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The Rest of Our Month in Sydney Finally Continued.....
After a very different but fabulous Christmas in the Sydney sunshine it was time to see the New Year in with style. We thought that we couldnt let the occassion pass by without a little sparkle, sadly the moet was a little out of our price range but the $5 bottle of sparkling wine was perfect to kick off the celebrations. In true boozy brit style we all hopped on the bus with our plastic water bottles filled up with goon tightly in our grasp. We were heading for LUNA PARK....
Luna park is basically a huge funfair/theme park that is situated right by the harbour bridge so we couldnt have asked for a more perfect location. We arrived just in time for the 9pm family fireworks which were pretty spectacular as just a warm up to the main display. It was now time to check out the rides.... a ride on the rollercoaster and a go on the dodgems later we were ready to hit the on site club known as the Big Top. We had a quick session on the dance floor along with some more sparkling wine but before we knew it midnight was fast approaching so we raced outside to get a good spot for the big moment. The atmosphere was electric with thousands of people crowded around the harbour eagerly awaiting the big explosion. As we counted down we were filled with excitement ready for what would be an unbelievable moment.....the fireworks were absolutely incredible and like nothing we had ever seen before. The sky was illuminous and it made us fully appreciate where we were!! (That one was for you boys!haha!) With everyone in high spirits we dabbled in a quick round of Auld langs Eyne in true British style before making our way back to the Big Top. It was time for more dancing, this time to live DJ Calvin Harris who was brilliant (from what we can remember?!hehe!) When we eventually rolled into bed at 6am we had had simply the best New Years Eve Ever!!!!!! It had been a truly fantastic night, this one is going to be extremely hard to top next year!
As you can imagine New Years day we were feeling slightly worse for wear and did not surface until 3pm! After getting some hangover grub in our bellies it was back to bed until 5pm when we realised it was finally time to get up, get showered and head out...to the local pub! Still feeling very fragile we knew the only way to tackle this was with a drink...a few coronas later and all the great New Years celebrations had finally caught up with us and we were more than ready for bed!!!
So it was now well and truly 2009 and sadly time to leave the lovely Tim, Chris & Coogee Beach and venture into the city centre. To say a huge thankyou to the boys for letting us stay over all off the christmas and new year period on our last night we took them out for an italian meal. Not being used to a nice restaurant, delicious food and wine that wasnt goon we savoured every taste and toasted to what had been a great time in Coogee! Thanks again guys!!!!!!
When we arrived at our new hostel in Sydney City Centre completely randomly we were placed in the same dorm room as our lovely friends from the Oz bus Fran & Paul. Needless to say we were extremely pleased about this especially as it was a bit of a shock to the system going from the cosy flat back to sharing a dorm full of strangers! Perfectly timed it appeared that our whole group who we did the Fraser Island trip with were now also staying in the city so we all arranged a big reunion night out. Typically the alcohol flowed and after catching up on what everyone had been up to over Christmas & New Year & a few rounds of the dangerous 'God Save the Queen' game we danced our way into the early hours. Luckily the bar was situated underneath our hostel so it was easy crawling home distance!
During our time in the city we spent the majority of our time with Fran, Paul and Fran's sister Carry who is currently living in Sydney. We hit all the tourist hotspots...we took a picnic to the Royal Botanical Gardens, visited the incredible Sydney Opera House, took a ferry to Manly Beach to check out the huge waves and even indulged in a rather strange but delicious chocolate dinner at the famous Max Brenner Chocolate Restaurant! Very scrummy but very very sickly!!! We even managed to finish third place in a pub quiz which we were over the moon about especially as we all won ourselves a free drink! 'The Blondes and the Brains' - Team Work!! Sadly it was then time for Fran & Paul to leave us behind and head for New Zealand...our paths do not cross again on our trip so we look forward to meeting up with them again back in England!
Since being in the city, Chris who we stayed with in Coogee had gone off to Melbourne to work on a winery for a while. This meant that they now had a free bed in their flat....Tim, Kim & Kirby asked us if we would like to move back in for the remainder of our time in Sydney, share a bed and pay one persons rent between us. Of course we absolutely jumped at the chance and without hesitation we jumped on a bus back to Coogee! We made oureselves at home pretty quickly and had our stuff unpacked within seconds! It was so nice to have our clothes hanging up and our stuff out rather than all jammed into our rucksacks! The rent worked out cheaper for us than a hostel and it was sooooooo much better!!! It was time for some more fun with Tim, Kim Kirby (from our flat) plus Ian, Alan, Shane and Rita (The Irish crew from the flat downstairs).
