free wifi and we needed to contact a few people! We did have a quick look round though before heading to the cafe for a croissant and a cuppa in the sun outside.

We contacted Kylie (who had just secured a job at the Opera Bar right in Circular Quay lucky girl) agreeing to meet her at the harbour at 12.30pm. So we wandered further up the path past the museum along to Mrs Macquarie's chair where we would be able to see our first proper view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. They were looking as good as ever! It was here we realised how big the Fleet Week event is though! All the gates, turnstiles and fences were set up in preparation for tomorrows fireworks already!

Having taken some photos, we strolled back around and up towards the Opera House. It was so busy round there we only got as far as the Opera House steps! This wasn't a problem though as the New Zealand Navy Band were set up playing outside so we sat and watched them for a while until Kylie had made her way into town.

It was good to see her! She told us all about what her and Cheryl had been up to since we last saw them at Airlie Beach and we filled her in on our trip as well. We pushed through the crowds to a restaurant called Rossinis just behind the Manly ferry jetty and had lunch. It was a little pricey but I had a really, really nice ravioli (only $12 but pricey for a wee backpacker).

After about an hours catch up we said goodbye and she pointed us in the direction of the shops on George Street and Pitt Street. We bought our tickets for a Sydney Harbour Bridge night climb for Sunday night at this point! Mum had said she would treat me and Georgie since Christine had paid for the Pullman in Cairns.

Before we were brave enough to hit the shops, we popped into STA Travel where G booked some more of her trip for once I have left. We then dashed round as it was 3pm and Georgie was in desperate need of a dress for the races tomorrow!! Having raced around for a while, she settled on a pencil skirt and top which looked really nice. We also bought fascinators, bumping into 2 other girls in the shop looking for them for the races tomorrow as well! It got us even more excited!

We were so tired so just HAD to treat ourselves to a Wagamama's which we had spotted earlier. Although amazing as usual, it wasn't as good as it could be as for some reason, over the past hour, I had been hit by some sort of pollen type allergy and literally was so blocked up that I could barely taste it!

Having walked back to the hostel, all we wanted to do was try on some outfits in preparation for tomorrow then head to sleep. It had been a long day! However, who were we to find was one of our room mates but a very mentally unstable 21 year old australian boy. He just stood and watched us for 20 minutes as we attempted tp unpack. He was with two others who came in later and were exactly the same. We felt mean but we felt really uncomfortable being around them. I was also so bunged up that this was literally the last thing I needed! I got into bed and tried to recover from the sneezing fit while Georgie kindly did some washing. I just wanted to relax and read my book but I couldn't even do that as it was too dingy AND there was a huge moth flying round above my bed :(

Going to sleep I knew tomorrow would be a better day and make up for the last couple of hours!