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Well as you have all read I didn't get much sleep the night before my flight to Sydney. So when I arrived even though I had managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the flight I was pretty tired. Luckliy for me though customs at the airport wasn't as bad as I had anticipated and I arrived at John's house at about 9.30pm. Now this is where my stupidness kicks in. I managed to remember to write down the address and instructions on where to find the keys to let myslef in, but I forgot to write down the alarm code. So I managed on my first night to create a scene for myself in front of all of Johns neighbours. i'm just really glad that he warned them of my arrival, that his next door neighbour had a copy of the alarm code and that I arrived at a fairly reasonable time so that I didn't disturb people too much.
After still only managing to get to sleep at 12.30am Candy arrived at 9am. Bittersweet as I really could've done with a bit longer in bed to catch up but it was really good to see her. We spent the majority of the morning catching up with each other before venturing out and getting provisions for the house and so that we could make ourselfs some lunch. Around mid -late afternoon we made our way into the centre of Sydney where we had a little wander and went into a travel shop to find out what there is to do ext before we met up with Valentina, a friend that I had made on my trip in India. The plan for the evening was to have an Indian themed night to re-live memories and introduce Bollywood to Candy. So to start with we went and had a Thali and Masala Dosas followed by my favourite desert that I have been missing from India, Gulad Jamon! So Good! After a couple of hours eating and chatting we made our way to the cinema to go and see a Bollywood film. When we got there however we were dissapointed to find that all the tickets were in fact sold out! Gutted! But at least looking at the silver lining we had a reason to meet up the following evening so that we could actually watcha Bollywood film.
Our second day in Sydney was spent exploring the main city centre and doing the main sights of the Harbour and Opera House ext. We were taking full advantage of having the kitchen facilities though and made ourselves a packed lunch to have by the harbour and even managed to prepare dinner for th evening before we left. It was a really nice day, the sun was shining. Just lovely. We then took the ferry over to Darling Harbour something that one of Valentinas friends had suggested, this meant that we managed to get an even better view of the opera house and sailed underneath the bridge. We then had fun wandering around this area as it was so prety and relaxed. We then met up with one of Candys school friends and spent a few hours with him before wandering back up to Paddys market and made our way home for dinner. In the end with Valentina we didn't end up going t the cinema but instead watched the 'most ever seen film' (which I can't remember the name off because I'm awfull!) on dvd. It was a really long film! But it was so epic! We have even now succeeded in making Candy like Bollywood films! One more convert : ) Valentina had also bought me the Bollywood film Blue that was a film that was being advertised when we were in India and has a cameo of Kylie in it. So I'll be making you watch this Dad when I get home : )
The following day we thought that we got up fairly early, prepared our lunch in good time and were on the bus into central at 10am on our way to the Blue Mountains. We decided that we wern't going to do this as a tour as it was cheaper on our own and allowed a bit more freedom. Plus if we wanted to do a tour it meant that we would've had to of been in central Sydney at 8am, that meant getting up ridiculously early as it took us about 30mins just to get into the centre. After being very lucky with the trains, one being there waiting to leave within 5mins and them only being hourly. We arrived at the Blue Mountains at 1pm! Eek! The explorer bus that we were catching stopped at around 5pm so it only left us with a limited amount of time up there. What we did see though was beautifull. The scenery was completely different to anything that we'd seen in Asia, and as it was such a clear view we got to see some amazing scenery and of course saw in famous three sisters before making the long journey home. Again luckliy for us dinner was nice and quick when we got in so we were fed by 9pm.
On the Friday we took the day quite easy. Making sure that everything was tidy for Johns return the following day. We made some chocolate brownies, had an amazing lunch. Had a bit of a heated discussion but sorted things out quickly, caught up on bits on the internet. And then at about 5pm we made our way into to town to then make our way to Bondi Beach where we wer going to be going out with Valentina. omehow with a combination of catching the bus in rush hour, needing to sort things out at central and then walking all the way to Circular Quay thinking that was where we got a bus from to get to Bondi only to discover it was an Explore bus and then getting the train back to Central and then another to Bondi Junction it was about 8.30pm before we arrived. To top off our bad luck, Valentina was having problems at work and was struggling to make it. So with a bit of instruction from the man at the station we started walking to Bondi Beach not really knowing where we were going. We were told that it was only about a 15/20mins walk but after half an hour tired and hungry and still not finding it : ( we turned around, found somewhere to eat and headed for home.
Saturday we ventured back into the centre of town, sorted out our greyhound for the following night and then walked to the Botanical gardens enjoying the city as we walked. The gardens were beautifull and the scenery from them to the harbour was lovely. To make things better they were free to wander around and even had signposts inviting you to wlak on the grass! Brilliant! You wouldn't find that in the Uk. We then walked along the quay passed the Opera house again and down towards the rocks. A place that's a bit like Covent Garden for the markets / street entertainment. We stopped off to watch a body contortionist fit herselve into a very small box. We then wandered back through the streets taking as much in as possible of Sydney on a Saturday and then made our way home. When we arrived John and Janet were already there with Angus and we had timed it perfectly for the pizza that they had bought. Although we felt a bit rude helping them with them and then ordered a couple more from this really nice Italian round the corner. John later suprised me by calling up my parents so that I could have a chat with them. All in all this was a really nice day and a lovely evening.
Our final day in Sydney and we were so spolit! It started with a fantastic brunch cooked on the bbq qith a couple of John and Janets friends served with champayne! Followed by the Christmas tree being put up. We had already decided to take our Sunday easily and spent the day sorting all of our bits and bobs out. In the late afternoon John cooked us up some beautifull steak that just melted in your mouth, served with salad and toast. It was delicious! Very spoilt. We were all set for our journey that night to Byron Bay. He then pressented us with a bag of fruit! We were now even set for breakfast! To top off being spoilt we got a lift to the bus stop accompanied by Angus, who took great pleasure at occasionally squiching my stomache so that he couldput his head out of the window. We caught our bus at 7pm and waved a fairwell to Sydney.
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