Arrived at sydney airport, 6:30am, not feeling the freshest yet again. Got a free pick up transfer to our first Hostel stay and then got told we had to wait until 2pm until we could check in.......went to put our huge backpacks in the storage room until then .....and seriously got the biggest shock of our lives!! - rubbish everywhere and god knows what the stench was??!!

Had to walk around sydney for the next 5 hours looking our absolute best with the clothes we had on for 2 days (nice) and looking like death, Kat's eyes couldn't have been more black even if she had tried.

Still managed to pop in to a shop or two though, he he.

It was finally time to check in to our private room that we needed just to ease us in to the whole 'we're not living in a 5 star hotel anymore reality' but we could have cried, felt like we had been taken to prison, windows?? .... we couldn't even remember what they were, lol! Crashed out big time on our cool bunk beds then woke up in shock later to sirens going off, which only reinterated the 'prison feeling'. "Everyone get up party time!!!!!", well no way were we feeling like the old 'Pattaya' party animals,....more like Grandmas that wanted a cup of tea out of a clean mug and a comfy chair for the night!

Slept pretty much until the next day, waking up still very sleepy, Kat forgot were she was, thinking she was back at home sat up quickly and whacked her head on the bunk bed, as you can tell, great start!!!! lol!

Darling Harbour is seriously gorgeous, lots of restaurants and shops surounding it, and Sydney central in general is an all round well looked after place, everyone looking and dressing really nice.

Decided to do the Harbour Bridge Climb Saturday night, really enjoyed it, 134metres (we think) above see level, the views with all of the lights made sydney look incredible, especially the Opera House, definitely one to remember, gave ourselves a big pat on the back after as well, were really proud we accomplished it, and were less scared than we thought.

Visited Botanical Gardens and had a chill out day in the sunshine, walked and took the city tour bus around the city to see the rest of the sights which was interesting and we learnt a few things along the way.

Had beans on toast for tea one night, looked like people in the hostel felt sorry for us and started donating food, Kat picked up some salad and an orange, lol!

Ventured on the train to the famous Bondi Beach, it was serisouly busy like we expected but we both weren't as impressed as we thought, it was nice but after everything we had heard we thought it would be something more spectacular. We thought everyone would look like Paris Hilton but it made us feel better because everyone was just normal.

Spent a couple of nights in Kings Cross area of Sydney, the seedy part, lots of brothels and you could tell the drug dealers from a mile off hanging around on the street corners, not the best place for us to stay but at least we have experienced it. We eased ourselves in to sharing with one other guy here as well which wasn't too bad at all, he actually put us to shame with how tidy he was!

The ferry trip over to Manly for the next few days was a struggle with the backpacks, but at least it only took us 30 mins. Both really enjoyed staying in Manly, we thought the beach was really nice, full of surfer dudes, Laura was loving it! ....wondered whether to buy a board to look the part?!?!

The hostel was like a large converted house, we shared a room with 5 others, a mixture of male and female, took a little while to adjust but we were lucky because they were all lovely, until a guy moved in on the last day and Laura got her phone stolen and we think he could have been the thief, turned in to a down day but worse things could happen.

Spent Kats birthday here, ventured over to Sydney central during the day to pamper oursleves, we headed to a five star salon were apparently they styled Australias Next Top Model, thought it might have been true looking a the salon but changed our minds once we were receiving the treatments and walked out the door. Laura tied her hair back within approx 2 minutes, her 'do' looked like a 70 style......if only we were actually in the 70's she would have looked cool!

Met up with Andy and friends at the night time and also spent the evening with a couple of guys from our hostel room, was a good night, went to a nice bar over looking the sea and ended up in a reggae bar with a live band which was unusual for us but enjoyed ourselves. Laura had sorted herslf out and had now arrived back in the 21st century, ha!

....then moved on....