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Published: January 19th 2008
Mass in Bondi
Definitely the most unique Christmas mass - Looks like Quinns on a match day!Well the last two weeks have definitely been a different Christmas experience for us!
Apart from the odd Irish person in South America and Mum and Dad in New Zealand we hadn't met any other Irish people on our trip. So getting to Sydney was strange- the city seemed to be full of people from home. It was great to see some friendly faces. Sydney at Christmas time is cool- there was a great atmosphere around, although I'm guessing this city never really lacks atmosphere. We defintely made up for our relatively quiet social life since we left Ireland. We pretty much spent the whole two weeks eating and drinking- much like Christmas at home except it was all done in the sunshine.
In between the nights out we managed to fit in some of the sights- the obligatory Opera House and Harbour Bridge. These two are photographed so often it kinda takes away from the wow factor when you actually see them for real. Darling harbour was our favourite part of the city. The famous Bondi beach looked pretty nice on Christmas day when it was relatively quiet but quickly went down in my estimation when I returned
Bondi Beach
Christmas morning a few days later and couldn't even find space to lay my towel. Some of the other beaches around the city were much nicer. Other trips we made included Chinatown, The Rocks, Manly (we did two shore dives off Shelly beach in Manly which were cool- shore diving is much harder work than boat diving though), Palm beach- (AKA Home and Away), the Sky tower and the olympic stadium. The olympic stadium wasn't exactly what I was expecting- the whole stadium has been remodelled since the olympics so it can be used for other events now. The running track is not even there anymore! The stadium is cool in that the stand areas can be moved backward and forward to change the shape of the pitch depending on the sport to be played. While we were in the olympic park the preliminary rounds of the Sydney international were on so we got to see a tennis match which was cool.
While in Sydney we stayed with Eddie's uncle Pat who cooked us a great Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. On Christmas morning we went to an Irish mass in Bondi and afterwards spent the day in Pats house
Christmas dinner
The chef uncle Pat and his good friend Paddy Neville eating turkey and drinking red wine. The next day we went to the races- it was international day at the races which basically meant anyone with an international passport got in free. We might as well have been in Leopardstown - I'd say 80% of the crowd were Irish.
Eddie's family arrived in Sydney on New Years eve- it was great to see them. New years eve was definitely one to remember- probably the biggest street party I have ever been at or will ever be at (Eddie reckons it was bigger than the Strawberry fair years ago). The fireworks display was fairly impressive to say the least.
On our last night in Sydney we all went to the sky tower for dinner and had a good night out afterwards. It was a nice way to round off a great two weeks in but its definitely time to move on- Think we're getting too old for all this drinking...
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