Sydney

15th Feb 2008 - 2nd Mar 2008.

When we first set out, the India and South East Asia parts of the whole journey were supposed to be the shorter sections.The introduction, as you might say, to the big part which was always the Australia leg.As you will have gathered by now, the previously mentioned intro section expanded somewhat into a six month adventure that threw up so many experiences that it was strange to think of Sydney in the same sort of way.That said it was still difficult not to be excited and a bit apprehensive of what was always 'Part Two'.

Our first impressions were probably not the best thing to go on.We arrived at an amicable mid morning and all went well getting through the stringent customs.We were warned before that when you arrive you are not allowed to bring food or anything wood or plant based into the country. This even went as far as asking if you had golf shoes to make sure there was no soil stuck to the soles.We were stopped and asked if we had anything like that, and when Jemma officially declared that she had a packet of mints in her bag they decided that either we were clever enough not to bring anything in, or too stupid to lie about it and waved us straight through, missing the other two hundred or so people queuing up at the scanner.The pickup worked as promised as after talking to a few people, we had pre-booked into a hostel for a change and this was included.

Our first view of the city wasn't spectacular. The backs of airports and industrial areas were not what we had in mind for our grand Sydney entrance. We arrived at the hostel, known as The Maze, at about lunch time to find the room wasn't ready until 2pm. Already by this time, the lack of sleep on the overnight flight had dulled our senses a touch and we were not too bothered by that and set off to find something to eat.However, we got back to the Maze for about 2pm to be told that due to computer problems we couldn't check in for another thirty minutes or so.At this count we had been on the go for about 24 hours and were not the normal easy going couple I am sure you all remember. But after about twenty minutes of sitting watching other people arrive and check in, we hesitantly asked again only to get a look of 'why have you been sitting there for so long' and eventually get checked in. Now, again, you must realise at this point that in most of South East Asia you get a hotel or guesthouse room for about $12 a night and that's for both of us. We walked into our $70 per night room where we were just about able to swing a cat, and were apparently privileged to get a window and electric sockets. Welcome to Sydney. Still, by this point so long as we could sleep it was okay.

Now all that probably was a bit unfair as we always knew it would be more expensive and not like we had been used to for a while. After sleeping for a few hours we both felt better, or at least not ready to kill each other or anyone within easy striking range, and we were excited about starting to explore.

Still a bit shell shocked by the prices, our first evening meal in Australia consisted of a sandwich from the 7/11 (spa shop if you're in the UK) sitting on a wall by the town hall. We did get welcomed by the Harley Davidson Club who gave us a revving salute while waiting at the lights.

Another reason that I was excited about getting to Sydney is that my Mum and step-dad David were arriving that evening. They were due at their hotel at the bridge end of George Street at 11pm so we had agreed to go and meet them. Now to anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of a visit to Sydney, this might not make sense, but they were staying at 55 George Street and our hostel was 417 Pitt Street. To explain, George Street and Pitt St run parallel through the main part of town so we assumed that numbers were about the same and walking from No.400ish to No.50ish would not take us long. Unfortunately, I made a critical error on that one and it became apparent that 417 Pitt Street was probably about level with around the 800 George Street mark. We had left early, thinking we could maybe take our time a bit, but after almost running up the last part of George St we just made it to meet them on time despite looking like a sweaty mess and probably panting a little. A good impression to make after six months apart, I think.

If I try to do a day by day account of Sydney then you will be here all day reading it. Just think about the unproductively of at least a few UK companies if I did that. Maybe I should do a calculation of the 'man hours lost' due to blog reading? Ok maybe not... anyway, instead of that I will pick out the key things we did, stayed and saw. They will roughly be in the order that we 'discovered' them.

