We landed in Sydney at 7:30am last Sunday (13th) to a nice blistering (in the case of Liam's neck) 27 degrees.After checking into the hotel we headed to Circular Quay (the main Sydney Harbor) as all tourists do on their first day in Sydney and see the Opera House and The Harbor Bridge. Amazing place! It now started to sink in how far away we were, about a 26 hour flight with 11 hours time difference - we were nakered!

We then decided to try and head to Bondi beach, the second thing every tourist in Sydney would do. We caught a ferry to Rose Bay from the Harbor with the view of taking a quick stroll to Bondi. TIP - never assume anything in Australia is within walking distance - the place is so big the Aussi's obviously had to spread everything out. So, we jumped off the ferry and started walking (bearing in mind it's about 32 degrees and we're two pasty Brits with opaque skin). After about 30 minutes walking up a hill, we decided to look at the map. TIP 2 - ALWAYS look at the map before you set off. TIP 3 - NEVER walk for 30 mins in the wrong direction from where your meant to be going. TIP 3 - just get a bus/taxi.

After 2 hours we arrived at Bondi beach but were so tired that we only wondered down the beach a little and then headed back to the hotel.

It would definitely be an early night with no alcohol to try and get over the jetlag (and with such nice rooms in the Travelodge, this wasn't going to be hard). However, this was not the case. We headed into ChinaTown which was about a 5 minute walk (what a relief) and ended up sampling some Sydney's live music scene and what would be our first heavy session! See photos of walk home via Hyde Park trees.

After a couple of days in Sydney central we made our way to Manly which is the northern point of Sydney with some awesome beaches which aren't too crowded but full of bikini models or near enough. Manly is really nice and I would recommend it to anyone going to Sydney. The beach is miles nicer than Bondi and with bigger surf.There's loads of nice bars, restaurants, shops and the nightlife is brilliant because all those bikini models come in off the sand and into the bars!!

The only downside of Manly was our hostel. It was ran by piss heads, the room we stayed in was disgusting (you couldn't see the floor and probably wouldn't want to!) Mould on the ceiling and no hot water for showers and just generally badly ran. You would expect a place like this to be dirt cheap, however, it wasn't. $33 a night, so me and Liam (being dense, again) booked three nights without knowing what we had let ourselves in for. The nightlife wasn't bad but the only way to get through it was to be constantly drunk. Do not go to the Boadrider Backpack hostel, it's a dump!

Will write again when sober.