After finally getting on our shuttle bus at Sydney airport we arrived in Kings Cross and we were slightly dubious as to what we were going to be in for, having changed our original hostel reservation as we had heard horrendous reviews about uncleanliness and LOUD noise from the bar below, we decided to stay at the Jackaroo hostel which was new and right next to the station. So when we arrived we found our hostel…literally INSIDE the station, but walked downstairs and checking in and it was REALLY nice! Literally brand new, clean, spacious, our 4 bed dorm was great and so nice to have a bed that did not look like a thousand other grubby travellers had previously slept in it! We'd been texting Ben's friend Karena since we landed and she was adamant to take us out and show us a bit of Sydney. So we literally dumped our bags, jumped in the shower, and by the time I came back to the room Karena and Shannah were in our room waiting! We got in her car and drove through past Hyde Park, through Sydney CBD, over the bridge and parked up by Milson's point. I called my mum to let her know I had arrived safe and as I was on the phone and we were walking to the park I looked up and suddenly the Opera House and the Bridge were right there across the river - was SO surreal still did not feel like we were actually in Sydney at all! We went and sat with a bunch of Karena's basketball friends, one of them went and got some pizza and we chilled in the park with some beers. Was a fabulous introduction to Sydney! After Karena had dropped us back at our hostel we had planned to get an early night however our body clocks were still confused by the time difference and we discovered free wi fi in our room so ended up playing on our laptop and ipod touch for ages.

Monday morning we attempted to get up for the free breakfast, however we arrived 10 minutes before it closed and there was no food left! We had to go to the supermarket anyway to get supplies for the week and get a picnic to take to the beach with Karena. So we found our local 'Coles' literally across the road and spent wayyy too long browsing and buying food. We then jumped on the train to meet Karena (who had been waiting all morning for us) and she drove us to Freshwater Beach - a non-touristy, really nice beach, where we spent the day chilling out, went for a swim in the freezing water, devoured our picnic and headed back to her house in the evening. She cooked us our first Aussie BBQ in her lovely apartment with a few glasses of wine which was great. Was so nice getting to chill out in someone's house and sit on sofas and not be surrounded by a bunch of other strange travellers! Got the train back about 10pm after bidding Karena farewell as she was off the New Zealand for the next two weeks. Was great getting to spend time with a local and do normal life things!

The next day we decided to get our dreaded washing load done, had lunch at the hostel then made our own way out into the City to explore. Went to Darling Harbour, had a little bit of a shop, saw China Town, Cockles Bay, Pyrmont Harbour and got the tram back to Central in an attempt to get dinner. We (once-again-stupidly) decided to take the advise of the 'Lonely Planet' and found this Argentinian Tapas place which was recommended as really nice and quite cheap. We took a seat, ordered some tap water (thank God), then saw the miniscule menu with about 10 items on it which were all about $10 each, and the cheapest bottle of wine was $60. So as completely soul destroyingly embarrassing as it was, I plucked up the courage to leave as there was not a chance in hell I was forking out that much money for a few piddly bits of tapas! I explained to the waiter that we had been misinformed about the restaurant and that we just could not afford to eat there, then we made a SWIFT exit!! Was definitely a good and brave move on my part! The issue now was that we had no idea where to eat, out feet were killing and we were starving. Walking back through China Town we came across this 'all you can eat' Korean buffet so settled for that. It was definitely interesting, did not serve alcohol (yes this was shocking but we were too tired and hungry to keep looking)! It was quite tasty but the most bizarre textures of non-descript non-labelled food! It was still pretty early after we had eaten so we grabbed a Christmas coffee in starbucks on the way back before heading back to the hostel.

