Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Journal brought to you by SophieMonday 19th March Today was a very exhilarating day as we were attempting the Harbour Bridge Climb. When Tami and I had booked the experience for the Monday we nearly kicked ourselves because the celebrations of the bridge were being held on the Sunday. However when we went up the pylon we learnt that the bridge was actually opened on the 19th March 1932 and we were climbing it on the 75th anniversary exactly! Genius or what??? It was an early start but we arrived on time – shock horror! We had a nice brisk walk down to the bridge and the day was forecasted to be fine in the morning and stormy in the afternoon – more great planning from us. WOO! On arrival we looked at all the pictures on the wall of famous people who had done the climb such as the Olsen twins and Kylie and lots of others. I had never realised that it was such a big thing. I had also not realised that you actually climb over the top of the bridge as opposed to up the bridge. For some reason I thought you abseiled up the side for some reason but clearly not. Anyway we then signed our lives away and even got breathalised! Everyone passed except Tami was slightly over..only joking! J Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take cameras up the bridge, which sucked ass because apparently if we drop them it could cause a serious accident and they would get sued. Personally I think they are just trying to make a big fat profit but anyway! Before getting kitted up the “team” (i.e. the people we were climbing up the bridge with) had to stand around in a circle and introduce ourselves. There was a middle aged English guy who lived in Australia and his Mum, for whom he had bought the experience for as a Christmas present, a school girl from Canberra and her Norwegian exchange student, a young Scottish woman called Doreen, a Sydneysider (that’s the word for a resident of Sydney – oh we have learnt so much on this trip!) called Leonie who had been bought the experience for her 60th birthday, which was actually on this very day, a mother, daughter and the mother’s friend from Queensland who were holidaying, and a fat train driver who was really annoying and gave us facts about the railway and trains every five minutes. And it wasn’t even as if they were interesting facts. He was a man obsessed! AHHHH so boring! Everyone was really nice though. Our guide was a legend and called Ross. We got then kitted out in these really sexy grey and blue cat suits which were so fetching and nice and tight where they needed to be, NOT. We then had all these random things clipped all over our bodies such as handkerchiefs to wipe the sweat from our brows, a rain jacket (I should not need to explain why we required this), a harness, a hat and various other bits and pieces. After that we had to climb on a simulator bit of the bridge to test it out. Basically we were clipped onto the bridge itself by a harness that ran along a wire so there was no way we could fall, although I don’t know how sturdy it was. The steps were really steep and small and close together – I thought I was going to fall over. Just before we embarked on the walk we were given walkie talkies to listen to the guide as we went along. Once out on the bridge we encountered a film crew who were there because some famous old country singer was celebrating his 94th birthday (no idea who it was – Chris thought it may have been Sunny something or other and got quite excited but when we looked it up on the internet it turned out he was dead so I have no idea who it was). The climb itself was ace and the views spectacular. It was only cloudy on the horizon and we saw so much from all angles. The opera house, the bridge (obviously), the beaches, the city. It was so good. We learnt lots of interesting facts including the fact that only 16 men died during the 8 years of construction and only two of these were by falling off it. The others died in the factories. It was also contracted to an English company to build and is the heaviest bridge but not the longest self supporting steel bridge in the world. (It missed that record by 63cm). I really enjoyed it. Halfway up the school girl looked like she was actually going to vomit. She went so white. Tami survived and decided her vertigo is not a fear of heights but a fear of falling from heights?! As we had done the bridge climb on the birthday we got a special embossed certificate, a commemorative coin and a free photo, which I thought was awesome! Although in the photo my hair looks so red. Yes, I know it is red anyway but this is stupidly red. Crazy red. After the bridge we went to this free discovery museum about Aboriginal people and the arrival of the settlers that Tami found so interesting that she fell asleep on the couch there. I never realised that a lot of the tribal people died out due to the smallpox and other diseases that we brought over. ON the way back to the hostel we watched the street show of one of the people who is staying at our hostel. His name is Brucie and he has been doing it for about 5 years all over the world, including London. He was amazing and juggled and lay on a bed of nails. It was hilarious. It was also very funny because he kept pointing at unsuspecting passers by and saying that they were pick pocketers or serial daters. Funny. Since coming away I have seriously missed eating pizza with an egg on it, like the delicious Fiorentina from Pizza Express which has spinach and an egg and olives on it. Therefore I persuaded Chris and Tami and Rich to come out with me to the pizza place down the road and have one. Although they had no spinach so I had mushrooms instead. I really like mushrooms now… Rich, Chris and I all got large pizzas and Tami got lasagne. They were absolutely delicious, although the mushrooms were overdone slightly i.e. there were mushrooms not only on top of the pizza but underneath the cheese but it was still yum. I impressed the boys by polishing off the whole of mine plus an ice-cream, whereas they only managed half a pizza. LAME! I am a legend. It must be mentioned though that mint choc chip ice-cream is no where near as good as in England. I am an expert so I should know. Nice and full we chilled out back at the hostel in the courtyard and then went to bed. I didn’t even get indigestion…
- comments