Hello everyone,

Due to a slightly threatening email from my mum I'm typing and publishing this blog as fast as possible! We're all alive but only just :)

So we arrived at the youth hostel around 3pm and felt quite reluctant to talk to anyone as we were so exhausted from our journey, so after a nap we had a wonder around the local area came back and had another nap. Before we knew it we were meeting up with Cal and John jumping from an Irish bar to a Scottish bar to an American bar etc, the boys left to catch their train and we all had the intention of getting a good nights sleep. Alas when you are sharing a room with nine other people you don't always have much control over when you sleep; we began playing a couple of drinking games with our room mates and Next thing we know it's 3am and were in the onsite club dancing our socks off! At one point I was thrown into a dance competition - I have no idea what the end result was but I was pretty happy :)

The next day was very hazy. We all slept for 14 hours and all I dreamt about was drinking large jugs of water hmmm we slowly mustered up the energy to go to the cinema and watch the Hunger Games, perfect environment with no natural sunlight. The boys rated the film 8/10 and me 9/10, we now want to read all the books. We wondered around Westfield shopping centre (I worked in the Westfield Shopping centre in London), and simply enjoyed all the sights and sounds of Sydney. To elaborate on that point Sydney smells divine, a very sweet clean smell and the sound of the traffic lights when your allowed to cross the road is hilarious, first time we heard it it nearly gave us a heart attack!

Again that night we wished to fall into a beautiful state of slumber but that wish didn't come true. In fact we had a new room mate arrive called Gemma who encouraged us all to go out and celebrate her arrival haha so the drinking games commenced, somehow Josh and Chris escaped so it was me, Gemma, Amy and Mitch. I immediately start talking to a man who said he moved from England to Australia when he was 15, I said that's such a shame England is a great place to live, why did you leave? He said 'I lived in Slough'. I had no response. We danced a little but then I was roped into a playing a game of pool. I was in a team with a guy from LA versus a guy from Newcastle and a guy from Brisbane. We lost the first game but the second game we had a huge comeback and I potted the last ball and the black! The crowd went wild! Mitch went to bed, Amy met up with a friend which left Gemma and I. We danced, but she was on the prowl and I just wanted to play pool :) we were asked to play as a duo against Mr Newcastle and Mr Brisbane, Gemma quit after two goes due to embarrassment. Therefore it was Mrs Jessica Lane against the deadly duo, it was a close game but they had a lucky go and won. I shook Mr Brisbanes hand and he whispered that he had cheated but that I hadn't noticed, I jumped for Joy and possibly screamed a little :) We then aimed to go to bed but met back up with Amy and Mike and got a delicious double cheeseburger at 2.50am!

I woke up at 8am had a shower then went back to sleep. Our sleep was all interrupted by a tannoy announcement saying 'Wake Up Wake Up' grrr, it did in fact spur on everyone in our room and we all got up and planned our day. Today, we went to Sydney Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Palace Gardens and Syndey Harbour Bridge. It was the perfect day for it with beautiful sunshine and a cool breeze, we walked for over 4 hours and was blown away by how picturesque the Opera House is. We had lunch at the Opera House restaurant which overlooked the Harbour, again the camera was not quick enough for my finger! The opera house was definatey smaller than expected but as soon as i saw it i ran up and hugged it so i can say ive hugged the Sydney Opera House - the exhaustion is getting me. The Botanic and Palace gardens were lovely, the smell of flowers reminded us all of our childhoods spent in gardens during the summer. On the way back to the hostel we found a Victorian shopping centre which was built in 1891 called The Strand and has kept its original features; all the window displays have an autumn theme which seems so strange to us.

We're now back at the hostel after having an omelette getting ready to go out. All the room are going as its supposed to be the biggest night of the Easter weekend. Night number 4 here we go! Tomorrow were going on a hop on hop off ferry around Sydney which goes to Darling Harbour, Watsons Bay, Manly Beach, North Head and Luna Park. Only 3 more days in Sydney so going to make the most of it. Happy Easter everyone!

Love to all, Love Jess, Chris and Josh xxx