Rave in the city

We officially love Sydney. We quickly established that getting jobs was out of the question for such a short time, so we were left with a two week window for fun and games. On our first night out in Sydney, we all got a little over-excited, this can be testified by Murph's grown up cousins Claire and Tim who bravely accepted our invitation to backpacker dive on Oxford Street, 'the Gaff'. We blame our incoherence entirely on Tim and those sambucca shots he fed us. We drunkenly slurred at them that they were our 'couple idol' and in return Claire declared us to be 'favourite cousin and friends.' Can you feel the love?

The Hartley crew at Empire

A major reason for our intense love of Sydney was that we had lots of friends there. Rob, Charlie and Adam from home in the village, Niaby, Sash and Rhiannon. Also there were the permanent residents, Pat, Millsy and Dr Dan from Asia days, Trej from Prague and ex-Guildford boy James. We want to thank them all for helping us get truly involved in Sydney life! Everyone in their life time should have a new year in Sydney and we're glad we can tick it off our list of experiences.

Happy New Year!

More important than the fireworks (which we watched from a penthouse room in the Intercontinental, dahling) was the fact that we were escorted by a bunch of international investment bankers to an exclusive party in a swanky beachside apartment in Tamarama. Luckily we were altogether at midnight when there was a comical rendition of Auld Lange Syne, slightly tricky after having had plenty of champers and not a clue of what the words are.

Caught in the moment of Auld Lang Syne

Although new year was great, our main celebrations were to be on January 1st 2007- Field Day. Thanks to Pat and Millsy's hot tip back in Cambodia we had learnt about one of Sydney's most infamous new year day's festivals. It is a 12 hour dance music marathon which we'd bought our tickets for back in September. After waking to pouring rain and with vicious post-new year hangovers, the thought of dancing in a field and drinking warm beer, was not ideal.

Loving every second at Field Day

However, a 2 hour nap later, we awoke to blue skies and felt much more refreshed. We followed the hoardes to the Domain, a large park in the city centre, where at 3pm we purchased our first drink of the day. We discovered a surprising treat in cans of Smirnoff Black Double. After spending the last four months slagging of Aussie boys for drinking this alco-pop, we weren't shy in admitting that after a mere can and a half we were already feeling the effects. What a marvellous invention. Whilst raving to Mylo in the 4pm sunshine with the city skyline as our backdrop, the comment of the day went to Helen Patricia Murphy, who overwhelmed with pure emotion exclaimed, "we must be the four luckiest girls in the world!" In goofy chorus the other girls agreed. How smug.

Drunk drowned rats, thank you Smirnoff!

As night fell, the clouds rolled in and much to our delight, a rain dance ensued. We were four little drowned rats, yet could not have been happier. Our love for the day is indescribable, so we will spare you any more shameless adulation (but just for the record, it was amazing, we loved it and one of the best days ever. Ever. )

New year over, it was time to explore a bit of Sydney and so we saw all the major sights. Our base was King's Cross, which despite its negative image amongst residents of Sydney, we loved dearly. Having now seen the opera house in sunshine we would like to retract a previous comment referring to it as being the colour of baby vomit. Its quite nice actually.

The Bridge

We were driven over the harbour bridge by old friend Trej and explored the Rocks, Sydney's oldest precinct. Sydney beaches provide an escape from the city, Bondi being the most famous, although we preferred the quieter Coogee and especially enjoyed a marvellous coastal walk between the two. A picturesque ferry ride took us to Manly, the busiest beach we've seen our whole trip. This day trip also involved a long-awaited visit to Cold Rock ice creamery. To fill you in on what this amazing delicacy involves, you pick an ice cream, a sauce and your favourite sweets or chocolate bar and watch as they are kneaded into a magical concoction. The results were extraordinary.

Coogee woogee smoogee

We began to have withdrawals from cheesy day trips and so set out on a tour to the nearby Blue Mountains, a mountain range enveloped in a blue haze due to lingering vapours from an abundance of eucalyptus trees. We were driven around the vicinity by a crazy tour guide, with a quick stop off at his Grandma's house to pick up our delicious packed lunches.

The Three Sisters, the Blue Mountains

We visited Wentworth Falls, the three sisters and descended a giant cliff-side staircase of 1000 steps. Luckily those stairs were a one-way ticket as we boarded the world's steepest railway (featured in the Guiness book of records)to return us to the top. Another of Australia's must-dos which we left until our last week, was the $5 steak. On personal recommendation from Sydney-sider Patrick Hoolahan, we chowed down at Captain Cook Hotel eatery in Surry Hills, and can now testify that we rate Aussie beef 10 out of 10.

One messy night at Chinese Laundry

For our last night in Sydney we decided to go out with a bang and so joined Pat and Millsy at Chinese Laundry, one of Sydney's top night spots. To sum the night up, we didn't go to bed, and Murph and Colly found themselves dancing in a 'day club' at 11am on a Sunday morning. Goodbye Sydney!

Sydney, Australia