After a tiring journey from Port Macquarie, our senses were quickly awakened when we entered this beautiful city. Our first impressions were literally "Wow!" We were blown away at the first sight of the city. The greyhound bus took us over the harbour bridge, and from here we saw Darling Harbour and many skyscrapers lit up. It was everything and more than we expected!

Once we checked into our hostel, "Nomads: The Maze", we headed round the corner to Erika's friends (and Erika's old) penthouse apartment to see her in. The apartment was really nice, and had such a fantastic view of the city! How lucky!! By the time we had some bedtime tea and toast it was time for bed and an early start for the morning!

It was really exciting… our first day in Sydney and we were to visit our friends Paula and James, after 5 months of not seeing them!! After a relaxing sauna and swim at Erika's apartment we met our friends for a moving reunion in Darling Harbour. After a short blast of catching up, we continued on to see the City. Kean to see where Sydney began, we firstly took a visit to The Rocks. With narrow cobblestone streets and cute coffee shops, cafes and Sydneys oldest pubs in 'oldy worldy' type buildings, just a short walk from the city centre, The Rocks is like a trip back in time.. Traditionally the Rocks is where Indigenous Cadigal people lived, and the place where there first European settlers came. We walked around and saw plaques of convicts and colonists.. but quickly moved on as we were still catching up with Paula and James. We took a trip to the yuppie town of Glebe for a Coffee - my first decent coffee since I started tavelling.. and Oh it was good!!! After a relax and chat we headed to Circular Quay to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We were completely blown away… the sights were amazing!! We decided to spend this first night together celebrating with a bbq (equipped with Goon!) at Erika's apartment, which was really nice.
The second day we met Paula and James at Bondi beach. Bondi is a brilliant beach, the typical Aussie beach - with Bondi rescue at the ready.. and full of the good looking and body conscious. We were really lucky that the day was glorious, perfect weather for beachin' it up. Paula, Erika and I bathed on the beach to catch a few rays, whilst the guys hit the sea to try body surfing the huge waves. Us girls actually attempted the sea, but it was in fact freezing (unlike the East Coast's beaches) and the waves were massive!! After a relaxing morning we left Erika to soak up the rays, whilst we went to walk the Bondi to Coogee walk. The walk was amazing.. the long stretch of coast is truly beautiful.. the sights just kept getting better and better! Really glad we did it. After the 1.5hr walk we had a drink in Coogee to cool down, before heading to P and James' pad in Clovelly. It was nice for us 4 to sit down together and have scrummy fajitas and vino!

The next morning was filled looking round for a cheap car to rent for 2 days to do the blue mountains with. After a few places fobbing us off with far too expensive prices, or clearly just not wanting to know, we finally found a place that was pretty cheap.. only the rental salesman was horrid - in a word.. downright rude!! Nonetheless, we bit our tongue (James especially miffed!) and smiled as we gave him over a large sum of bond money!!! As the lads went back to get the drivers licenses for the car, Paula and I went for coffee, and here I tried my first banana bread - Yum yum!!! Later, James and Chris went to the Cinema, whilst Paula and I indulged in some retail therapy (Mucho needed!!!) at Bondi Junction.. it was really nice to go shopping with one of the girls.. a nice treat whilst travelling! That night we got dressed up in our new clobber and James treat us to drinks at the Opera Bar. The bar was really beautiful.. set outside next to the Opera House, with views looking over the ocean to the sparkling Bridge. Since it was the Blue Mountains the following day, Paula and James when back home.. whilst Chris, Erika and I went to meet Chris's friend Tom at the 'PUB'.. which was pretty cool as it had some bands on. We stayed out longer than intended.. resulting in only a few hours sleep for the Blue Mountains.. oops!!! )

We couldnt wait to escape the hustle and bustle of Sydney and enter the fresh euchalyptus mountain air of Australias 'Grand Canyon',the Blue Mountains - famous for its 'Three Sisters', huge 250 year old rock formations. We stopped in 'Katoomba',a small mountain village - in order to get some information before heading to the Blue Mountains. Afterwards, we went to 'Echo Point' the famous lookout point above the Jamison Valley.The Three Sisters looked incredible, they were huge! The valley and surrounding blue haze to the whole scenery, and the fact that the sky was perfect made it all the more worthwhile. The weather was perfect up until the last half of the day, until we saw a huge raincloud roll into the valley. It was kind of stupid as we stood and watched it come for us, but since all the rest of the vast landscape was sunny and dry except this raincloud - it looked really cool! It was really cool walking the plank to the Three Sisters the next day, however I dont think those who have vertigo would like it! Before we left Echo Point, Paula and I had the experience of being cuddled (and attempted ear lickage/kiss) by a HUGE Aboriginal guy!! It was quite unexpected, but funny to look back on!! The lads got some cracking pictures of us, our faces were a picture!! Totally disgusted at his hygiene!! haha. It was really nice to be with Paula and James that night, after not seeing close friends for some time.. we all camped up and had a nice sheltered barby.. As the lads were putting up the tent, a baby Huntsman popped out, Chris and I hadn't seen one yet - it was gross!! At night we all cosyed up in the tent with beers and poker!! On the second day of the Blue Mountains we started off at Katoomba falls where we descended to the bottom. It was very pretty in its own right, however water levels were fairly low, therefore it wasnt at its peak condition..well worth checking out though. From here you could see the cable car which rides across the valley in front of Katoomba falls, and it is from here that you can get the worlds steepest incline railway back up to the top. However being budget travellers we just walked!!! After walking along the Three Sisters we took a scenic drive to several different lookouts of the canyon, where we had lunch at one of the picnic spots. Our last stop of the day was to visit the more impressive Wentworth falls. As we walked down we had amazing views of Wentworth falls as we walked along the edge of the huge face of the canyon - it was so high up! After a hard climb down, we took a well deserved rest at the pools at the bottom, where we took some amazing photographs. Again, the water levels were low, but this one was really beautiful!!Much more impressive than Katoomba! We finished the day off with a paddle in the upper waterfall, indulged in an icecream and then popped to the scenic world shop to have a look around. That night when we arrived back into Sydney, and before checking back into the hostel, Paula and James introduced us to the 'Food Court' in ChinaTown. Chris especially loved it, very much his type of meal.. quantity and quality!! Although I have to say.. they were huge, plated up on sizzling hot pots giving off alot of smoke - much so that the guys sat next to us had to move on one space!!haha. The sizzling just added to the Asian atmosphere.

On the day that we were to part with Paula and James,Paula found out she was no longer working for the cafe, and so after discussions with us they were in decision of whether to join Chris and I and do the south coast or hold out until she finds another job. They definately ended up making the right decision!! That day we all went to the Botanical Gardens to view the opera house and harbour bridge from there.. after pondering around we said our goodbyes to Paula and James before we left for Canberra. xxx