We arrived into Sydney airport at 5:10am feeling pretty tired and Saz, after the fast food binge of the previous day, feeling very bloated and ill. She felt so bad that it took us close to 45 minutes to even reach baggage claim as her stomach cramps kept making her sit down. Our first impressions of Australia, were that it was a slightly odd place given that the customs checks were so strict. It was that bad, that we were scared into declaring some shells that I had gathered in Thailand and the uneaten aeroplane we had saved. One thing we did think though is that you could have a suitcase full of drugs and just go and declare some shells as the customs officials didn't even glance at our bags (one for Howard Marks maybe). After customs, we both made our way to the train station to get the rediculously expensive train (especially after spending two and a half months in Asia) to the Kings Cross region of Sydney. The guidebook describes this area as an area of vice, crime and drug addicts, but there is also one hell of a lot of hostels there so off we went. By 7am we were both looking around the deserted Kings Cross streets for hostels that were open and had vacancies. In general Kings Cross seemed to be OK, and we only saw one dodge drunk guy cruising around and acting very suspiciously. After looking at a couple of hostels, we finally checked into the original backpackers hostel and slept until midday. The hostel was very nice with excellent facilities such as a massive kitchen equipped with a TV & lockers, a TV room with loads of books for hire and every room has its own fridge and TV. We would definitely recommend staying here, as despite it not being the cheapest hostel in Sydney, it was very friendly and had no bed bugs. After a quick nap, Sarah woke me up and as the weather was so good we decided to do some sight seeing. We started by walking to Sydney cathedral which was lovely. The walk was also pretty sweet as we passed the Sydney Ferrari garage (which had an F40 and F50 on display!). After a quick look at the cathedral, we headed to the Botanical Gardens and on the way stopped at Sydney art gallery. As it was free to go in, we had a quick look round before wandering around the gardens themselves. There is so much to see at the gardens and it is all amazing, we were really impressed with the cactus garden and with the enormous amount of bats in the trees, it was quality. Having wandered around the gardens for a while we eventually arrived at the big two sights, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was so surreal to see them in real life, but they look better than when you see them on TV or a post card, they are unbelievable. The only bad thing was that Sarah's camera had no more memory space and hence we couldn't take any more pictures. It was made even more frustrating by the fact that there wasn't even one cloud in the sky. While at the harbour, we noticed how many really expensive bars and cafes there are here, there were also loads of really posh restaurants and cruise ships getting ready for all the weddings that took place. Everywhere looked very exclusive and we were both very impressed. As the bars were all a little expensive, we decided to head off towards the Rocks where we got a lovely coffee and hot chocolate at a small cafe. We then had a quick look at the market before heading off towards the view point of the city. The Rocks market was ace selling all sorts of handy crafts and stuff, but when we got to the view point, there were so many wedding parties having their photos in front of the harbour bridge and Opera house at sunset that we couldn't be bothered to wait for a chance to capture the view for ourselves. Instead we headed back to the botanical gardens to watch the sunset which was unbelievable, the sky turned through so many shades of yellow, red and blue that the only way it could have been better is if we had had a camera to attempt to capture it. As night fell all the bats from the park started to fly around the sky which was just like a scene from the birds, it was crazy, we have never seen so many birds let alone bats in our lives. We continued to watch the spectacle all the way back to our hostel, stopping only to buy some food from a local convenience store. Now we are in Australia, we have to start proper budget travelling, so for tea we enjoyed a home made tea of spaghetti and beans on toast before heading to bed feeling pretty tired after 6 hours of walking around Sydney city centre. The night couldn't be complete however without a good old King Cross argument which we got soon after we went to bed. Some couple outside effing and jeffing about the lad kissing one of the girls mates. I guess Kings Cross really isn't to different to Grand Central after all.