Wednesday we decided to take a trip to the infamous Bondi beach - well what an experience that was! Obviously with our luck we seemed to have chosen the first day of the kids Christmas holidays so the bus station was absolutely rammed full of young teenagers blasting boom boxes and generally being too excited and young and not knowing how to queue (yes I know I sound terribly English and about 90 years old, but I just preach the truth!!) After about half an hour of no hope of jumping on a bus we gave up queuing and decided to walk, as it couldn't be that far. Well it certainly wasn't close but wasn't a bad walk. When we arrived at the beach it was unbelievable like a million little ants scattered all over the beach! We attempted to relax on the beach for the afternoon until we got bored and the sun went in, then missioned it back via the delightlfully full bus to our hostel to get ready to meet Fiona. She came round and we cooked some pasta and polished off a few bottles of wine. Got chatting to a couple of Northern girls - Kyna and Michelle in our hostel then we all decided to head to The Sugar Mill for a couple more drinks. Was a really cool bar and we got free entry and a free drink. Fiona had to leave before it got too late as had work the next day, we stayed for a little longer, had a bit of a boogie then called it a night.

Next morning the heads were a little delicate so skipped breakfast and went to check out Paddy's Markets in the afternoon as I was in need of a case for my ipod touch! Spent the day milling around the shops and walking til we got lost and had to jump on a tram back to the centre of the city! That evening we just had a quiet one in the hostel chilling out and watching TV in the common room.

Friday morning I had had enough of feeling like a massive fatty so I got my arse out of bed and went for a run. Ended up near one of the harbours which was really cool, however on the way back the sun was getting warm and Sydney is pretty hilly so was quite a tiring sweaty run but felt so much better for doing it! That morning we went to Town Hall to go on a 'Free Walking Tour of the City'. There was a huge group of us led by this girl who's brother had set up the company to exhibit his city to visitors. Was a 3 hour tour but the girl made it really interesting and we saw loads - Town Hall, Victoria building, St Mary's Cathedreal, CBD, Maquaurie Place, the old Rum Hospital, The Rocks, the Opera House and the Bridge. After the tour we went and got some food from the Rocks markets and ate it by Circular Quay looking at the huge cruise boats and buzz on the harbour. We attempted to go to the show at the observatory after but it was too cloudy so just wandered around the museum then went and sat on the hill looking at the spectacular view of the city. There were loads of groups of office end of year parties going on around us which was fun to watch and quite bizarre that they were having picnics around Christmas time! Friday evening was BBQ and free wine night back at the hostel so we took meat to be cooked by the hostel owner and ate on the rooftop with a few others before making our way downstairs to drink copious amount of free red wine - was brilliant! Got chatting to loads of other travellers and had a good laugh. Attemped to go for a dance at a club down the road but after not very long we all decided the music was a bit lame and why weren't we back at the hostel drinking the free wine?! So we went back and made the most of MORE red wine!

So the next morning we were not feeling too fresh, so we slept until we felt slightly more human and then Ben, Kyna and I decided to go for a walk to clear the heads and stretch the legs. We tried to go to the Botanical Gardens however on the way we walked past the Domain and saw hundreds of people, tents, and a huge stage - we were very curious as to what was going on and found out that it was Sydney's annual Carol Concert - free for the public! Well we were certainly sold, but as it wasn't starting for another few hours we thought we'd go visit the Art Gallery first, Kyna went for a nap as she had to work the nightshift that night, then we went to get some stuff ready to spend the evening in the park. We bought a picnic goodie bag form the Salvation Army people which was rammed full of stuff, managed to get quite a good spot and settled down in the sun waiting for the concert to begin. It was a little long winded getting to the actual main part of the show but a really nice day. It was broadcast on National TV and there were apparently 100,000 people there in the park! Was a really nice family and Christmassy atmosphere (which made me quite homesick) and the carols and the guest singers were really good, there were even fireworks. Was the best hangover find yet! Sunday Ben and I did a little tour of our own of the City - saw the Barracks museum, St Mary's Cathedral (inside this time), West Field Shopping centre, had lunch in the Rocks then met Kyna and wandered around the Rocks Markets before getting a couple of pints at an Irish pub. After that we ended up walking to the opera house and ended up purchasing a bottle of fizz at the Opera bar - lush!! Was really great, until it chucked it down with rain. So we retreated back to Kings Cross for a $10 steak and a few more drinks.

