We arrived in Sydney about 10 days ago and found a patch of grass to call home for the few days until Helen's mum arrived for Christmas on Thursday 23rd. We headed into the city straight away, excited to see the Opera House and the Bridge and it was exactly like a picture postcard!
On Saturday we went to Carols in the Domain, a huge carol concert with such 'celebrities' as this year's Pop Idol and an audience of over 100,000. We had to get there hours before it started and stake out a patch but we spent the afternoon eating and drinking in the sun so it was a good traditional Aussie Christmas! The concert was great and it was really good to be part of such a huge event, it was televised across the country.
We spent a few days exploring the city and found the oldest pub in Sydney where we of course had to have a quick drink! We walked around the Opera House (which is really ugly close up!) and Circular Quay. Sydney really feels like a European city, it has much more personality than Canberra and is more exciting than Melbourne.
Helen's mum arrived on Thursday and so we thankfully moved out of our tent and into a nice hotel! We wandered around the city and did some Christmas shopping on Friday before going to another big carol concert, this time at Darling Harbour on a floating stage, Santa even arrived by Jetski!
On Christmas Day we had a huge buffet lunch at the hotel and then optimistically headed to Bondi Beach hoping to catch some sun. Sadly Christmas Day was quite chilly and grey so we took some photos and came home!
It was good to spend Christmas somewhere new in some ways but I think next year we'll stick to England!