I met up with my sister's friend Kelly on Christmas eve at Starbucks in Darling Harbour. We sat chatting, and did not realise that nearly 4 hours of midday sun had passed. So when we met up later on, after I had accepted Kelly's invitation of joining her and her friends to watch the fireworks, we were both a little red in places. We ventured back to Darling Harbour that evening for a couple of cocktails and to watch the fireworks across the water. They were incredible and stirred excitement in us all for what was in store for New Years Eve.

Christmas day didn't exactly run to plan for two main reasons: the Sydney weather; and the free alcohol available at our Christmas lunch celebrations. Having met a nice group of people to hang out with, we opted for lunch at the bar next door to, and part of, our hostel - The Scary Canary. It was $39 (roughly £20) all you can eat and drink, and whilst the food was not up to much we certainly got our money's worth with the free flowing beer, wine and 'bubbly'. Lunch ended by three and everyone promptly fell out of the pub with plans to head to Bondi Beach, but unfortunately the relentless rain put paid to that so we sat down together, sang an array of both Christmassy and non-Christmassy songs and drank a little more… By 7pm I was hungover, and by 9pm I was in bed! Merry Christmas.

I'm not sure there is much to report on the days in between Christmas and New Year - I am sure there were more nights out, a beach trip, but other than that the weather in Sydney was quite poor and I think I mostly spent time watching some TV, generally hanging out and indulging in a little bit of retail therapy. Oh and how could I forget two afternoons spent preparing and then eating alcoholic fruit in the hopes of sneaking it in on New Years Eve, but after Tom poured three quarters of a litre in to the box and subsequently made the apple taste like a pure shot of vodka we gave it a miss for the big day.

The eve of New Years Eve we altered our plans based on news reports and my run around the Botanical Gardens which revealed that people were already queuing or camping over to get a good spot, and decided to meet at 7am the next morning. We left the hostel around quarter to 8 on New Years Eve due to a couple of the group dragging their feet and joined the already 2000-strong queue at Mrs Macquarie's Point. The atmosphere was great and we even managed a Mexican Wave along the length of the queue. We got in, found a spot, and set about napping, drinking, eating and playing games to keep ourselves entertained before the pre-action started at 5pm and the main fireworks at 9pm and 12am. We had an excellent spot with a full view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. It was incredible to be in Sydney and the atmosphere was great. Perhaps the only problem being that just before 12 everyone muscled in on our spot, trampling on our belongings!

On the 3 January I moved hostels and found myself in the rather infamous Sydney suburb Kings Cross complete with a rather large homeless community, drug addicts, prostitutes, sex shops and a bunch of other 'characters'. Aside from that it also has a great number of bars and a buzzing nightlife. The hostel was great, and I felt instantly welcomed. I couldn't check in when I arrived though so I went to meet up with Tom who had also moved to a hostel in Kings Cross, just round the corner, for a couple of nights. We didn't get up to much that day as we had had a big night out the night before so were feeling a little jaded. In the evening we took a walk around and went to a pizza joint, but we also decided on a Blue Mountains trip the following day.

We caught the 8.24 train to Katoomba in the morning, and Mark and Mary joined us although they were still a little drunk. When we arrived there was a heavy mist over the mountains, and so we were somewhat limited with the views, but it didn't stop us embarking on our first bush walk. After walking for over an hour, sketchily following the tracks and map we took the scenic railway back to the top. It is the world's steepest railway and was literally almost vertical. To complete the full effect, the Indiana Jones' theme music accompanied our trip to the top. Unsure of when the next available restaurant was, we stopped off at the top of the railway for a bite to eat before embarking on another couple of walks to see the Three Sisters rock formation and waterfalls. In the afternoon, the mist cleared and it warmed up. After a good few hours of walking we made for the Leura train station and made our way back to the city.

That evening, after we had showered and changed, we met back up and went to try one of Harry's Café de Wheels' famous pies. They have a wall of fame which included Elton John and KFC Colonel Sanders. After a couple of drinks in a nearby bar, we walked back to Kings Cross where we all went our separate ways. I returned to my hostel to find everyone in the dining room area drinking and getting ready to go out, so after a bit of gentle persuasion, I quickly got changed, started drinking and joined them for a night out.