Australia

Hey everyone!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What an amazing past few days - we got up early on sunday morning to head to Lady Macquaries Point for out lookout point for the fireworks. Had my first use for the roll of duck tape i brought as me and kate proceeded to strap bottles of vodka to our legs under our jeans to sneak them past secuirty as there was no BYOB! After queuing for 2 and a half hours to get into the park, we finally got a nice stretch of grass to settle down for teh next 12 hours!

There were a whole group of us - me, kate, kate (yes 2 of them in my hostel), steve (who kept going missing - i swear he got lost for 2 and a half hours which i dont understand!), liam, tom, sarah, richard and will. Had such a good day playing drinking games, cards and just sunbathing. The fireworks were incredible and the atmosphere electric. At our vantage point (and there are 14 around teh city) there were 25,000 people - so you can just imagine what it was like!! Got back to bondi beach around 2.30 am where basement jaxx was playing a gig on the beach, but the sitting around for 12 hours mixed with constant drinking for about 8 hours had left us exhausted, so we went to bed.

Woke up this morning feeling pretty fresh and decided to do teh coastal walk from bondi to bronte beach - this is about a half an hour walk each way by the cliffs and is absolutely stunning.
After some seaside fish and chips i spent the rest of the day sunbathing - so surreal to be lying on the beach on new years day!! Saw Paris Hilton again - she was jusging teh Mr Bondi competition. Unfortunately it was tickets only so couldnt get in to see the competition - lol.

Went to Chinatown tonight with a guy from my hostel for some food and a wander. We then went to Darling Harbour which is just beautiful...loads of restaurants and bars and the aquarium is also there.

Tomorrow i'm going to Palm Beach where Home and Away is filmed - probably the most exciting thing about sydney for me!

xxx

P.s. - trying to work out how to upload my photos, but so far no such luck..hopefully next time!

woke up after a blissful 12 hours of sleep and set off to Circular Quay to do some sightseeing

Circular Quay is the start of the city of Sydney and its where loads of cruises depart to other sites that i'll go to (eg/ the zoo, manly etc). kinda like fishermans wharf in san fransisco but much bigger and not as tacky.

first thing i did was walk across sydney harbour bridge and back which was amazing - it is just like a giant coathanger and you can see pretty amazing views of the Opera House from there.

Afterwards, I took a walk around The Rocks - this is the oldest area of sydney with really nice buildings, quirky shops and cobblestone streets. After that I took myself to the Opera House and splurged on a tour of the inside. One of the best tours i have done in ages - the inside of the builsing is actually incredible and made me want to sit through an opera, which is saying something!!! the only downside is that they wouldnt let us take pictures inside.

I left the quay after that and made my way back to the hostel. Went out for dinner with a couple of girls who are in my dorm. En route to buying food and alcohol for tomorrows new years eve festivities we saw Paris Hilton - no joke - in a shop trying on bikinis. There were hundreds of people surrounding the shop and she had 5 bodyguards! Anyway, thats my little claim to claim for today

Going to go to the harbout tomorro to get a good position for the fireworks nice and early.

Have a good new years eve, everyone!!!!
xxx

hi everyone

so here is a synopsis of the past few days:
I left glasgow on wednesday afternoon after an emotional goodbye to the family, for my flight to London. I then had 3 hours to twidle my thumbs before flight no 2 to Hong Kong and then I had my final flight from Hong Kong to Sydney.

Descending into Sydney was amazing - full on views of the bridge and Opera House were not dissapointing and I'm looking forward to going to see these sights tomorrow!

After arriving at my hostel i quickly took myself and my lonely planet guide to go and sunbathe on bondi beach (a mere 2 min walk from my hostel). I am sitting at an intenet cafe now and i feel like i am spinning, i am so tired from the journey...but I have to keep myself awake for at least another 5 hours before i can go to bed!!!

Anyway, I should have more exciting news to update in a few days.

xxxx