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Day 83 (Sunday 7th January 2007)
Woke up early and hit the road for Sydney. We didn't get too far before two coppers on bikes pulled Sarah over for a random breath test and licence check. They sniffed around for a while, checked her licence and registration, before letting us go...they didn't even bother with the breath test!
We made it to Sydney by lunchtime (got stuck at an accident for a while) and straight away you could tell it was MELBOURNE ALL OVER AGAIN...gotta' hate the cities!
We drove around aimlessy for ages in search of an information centre. Finally we parked up, deciding it would be better to search on foot and the best place we could find was a crappy old travel agent. They took an age to deal with their customers and eventually our ticket ran out on the car, so we had to go back.
Now Marc was really happy and just sat there sulking in the car whilst Sarah just drove around again some more! If Marc had it his way we would have left there that instance. Sarah was getting really stressed, mostly with Marc and 'the incredible sulk' just sat there offering nothing more than a look of 'I told you so'!
We did however catch a glimpse of the Opera House whilst also stumbling our way on to the Harbour Bridge, but by now, we were in no mood to appreciate it!
Many hours later and frustrated with driving, Sarah pulled up in a lay-by at Lane Cove National Park. Flukier than Nayem's goal from the halfway line, not only did this park happen to have a campsite, but it also has the closest campsite to the city...Lane Cove River Tourist Park (www.lcrtp.com.au).
It did however take a good hour of sulking and eerie silence before we first talked to one another and with it getting late, Marc phoned up the Sydney tourist board (perhaps something we should have thought of a long time ago). The guy on the phone told us about our fortunate location and we checked in for 3-nights.
The campsite had a tv and internet room, so as well as catching up on Arsenal's progress online, Marc caught Rosicky's superb brace at Anfield in the FA Cup on tv too! Altogether now: "Good to...good to be...good to be a gooner!!!!!!!!!"
Happy Birthday big Tubes!!!!! Miss you R kid...
PS Goodluck for your new job on Tuesday Marc's mum...do try and last the first week!!
Day 84 (Monday 8th January 2007)
We woke up to the trickle of rain, which put a further furrow in Marc's bushy eyebrow - a whole day in the CBD!! We bought a 'day tripper' from the park reception...if we'd have driven in there again, we'd have murdered each other by lunchtime!!
We grabbed a bus from just outside the park which took us to Chatswood Station. From there a train took us to Wynyard Station right in the centre of the CBD. OK, so we didn't have to suffer the pain of crawling through the city in 'Fran', but listerning to Collette telling her mates about where she gets her nails infilled, is exactly the reason why we passed our driving tests!!
We strolled up George Street towards the harbour and popped in the Sydney Tourist Information Centre for some advise. We sat and ate fish/quiche and chips in 'The Rocks'. The Rocks used to be a notouriously dangerous place full of convicts, whalers and prostitues and many of the streets were raised, along with the building of the Harbour Bridge, during the outbreak of the bubonic plaque back in the early 20th century.
Fortunately, today it is a sanitised, historical precinct and we sat on a wall by a cobbled lane munching our food and gorping at the 'old coathanger' and the house of opera. After lunch we hit the bridge first. We remember Melissa raving about the bridge climb, but even if we did have the $225 to do it, the views wouldn't have been quite so impressive on a dull day like today.
Having viewed it from afar, we took a stroll around to the Opera House, dodging the street performers and buskers at Circular Quay along the way. We looked up at its funny shell-like exterior and whilst Marc wondered what all the fuss was about, Sarah admired the 1,056,006 Swedish tiles and soaring architecture.
Next we hopped on a ferry and cruised around under the bridge to Darling Harbour to visit Sydney Aquarium (www.sydneyaquarium.com.au). It's advertised as 'Australia's #1 attraction', but no one warned us it was Asia's too!!
We kicked a few slit eyes out of the way whilst observing three 'oceanariums' displaying the richness of Australian marine life. They included sharks, rays and big fish in one and Sydney Harbour marine life and seals in the others. The transparent underwater tunnels were pretty cool, as were the freshwater and Platypus exhibits.
Walking through the shark oceanarium we can tell you it's quite a frightening sight - the reflection of 950 Chinese and Japanese people snapping away on their cameras. After threatening to throw one of the ignorant motherf***ers into the sharks, we made a quick exit before they rallied together and blinded us with thier flashlights!
We walked back past the marina to the train station and joined hoards of Sydnysiders making thier rush hour trip home. Back on the bus again and it was like 'spot the Australian' before fleeing back to the campsite.
Phew we made it! Never, ever again!!!!
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