Whether you like it or not this is part 2 of our Sydney adventure, Saturday 14th Got ourselves up reasonably early and headed out to the park to meet up with Dom and the lads for a bit of a kick about. Challenged some Scousers to a game, which did get rather competitive but we came out victorious, much to the obvious dislike of the Scousers, so all was good. Went out that night with all the guys, checked out a place called 3 Monkeys, which had a band playing before going off to Scruffys again. This turned out to be a bad move so instead we went off to Darling Harbour to see what Sydneys real nightlife was like. The place was beautiful and all the bars and clubs look amazing but unfortunatly Darling Harbour isn't backpacker budget friendly so we had to content ourselves with a look around and a go on the swings in the nearby park. Sunday 15th Lazed about most of the day and played a bit of footy again, before getting some cheap late night takeaway pizza and settling down to watch the last games of the premiership. Enjoyed seeing Fulham win, laughed at Palace's rather comical relegation, but wasn't so happy seeing Chelsea with the trophy in there hands! Monday 16th Got ourselves out of Maze, and checked into Sydney Backpackers hostel where we got ourselves a good deal for a couple of nights accomodation, a trip to the blue mountains, and a Sydney harbour cruise. Our room we where pleased to discover was a 4 bed dorm (this is luzury believe me), with a TV, DVD player and our own fridge. So watched crappy TV all day and invited Dom over in the evening to watch a movie. Tuesday 17th Partly due to Matts seeming love of turning alarms off and going back to sleep, and partly due to the fact it was raining we decided not to do the harbour cruise we had been given. We could use it another day so we thought we'd wait for slightly better weather. Instead we went to the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, where we saw the beer can boat and played some games. Got back and watched a bit of TV before turning in for a fairly early night due to our early start the next morning for our Blue Mountains trip. But our hopes of a good nights sleep were soon to be dashed. At 2am we were rudely awoken by a rather loud alarm seemingly coming from outside, not sure if it was anything to do with us we tried to sleep on, with pillows on head. Then came a knocking at the door telling us it was our fire alarm that was making the noise and we'd have to evacuate. This is when all the fire drills we'd had at school to prepare us for such an occasion came into play. We shot up and out of our bed, found our clothes, put the clothes on, found all our valuables, packed them into our bags, woke up the other guy in the room who had amazingly slept through the whole thing, had a chat with him, checked our hair, got some food out the fridge, and raced down the stairs to safty. With 2 fire trunks already outside the hostel we wondered what might have happened, and what might become of the hostel. It was, however, someones late night cooking that had set off the alarm and now the only challenge the firemen were presented with was turning the alarm off. This turned out to be a rather tricky affair, as the alarm was behind some shutters in reception and no-one had the key. Eventually the firemen broke through the shutters whilst we all stood in the rain out on the street, cold, tired and a little cheesed off. Got back to bed and had a few hours kip. Wednesday 18th Woke up at 7.30, very tired indeed and got ourselves onto the bus headed for the Blue Mountains. Our first stop however was the Olympic village site, the home of the giant Aussie Stadium, the venue of not only the Olympics but also the Rugby World Cup final. Took a few quick photos and we soon back on the bus. The next stop was to be the highlight of the day for us. We went to see Kangaroos in their natural habitat (a field basically) but these Roos were more than used to humans. We could get really close to them and got some photos of us next to them, and a rather cool video clip of one bouncing past us. Once back in the bus we actually headed off to the Blue Mountains, which unfortunatly for us were more like the Grey Hills due to the not so good weather. Saw Katcoomba Falls and the Three Sisters (a rock formation that Aboriginees believe has the souls of three sisters living in) and also went on the Worlds Steepest railway which at one point was going up at an angle of 52 degrees. Quite hairy! The views for us simply didn't match that of the Great Ocean Road or indeed the Grand Canyon but it was still a good day out. Went out that evening after checking into our new hostel, the Funk House, and met up with the lads who were in Togas, ended the night in Sidebar, (not in Togas unfortunatly) and had a good night listening to a band before dancing the rest of the night away. Thursday 19th Got up very late and watched some TV at the hostel before going to Mrs Maqueries point to watch the sunset over Sydney. This is where you get the best views of the bridge and opera house together so once more we took a rather large number of photos, but these are good ones we promise. Friday 20th This was our last day in Sydney, did our harbour cruise because the weather was a little nicer (only a little, mind) and checked ourselves back into Wake Up for the last night due to it being opposite tomorrow mornings bus pick-up point. Sydney was over, we were glad to be moving on but we had enjoyed our two weeks there. We were definatly looking forward to getting to some warmer climates and also we had surf lessons for the next few days and we were itching to get in the water again. Matt'll let you know how that went sometime soon no doubt, otherwise thats all from me, Andy (and Matt)