Now at my last stop in Australia - Sydney!! Had 6 great days seeing the sights with the added bonus of staying with family friends so we've had home conforts to top it all off like an en-suite shower, t.v, comfy sofas etc etc... small things.... the family we've been staying with are actually friends from home which mum worked out i hadnt seen since i was 7!!!! so a lot of this sydney trip has been catching up and reminising which has been a lot of fun! the days have been pretty packed - the first day we arrived at 9 in the morning, i felt pretty awake until i lay down on the bed and woke up 3 hours later!! that afternoon, we headed into the city to go to the IMAX cinema to see a 3-D seaworld film - this was pretty good and a nice relaxing way to spend our first day!! in the evening we drank lots of goon (thats aussie for wine in a box - im not sure if ive mentioned it before but its what we've drunk pretty much the whole time we've been here just because its so cheap and doesnt actually taste that bad!) and headed down to the "local" to meet some of their friends. The next day, carly and i headed up to the blue mountains - 2 hour train journey later (well it was supposed to be but actually turned out to be 3 hours with lots of stops and starts) and we arrive in very thick mist, not at all like the photo above! I expected the place to be far quieter than it was, seeing as there isnt a lot in the blue mountains but in fact we arrived in quite a large town with shops and cafes etc and like good little tourists, we took a tour bus around the area which is called Katoomba - this took us to a chocolate shop (def a highlight) where you were given a nightlight, a cup, a jug of hot milk and some chocolate buttons to make your own hot chocolate - hours of fun!! next stop was scenic world which consisted of a train ride in a replica cart that would have taken miners years ago which went down the steepest decline in the world very fast, a walk through the bush and then a trip up to the top in the cablecar (see above) with running commentary about what you could see around you which would have been great if we could have seen anything at all! the next stop was a walk along a clifftop visiting 3 giant rock stacks called the 3 sisters and walking a very steep stairway to get to them. We finally got back on the train at 6 - cold, wet and exhausted but had actually had a really good time - reminded me a lot of my cornish holidays at easter time - must do walks and toursity things even though its raining and we've got 10 thousand layers on!! The next few days were spent between visiting sydney opera house, the harbour bridge, the aquarium and the central tower where you can go up to the top to see amazing views of the city and then as part of your ticket you get to do a simulator tour of australia (you know one of those wiggly seats which make you feel like your moving...) - probably one of the cheesiest things i have ever experienced, its definiately in a close running with Bindi and the Crocmen! We also spent a day visiting the northern beaches - there are 16 in total but we just visited two in particular- manly - where we had fish and chips (we had plans to have it on the beach but as luck would have it, it was blowing a gale force wind) and palm beach where the great tv programme "home and away" is filmed and i am not ashamed to admit that i got very excited about it, expecially when i saw the characters names written up on the surf club!!! Today was our day of meet and greet and we managed to see 2 friends from home and also one of the guys from our fraser island trip - it was great to have a chance to catch up over a cuppa- ive never drunk so many drinks in such a short space of time (that weren't alcoholic!!) So thats my trip to sydney in a nutshell - and now we're off to fiji tomorrow for a week...woopee!! Hope you're all enjoying the still boiling weather in england - has everything come to a standstill yet?? xxxx