We had to catch a 12 hour bus from Byron Bay to Sydney, it was an overnight one
so we tried to get as much sleep as possible! It wasn't easy though with the
bus driver coming up the back to shout at the girl in the seat next to us who
kept turning lights off when she shouldn't and sitting in the drivers bed!!
I tried to get some sleep when I got to Sydney but I was too excited to sleep
cos Viccie and Matt were coming out to see me that day!! I went to meet them at
the airport and it was soooo good to see them!! It had been 4 months since I'd seen them and it was so great to have them there!! I'm not sure if they appreciated my handmade banner made out of toilet roll though! Their accommodation was slightly posher than what we were staying in! We had a dorm with bunks with poeple's rubbish scattered all over the room! They had a posh room with ensuite, massive tv, a kitchen area and space for a lounge area! Very swish! The first night we spent catching up on everything and went to an Irish bar for a few drinks. It was great to catch up with them! I don't think they were too jetlagged either having flown business class!!!!!

The first day we went to see Sydney harbour. We went to see the harbour bridge and the Opera House. We also took a walk around the botanical gardens and saw hundreds of lying foxes up in all the trees! There were hundreds of runners about too! It was around lunchtime and we couldn't work out if this was some organised event or if they were all running on their lunch break! We took another walk past the Opera House and took some photo's, It's such a lovely place. We also took a trip up the Sky Tower and had a look over the whole of Sydney. That gave us a taste of all the things we wanted to do while we were there.

The followung day we went to Darling Harbour and went to the Aquarium. It was so cool! They have the most enormous sharks and stingrays there! They had the nurse sharks that we'd swam with in Byron Bay and you could really tell just how massive they were being in a tank! The harbour had a massive FIFA screen in the middle of it which was showing all of the world cup matches so we were glad we knew there was somewhere we could go to watch them all!

Mum and dad rang us that night and told us that Jess had died on Monday. Viccie and me were totally devastated! I don't think I wanted to believe it and it didn't seem real! I couldn't believe it had happened when Viccie came out. We were both so upset but we tried to get on with the holiday while they were out.

We went to a wildlife centre the next day which was good. They had some cool little lorakeets which kept flying on me and landing on my shoulders and arms! I didn't mind but the woman working there said they have a habit of pecking people! Viccie and me had booked to see Russell Brand that night in the Entertainment Centre. He was so funny!! I was surprised that the Australians got his humour because he is so very English but everyone seemed to be having a great time! He even came out at the end of the show and signed autographs and had photo's taken with people.

We watched the opening ceremony of the world cup the following night and then went to a film premiere of "Get him to the Greek" featuring Russell brand! It wasn't exactly a big premiere and we just hung around next to the red carpet but it was cool to see! We saw Delta Goodrem and Brian McFadden as well as Russell Brand!

On the 12th we id the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb! The weather was perfect for it, it was really sunny. It was a really cool trip! I'd done it before but it was dark the last time, this time we did it in the middle of the day. We spent around 3 hours on the bridge with a guide who told us facts about the bridge and Sydney. It was really cool! We got lots of photo's of the experience and all had a great time! We watched the first England game that night too. Well I say night but it was being played at 4am! We thought the best way to stay up would be to drink and just stay up but I soon found out this wasn't the best way! I managed to stay awake for the first half but the second half was so boring I fell asleep! It was absolutely freezing watching it outside as well! I wasn't in the best of moods walking back, specially as we went the long way!

We took a trip to Bondi Beach which was very cool. It was quite cold and we just had a walk up and down it but it was definitely worth seeing. We tried to find an Indian that Viccie had seen during the day but we didn't have much luck after looking for it for around 45 minutes!! She was sure she knew where it was! It was quite funny looking for it though! We also watched a little show in the harbour. It was really crap! We'd heard it was a great show with lights and loads of cool things but actually it was a video screen with "StarGirl 99" speaking a video blog and some "dancers" along the side of the harbour! They didn't even seem to know what they were doing and one of them kept looking at all the others and copying their moves! I suppose it was free so I can't really complain!

We visited Toronga Zoo the next day which was good. Some if the animals seemed a bit stressed out though! We heard one of the lions really roaring at the end of the day and some of the goats were all trying to beat each other up! It wasn't the nicest zoo I'd been to! A lot of the exhibits were closed too for refurbishment but we didn;t know that until we got in!

We had a game of bowling in the poshest bowling alley I've ever been in. It was down in Darling Harbour and it had leather seats, posh lighting everwhere and massive flat screen tv's!! Very cool!

Viccie, Matt and me took a Whale Watching trip and it was amazing!! We were hoping just to spot some whales but what we actually saw was humpback whales swimming right next to and under the boat and then them breaching (jumping out of the water) right next to the boat!!! It was sooooo good! We spent the whole time just saying "Whoa" as they kept coming close to the boar! The trip there had been bumpy in the open seas and I'd felt a bit seasick but that was all forgotten after we saw the whales!!

We watched another appalling England match in the comfort of the casino next time (at 4am again!). I had to be careful this time though as the security men were kicking anyone out who fell asleep! I nearly did a couple of times but a chocolate brownie helped keep me awake a bit!!

The next day we went to Manly Beach. That was a lovely beach too. We hired out some scooters and some roller blades and took a 'roll' next to the coast! It was so much fun! I was rubbish on my skates but it was still fun! We watched the sun set as we rolled along too!

We went to another beach the next day - Coogee Beach. Cat was living there with her cousin for a while whilst she found her own apartment. She's going to be living in Sydney for the next 6 months. We went for a drink with her and said our goodbyes, We won't see her now until she comes back to the UK next year! That night we went back to Manly Beach to have dinner. The boys had ribs and they were given bibs which was so funny!

The last day in Sydney we hired a car and drove up to the Blue Mountains. We had a little walk around but didn't really see much of them. The bits we did see were lovely though. We saw the 'Three Sisters' from Katoomba. We kept the car and drove down to Melbourne. We were going to spend a night somewhere along the way but decided to do the whole drive in one overnight! It wasn't much fun! We ended up sleeping in a random car park as we were all shattered for about 2 hours before we carried on driving. We carried on in the morning and went to a wildlife reserve. That was cool, we saw wild emu's and wombats! We also saw some wild kangaroos! We continued our drive to Melbourne after stopping at the most southern point of Australia!