The Maze Hostel

This has now been described to us by others who have also stayed there as 'the worst hostel in Sydney', but at the time we didn't know if things like electric sockets, mirrors, bathrooms were a 'at an extra cost' in every hostel. We have since learned that yes, mostly the bathrooms and kitchens are shared but the other things would normally be included in the cost, and ideally, clean.The Maze would have been fantastic if we were both younger, single, into heavy drinking and on the pull. Well, contrary to what a few of you think none of these are very accurate nowadays (although I don't really like admitting the age thing), and so we never really felt like this was the place for us. It was nice to be able to have breakfast and cook a few meals for a change (even though we had both pretty much forgotten how to do it - 45 minutes to cook noodles).Anyway, it was less than private, quite noisy and a bit annoying when you are forced to sit in the corridor to keep an eye on your phone while it charges.Still, it was home for two stints and by all accounts during the Mardi Gras weekend it was good that we had pre-paid as there were no rooms available in the whole of Sydney, apparently.

It was a nice change when we checked into the Wynyard Travel Lodge for four nights as part of my birthday present from Mum and David. It was like a bit of a trade off. We lost the drunken kids and noise and gained a really nice hotel room with on suite bathroom and best of all, a kettle and an amazing refilling supply of tea and coffee (which we siphoned off daily in order to take back to the hostel).Being here also meant we didn't have to walk as far to get over and Meet Mum and David. We did have a problem when we checked out of the Wynyard hotel to go back to the Maze. There was no issue with the hotel or the Maze but for some reason we stood outside and couldn't get any taxis to stop. After about twenty minutes, one dropped someone off and the driver looked at us and was about to drive off when I said that we were only going round the corner. At that he reluctantly agreed to take us and explained that most taxi drivers do a shift until 3pm and then swap. We had all our bags with us and looked like we needed to go to the airport. That would take too long to be back at base for the 3pm swap. Hence no one would pick us up. For future reference don't get a taxi in Sydney with big bags any time between 2 and 3pm.

Circular Quay and around.

Most of our days, at least with Mum and David around, started at Circular Quay. It's pretty much a working harbour with all the Sydney ferried to the suburbs, cruise ships and Ocean Liners and it's not as pretty or trendy as Darling Harbour which is about 20 minutes away. What Circular Quay does have is the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. 2 of the most iconic symbols in the world and both in the same place. Not many places can compete with this.

The Bridge dominates a lot of the views of Sydney and especially everything in this area. I must have taken hundreds of Photos that include the bridge or Opera House from 1 or another angle. Or both when possible.Jemma, David and me did the bridge climb which was an amazing experience. The whole thing took 3 and half hours in total but about 1 hour of that was taken up with breath tests, disclaimers, training, getting into the boiler suit and clipping all our accessories on.We were all pretty nervous but the climb itself was pretty easy and spectacular views across Sydney. Expensive but worth every penny (sorry, cent).

We also walked over the footpath on the bridge (twice) and went to the pylon lookout which was a viewing platform in one of the bridge pylons. It was not quite as spectacular as the climb but again good views and it was good that Mum could see at least some of the views that we had on the climb.

The second time we walked over the bridge footpath we went to Lunar Park which is an updated 50's theme park. It has the style of the 50's but newer rides. When we got there it was about 3.30pm and the place was empty and it had the spooky deserted theme park in a movie feel. This supported by the opportunity to win a cassette walkman in one of the games. By 5.30 or so though it was getting busy with the pre night club teens all dressed to impress. Quite amusing really and more entertaining to watch than the rides as we waited for the sun to go down and get some more bridge pics.

I know the Opera House needs no introduction and even though we had all seen millions of pictures of it we were all surprised to find that it was in fact made up of 3 separate buildings and the sails (as they are known) are made up of 150m sq beige tiles.I know that some people don't like the shape of it but for me I loved it more the more I saw it.We did the interior tour of the Opera House and again we were all surprised to know that the interior structure is entirely separate to the external shell and could be replaced without changing the outside. Also the architect who designed it fell out with the Sydney Council before it was finished and apparently didn't see the Opera House until about 2 years ago. He is now involved in redesigning some of the interior halls. There was a small incident when some Chinese tourists tried to join the tour while we moved from one building to another. The guy gave the tour guide a filthy look for not letting him join a half run tour for free.

