Sydney Australia

After arriving in Sydney three days ago and checking into the most expensive hostel in the world ($88 a night for 2 dorm beds!!!!) we started to explore the city and find out why everyone raves about it.

Much like Auckland there's a lot of English culture here, the street names are all familiar, Liz is on the currency and the food is a million miles from S.American gourmet treats such as the cow's heart served up in Peru. The difference between Auckland and Sydney is scale; there are so many people and I like it!!

We were based in 'The Rocks' area which is very central so spent our first full day exploring this part of town. First stop was The Sydney Opera House. After meeting some Germans the previous night who described it as looking like 'a public toilet' up close, our expectations had certainly been lowered! Actually getting there and seeing it's scale was quite something. The roof isn't smooth and whiite as you might imagine, it's almost a shell effect and reminded me of an armadillo. The building juts out into the harbour and from aroud the back of the Opera House are wonderful panoramic views. We enquirer about seeing something and got very excited when I saw La Traviata was on (Claire-Louise and Noodle will realise why)! But alas it was showing after our departure.

Next door are the Royal Botanical Gardens which are FREE (are you taking note Kew Gardens?!?) and sit right on the water's edge. Less impressive are the plants; it's the inhabitants which make it a worthwhile trip. As we walked through the grounds we saw a cockatoo flying overhead, then another. We moved across the grass to where they were landing and within a couple of minutes there were over half a dozen on the ground around us. James decided to go all 'bird man' on me and get amongst them. I on the other hand found their large wingspans and low level flying a bit unnerving and retreated. Next up the bird man went in pursuit of more living things, this time big bats! There are literally hundreds of them and you can see them clearly in the city sky at night. I was less bothered by the bats than the cockatoos as they stay high but I was mildly concerned about a big bat shit bombing me. Thankfully this did not happen.

After a day of pounding the pavement we made our way back to the hostel. It's stated as the 'best hostel in Australia'. I would say not for the rooms which were new and ok but for the huge roof terrace with uninterrupted views of the Harbour. In our room were six beds; mine and James', a Chilean brother and sister who further support that there isn't an unfriendly Chilean on the planet and finally a guy who's name I didn't even bother to find out as I hated him already who we'll just call 'world's loudest snorer'! Now I know that a dorm is a bit of a lottery regarding room mates but snorers should be banned. This guy was some sort of snoring ventriloquist with the unique ability to sound like was lying next you you and aiming his snorts directly into my ear! His abilities put my Dad's snoring to shame and that's saying something!

Day 2 we made our way to Bondi Beach. After an expensive bus journey we arrived at the beach and it was quite beautiful. We were supposed to be meeting our friend Farooq from Florip but he named a place, didn't give an address and after a long walk in the sun up and down the beach we realises he'd got the name of the bar wrong as the locals had never heard of it. We abandoned looking, went down to the busy beach, found a square of sand and spent a lazy afternoon in the sun...bliss!

Day 3 we had a bit of a panic as realised it was our last day and there was still so much to see. So we covered at least 100 miles on foot (this may be a hyperbole but it did seem really far) and saw 'the most beautiful shopping centre in the world' the Queen Victoria Building which was architectually stunning, then walked to Darling Harbour where we visited the Aquarium. Incidentally this was really good-very well managed, big clean pools for all the sharks, dugongs, crocks and HUGE tropical fish. After a few hours there we walked from the harbour to Chinatown which definitely transported you to a different world. Almost bought a lovely Omega watch in on of their jewellers and James the same with some Prada sunglasses until we remebered we have no money for such things (the downside to travelling is definitely living like a student!). Then went to Paddy's Market which reminded me a lot of the markets found in South America. After the extravagant purchase of some cashew nuts and wasabi peas we left and headed through the main shopping street 'George Street' in order to get to the Harbour Bridge. Unable to resist a bargain, I bought some lovely new sandals in the sale for a very good price. They currently hurt like hell (I'm hoping this will go after a few wears) but these got the thumbs up from James and I quote 'even your trotters look nice in them'.

Feeling a bit tired by this point we knew we needed to get up to the Bridge and walk across it, then we could have dinner. The bridge is really quite high- you need to walk up a big hill, then a load of steps to get up to it but this makes the views stunning. Up on it is quite a noisy experience with the M25 running to your left and the train passing on the far side. The pedestrian area is no less hazardous from playing chicken trying to dodge all the joggers (seemingly the most active people in the world). At one point we almost broke into a run ourselves we felt so out of place walking.

Next it was early to bed as we needed to be up at 3.30am to catch our flight to Brisbane. To summarise our time in Sydney, I was disappointed to have left so soon after only scratching the surface. It's a city you need to go to with a bit of money in your pocket to fully experience their food and arts culture. Culturally it's so similar to London and had the same buzz about it which I really liked but with glorious sunshine and a very active, outdoors lifestyle. In conclusion definitely worth another trip when we're earning a wage again.

Mx

P.s in other news James has been suffering a bit with one of his wisdom teeth. Not wanting to risk dentistry in Asia, we've gone to one here in Brisbane. Turns out he's got some food stuck in it and a bit of an infection so a clean and some antibiotics later, he's doing much better.

-- Posted from Miranda's iPhone


-- Posted from Miranda's iPhone