I did not intend on writing on my blog as often as I have being doing, but due to people commenting and telling me how they enjoy reading them and how it kind of entertains them whilst on their dinner break, I thought I may as well keep regularly writing them, whilst what I have seen and done is fresh in my mind. I will continue to do this up until the internet stops being free.

I arrived in Domestic terminal 2 at Sydney from the Sunshine Coast, and due to it being a domestic flight, there was no messing around after we got off the plane. We just walked through food outlets, down the stairs to the baggage claim and off we went. The contrasts between Sydney and anywhere we visited in Queensland were there to be seen straight away. As soon as we got out of the airport, taxis were tooting away left right and centre. We would later find out that this sort of activity would not just go on inside the perimeter of the airport. Even though Brisbane was the 3rd biggest city in Australia, it was so peaceful, laid back, and generally more conservative than the fast paced larger city of Sydney.

I have heard passing comments about how there a resemblance between Sydney and London. I can see it ever so slightly, but in some ways I cannot see it all. Sydney has been modelled on London, so I guess there should a resemblance for most to see. I am not exactly frequent visitor to London, so I am not really the best person to judge. It definitely has the hectic big city feel (that is probably due to it being a big hectic city...doh). There are cars tooting every 5 seconds, and maybe it is just me, but in Brisbane you walked past maybe one idiot every few days, here you seem to walk past one idiot (talking or shouting to himself) every 20 minutes. It seems fairly safe however; I just feel I need to be need to be a lot more vigilant than other places I have visited in Australia. What I have just wrote did not mean to sound negative, as I actually find the place very nice indeed, and due to the location of my hostel, I am in close proximity to the majority of sights, and it is only a 15 minute walk down to the harbour. Sydney seems to be the capital of Australia all but in name, although I may change my mind on that one when I visit Melbourne. I read somewhere that Sydney was overlooked as the capital, due to it's convict past, but hasn't all of Australia got a convict past?

I have observed a few things here, regarding differences between Sydney and Brisbane. I can only really compare these two Cities so far as these are the only ones I have visited. The businessmen seem to be obsessed about talking about stocks and shares at lunch time whilst standing at traffic lights. Talking of traffic lights, the green man actually stays green here, unlike in Brisbane where it appears for around 2 seconds and then goes red again. The buzzing noise though is just as loud as it is in Brisbane; it is like playing a game of space invaders listening to the lights buzzing all the time when the green man appears. I think the amount of people crossing at the Green light on George Street at 5:45 could have easily gone into the Guinness book of records. I forgot to mention that in England, you have to wait around a minute for the lights, here you have to wait around 5 minutes and people are so impatient and try crossing the road on the red light, hence a constant noise of beeping from drivers. How I've only seen one accident on the road in Sydney is beyond me. Also, in Brisbane there was an ample of water fountains around to fill up your bottle of Water, here there is close to zilch. The exception being the amount of water fountains floating around the Olympic Park, but the water was close to boiling.

So far, this blog has just been more of an observation to let people know who haven't been to Sydney what it is like, and more importantly, for me in years to come to look back and remember what it was like. I accept it may not be entertaining for the reader.

The next bit will be about all the touristy stuff I've done in and around Sydney.

The first day I set off exploring the streets of Sydney at around 11am, I did not arrive back to where I was staying until half 11 in the evening. I may have not seen the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House for 21 years, but I sure made up for it on that day. The next morning I looked through my camera at all the pictures I took, and it dawned on me, what a proper tourist I have become. I had heard comments on how the Harbour Bridge looks just like the Humber Bridge or the Tyne Bridge. The people who built the bridge were from Middlesbrough, and for all the noise the residents from the other side of the bridge had to suffer for years during it being built, they gave them a sorry gift in the form of a funfair (which is called Luna Park and it opens till 11 at night). Only people from Middlesbrough could do that eh? As I'm mentioning the bridge, I will mention the Opera house, as they seem to go hand in hand (well in postcards they do anyway). I had a look round inside and marvelled at the design that was created by a Danish bloke. He had a bitter dispute with the Aussie government and he left Sydney before it was built, and he never came back again. Whilst we're having a quick history lesson, they are very strict on punctuality for the shows in the opera house, and they don't let anyone who is late in until a suitable interval. An American president once fell victim to this, and surprise, surprise, that American president was George W Bush.

I also visited the Olympic Park, where in my opinion the greatest ever Olympics took place. The Sydney Olympics made Sydney and Australia itself change forever. The Olympics made Australia what it is today, a confident country who can stand on its own two feet, and need not rely on anyone else anymore. I have visited all the various stadiums around the park. I have being outside the stadium where Kathy Freeman held the hopes of a nation in the 400 metres, and duly delivered. The park was extremely impressive and it was somewhere I have always wanted to visit, due to my strong interest in various sports. Hopefully the setting for London 2012 can look as impressive as the Olympic Park in Sydney still does 10 years on.

The next bit is random gibberish, and totally unrelated to anything else written in this blog (well you could argue that it's somewhat related in the fact that it's gibberish if you were been a tad witty). I don't know where to fit this bit in anyway so I'll just add a lone paragraph here. I was walking down the street in the CBD in Sydney where there was a book signing taking place, and the famous person turned out to be John Howard who is the 2nd longest serving Australian Prime Minister. I can add that to the list of famous people I have now seen in person.

I will no doubt be writing a lot of blogs during my journey, so I'll try and change the style throughout. Hopefully you've found some of this blog useful, and hopefully a little entertaining. I accept some of it's not always probably exciting for everyone to read, but I don't have a diary I write in, I put all my experiences down on this, so a lot of what I write is actually for me to remember in years to come. Having said that, I do hope some of you still enjoy what I write.

I will see you all in 2011 in the next blog when I will hopefully tell you what a lovely Christmas and New year I had whilst staying in Sydney.