Finally starting to feel abit more human now, as my 'quiet night in'' turned out to be well......not on the quiet side,but the offer of FREE bus to bar, with FREE pizza and FREE Champers and vodka once there was too good to pass up on. Gave me a chance to meet another load of ppl thou(so many names to try to remember!)-along with some rather nice guys. Girls, finally found a bar lbuzzing with really nice looking guys (i knew there were hiding somewhere!) As you can see i'm now in sunny sydney...having really good time here, met loads of really nice people, everyone just seems so friendly but does mean we seem to be spending alot of time out socialising.Getting the hang of how a bakpacker has to live thou- eagle eyed for cheap eats and drinks 24/7!lol!no posh dinners along Darling Harbour for me. So...Sydney well i arrived here last thursday, and one of the first thing i did was walk down to circular quay to take a look @ the famous harbour bridge and sydney opera house - a view i had been dreaming of seeing for years!!...and it then finally hits you that you are actually in sydney in australia, half way round the world!!Was staying @ the YHA hostel in the centre of the city but was so expensive (although it did have a rooftop pool!!!) and full of lots of much older people, but it was where i met Jenna, and we just 'got on like a house on fire and have spent most time in sydney together so that made me feel more settled. Since then i've moved to another nice hostel, but much younger, social group of ppl which is what i wanted! Everyone has been so friendly thou and over the last few days i have met so many new people, from all over the country-proving that it is easy to travel alone and to be honest you're never actually really 'alone''! Also seems so strange bumping into ppl you've met earlier on in your travels-went down to bondi beach today and bumped into some lads i had met whilst in new zealand-funny how peoples paths cross!

Anyway.......keep going off on a bit of tingent.....since i've been in sydney i've been exploring the city centre, going round darling harbour (littered with expensive eateries/bars etc) but really nice chilled atmosphere down there and a good place to chill out for the afternoon, as is the Botanic Gardens. Had a walk along the harbour bridge-althou decided against doing the bridge climb (v. expensive and you can't even take your camera up with you!!!-alot of the things to do in sydney are very touristy, which is abit of shame-don't find it as laid back in the city as it was in melbourne), Been making the most of the nice weather though and headed out of the city to the beaches, went to manly today, Cogee, and Bondi-there's a lovely walk between cogee and bondi beach, with lots of beautiful little beaches along the way-well worth the hour or so walk! Nice just to have some time just to chill out with group of people on the beach and work on that tan (i MUST be brown by the time i return to england!!) errrr...what else to inform you all about....i'm off to the blue mountains for the day on friday-so fingers crossed the weathers good! Will be in sydney for st patricks day-they make such a big deal of it out here (think it's just any excuse for a party really and to get on the ol' gooner and pints of guiness!) so that should be a good night (....and probably a not so good sunday morning) On sunday however theý're closing the harbour bridge to celebrate '75 years of the bridge', a big free day out with lots of live entertainment/markets/firework and water displays and they're getting loads of people to sign up to walk over the bridge-sounds like a good day-so i'm glad i'm sticking around for that before heading off on my surfing trip on Monday....

Also got round to booking my trips for Fraser island and the whitsunday islands-so i'm very excited about both of those!!

OMG how could i forget...yesterday me, jenna, steph, laura, barbara and becki headed to palm beach...where.....they film HOME AND AWAY!!!!i'm turning into a bit of a soap addict...they were actually filming on the beach when we arrived so we managed to get within the few metres of the cameras...admittidly i had no idea who any of the ppl were because i haven't watched it for years but the blokes were very good looking!!

Well i've done enough waffling on for now-i'll try write more tomorrow and hopefully be a bit more informative! Quiz night tonight so better go remove the remains of the beach i brought back with me and brush up on my general knowledge, and not be tempted by the FREE wine!hahaha!! all i seem to be writing bout in these blogs is about partying/going out etc-i have been doing some sightseeing and not just been wasting my time in sydney (honest!)

more to follow tomorrow.......take care everyone-keep the e-mails and msgs coming.....Love to you all xxx