We got to Sydney at 12.30pm after a short 3 hour drive from Canberra. We found our hostel very easily but it didnt make the best first impression. It was an old scruffy building but right in the heart of the city so it was a perfect location. This was our home for the next 10 nights. We dropped our bags off and got out of the hostel straight away and checked out all the main sights...darling harbour, harbour bridge and the sydney opera house. The next day Christmas Eve was already here and no way did it feel like it, we went to the supermarket to get all our christmas bbq stuff and bought a right feast! In the afternoon we ended up walking across the harbour bridge footpath to the other side where you could get good vievs of the city. That evening there was a free buffet at a local hotel so we went there with everyone from our hostel and it actually felt abit christmassy especially after going down to Darling Harbour afterwards and listening to carol singing and watching fireworks, we even munched a whole box of Lindts, well i nearly did!

Christmas Day!!!! We got up at 9.30 and said our happy chrustmases to each other and our room mates and got ready for our bbq at Bondi beach. We bought tickets to an event on the beach but when we got there we realised it was some hardcore dance event and we wouldnt be able to get in because we had a cooler bag full of food....so we flogged our tickets and got to work with the barby! Our dinner was good but it was quite cold and slightly started to rain so we headed back to the city after a few shortlived hours....mega dissapointment! We thought we would go for a few drinks but after crawling the streets for a few hours we couldnt find a single drop....little did we know that in oz they dont sell alcohol on christmas day! So we gave all of you guys a call instead and got a dominos pizza to go with a few movies.....very christmassy....not! But it was a good experience none the less.

Boxing day!!!! We decided to check out the Sydney boxing day sales and spent a good few hours trawling around the shops and spending some wedge. It was absolute manic with security and police on some shops handling the queues! We were supposed to go down to the harbour and watch the sydney to hobart yacht race but it started to rain so we gave it a miss. That night we had our first goon experience and bought a box (its just a bag of wine in a box...5 litres) what makes it so attractive to travellers is its price, about 8 quid! but its made with fish, egg n all other sorts of horrid things! But it does the job. We had a few drinks in the hostel with a group and then ended up in maloneys bar for the night and we made up for the lack of alcohol on christmas day.

The next two days we didnt really do much because the weather was really poor, not rainy just very humid with no sun. All we did basically was have a walk around the botanical gardens to scout out a spot for NYE and go to the aquarium at Darling Harbour which was cool. However the following day we went on an early start day trip to the Blue mountains just north of Sydney. They are blue from the mist given off from all the eucalyptus trees in the bush not actually blue as some people may think. We stopped off at the olympic park on our way which was a good experience as this was where the 2000 sydney olympic games were held and also where englang won the 2003 rugby world cup final. We even saw the olympic torch from the games. Next we stopped off in the bush to see some wild kangaroos, they were quite amusing and there was also a joey. We did a little trek in the Jamison valley which took us to some awesome lookouts and waterfalls, we even spotted a few funnel web spiders....the worlds deadliest!!! We also saw a famous rock formation called the 3 sisters which comes from an old aboriginal tale. After the trek we rode the worlds steepest railway which was good fun as it was a 52 degree incline and was suprisingly fast. That was about it for the day as we didnt get back until late evening and was shattered from the long day.

New Years Eve :) !!!! We were up and already queueing in the botanical gardens for 10.30am and spent the next 3 hours there before even getting in. But it was worth it because we found a spot just big enough for us both right at the front and probably the best view in sydney. Some poor b*****s had even been camping out there from the previous day to get a patch next to us haha. The first half of the day was pretty slow as you couldnt move because it was so rammed and there was no activities until 5pm...so we ate lots. At 5pm a vintage plane show was on, at 8pm there was an aboriginal smoke ceremony to cleanse the harbour of evil spirits and at 9pm there was the family fireworks which was really good so we got excited for the midnight ones. Then followed by a boat light parade until the big 1! We didnt even see the countdown because we were looking in the wrong place but boy did you know it was new year, it was the best fireworks show we had ever seen and will be in our memories forever. Overall it was a very sober NY because the drinks were so expensive but it was one to cherish.

New Years Day we spent recovering, not from alcohol but a tad of sunstroke and tired from spending such a long time on our bums waiting the day before. It was a very unusual NYD. Our last day in sydney we didnt do bog all because as you guessed it was overcast again and we had to wait around for our bus to Gosford where we were meeting our ozzie friends we met in Fiji, Chloe and Alex as we are staying at their beach house in Copacabana.

Overall we both loved sydney as its a great small city centre with lots of shops and its always busy. But we just didnt have the weather on our side to explore more which is dissapointing because we only went to 1 beach (bondi) and wanted to visit alot more including palm beach from home and away as its meant to be the best. But fingers crossed we will turn back into beach bums as we head up the east coast and the weather gets better...maybe.

Happy Christmas and New Year to all. Love and miss you all. xxx