Sydney

Our flight got us into Sydney in the afternoon and we headed for the hostel called Nomads - Maze on Pitt street...it looked nice on the internet but hey its always hit and miss and this time was a definite miss! the place was like the hotel out of the Shining movie - just short of a freaked out kid riding a bicycle round the corridors and the room itself was like a prison cell - at least thats how i referred to it! So needless to say we went straight out the door and became hardened tourists - only returning when we had to!!

We headed down to the opera house and bridge that night and it was cool all lit up, so we did the photo thing and headed away for dinner.. the following morning up early and out to the rocks market - only on saturdays and sundays but the stalls are class ( if you like shopping that is!) and it was also the National Sorry Day for the Aboriginals so the place was packed out..they even had a great band on available for weddings!!

We left the markets an hour later with an ornament for the house called a satellite of love! i couldnt resist it, but at this stage Ger is starting to worry that there wont be enough walls in the house for the amount of "ornaments" we have..you can also get a cuppa tea with scones cream and jam as well here - a right touch!

We headed out to Manly beach after shopping and booked ourselves into the revolving centrepoint tower for dinner later that night..We even seen Iron Maiden at manly Beach...

The restaurant is well cool you get your table and dinner is buffet style so when you leave to get it you are told to remember your table number as it will have moved by the time you get back - so you get a lot of people walking about plates in hand looking for their table.. good craic though! You also get to try out different food - ger's plate was full of camel, emu and kangaroo meat... when in Rome and all that!

Our 3rd day we headed out to Bondi and Coogee - this excited me as this is where me and the girls used to live...nothing had changed at all we got the 372 bus to coogee and after brekkie headed for the coogee to Bondi walk around the coast, the weather was fab but as usual we had got it wrong and were dressed in jeans and jackets while folks past us in their speedos and bikinis..oh and seen a guy who had decided to build his house on the edge of the rocks and Ger tried to get his fitness going on the way!

Got to bondi and met up with an old school friend Helen Thompson out there and her mate Marie Claire Henry, they have been living there for 4 years now, so unfortunately Ger had to sit and listen to us catch up after 10-15 years about the old school days..

Girls just so you know our wee flat is still there and has even had a piant job and the Rino's are still in flying form!! lol

We met up with a friend of ours then from our China trip - Donna at the CBH - Coogee Bay Hotel and had the traditional cook your own steak for dinner..

She was taking us to her house for the night out in Blacktown as we were heading up to the blue mountains the following day with her so it was great - a night out of the cell in a proper house!! her mum and dad - josie and Joe were so nice and we had our own room and a great comfy proper bed and shower not to mention the great breakfast the following morning and their pool out their back garden! it was like heaven..

We headed up to the blue mountains that morning and it was a fab day and the weather was great and clear so we had super views of the mountains and the 3 sisters from the scenic railway vertically down into the valley and they the cable car back up again..

Ger even tried to touch for one of the sisters..haha

We said our goodbyes to Donna and headed back to sydney then for our last day..
We were up and about and climbed the bridge as it was a class day for photos, after we contacted Ger's sisters mates, James and Geraldine and they invited us out for dinner at their house so we headed out to them and yes you guessed it we were very wobbly coming home... great night though of craic and the wine was great! Mind you at 5am the next morning our heads didnt agree with us... our flight out to NZ was at 8 so we were up and away early doors...

PJ we seen this for you and thought you might us to bring it back for you!! lol Tell Pat he got a good bargain last year...

And finally if only there were more of these at 3am on a saturday night in Dublin!!