Monday morning I was feeling like such a lump I needed to do some exercise, so I went across the road to Fitness First bright and early and signed up for a free 2 day trial. Had an awesome 2 hour workout in their huge and really cool 3 floored gym. Went shopping that afternoon cos I needed cheering up as Christmas without the family was playing on my mind quite a lot. Got an early one that night however Ben got peer pressured by our room-mate into some goon and then dragged him out to a few bars. Next morning I got up early again and had another awesome 2 hour workout while the hungover one slept in! Went out for a walk and ended up in the Bo-Ho Newtown that afternoon, then chilled by the harbour at Circular Quay with a coke and a newspaper before strolling through the Botanical gardens to Martin's Place to meet Fiona to discuss Christmas plans. Had some dinner and drinks and felt much better knowing that we were gonna have our own little family Christmas at Fiona's apartment. After that we went and met Kyna at World Bar to see her do some Kareoke and she was AMAZING!! So much fun to watch and a stunning voice! We weren't drinking too much as had to be up early for our surf lesson the next day, but I did get chatting to a couple of good looking Aussie blokes (at long last!) who were fun but turned out to be kinda odd.

Wednesday 22nd December - got ferry to Manly beach for our first Aussie surf lesson. It was a nice day, the sun was shining, the ferry ride was pleasant, the beach was busy but not rammed, the sea looked inviting, got some seafood for lunch before our lesson which was delicious then we headed to Manly Surf School for 2 hours of amazingly fun surf times! They gave us about half an hour of verbal tutorial, we had quite a big group - all clad in our delightful wetsuits, t-shirts and surfboards, then we got a whole hour and a half in the water (which doesn't sound much but it's absolutely shattering!). Managed to catch about 8-10 waves fairly successfully and actually caught about 4/5 where I was like a proper surfer chick was so much fun! That night we just had a quiet one finishing up leftover food and packing up our bags ready to move to the next hostel.

After spending the morning in Kings Cross trying to book our Blue Mountains tour for the next week, we dumped our bags at our new hostel which we were quite pleased with, and went out in an attempt to buy each other Christmas presents. After successfully choosing our own presents for each other to buy we did the dreaded Christmas food shop in a disgustingly busy supermarket which was STRESSFUL! Annoying thing is that supermarkets in Australia do not sell alcohol (yes mum shocking and what a pain) so you have to go to a liquor store to get your booze which is usually next door to the market but this one was so tiny and expensive that we decided to go back to the hostel, put away all our stuff then head back out to get Christmas booze! Went and got some grub at a Bavarian restaurant (where we had a voucher for a free bottle of wine lubly jubly). The portions were SO huge was ridiculous!

Christmas Eve!!! Had a leisurely morning of getting ready and prepared for the weekend ahead. Went and met Fiona then walked to Mrs Macquarie's Chair (a grassy parky area overlooking the Opera House and the Bridge). The sun was blazing again and we had a spectacular view. Spent a really enjoyable day with a few glasses of wine and our lush picnic. At about 8pm we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and went to Darling Harbour to try catch some Carols and fireworks, however we were a little late and missed them. Had a swift drink with some of Fiona's friends then Ben and I had to leave to go meet Kyna outside St Mary's Cathedral for Midnight Mass. There were absolutely tons of people waiting outside the Cathedral and when they opened the door it was chaos trying to get in and get a seat -the place was packed! Once everyone had settled down it began with a few hymns and carols and it was all nice up until about 12.45pm when it got really heavy and longggg and we were tired and a few people were also leaving so we snuck out as they still hadn't even got to the communion part yet!

