Arrived in Sydney around 4.30pm and checked into Base Backpackers, which has a wicked location right in the centre of the city. On our first night we chilled out at the hostel before going to the local backpackers bar, The Scary Canary for farewell drinks with the guys from our initial Oz Experience tour.

The following day we woke up and familiarised ourselves with the city. We took a walk down George Street & Pitt Street (two of the main shopping areas) and then walked to the harbour. We saw the Opera House which I think is a really cool building & booked tickets to go and see Circus Oz inside the main Opera Theatre..! From there we walked around the harbour side, saw the bridge and walked to the Rocks where we went to the museum of Contemporary Arts. We made our first hostel meal of pasta in the evening & just headed to the internet cafe in the evening.

We went back to the Rocks the next day and had a walk around...its a lovely area with narrow streets (it reminded me a little bit of The Lanes in Brighton) and then we took a walk in the Botanical Gardens by the Harbour side which are also lovely. We saw loads of the city by foot from Hyde Park to China town. In the evening we went to the Opera house to go and see Circus Oz. I was so excited about being able to go inside the Opera theatre, it was really amazing inside...huge. I had a really nice time, the show was really good and funny and definately worth a visit.

The following day we woke up to the rain unfortunatley but we still decided to make the most of the day by going to Darling Harbour and then to Paddy's Market where we picked up some bargains...although it was a little weird as most of the stall sellers were Chinese and were selling exactly the same merchandise we had seen being sold in China...

The rain cleared up a bit later on in the day so we decided to take the ferry to Manly Beach. The area of Manly was a really nice beach resort area, a hit with surfers. It was drizzling with rain and cloudy and they were still out on their boards! The ferry to Manly was really nice as we got to cruise down the harbour and see the Opera House from the water and go under Sydney Harbour Bridge. From Manly we took the Ferry back (by this time it was dark so we got to see the harbour by night which was really lovely) and then took another ferry down to Darling Harbour. That night we took advantage of a free dinner voucher in one of our welcome maps and in turn found a really cool venue The Gaff. We had a free dinner & then found out it was free drinks for backpackers until 9.30pm so we had free drinks as well. The club itself was really cool and it was nice to be able to have a dance.

On our last day in Sydney it was still raining unfortunately but we decided to still go to Bondi Beach as planned. Probably not one of my better ideas as we got lashed with wind, rain and sand but hey at least it was at one of the most famous beaches in Australia! We stayed for all of about 15 minutes, enough to get soaking wet and windswept..but at least we can say we have been!

Tomorrow we are off up the coast to Surf Camp where they gaurantee they can get me to stand up on a surf board by the end of it...I will keep you posted...

 Arber:

Sydney had lots init and loads to do!! - the Opera house was really cool and i managed to thoughly embarss kaie by "parkourin" or as katie would call it being stupid and jumping on stuff on the side of one of the worlds most famous buildings!! - we also went to Nelson Mandela's Gallery which was very insightful and sparked an intrest in both of us about this great man!!

Bondi Beach was really fun me and katie got absolutly battered by rain and sand, i found sand in all my pockets and we didnt even reach the beach!!!!