I went on to Sydney on my own while Gareth headed to Auckland for a stag do and stayed in a hostel for a couple of nights near the Central railway station.I've not travelled on my own before apart from for work so the first day I was a bit lost and trying to fill in all my time all the time but actually I found that I really enjoyed myself and once I got chatting to some of the girls in the room with me in the hostel I was totally happy. Sydney was just like I'd imagined I got completely lost wandering from the hostel to the Opera house on my first day as I tried to walk all along the piers and soon realised it wasn't possible but hey I got to see King St Wharf and soon came across the Harbour Bridge and the Rocks and there was the Opera House right in front of me. I caught a boat around the Harbour and got off across at WatsonsBay and just chilled over there.It's gorgeous there just a wee small little fishing type village with some seafood restaurants and a beach, it feels like a million miles away from any big city. I sat there and got my fish and chips and watched the world go by. But soon the clouds were getting very black and I hoped back on the ferry just as a massive storm hit - thunder, fork lightning, really torrential rain the whole works and I was very glad to be in the comfort of the boat. I've always loved architecture and beautiful buildings so I took the tour of the Opera House and just loved it - the main concert hall is breathtaking and I wish I could have seen a concert or something in there.It's all of wood and it's just so beautiful when you're sitting in there.When I came out of the tour I was hit with a flood of young Aussie women who looked like they'd been attacked by oompa loompas with orange fake tan - they were everywhere!I thought it was hilarious so I sat and took it all in with a coffee for a while. It turned out to be the national aerobics championship but the girls looked hilarious!I treated myself to a night dinner and some vino in DarlingHarbour that night looking across the harbour at the lights of the city.Not a bad start!I caught a ferry out to Manly the next day - 45 minutes on a ferry and I was in heaven - a really picturesque main street, the Corso, and then a picture perfect long beach with a real Aussie lifeguard abusing people for swimming in the wrong areas over the tannoy - great fun! I vegged on the beach for a couple of hours then took a wander around to Shelley Beach before the storm set in again and chased me into the shops!Poor me ;) I loved Manly, I could definitely live there and what a nice way to commute to work too, I'll be back there someday I hope. I headed with one of the girls from the hostel, Laura, to Chinatown for dinner that night and then some of the others joined us too for a drink in DarlingHarbour.Laura's a real inspiration, she's from Cork and only 22 with a 4 year old daughter and she's decided to move to Australia for a year with her daughter!That's bloody hard to do and I thought it was very brave.I hope it all works out really well for them both. I went to see the sights the next day including Bondi which didn't impress me, just like Blackpool in the Southern Hemisphere.I did love the El Alamein fountain which looks like a dandelion and the areas around Paddington. The weather was cold and a bit miserable so that probably didn't help so I headed off to meet up with a friend from home that night, Yvonne Mogerley, who comes from the same road as me in Dublin and for a few drinks a couple of nights which was great just to catch up on all the gossip and natter. The next day I went on a trek in the Blue Mountains which was amazing - we set off early and the rain leaving Sydney was torrential but when we got to the Blue Mountains and started to head down into one of the canyons it had cleared up.We walked for about 2 hours down into one of the canyons through typical Aussie bush with beautiful waterfalls, overhangs and plants and it was lovely to do after spending so much time in cities.It did take a bit of getting used to the flies being everywhere though. Our tour lead demonstrated aboriginal art by drawing on my face with rocks the aborigines use for painting - nice! Walking out of the canyon for 2 hours at the end was hard work but so worth it when we saw the view over the mountains at the end.We finished off the day with a walk through the area with the three sisters and then headed back to Sydney for a well deserved drink.