Christmas Day!!! Up at 8.30am for a very emotional skype with the family where we exchanged presents on webcam and I finally got to open and therefore get rid of my pain in the arse Christmas box!! Got some really nice and thoughtful present and cards and letters which was lovely. After I had sorted myself out and Ben had skyped his family we went and made ourselves smoked salmon and scrambles egg English muffins with coffee and bucks fizz then made our way to the other side of the Bridge to Fiona's apartment. When we arrived we carried on with some more bucks fizz, Christmas music, cooking preparations, half watched Home Alone, and had a nice chilled afternoon, apart from the dire heat coming from the sweat box of an apartment! Food took a little longer than expected and didn't end up eating til around 6.30pm where we ate SOOOOOO much food was amazing! We carried on tucking in to the wine, chatting and laughing on the balcony and were so full from dinner didn't end up eating deserts until 9.30pm. So by the time we had finished our food marathon we realised that it was too late to go to the beach, so we ended up playing hilarious drinking games, got rather drunk, and had a fabulous day, rolled in to bed about 1.30am!

Boxing Day!!! Up at 8am feeling rather delicate and HOT in the apartment as usual. Got showered, made some turkey sandwiches, dressed up all nice and then realised it was pouring with rain outside. So there was debate for a while about whether we were actually going to go the races or not but I managed to convince everyone to get their arses moving and go. We eventually left the apartment an hour and a half after originally planned but still, we were on our way! We got free entry as had an international passport which was a nice treat. Got some good seats near the front and started back on the sparkling wine again! The clouds suddenly disappeared and it was absolutely BOILING HOT - 32 degrees apparently. So we all ended up fighting for shade under the umberellas, I had to go ask to borrow someone's suncream for burny white Fiona (love ya really!) and we all melted in the heat all afternoon, poor Ben in his smart Jeans and shoes suffered! Had a really fun day though placing bets, not really winning much but still got into it! Kyna and a few of her friends joined us for a while. We got some ice cream, placed our last bets and went back to the apartment around 5pm shattered! Bummed at their place watching Home Alone properly this time and eating the rest of the leftover chrismas food before jumping in a taxi back to wooloomooloo (yes that's where we were staying haha), so tired could barely move!

Monday we spent the day at Taronga Zoo with Nat and Fiona. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy all day which kinda ruined it but still made the most of what we could being big kids. When we got back to Circular Quay Ben and I went to the Guylian café for a hot chocolate and a cake which was delicious but verrryyyy sickly!! Tuesday we didn't really do much except sort out our stuff as we needed to send a load home to buy some warmer clothes in prep for New Zealand. Went to the cinema that evening with Nat and Fiona to watch 'Little Fockers' and bumped into Dani Newby in a bar which was very bizarre especially as she had literally just arrived and was also going to cinema and ended up in the row in front of us! Wednesday was our trip to The Blue Mountains. We were picked up at 7am where we boarded the 'Happy Coach' for a fun day of walking, seeing some beautiful sights, Kangaroos, got the world's steepest train up the mountain, had pies in the park, had a beer overlooking a breathtaking view, it was HOT and a rather sweaty affair but very enjoyable. Our tour guide was a cross between Billy Connoly and Bill Bailey - hilariously weird and wonderful! Made a brief stop at the Olympic park on the way home but couldn't really see anything overly interesting. That evening we made some food in our stupidly busy and germo-centric kitchen and decided we needed to drink up our 'posh-goon'. Somehow we managed to get rather tipsy playing drinking snap with it in our room (as was the only 2 player card game we could think of!). Thought we'd try giving one of the hostel organised bar trips a go so went and met the group downstairs, walked for abuot 15 mins to a bar with about 15 other people…and not one of them spoke a word of English to us the entire time. Got to the bar, handed a free drinks voucher, and went and sat by ourselves for our one free cocktail feeling like right lemons! Made a swift exit after our one free one as were quite tired after all this anways. Thursday we didn't really do anything exciting to write about (can you tell I'm kinda bored of writing this longgg blog now, you are probably bored stiff, maybe take a break and read the rest later, I unfortunately have to finish writing this as my internet runs out tonight and is stupidly expensive in this hostel!!).

