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Published: January 3rd 2007
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Arrived in Sydney 18th Dec very tired after 13hr coach journey. Day walking around in a complete daze longing to be able to sleep in my not yet made up bunk bed.
Following day being a little more awake went to Parm Beach, where some of Home and Away is filmed. Met lots of people from the hostel and took part in a vollyball comp. I was teamed up with Stacey and one guy from Canada, Randy and another from South Africa, Steve. They were all really good whereas I really wasn't, but I did my best. We didn't really have any tatics, but we continued to win all our games. Funnily enough we got into the final and were playing against Jo & Lou, and two other guys. Very tense final with everyone watching, but in the end my team won (complete fluke I think). It was so much fun and allowed for much team bonding. We won T-shirts and $100 bar tab at the hostel bar - well cool! Spent the evening at the bar spending no money, it was fab!
Next day I wondered round the city on my own to the Opera House. The weather was quite
poor, so it was a bit depressing. In the afternoon me,Katy and Jo met with Preet and her friend Orla at a bar in the harbour. Spent a very unbackpacker afternoon/eve drinking wine and eating posh food with a group of English guys.
Our hostel organised an orientation tour round the city for the next day, so we were taken all around the city (luckily on a much nicer day) and shown all the highlights. It was a really good idea as it enabled us to get our bearings and see all the best bits. There are so many pretty signs all around the city, once in the gardens, its easy to forget that your actually in such a big city. That evening we went to Side Bar (the hostel bar). Due to some very useful net working by our fab STA rep (you know who you are Amy), I introduced myself to the bar manager and he gave us 2 free bottles of bubbly!! All very impressed and led to some very silly dancing with random German guys.
The next day Jo's friend, Lee arrived. I spent the day wondering round the shops and a huge market just round
the courner from our hostel. I was desperatly looking for Bekka's secret santa present but didn't have much luck. I then spent the afternoon in Bondi with Preet and Orla. Lovely big beach, but nothing particularly impressive. We had arranged to have a BBQ that eve and all the girls were coming over. But when we went to investigate the BBQ in their garden, we found a HUGE spider on the inside of the BBQ and loads of little ones crawling all over it. I'm not really scared of spiders, but this one was SSOOOOO big, there was no way I was going anywhere near it. We had already bought lots of meat and all the girls were expecting a BBQ, so me and Preet went next door and very cheekily asked if we could come into their garden and use their BBQ. The guy was very sweet and cheerfully let us, but then quickly went out. Me and Orla then cooked the food keeping an eye on all the flat doors praying that no one would come home and demand to knows why we were loitering in their back garden. Luckily they didn't and we got to eat loads
of yummy food. We then went out into town and went to a few bars on Oxford Street.
On Christmas Eve Jo's other friend James arrived. Once again the weather was awful and it was grey all day and tipped with rain the whole afternoon. A few of us went for a tour round the Opera House. It was pretty cool actually seeing inside. We were all hoping to catch a show, but were then told most performances get booked up 7-8 months in advance, so that idea crashed and burned. We then had tea and cake in the Opera Bar, very classy!! The evening was then spent at Side Bar where much alcohol was consumed and dancing done.
Awoke on Christmas Day feeling a little rough and not quite believing it was 25th Dec. There was a fair amount of hangovers but we managed to drag ourseleves over to Preet's apartment on Bondi. Her two housemates, Orla and Paula had been cooking all morning and had prepared a full christmas dinner, including turkey, two types of potatos, veg, pigs in blankets, stuffing, gravey and a started of smoke salmon, tomatos and feta cheese - all with only one small
oven!!! It was amazing and so yummy. There was 20 of us in the end, including Paula and Orla's friends too. We were all so impressed with the cooking skills and we even had apple pie for pudding. We sat outside as the weather had suddenly taken a turn for the best and the sun was shining and ate loads. In the afternoon we walked down to Bondi Beach and made numerous videos on oure cameras of us all on the beach. Someone had made a sandman and a sandtree, which were well cool. It was very strange being on the beach on 25th Dec, it didn't feel like christmas at all, just another day on the beach really, but it was a cool experience. In the evening we returned to the hostel, ate even more chocolate and fell asleep very full.
The sun continued to shine and the next day a group of us went up Sydney Tower where we were able to watch the beginning of the famous boat race from Sydney to Hobbart (not sure where that is though). It was really cool being able to see all around Sydney from such a great hight, though the
Opera House was blocked by a very tall ugly building which was a bit of a shame.
The next day we took a trip to the Blue Mountains. It was an organised tour and included stopping off at a Wildlife Park where we met a very cute baby Kangaroo called Charles. There were loads of native ozzy animals as well as some gorgeous little penguins. Back on the coach we headed into the mountains and after a random buffet lunch we went to the famous 3 sister mountains and an amazing view point that looked straight over the Blue Mountains. After that we took a ride in a very steep cablecar down into the rainforest, wandered through the lush forest and then rode the steepest railway back up. It was actually quite scary but much fun. We were then taken on a tour through the 2000 Olimpic Village, was cool seeing where it all took place. Lastly we returned to the city via river on a cruise boat. It was a really good day and the Blue Mountains were amazing!
New Year to come, but those stories can wait.......
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