1/8/06 Left Canberra today for the bright lights of Sydney!! We made the most of the free brekkie at the yha then went to catch the greyhound bus. it only took 3 hours and we found a mega cheap hostle with free internet only bad thing is its dirty and smeels of feet but we can survive!!! we walked down george street to circular key and got our first viewing of the opera house and syney harbour bridge. it was dark and lit up with the city lights so was pretty amazing!! we had a drink of wine at the expensive opera house bar in our slobby hoodies and trainers - dont think we fitted in with all the business suits!!! 2/8/06 Today we headed off to the blue mountains with the oz experience bus - we were a bit scared because every other oz experience bus we had come across was crowded with immiture teenagers and expected everyone to start snogging each other but luckily we had quite a cool bus with nice people!! On the way we stopped in a nature reserve and got really close to kangaroos which was ace!!! the blue mountains are a really spectacular mountain range the size of holland. they look blue because of the eucalyptus trees which give off an oil which evaporates and creates a blue haze. we went to a few amazing look outs and then went for a 2 hour walk through the 'grand canyon' bush and saw some nice waterfalls and learnt about some of the trees. back at the coach we had a free lunch woohoo!!! then we made our own aborigine art using natural ochre and tree bark. we then set off for the three sisters, rock outcrops which stick out onto the canyon, which apparently used to be 3 aborigine daughters and the father turned them into stone to protect them from another evil aborigine. we walked down 1000 steps to the canyon bottom then went back up the canyon on the worlds steepest railway - almost vertical - at points it was 52 degrees. it was like a scary alton towers ride we were pooing our pants. we hen went to katoomba, the town our hostle was in and checked in got food nd went to bed. 3rd aug. met kieran, kristen and aaron (some people from the bus) and went on a 6 hour walk to 'ruined castle' an outcrop of rocks in the grand canyon of the blue mountains. we walked along the canyon ridge just below the cliff faces and had to walk over several landslides and other obsticals which made the path really hard to see. the path then lead into the jungle which was fab but then lead to some really steep steps!!!! evil - me and bear have encountered so many steps on our travels and really hate them now - planning to live in bungalows!!! we were absolutely knackered when we got to the rocks. me and kieran found the way up to the top of the pile of boulders where you could see an amazing view of the blue mountains and the 3 sisters valley/canyon - we were totally surrounded by them which was stunning!! there was lots of carved graffiti on the rocks and we found one that dated 1885!!! we ate our lunch on the rocks and got surrounded by evil black birds with yellow eyes - quite scary - like a horror movie!!! we then walked back to katoomba up even move evil nasty steps!!! kieran, kristen and aaron got the bus back to sydney but we are staying another night here. we got back and had a video night yay!!! 4th aug woke up to really awful weather - we were going to go for a walk today but it was tipping it down and we couldnt see much more that 10 feet in front of us so we just expored the tiny town, got soaked and watched more videos!!1 at around 5 we caught the oz experience bus back to sydney where we checked back into our hostle. we then met up with kieran who took us to 'the rocks' the area of sydney under the harbour bridge, it has lots of cool bars and a wicked market. we had a drink then back to bed. 5th aug we met karen today (one of the people we met in nz on the stray bus) which was wicked!! she took us around all the important sights in sydney - the cup cake shop, the lindt chocolate shop etc!!!! yum!!! we also went to the botanical gardens which had loads of wird plants and a tree uyou were meant to wlk around backwards and forwards 3 times to get a wish granted!!! - we couldnt be bothered - to much effort!! we took pictures of the opera house in all the different positions possible, had luch at scruffy murphys, then karen left us and we went to darling harbour where a boat festival was taking place. we went to the imax cinemas there to see 'afriacn safari' in 3d - had to wear very ammusing glasses teehee!!! we went back and got ready for our night out with karen and her flat mates. we eventually found her house with a lot of difficulty!! we played drinking games and did karioke - very embarrasing!!! we then moved onto sidebar and drank a lot whoops!!! did lots of dancing and somehow i managed to really hurt my toe - might be broken!!! bed!!! 6th aug woke up very late - we were meant to be checking out at 10 but accidently it ended up being about 11.30 but the receptionist let us off because her boss wasnt there - phew!!! my toe is totally black and in agony!!!! me and claire went to the rocks market which was great - it was very chilled and lots of jazz bands about. we had a wine next to the opera house and harbour listening to jazz - bliss!!! claire went to pick up rich from the airport and we took him down to see the opera house at night, then we went back as rich was a bit jet lagged from his very very long flight!! we went to our separate hostles and i ended up at a weed party which was very bizarre - not sure how i ended up there, i was reading my book one minute then sitting with lots of high people the next!!! - very dodgey hostle!! 7th aug in the morning we sorted rich out with his bus pass and vip card etc then we caught the train to bondi beach. the train was a double decker train - wow!!! bondi had massive waves and was really cool, apparently there are so many irish people there they call it county bondi hehe!!1 we walked along the coast to coogee which took about an hour. we played chicken with the waves and got totally soaked!!! was a very pretty walk, nice coat line and towns. we then caught the bus back into central sydney and booked our bridge climb then sprinted back to the hostles in time to meet karen for farewell hot chocolate (she was flying back to the uk). very sad to see her go she was ace!! we said goodbye then went off to china town for tea.