New Years Eve!!! Well what a crazy, memorable end to 2010 we had! So during the day Ben and I sunned ourselves in Hyde park reading and listening to music and having an easy going day. Got a Frappe in Hyde Park Café as recommended by Becca Sil (it was nice but we think we got the wrong one ha!). That evening we went over to Fiona's around 7pm, met Nat and Cassie's boyfriends, got drinking, 3 other British lads turned up (one of them Fiona's friend) and we (being british ex students) ended up playing drinking games to liven things up a bit. Left the apartment 10.30pm and had a hilarious bus ride with a couple of potent bottles of vodka mixer. So we knew that we were going to a rich man's apartment that had a view of the river and we were told not to bring alcohol. We turned up on millionaires row, a stunning apartment, beautiful view of the river, expensive meats, breads and cheeses laid out to have, and beer, red, white or verve cliquot all night - we were in absolute shock - must be dreaming!! So after saying hellos we dived in to the cheese, someone loaded me up a plate, and within minutes I had thrown it all over myself and all over what was probably an antique Persian rug. s***. BEN GET ME A NAPKIN!!! We think I managed to be fairly discreet about it and not too many people saw, and people were rather drunk at this point. However next thing Ben and I step outside, I'm wearing Fiona's heels and bearing in mind that I haven't worn heels in 3 months, I step on a piece of food on the floor and totally stack it flat on my arse. Embarrassing much? On the upside I managed to save my champagne! The best thing is this was all within about 20 mins of arriving - what a liability. I was not the only catastrophe case though - Fiona put her handbag on the side of the balcony and one of the lads knocked it off into the neighbour's bushes below. So there was a lot of drama there with the lads trying to jump over fences and bushes in the pitch black cutting up their legs desperately trying to find her bag to no avail. On top of this Ben broke 2 glasses, Fiona shouted at Nat's boyfriend and after the fireworks the lads left the apartment without saying goodbye!! On the positive side - Dan the millionaire was lovely and quite laid back about everything. The food and drink were awesome, we walked down to the fireworks at midnight and had a spectacular view of the bridge and 25minutes of colourful skies, went back to the apartment after for more wine and god knows what else and didn't get home to bed til around 4am after a mission trying to get back! All in all though a fantastic and funny night!

New Years Day!!! Once again the heat of Fiona's apartment had us up bright and early at 9, however we somehow managed to spend the entire morning bumming around, and Fiona (the biggest faffer in the entire world) took an absolute age to get sorted, then there was a cat incident as they live in a flat the cats can't go outside however just before I thought we were finally going to leave the sweat box we could only find one cat and the back door was open. Drama. Cassie and her boyfriend had to come back, he's climbing across balconies trying to search for the cat, then someone turns around and sees both cats hopping about the lounge. It had been hiding in the apartment the whole time. So after that episode we finally got out the house yayyy! Next we needed food, which took forever to make. Then we tried to get a taxi and of course there were none to be seen. We walked down the road, then ended up running back up to catch the bus instead…the SLOWEST BUS EVER!! Genuinely was painful at this point. So got back to the city and jumped in a cab to ours and dropped Fiona to retrieve her bag. Ben and I made a swift change then we trekked across the Botanical Gardens in the heat to Circular Quay to meet Kyna and jump on the stupidly busy ferry to Manly. When we got to Manly we decided we needed beer for the beach and then everyone needed to toilet. So queued in the liquor store, then queued in the toilets, then missioned it across to the other side of the beach in hope of finding Steve (I'm sorry Steve) but we were clearly too late as it was bloody 4.45pm!! I kid you not I was on the verge of killing someone at several points that trip! Stayed on the beach for a couple of hours, had a swim and a sunbathe, then went and got a $10 steak (which once again took an age to arrive). We had another bottle of fizz for a laugh then went to meet Fiona's friend for one more glass of wine in a swanky cocktail bar. After that glass though it was game over, we were totalled out and ready for bed so got ferry back to the city and said our goodbyes to Fiona and Kyna as it was our last night in Sydney - was rather sad! To top everything off we still had to bloody pack when we got back - was the absolute last thing we wanted to do so didn't end up getting in to bed til midnight - well what a weekend we had!!

So you'll be pleased to know that is the end of this epic blog. I hope you have enjoyed. I promise that this will be my longest one as it was our longest (3 week) stay. I am now in Melbourne after another horror story of a journey but that can wait til next time! Happy New Year!