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The flight from Hong Kong to Sydney was no where near as good as the one from London, well not in terms of food at least. The entertainment on board was cool, I played virtual bowling for about three hours and then watched episodes of The Office. Classic. The descent into Sydney airport allows you to capture a view over the harbour of the bridge and the opera house. It's a pretty spectacular experience.
The hostel I was staying at was about three kilometres out of the harbour area so it was a pretty mighty trek in and out every day; especially when you are wearing thongs*.
After a brief look around on the first day, I decided to stop off at the Golden M for a milkshake and to my surprise they are just like those in France. In other words, not soft and runny like those in the UK, but thick and creamy. Awesome. Since then I have been on a daily vigil to the Golden M. After the shake I headed back to the hostel for a powernap. My original idea was a short thirty minute zzzz which ended up more like zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and lasted about four hours. Boy, I was jiggered. The same was true the next day, when I found myself in the shower at half seven feeling decidedly rough and with a sore throat. Saturday, it's fair to say, was a none-starter so we'll leave that there.
Thankfully I was feeling much better when it came to Sunday, New years Eve. We got ourselves organised and checked out the local guide books on where was best to watch the display. We ended up queueing for an hour and a half to enter Mrs Macquires Point at about 2pm which enabled us to have a perfect view of the Harbour Bridge with the Opera House in the foreground. It really was a picture-postcard view. The only one downside of the whole night was the stupid antics of a few drunken English people around us, and the fact that you had to queue for an age to go to the toilet.
The evening's proceedings started at nine pm with a short firework display which was still far better than any I have seen before. This was then followed by the main event at the stroke of twelve. There are only two things I wanted to see on this trip, one is sunrise over Machu Pichu and the second was the Sydney fireworks. They didn't disappoint. Any adjective wouldn't do the event justice. The show was absolutely amazing, we were close to one of the two main firework points and it was as though they were competing against each other, in any one second there must have been three or four fireworks going off an once and this continued for fifteen minutes. When the Bridge finally sprung into life it was unbelieveable, worth the fare out here alone. The theme of the night was 'A Night in Emerald City', so called as it's the Bridge's 75th anniversary and it was a diamond of a night.
I have pictures and if you search the web you can find videos but lets just say, you haven't seen a firework display until you have seen New Years in Sydney.
We trudged back to our hostel about half one ish and after chatting to some fellow guests about the celebrations, tucked into bagels which, for all those interested, went down a treat. We then decided to catch the metro out to Bondi to watch the sunrise. It was about twenty past five in the morning when we were sat on the beach waiting for the sun to rise. The beach was busy with people of all ages who had obviously popped down for the same reason as us. The sun failed to disappoint with a cracking sunrise that turned the sky a mixture of blues, purples, reds, yellows and oranges. It was like a painter's pallette. After the sunrise we made our way back to the hostel where I zonked out until three in the afternoon. It certainly was a New Year to remember.
On the evening we ventured down to the main harbour area of Sydney for something to eat. The area was in the shadow of the Opera House and we had a great view of The Harbour Bridge as we tucked in to an extravagantly over-priced pizza. We then met a 'Sydneysider' - that's what the locals are affectionately refered to, who took us out for a few drinks and then on to the quite possibly the best place to eat in the world. (*I may detract this comment at a later date for fear of upsetting people.) Now, in England at half eleven after a few cheeky ones you might think of a kebab or fish and chips, in Sydney they have far better than that, they go to Pancakes on the Rocks. Yes, pancakes, and the 'on the Rocks' bit refers to the district of Sydney it is located. The place is open 24/7 and you always have to queue. It's a vibrant mix of locals and tourists and offers you two
types of food. Firstly, for all those sad enough there are savoury pancakes, but for those who are actually human then they do dishes known as 'Devils Delight' and 'Jaffa Heaven'. Let me run this through you, 'Devils Delight' is a bed of chocolate pancakes surrounded by an ample helping of strawberries, coated with cream, ice cream and lashings of chocolate sauce, all for just thirteen bucks, about six pounds to you guys. The 'Jaffa Heaven' is the same but you substitute the strawberries with orange segments. You can choose between either American pancakes or French crepes for all the meals, and they do just about anything you want. If I was to say that even I struggled to eat the full course on both occassions then you can understand that is pretty much is a meal in it's own right. And for those wondering, I have been twice so far and I intend to go again later on this week. It really is a find, and all those in the know in Sydney apparently flock there.
Tuesday was all about catching up with Gay Jim. We met in the middle of the afternoon for a beer near the Opera House and discussed what he had been up to and the old days in Lincoln. For those who know him, then he hasn't changed one little bit, well, that's a lie, he no longer has pink highlights in his hair. It was Jim's last day in Oz before moving on to Fiji and then NZ. We went our separate ways and then joined up later that night in a bar in Bondi.