Saturday 10 January and Sydney festival was in full flow so we all made our way to the Domain in The Botanical Gardens and set up camp right by the main stage. We sipped cider in the sun and enjoyed the variety of music that played. Grace Jones headlined the event which was an interesteing set and at one point everyone on stage had the whole crowd up and learning 'The Sydney Dance' This was very entertaining especially watching the boys trying to pick up the moves hehe! When the festival finished we headed into town and hit the one and only place that is "Scruffy Murphys" Now we know that there will be a certain group of boys from Coogee reading this and so we are vowed to tell you that this is the best place on earth ever! In reality it is a cheap Irish backpackers bar with a dance floor! To be fair though we had a brilliant night there and are sad that during our time in Sydney we only ever managed to venture to the mighty "Scruffys" once! A real shame!
With the Melbourne Open tennis tournament taking place at the end of January Sydney holds the warm up at the Olympic park called the 'Sydney International'. Now being monday along with Ian, Alan, Shane & Tim we made our way accross town to watch some matches. Cheekily enough we managed to sneak into the centre court even though we only purchased ground pass tickets, this meant we got to see some good tennis and stars like Safina. It was a great day which got even better when we arrived home...our friend dawn from the Whitsunday Islands trip text us to ask us if we were at the tennis today as she saw us on TV!!!!! The camera man had come and sat next to us during the day but we had gone all silly and got the giggles so never thought we would make the cut! Clearly our natural flare and beauty on camera shone through! haha!
Katies really good friend Uri from Camp America was now also in Sydney and staying in Bondi, so what better excuse to hit Bondi beach for the day. We sat and chilled whilst he surfed for a bit then we all went for lunch so they could catch up properly and we could all exchange travelling stories! He was really lovely and we agreed that we would definitely have a night out all together before we left Sydney (which we did a few nights later in our local "The Palace" in Coogee.)
After meeting Uri we made our way back to Coogee and all decided to have a wee BBQ by the beach for dinner. Unfortunately nobody told us that they switch off the communal BBQ's at 8pm and so half way thriough cooking our burgers we had no heat! We managed to wrap everything up, carry it back to the flat (just a 2 min walk up the hill away) and the legend that is Mr Ian Bryce finished everything off on the George Foreman, perfect! So in true England style we finished the barby off inside and sipped our cider into the early hours.
Friday Night and its LADIES NIGHT!!!
We decided it was time for a girls night out. Sadly Rita was in Brisbane so ourselves along with Kim and Kirby made our way to Darling Harbour. ( a classier part of town) In true girly style we sipped wine, had a boogy and just a really fun night out. After watching way too many episodes of Sex and the City back at the flat we thought we were in Manhattan! hehe, disappointingly though Cosmopolitans were not quite affordable so we stuck to cheap vino!
As you will see from the pictures another ladies night did take place during our time at the flat.... you can judge for yourselves but all I will say was that no alcohol was involved in that evenings events and the boys did not put up much of a fight - in fact they were loving it!! A very funny night in!!!
Much to our dissappointment our time in Sydney was quickly drawing to a close and so we wanted to make the most of our final few days. We took a walk accross the magnificent Harbour Bridge, visited the Sydney Aquarium, met our friend Dawn for lunch at The Rocks, strolled around Paddys Market which was like being back in Thailand! and sampled a taste of China in China Town, yummy!!
Soon enough it was our last day in Sydney and we had booked to go on an organised trip to the Blue Mountains with our flat mate Kim. We can truly say we had the most annoying tour guide ever! Throughout the 2 hour drive up to the mountains he spoke constantly without stopping for breath! It was like Bubba from Forest Gump with him even listing the 20 million different fillings we could have in our sandwiches for lunch!! Ahhh!!!! Despite him we had brilliant day taking in some incredible views including the Three Sisters and we even took a ride on the worlds steepest railway (pretty scary!)
After a long day trip and having to pack our bags when we got back which we did not enjoy, we decided the best way to celebrate our last night in Sydney was to have a few drinks locally. So with Tim, Alan & Ian we made our way to the Coogee Bay Hotel for a final few Sydney Scooners!! Soon enough it was time to head back and say our final farewells to the flat downstairs! Some very emotional goodbyes followed the next morning when we had to say goodbye to our flatmates too! :-(
We can truly say we had the most AMAZING time throughout our time in Sydney and especially during our stay in Coogee and we feel that we should dedicate this last paragraph to our devoted fans in Coogee who we know will have been eagerly awaiting to have a read and a laugh at this installment.... thanks for the barbys, frisbee, footy, fry ups and the endless DVD's (but not the bed bugs!) we miss you guys!!!!
Tim - An English gentleman and world champion tea drinker! Bet the kettle doesnt click as much without us there though!
Ian - Would give Gordon Ramsey a run for his money in the kitchen and has luscious locks that we are sure will soon be appearing in the herbal essences adverts - watch this space!
Alan - A wild one on the dance floor but rarely saw the light of day. Looks fierce with his piercing but we have seen his music collection!
Shane - Born on the same day as Top Gun was released - this is no coincidence as smooth as Tom Cruise we hardly saw him as he made up half of the infamous duo that was SHIRBY!
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