After 24 hours of travelling, we arrived in Sydney feeling exhausted, fuzzy but excited. We got a taxi across the harbour bridge to our temporary air bnb home. Through weary eyes we still managed to enjoy the view. When we arrived at Anthony and Jennaya's we were greeted by a beautifully presented bedroom in a small but cosy flat. Never has a bed looked so inviting! Our arrival was made that little bit better by a packet of timtams on the bedside table! (Not as good as penguins but a reasonable Australian substitute)

After a good nights sleep (apart from jet lag keeping us awake for a solid couple of hours at 3am), we headed into the city centre. Catching a bus proved to be the first challenge. We had looked it up at home and written down the exact bus number to get. When a different bus turned up at the stop we asked politely whether it was going to the city, the bus driver said he was going to 'Wynyard'. We swiftly got off thinking 'where the f*** is Wynyard?' As it turns out Wynyard is one of the most central bus stations and exactly the destination we were aiming for. Lesson learned.
Once in Sydney we explored the various busy streets whilst attempting to begin some of our tedious admin tasks. This was fairly unsuccessful so we soon stopped for a sandwich to refuel. Then we embarked on our first typical Sydney activity - taking a ferry from Circular Quay to McMahon's Point. It was truly glorious to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from this perspective. With the sun beaming down on the sparkling water, I couldn't believe this was what they called 'Winter'!
There we met Kyle who showed us his neighbourhood. Later, we joined him and a couple of his friends for a BBQ. The perfect way to end our first day in Australia and it was possibly the nicest lamb I have ever tasted!

The next day we headed down to Bondi beach to see the end point of the 'City to Surf' run. It was packed with crowds of active people (in their active wear) but the atmosphere was great. We had lunch in Iceberg overlooking the sea as it crashed into the ocean swimming pool. Then we decided to do the Bondi-Coogee walk with its amazing coastal views. It was a great walk but about halfway through our energy levels certainly started to wain and by the end we were absolutely pooped! I blame the jet lag. So we got a taxi back to the city centre and fell asleep the entire way there!
Still keen to explore, we got the ferry across to Manly which at that point we only hoped would be our new hometown. We strolled down the Corso and along the beach before hunger got the best of us and we stopped at the Hotel Steyne for a bite to eat. Little did we know this would become our much-loved local.