Spent most of the morning waiting around because my bus was late…again. When it eventually turned up the bus ride went rather quickly. We even drove over the Harbour Bridge on our way into the city. My first Sydney experience. I managed to find my hostel, more by luck than anything else. It certainly wasn’t the map I had, which was totally useless. My hostel here is a converted mansion that has been painted a bright shade of pink. “The Pink House” (imaginative!) is a really cool place but there is so much to do here that I don’t think I’ll be spending much time here other than sleeping.

By the time I got to the city and got checked in there wasn’t a massive amount of my first day left to do anything too exciting. I spent the remainder of the day having a walk around and taking in my surroundings. I made it down to the water front and saw both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge up close. This was a very surreal experience. Up until this point in my trip I haven’t been to anywhere that has been truly famous or as well known as Sydney. I have seen the bridge and the opera house countless times on TV, in films and books so when I saw them for the first time it almost didn’t feel real. After walking around for a while I headed back to the hostel for an early night so I would have as much time as possible the next day.

I spent most of the next morning walking around Sydney’s huge Botanical Gardens situated right in the middle of the city. The Gardens were full of people relaxing, jogging, sight seeing etc. There was even a production of “The Wind in the Willows” going on over the school summer holidays. For this there were a number of sets around different areas of the Gardens, which the audience had to move to as the play progressed. Very cool.

The Botanical Gardens are made up of three separate gardens, upper, middle and lower, all containing a huge variety of colourful plants, different species of trees and a huge number of bird species. By far my favourite was the middle gardens because it was totally full of fruit bats. They were hanging from every branch that was over 10 feet from the ground and they were massive!

After the Gardens I walked through the centre of town and over to the aquarium. I’ve heard lots of good things about this place from different people and it didn’t disappoint. The fish were amazing and all the exhibits were fascinating. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I could have spent all day there but I had to resist because of what had recently opened next door. Sydney Wildlife World focuses on the animals, birds and insects that can be found all over Oz. This place is relatively new so I don’t know too much about it but, again, I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m not too sure how long I spent in both places but I do know that once I left I took a leisurely walk back to the hostel and was shattered so had an early night to try and re-charge for the following day which started early. I caught the ferry over to the North Shore and went to visit Taronga Zoo. I have already been to Australia Zoo, and the Wildlife World the day previously, but Taronga has received such raved reviews that I felt I couldn’t miss out on it. I saw some wonderful animals here but by far the best had to be the Snow Leopard. She was beautiful. The only problem I had was the sheer number of people at the zoo, but that has to be expected everywhere in Sydney. I did my best to avoid the hordes but it soon got a bit too much so I ended up leaving a little earlier than I would have liked.

I used my extra time to walk up to Sydney’s Observatory to have a look at the museum there. Unfortunately after getting successfully lost I only had about 45 minutes to rush around. That was a bit of a shame as I’m completely fascinated with anything to do with space, the plants, stars etc. I did however book myself on a night tour of the observatory for a couple of days later. Just to make up for all the rushing around that I had done.

I managed to get back to my hostel without getting myself lost (success!) and was ready just to chill out in front of the TV for the evening. But I was soon out of my hostel and heading back into town. Rick, one of the lads in my room, and I went to the Botanical Gardens where a huge outdoor cinema screen had been erected and was showing a different film every night as part of the summer festival. All the seats were sold out, and had been for ages. But Rick and I (along with a few other people) sat on the rocks above the seating area and watched “Borat” for free. It was the first time I had seen Sydney at night and it was amazing. There was even a huge thunder and lightning storm that provided fascinating entertainment while we were waiting for the film to start. It was a really good evening; especially considering it didn’t cost a cent!

 The next day, after a bit of a lie in due to all the walking I had done the day before, I went for a closer look at the Opera House. It looks just as cool up close as it does in all the photos I’ve seen of it. I ended up going for the guided tour to have a good look inside. I have seen some stunning architecture on my trip so far but the Opera House is one of the best. The tour lasted a little over an hour and we got to look around all the different theatres and show rooms including the main opera hall. The inside of this hall we got to see the group “Stomp” rehearsing for their latest show. It sounded really good, and looked like it would be entertaining. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos inside the hall. Of cause I tried but because I couldn’t use my flash they didn’t come out!

After the Opera House I walked over to the Maritime Museum, which mapped Australia’s long and varied history on the seas. What made this museum unique was the fact that it had three ships that visitors could walk around. The first was HMAS Vampire, a battle ship and HMAS Onslow a former Australian Navy sub. The main thing I learned from walking around these two ships is that I’m too tall and too wide for Navy ships! For me they were like huge toys, covered in loads of cool controls and gages. Unfortunately these were all behind thick perspects so I couldn’t play. Gutted! The third ship was a replica of the ship Captain Cook sailed to Australia on. There was even less room on “Endeavour” than on the other two ships. Seeing this replica up close, as well as the conditions on the modern ships, has given me a new respect for the people who work and live on them. All very eye-opening. I lost track of time at the museum and by the time I got back to the hostel it was getting dark so I finally got to have my relaxing evening in front of the TV.

My Sunday in Sydney started with a visit to the Harbour Bride Pylon Museum. This was situated in one of the four towers located at the corners of the bridge. The museum was about the building of the bridge and the battle to get it approved by the government. The best element of the museum was definitely the view from the top of the pylon. The structure is roughly half the height of the bridge but the view from the top was breathtaking. I could see for miles and it was a different way to see Sydney.

After the museum I decided to walk across the Harbour Bridge and have a look at the North Shore. Even though there are high rise buildings on this side of the harbour it felt like such a contrast to the centre of the city. It made a nice change and it was good to see another side to one of the world’s most famous cities. After I finished exploring walked back over the bridge and went and had lunch and relax in one of the public gardens. I decided that I hadn’t spent enough time just doing nothing and that experiencing a city doesn’t mean running around 24/7.

After watching Sydney life go by I headed up to the New South Wales Art Gallery. I must have spent a good few hours in here walking around and looking at all the different styles of paintings, sculptures and artefacts. All-in-all a very cool day, but it wasn’t over.

That evening I went back to the observatory for my night tour. On this we got to look through the two telescopes that the observatory had, whilst listening to talks from the staff. I got to see the star cluster in Orion’s Belt, “baby” stars (only a couple of million years old…bless them when they’re young!). But the best thing by far was seeing another galaxy that is over 56 million light years away. Just totally mind blowing!

My next morning was spent sorting out the remainer of my time in Australia. Booking bus rides, hostels and my flight to New Zealand. After that I spent time wondering around the areas of the city that I hadn’t explored fully. I spent most of my time back on the North Shore. It was a very relaxing day, which was intentional as my evening was going to be quite an adventure.

In the evening I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I started the climb early evening so got to see night fall over Sydney which made it even more amazing. The climb itself was very different to what I expected. I had heard and read a lot about the climb but the one I did was brand new. Instead of climbing over the bridge I climbed through it, in between all the iron work and up from the road level. This was by far the highlight of my trip so far and was courtesy of my amazing girlfriend. Thanks Kathryn, I loved it!

The climb was the last thing I did in Sydney. Tomorrow I move on to the Blue Mountains, and I can’t wait