Sydney!!

Sooo, we are here now and loving it! We've got some great weather so have got loads of sightseeing done so far!! Sydney is fab, its so pretty and clean. Every street you turn onto has something to stare at it awe and beautiful parks are scattered everywhere!! Even the little houses here are the prettiest things you will ever see!

But yes so far we've seen the Sydney Opera house, Syndey Bridge. Both beautiful and the harbour is fab there too! 
We saw the Aquarium, which had some massive ass sharks and some of the cutest little penguins! We got to see both of these being fed too which was cools! Wildlife Sydney had some extremely cute Koalas, but we couldn't hold them as it is illegal in NSW to do so! Gotta wait for Brisbane Zoo to do that! There is also a massive Croc in Wildlife Syndey, who we got to see being fed, if you can go on a day that they do this I would recommend it as they get him to jump up for the food! Seems cruel but it is actually to make sure he is moving around and working for his food as he would in the wild. Think he is fed on Mon, Weds and Fri!

We've spent a bit of time in the Rocks which is the old town of Sydney. This is where most of the convicts settled when they got to Syndey so it was known as a bad area! Not so much anymore however is it a very pretty area. In the Rocks is a museum called Suzanna Place which consists of four houses, all built by the O'Reilly family when they came to Sydney. They are all preserved the way they were lived in and are very interesting to visit! They even have the old corner shop done with a lot of the items it would have sold over the years! We still have to get up to see the Rocks discovery museum but we did manage to see the site of the big dig which is very cool! Basically its an archaeological site between Glouchester St. and Cumberland St. where houses had been demolished after the bubonic plague. They found some very intersting things and have photos up to tell you the stories of the people who used live there.


We have also seen the Royal Botanical Gardens, Chinese Garden of Friendship which are both beautiful. Although the Botanical gardens had a little surprise for us when we noticed huge bats flying round at six o'clock in the evening! Apparently not unusual, just not something we were used to too! 


The beaches here are all beautiful with little sea water pools on them. So far we've only swam in Clovelly which is a bay more so than a beach. It doesn't have much sand, mostly just concrete around the water. You have to be careful in the water as there are rocks scattered around, as the war wounds on my foot show! There are grass areas all around which look down on the beach too.
We saw Bondi but it was too cold to swim so we just had a walk up it! It is not as big as it is made out to be on Bondi Rescue. It has a cool skate park there too which has a comp on on Friday and Saturday which we might go see! There is a walk you can do from Coogee to Bondi along the cliffs which we are going to do some day too!

Cockatoo Island is another must see, it has been used for everything! An old prison, a ship building yard and now you can rent tents there and camp and they have barbeque's there for people to use. There are art installments all around the island, including a lot of graffiti which looks deadly against the old buildings! There is even a bus covered in it which looks deadly!


Yesterday we visited Sydney Tower which has amazing views all across Sydney! We didn't do the roof top walk where you actually go outside but I'd say it would be very cool to do!
So tonight I am going out properly in Sydney, Conor's sister and her boyfriend are finishing their jobs to go and do their regional work so we're gonna celebrate a bit! So that is all I have for now! Will update again soon with more pictures and ramblings!
Amy :)☼

Antrim Trip....

Back from my lovely weekend away with the parents and my little brother. Stayed in a place called Ballygally Castle in, you guessed it, Ballygally, Co.Antrim! It is fab and looking straight out on the Irish Sea and is along the Causeway coastal drive which is beautiful! The food was fab and the hotel so cute! Pretty sure it is haunted however, as it even has a ghost room that you can book into!! No thank you! But I was very pleased with the complimentary rubber ducks that the Hastings hotel group give you, so impressed in fact that I took my parents duck too for my collection! It's getting impressive now!
Got to see the giants causeway and the go across the rope bridge in Carrick-a-Rede, which was no mean feet for my poor mother who is terrified of heights! She got there in the end though.. Even with my brother shaking the bridge a bit!


