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SYDNEY
24th - 28th Jan
Day 1
We leave the airport to the somewhat unexpected and very unwelcome sight of grey skys and RAIN!!! As such unfortunately the first views of Bondi Beach where we are staying intially, are not perhaps as stunning as they should be, which is a bit of a shame. All the same, this is Bondi Beach and boy does it feel good to be in Australia. The hostel is not bad for the money and we decide to catch up on some sleep after a disjointed few days travelling before our big trip out to see 'The Marriage of Figaro' at the Opera House that evening. When we wake up we have time for a quick 'Schooner of Toohey's' ie: a beer, at the Bondi Hotel before we set off... well to tell the truth we don't really have time, as we realise when we are still sat on a bus a good way out of town at 7pm - at which time we should be sipping our pre-performance drinks in the Opera House bar. Anyway, thanks to the typical Aussie friendliness of the bus driver who drops us as near as he possibly can to the Opera House and a quick dash through Circular Quay - Mark's first view of the Harbour Bridge was as we were running past it, it stopped him in his tracks for a couple of precious minutes as Sydney harbour is truly the most magnificent city setting in the world. We made it on time for our 7.30 performance, which in true lovie style didn't actually begin until about 7.45. After our initial delight at not missing the show wore off we realised we were in pretty terrible seats where you couldn't view any of the English subtitles so we were facing a long 3 hours of an Opera in Italian which meant that we wouldn't have much of a clue as to what was happening. At the first interval Sarah spoke to one of the staff about the seats and for the first time we have ever known it we managed to get upgraded! We ended up sat in really great seats which would have costs 3 or 4 times what our original tickets costs. So happy were we that we treated ourselves to a glass of bubbly at the interval which we obviously had to take outside to admire the view of the Harbour which is magical - even if there is a sea fret that would rival Scarborough. The performance turned out to be wonderful, as was the evening - a brilliant beginning to our time in Australia.
Day 2 -
Was supposed to be spent at Bondi Beach but unfortunately the weather is still not co-operating so we head off into the City instead. We do a few jobs, most importantly changing our flights to give us more time in Australia (8 whole weeks!), before treating ourselves to a sandwich from 'The G'Day Cafe' at the Rocks. We spend the day wandering around the City and the Rocks and in the evening we go to the outdoor Moonlight Cinema at Centennial Park to see the Aussie classic Mad Max 2. The film as always is cool and luckily for us the weather stays dry - we have another memorable night and the love affair with Syndey continues...
Day 3 -
Australia Day!!!! Wow. Unlike in the UK the sun comes out to celebrate public holidays which is a welcome start to a great day. Unfortunately we cant utilise this great weather with a day on the beach, there is just too much going on in the City and we need to be in the thick of things and join the madness of celebrating all things Australian. The City is mobbed and the atmosphere is electric - at the Harbour we see the tall ships sailing past the opera house and under the bridge. We enjoy a few beers and soak up the atmosphere whilst also listening to the many bands performing in the streets. We spend more time at The Rocks, enjoying The Orient in particular where they have a great Aussie band on, so we go and mosh with the Aussies down at the front, great fun. The celebrations continue down at Darling Harbour that evening with fireworks and more general good vibes about Australia - they don't have to try hard to convince us that it is a great place that's for sure! Oh should have mentioned that we also bought the Greyhound bus passes today, we have 7000km of travel each and we got student discount with our ISIC cards (See Bangkok) savings us about $200 - nice one!
Day 4 -
Bondi to Coogee walk - Already anticipating that we would be a bit the worse for wear today we had scheduled the Bondi to Coogee walk finished off with a few beers in Coogee on Saturday afternoon. The weather is a bit miserable once again, unbelievable for this time of year, but we set off along the cliffs getting very windswept along the way. It's a beautiful walk taking you through various stunning beach suburbs - Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelley before you finally arrive at Coogee - which is where Sarah lived for the majority of her time in Sydney on her last trip here 8 years ago - it's kind of strange to be back, especially as they have built swanky apartments on the sight where the hostel used to be and 'The Palace' pub which was a right dive, is now a rather trendy bar. Anyway, we decide to give the Palace the benefit of the doubt and spend a few hours in there before heading down to the main event ... The Coogee Bay Hotel (CBH) for more reminiscing from Sarah. Later on we decide to head back to Bondi to sample what Saturday night has on offer there (not much pub-wise actually) and end up in a dead good BYO Italian restaurant, treating ourselves to our first proper evening meal of the week - it's been Subway sandwiches all the way up until now.
Day 5 -
Leaving Bondi to move to Kings Cross - Wouldn't you know it that on the day we move from the beach the sun comes out!!! No worries though as we pack our stuff up first thing and spend the day on the golden sands of Bondi before heading into town early evening. By the time we get there we are feeling hot and bothered and when we check out our reflections in the mirror we understand why, we are both burnt to a crisp. Watch out for that Aussie sun, there is a bloody big whole in the ozone down here! Ignoring our third degree burms we go off in search of cheap food and drink - wihch is pretty easy to find in Kings Cross unlike Bondi - and spend a pleasant evening with the down and outs, prossies, trannies you name it - you get the picture! The Cross is certainly not the best part of the City but it is a lot of fun.
Day 6 -
Harbour and Manly - It's another pretty hot day so we decide to check out the classic views of the Opera House / Harbour Bridge from the Botanic gardens and then take the ferry over to Manly, which is a great beach suburb. We walk down into the City from The Cross, the Botanical Gardens on the way are pretty gorgeous and stopping off at Mrs McQuarie's Chair for some more piccies of the stunning Harbour is a real hightlight as it cements the image of the fabulous harbour in our minds for hopefully years to come. The ferry-ride over gives yet more spectacular views of the Harbour and when we get there we are both really impressed with Manly (it's seems to have come a long way since the last time Sarah was here). It has a great surfing vibe, pretty chilled out and not as pretentious as Bondi but with a great beach and lots of shops/cafes etc. We are sorry we only have a day here but our time is pretty limited in Australia. We have to head back around 4pm to make preparations (ie: stock up on pizza slices and beer) for our overnight bus ride up to Byron Bay, which marks the beginning of our trip up the East Coast. It's a horrible feeling leaving Sydney after only a few days but at least we know we have a lot more great places ahead of us and we will be back here again in a couple of months once our trip to the rest of Oz is completed.
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