Sydney

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Upon arriving early in the morning sfter a lenthly 10 hour coach journey we made our way to our pre-booked hostel in Kings Cross called Globe. At 10 in the morning we saw drunks, tramps, prostitutes along our road so we were a bit weary! We were staying opposite Mcdonalds, Showgirls and Moulin Rouge Downunder - so very classy! Our hostel was for want of a better word a hole! It was not clean at all so we spent most of the day looking for another hostel though we had to stay here 3 days before we could get a refund for the rest of the week hehe. We got to see a different side of Sydney here and due to Pitt Street and Hayley's poor orientation skills we succesfully got lost all 3 evenings. Once our next accommodation was arranged we visited the museum, chinatown and St Marys Cathedral. On tuesday we went to Sydney aquarium and saw Nemo as well as other sea animals including sharks! Half way through our camera battery died so Neil used his charm for us to gain entry the next day when we had a working camera. In the evening we enjoyed a very healthy chinese. The next day, camera fully charged, we returned to the aquarium to take thousands of pictures of sharks. We looked around Harbourside shopping centre and visited the Maritime Museum. For dinner we had an all you can eat pizza hut buffet so were feeling extremely full. We awoke early on thursday to move to our much nicer hostel in central Sydney with cinema, bar, restaurant and roof pool and sauna. After we were eventually allowed to check into our room we went to the Skytower. Somehow we lost the most easy building to see in Sydney but it was practically above us. The view from the top was a 360degree view of Sydney in a sunny day. It was an amasing view. After numerous pictures and spotting the Sydney Cricket Ground we made our way to the Sydney Opera house. Neil again used his charm to gain entry to the Opera house tour for a reduced rate (as money was running low this was good news!). Inside we learned about the building of the Opera House, saw all the theatres and got to watch the up and coming ballet rehearse. It was a magnificant building! Next we made our way to Harbour bridge and walked across and round to gain the best view of both the bridge and the opera house. Being a long way from town we caught the ferry back to Darling Harbour then made our way down George street to our hostel without getting lost wohoo!!

On friday we had to be ready and out by 7am for our oz experience to the Blue Mountains lead by our tour guide called Adam or 'knackers'. The first tricked played by Adam was to wear false teeth and a wig making it very uneasy to look at him, but funny when we realised they were not real. Our first stop was to see wild grey kangaroos. Next we walked a 3 hour loop near Wentworth Falls where we saw many lookout points of the Bluemountains environment. After lunch we went to see the famous sweet shop where Neil sulked as he did not get any. On the way to our next stop Adam played trick number 2 where he shouted and slammed on the brakes, successfully scaring and waking up the sleeping passengers! At the stop we walked down the historic Furber Stairs into Jameison Valley through the rainforest past Witchpoint to the Three Sisters Rock formations. Once at the bottom of the valley we boarded the steepest railway in the worldto journey back up. Adam taught us many aboriginal stories and how the mountains got their name. It derived from the blue haze that is produced from the 80 different species of Eucalyptus trees! On the way home we enjoyed 'Finding Nemo' and the film 'Elizabeth' back at the hostel. The next few days we lazed at the hostel as Neil was unwell and the weather was not great. Hayey went to mass at St Marys Cathedral and on monday we went to Bondi beach in the rain. We got off the bus took some pictures and got straight back on!

On our last day we relaxed and watched the Simpsons movie that Neil gladly chose before making our way to the aiport. We thought it was a little strange that their was not a departure lounge as we were told to go to our gate 30 mins before departures. The layout was a little strange however so we thought nothing of it. At 30 mins to, we followed the signs and realised there was a departure lounge so we had to go through security and run all the way to the plane which left as soon as we got on!!!

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