On Wednesday we headed out with the ambition of visiting two separate sights. Our first port of call was to be the southern tower on the Harbour Bridge which we had free entry to. Entrance normally costs $9 but we blagged free entry. On the way up the steps there is an exhibition on how the bridge was built and the fact that it is the second longest bridge of it's kind in the world (only beaten by a few inches by a bridge in the US). It was quite remarkable to see how one small pin in the centre holds the bridge together and the fact that it increase in size as the steel heats up in the sunlight. After several pictures from the top we headed for a bite to eat at this lovely side street cafe which produced home-made burgers, before mooching on round to the Opera House.
We joined a guided tour of the building which is extremely impressive. The building was constructed in three parts: the first focussed on the building of a suitable plinth in which to support the structure, the second was the erection of the free-standing, sail-like domes, and the third was the interior of the building. The idea for a building to house musical events was first put forward way back in the 1940s. What followed was a competition to design such an iconic building suitable for the harbour-front in Sydney. There were several hundred entrants from all around the world. The actual design that exists today was scrapped at the start by one judge, but the arrival of a second judge (he went through all the designs cast aside by the first)
meant that the design we see today came to the forefront and was commissioned. Originally, construction was only expected to coast seven million Aussie dollars and take a few years, sadly, it took much longer and cost over 102 million dollars. Mind you, with the price they charge you for entry and to see a performance, I'm pretty sure they've paid that off by now. The original architect also resigned during the second and third building processes and took his designs home with him to Denmark. Hence, the interior of the building is not what was originally planned, and up until recently the designer had never ventured back to see the building. Recently though, they have kissed and made up, and he is helping them do some modifications on the western side of the building. The two main concert halls in the building are immense, and the organ that they have in the larger of the two halls,
called the Concert Hall (suprisingly), is so huge and complex that it took two years to tune manually. Also, there are 1,056,006 tiles covering the eight 'shells' and these are made from two colours which give the building the 3-D look. Naturally, they are also self-cleaning.
On Thursday we headed west to the Olympic Park and the Telstra Stadium. The stadium played host to the 2000 Olympic Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. We again decided a guided tour would be the best way to see it and it was. They banged on about the success of the Olympics, but suprisingly didn't spend too long talking about Jonny's winning drop goal in 2003, surprisingly. They bottom tier of both side stands moves in and out depending on the sporting event taking place and the actually reduced it's capacity from 110,000 down to 83,500 after 2000. A little note here to those building Wembley, the stadium cost just $690 million which equates to about 300 million pounds. It's a cracking stadium and we were taken all over, even in to the corporate boxes. Sadly, we
were not allowed in to the ones owned by Coca Cola and Qantas, but apparently they are like mini-palaces. The price for a double-box in the stadium in $330,000 dollars a year on a three year lease, on the plus side you get tickets to all the major events so it's not too bad. We ended Thursday night with another visit to the Mecca that is Pancakes on the Rocks. No really, it is that good.
Friday saw me going off to Bondi after the events of Thursday night and an intoxicated numpty of a room-mate. I won't go in to detail but trust me, it was disgusting what he did. I cleverly applied sun-screen to my arms, shoulders, face and 'parts' of my torso, sat back with the ipod in and fell asleep. Forty minutes later I awoke and decided it would be a good idea to put a shirt on, not realising the damage had alread been done. I continued to sit in the sun admiring all the beautiful people passing by, the place is crammed full of attractive surfer chicks like you would never believe. By the time I got back to the hostel on the night I was supporting the 'lobster-look' my chest was like it was on fire and it was as though you could have barbecued on it. It
didn't actually hurt too much, just looked like I'd be dunked in a tin of red paint. It's still red and now itches like mad (almost one week later). Whilst cooking my fifth mushroom pasta meal in the space of a little over a week, (it's amazing what you can do with spaghetti, tomato sauce and mushrooms), I met an 'older' couple who were cooking a far more elaborate, and tasty, meal. they invited me to join them at their table and proceeded to give me lovely meat balls and a glass of wine. They were lovely people and we ended up chatting for ages, they couldn't resist commenting on my 'lobster-look'.
On Saturday my theory went something like this, head across the harbour on the ferry to Manly, sit on the beach with copious amounts of sun tan lotion on and turn the white bits into red, the red into brown and the few brown bits dark brown. Theory is a wonderful thing. The beach was packed, again, I fell asleep listening to the iPod but this time I kept certain sore parts covered up. Manly is the hip area of Sydney and the journey across the harbour on the ferry offers you some fabulous views of the Opera House against a back-drop of the CBD.
Tomorrow it's The Blue Mountains, I'll endeavour to update from there. Take care all, James
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