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Published: August 9th 2009
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Thanks to good old Jetstar we boarded our flight to Sydney from Melbourne Avalon airport and before we knew it we had touched down in Sydney. I jumped on the blower to my old school friend Gav and he came and picked us up from the airport. Gav has been living out here for about 6years now so i havnt seen him for a very long time, but it didnt feel like that at all we jumped straight back into the old times. Gav offered to put us both up in his spare room in his appartment for the weekend but we ended up staying the whole week, it turned out to be one of the best weeks we have had away, felt like luxury sleeping in a real bed in a real house and they cooked for us everynight was complete and utter bliss!
So Gav and his girlfriend live just outside Sydney city in a suburb called Penrith, which is a small but very nice town. The first night there we just chilled out sank a few beers and caught up, Katie and natalie hit it off (and are now best mates). The next day Gav drove us
up to the Blue Mountains and we had a wander around there taking in the breathtaking scenery, we also got to see the 3 sisters rock formation where the week before a british lad got lost for 12 days. Once we had finished our sight seeing, we headed back to Penrith and stopped to see Gavs parents that i also knew from home, we stayed for a catch up and some good British tea. After that we went back to the flat and had some Spag bol, then we got on the drinking games, i introduced them to the humble but effective game of "arrogance" and when one of Gavs friends came round to join us he caught the bad end of the game and got destroyed. After we were fulled up we headed to the rugby stadium accross the road and went to watch the home team the Penrith Panthers v The Warriors, the game was a draw in the end, but what a great atmosphere we had a great time, Katie and Nat had their pictures taken with the Jim Beam Girls lol. After the match we headed to another bar next door and had a few more
beers. Then the hunger hit home so we headed back to the flat ordered 2 massive pizzas and continued on the drinking games, after Geoff fell asleep in the toilet we called it a night.
The next day Katie and I got up and as it was a Sunday we decided not to go to the city as we wernt sure what would be open and not, so we headed into Penrith and visited the Westfield shopping centre, these things are big and have loads of shops just like a blue water, except they have one in nearly every suberb. We did some shopping and Katie fell in love with some puppies at the pet store. That night we took it pretty easy and just watched some footy and chatted.
Next day gav and Nat went off to work and we headed into the city, takes just under an hr to get there on the train and costs only $10 return, very good value i thought. We jumped on the tram and bought a combo ticket which allows you access onto the metroline to. We jumped off at city centre and went up to centre point tower, inside
you can buy a combo ticket which gets you access to the towers viewing platform, entrance to the oz expeirence, entry to the wildlife park, and entrance to the aquarium, all for only $70, so we bought the lot great. At the top of the tower its very similar to the Eurokea tower in Melbourne, a circular viewing platform with stunning views. You have the option of upgrading to go out side on to an external cage but it was an extra $40 so we didnt bother. We then went for some lunch in a food court, re-fulled and ready we headed for the aquarium, katie had been wantiing to do this since melbourne so was really excited. Its a great place with some excellent facilities, we saw loads of species of fish, sharks, crocs, rays you name it they had it. You get to walk under the tanks through glass tubes and see the fish up close, pretty cool. Next door was the wildlife centre so we cruised in there and as soon as we walked in katie nearly had a heart attack as the spider exhibition is the first thing that greets you and anyone that knows her,
knows she is petrified of them and it was difficult to get her to move past them, didnt help there was bees there too stupid things! (i hate bees) The whole place was great they have interactive information screens that tell you everything about all the animals and creatures, you can touch the koalas, feed the kangaroos hold snakes you name it. They have a huge avery with birds flying everywhere, and another with butterflys and they land all over you, its a really great place. After this mamouth day of activities we were wiped out so we just headed back to nat and gavs for a relaxed evening.
The next day we headed back into the city to see some more sights, we walked around the shopping district, George street, and headed for circular quay, went to see the harbour bridge and the opera house, they are both great sights but there isnt a lot else to them so once you have seen them for ten minutes its time to move on. To say thankyou to Gav and Nat we decided to take them out to dinner for the evening, so we all went to a nice restaurant
and were joined by some of their friends another couple Sal and Pete, who were both really nice and after dinner we went back to their place for a few more drinks and a bit of UFC on the PS3 which of course i dominated at! The next day we were taking it easy and gav and nat gave us some free cinema tickets so we headed to the next suberb and went to watch public enemies and have a wander around the westfield there, we really didnt do a lot as the next day we were flying out to Brisbane so we took it easy. Natalie kindly got up at 4am and drove us to the airport, those two were real stars and anyone who knows how hard backpacking is knows and would appreciate how nice it was to have a bit of home comfort.
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