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We arrived in Sydney on the 8th Dec in the rain! We stayed at a hostel for a couple of nights before meeting up with Jo's cousin, Ali. She and her boyfriend both work for Emirates as flight crew and managed to put us up in a hotel for 3 nights - thanks guys! We spent the 3 days eating, drinking and catching up. We were brought down to earth when we arrived at our hostel in Glebe the next night. We were sharing with 4 other people staying in bunkbeds. It finally gave us a chance to buy some food and cook for ourselves.
The first week was spent shopping and sightseeing. We did the usual touristy sites, Circular Quay, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and the Rocks. From Circular Quay we took the ferry to Darling Harbour which is a trendy part of the city next to the business district. If you want to people watch, this is the place, so we sat down at the nearest bar and joined in.
The 2nd week was a lot more active. We managed to hit Bondi a couple of times and also took the ferry to Manly where most of the surfers hung out. We didn't make it onto a board but played in the big waves. We wern't yet in the Christmas spirit so we thought we'd check out Carols in the Domain (Botanic Gardens). It was really good with thousands of people there and oz celebrities singing (backing vocals were sang next to me by Jo).
The next day we went to Watson's Bay. Matt's old company had given us some money to pay for a meal at the famous Doyles seafood restaurant. It was excellent and our best meal yet. We were lucky to get great weather as it had been s*** for the last 3 days. After all this eating, the next day we thought we'd find a gym...it didn't take long! Later on our hostel put on its usual free sunday night bbq (drinks not included tho ).
For our last day in Sydney we took a train up to Katoomba to see the Blue Mountains National Park. We arrived and decided to reject the explorer bus (lazy boy option) and went hiking. So we walked to scenic world (3km) where we took the steepest railway in the world to get on the Federal Pass . After 4km we reached the Giant Stairway. We had climbed about 10 of the 900 steps when we met the first person coming down who just said 'good luck' and smiled. But there was no turning back. We met a few more people on the way, they all seemed to say the same thing. Anyway we manged to crawl and climb to the top in about 30 minutes which was good going. This took us up to Echo Point (a great view of the 3 sisters) and a hard earned drink. We then walked the Prince Henry Cliff Walk (another 4km) which took us to Leura, the next town along. From here we caught the next train back to Sydney. Later that evening we caught the Greyhound up to Tweed Heads to meet up with Jo's Auntie and Uncle. Another 15 hour bus journey...
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