Back to Sydney

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Very glad to be back here after our half circle tour of Oz. Getting of the bus we noticed how warm and familiar Sydney is. It's honestly the warmest I've felt since June! We found a cheap hostel above a pub called the Mountbatten Hotel, funky name eh. Pretty basic but close to the Train station and the pubs...... That night we met up with Vicky (friend from uni) and Nadine (a former apple picker) and some Dundee boys Stef knows at the famous Scruffy Murphys, an Irish bar doh. Tis a very messy place but good beer and live music. So we had a few drinks and ended up at a Chinese Bar, Charlie Chans, or Jackie Chans, or Charlie Chaplins and met some great random ozzies. The bar comes thoroughly recommended! The next day was spent mostly in bed but I headed down to Chinatown for some lunch then to Darling Harbour where there was a big boat show on.
The next morning me and Ross got up early to surprise mum at the airport. She will deny it but it took her a minute to remember what we looked like. We took Mum and Alan for an authentic Ozzie Starbucks, dropped our bags at our new home on Pitt Street then headed for Circular Quay. We educated them in Oz cuisine with a pie / sausage roll and caught a ferry to Manly to meet our friends Jane and Steve for a couple drinks........ Yesterday we went on a tour through the Hunter Valley which was awesome. Got picked up early and taken to a reptile park for morning tea, I know, sounds odd, but we had coffee while cuddling an alligator and the cutest koala! Then we fed the biggest kangaroos in Australia! After that we spent the day tasting wine, which was educational and suprisingly tiring and after a wee rest at the apartment we went out to China Town for tea, yum yum, then a walk around the harbour at night. Yesterday we met Jane and Steve again and went to the oldest pub in Sydney for a pub lunch then a wee/big wander across Sydney. We ended up at Paddys Market where we stocked up on extra clothing for the NZ trip and last night we opened a few bottles and sat down to a feast of homemade Chilli (I made the guacamole). OH, and we played pass-the-pigs, some people fell off the couch and some, as I type, are probably nursing their sore heads....
So today I'm going to try and buy an AFL top, we're changing our flights to go home via SE Asia, touring the opera house, eating sushi train for lunch, the heading to Bondi to meet Vicki and drink goon, celebrating what could be our last day in Australia (for this trip anyway).
Onward to New Zealand!!!

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