The Causeway is insane.. I mean I've seen photo's but when you see it in person it is completely different! Even the height of some of the columns is just insane! 
But nothing, nothing can prepare you for the cold on the rope bridge! I had two tops, two cardigan's, a thick scarf, with a hood and a ski jacket and I was still a little chilly! Brrr!
But yes Antrim is beautiful!


And as my Dad is a massive motorbike road racing fan we went and drove around the North West 200 track, which starts in Portrush, with running commentary from Dad the whole way around. We then headed over to Ballymoney to see the Dunlop Memorial Garden, in remembrance of Joey and Robert Dunlop, road racers who came from Ballymoney. It was so lovely and so well maintained. The statues of them both were so detailed and made a lovely tribute. They also had plaques of all their wins, in the TT, Ireland and the UK and abroad. We visited Joey's bar too, a pub which was owned by the man himself but renamed by his family after his passing. The bike hanging from the ceiling was a highlight to my Dad and brother!!
Overall a great weekend, only thing it was lacking was my sister Joanne, who will be home in a couple of days instead!! Yay!! See ya in four days!! :D
So that's the beginning of the quality time before I go. I have a busy week of eating, nights out, packing and goodbyes ahead of me. Can't wait... Ahh 8days!!


Amy :)

Teasing myself....

So in the spirit of filling in my time I looked at website after website of clothes that I can't afford, but love!! I'm loving all the colours that are in for spring/summer, particularly the greens!! The Converse I designed on Converse Create!! I have spent alot of hours on that website! And the rest of these lovelies are from Topshop and River Island! The sandals are all from RI, they have some very pretty ones this year but the tan pair are my favourite!! Oh if I could splurge I would do damage to my bank account!!!

Now I may do something resourceful and go pack for my trip, I can guarantee I won't be bringing anything like this stuff!! More like thick and woolies! I even invested in a trapper hat today!! I am expecting artic conditions! Ha ha!

Amy :)

Hurry up already time!!

Ok, so time is officially dragging!! Now I wish we had booked our flights for a touch earlier.. Say tomorrow! I swear my minutes have adopted a tick-tock sound!!!
I sold my car Saturday last so I am stuck at home unless someone, mostly Conor, feels like coming and getting me, as I live in the sticks! (To translate to anyone who's not Irish I live in the middle of nowhere in the countryside!)I have had a car since I was 18 so never spent too much time sitting around at home.. This is new to me!
I've also had ridiculous amounts of time off from work due to having holidays and time owed to me so I haven't even had that to distract me!! And I finish up in there now on Friday so that'll give me another TEN days before I get to go!
Poor Conor is worse off however, because he hasn't worked since before Christmas! To say he would fly tomorrow is an understatement! So I seized my opportunity and said we should go to Dublin for the day to do some shopping for whatever we still needed to get! Oh sure it sounds practical, but really it wasn't! Realistically I just wanted to go to H&M, Forever 21 and Schuh! Shops, which in my defense we don't have near me and which are on the less expensive side! Always good! He did however put a ban on going to Penneys, he's not able for the crowds and the packed rails!! So instead he saw every inch of Forever 21!


My friend's mocked me for the cardi's but I mean come on it can't be warm ALL the time over there! I love the green top from New Look! Mostly because it's not cropped, like everything else in the shops!! 




So now that my shopping trip is over I'm off to the Giant's Causeway for the weekend with my parents and brother, my sister can't come as she's away in college!! :( Looking forward to it, I always wanted to see it and I'm sure the north will have lots of other stuff to keep us busy until Monday!! Yay! So I'll try get some pictures from that up in my next post!
So that's my ridiculous giving out over.. I know most people would say give up complaining, aren't you going away but it's just not come around quick enough! Ha! Think I need a time machine, might be a neat way to skip all the goodbye's too!! Dreading those!
Anyway rant over, until next time!! :D
Amy