We made it across to Taronga Zoo. As I said most days started from somewhere near Circular Quay and this one was also the first time on one of the Sydney ferries. We sussed out the joint return ferry ticket and zoo entry and jumped on the next ferry. We got good outside seats and looked forward to the view from a different angle. It was also nice to sit with a local who started talking to us and pointing out local sights like the prime ministers house. It went well until he started talking about when he was in Iraq and how the government should be run by the army. By the time he started on George Bush and Tony Blair me, Jemma and Mum had managed to start a side conversation. Unfortunately David wasn't so lucky and got the full and obviously a little warped, opinions all the way to the zoo.

The zoo was a good zoo. It was good to see some of the Australian wildlife. I am hoping that we get the chance to see some of it out and about (other than the most venomous snake in the world and a few of the spiders)

When we arrived in Sydney there was a huge cruise liner in Circular Quay. We didn't notice the first night as we both just thought it was a building it was that big. This liner left a few days later but when The Queen Victoria arrived later in the week then we realised that in fact the liner we mistook for an average size office block was in fact a medium in the sizing scale of ocean liners. The queen Vic (as we affectionately called her) was too big to fit under the bridge and was another dominating view on the Circular Quay skyline. What was even better than seeing just the Queen Victoria was the fact that while we were in Sydney the QE2 was also in town and we got to watch them swap places and cross in Sydney harbour. As the QE2 was on its final Voyage then this was the last chance for anyone to see this happen. It was an impressive sight that was shared in an intimate moment by only by the 4 of us and the other 300,000 people who knew about it. Yes it was very busy but worth the standing and waiting.

The Rocks.

The Rocks is where mum and David's hotel was so we did end up spending quite a bit of time there. The best way of describing it is like Covent Garden only with Sun and better views. It is the oldest part of Sydney and so has a lot of convict built places all around and early merchant warehouses. (all Hotels and restaurants now) The Hotel was right in the middle and from their roof top pool there was a great view of the rocks, bridge and surrounding area. There were a few museums about the founding of the area and things but mostly it was a bit of a tourist trap with expensive shops. It does have enough character to pull this off and still be worth spending time there. Even if you do need to sell you left arm for enough cash to buy a beer.

The Blue Mountains

Not technically in Sydney I know but not far enough away to have its own section. Also not actually mountains, or blue. So what are they I hear you ask. Well, they are a series of ravines not unlike the Grand Canyon just not quite at the same scale. They are about 45 minutes from Sydney and the blue bit comes from the occurrence of a blue haze over the ravines caused by the eucalyptus oil given off by the trees. This was the only organised day trip that we did in Sydney and we started off by getting to Mum and David's by 8.30am. Luckily we were in the closer hotel on this day so that wasn't too bad.

It started off by going to a wildlife park that was good but not on the Taronga Zoo scale. There was the opportunity to stroke a Koala and kangaroo though, which was cool. There was also a passport style leaflet that was for the kids to get stamped as they found each animal. It was a good idea but most of the kids couldn't get a look in with all the adults crowding round the stamping stations.After that there was a quick demonstration of cultural boomerang throwing. This pretty much involved our (not so indigenous) driver 'Fritz' (Think Clive James in Lederhosen) and his mate playing with boomerangs for about half an hour. It looked fun but it was obviously far too dangerous for us to try so they kept us safely on the bus.

We then eventually made it to the Blue Mountains and yes, it was worth the wait and random extra sights to get there. From where we were it was an open ravine about 5km wide covered in eucalyptus trees and you could really make see the blue haze. That was at the three sisters where there are 3 natural towers along a ridge. Our next step was a glass bottomed cable car across the ravine, A second cable car down to the bottom of the ravine, a walk through the trees on a wooden walkway and then back up to the top on the 'worlds steepest' venicular railway. A whole host of transportational fun.

On the way back we stopped at the Candy shop in Leura. I am still not sure what the big thing was about this candy shop. To anyone reading this from Alfreton (which I accept is limiting the audience a bit) it was like the Handy Shop only a bit more picturesque. But the town was nice and gave a glimpse into rural Australia a little I think. On the way back we drove through the Olympic Park. (the 2nd Olympic park in as many months) and had a catamaran into circular quay. It was a touch calmer than the last catamaran ride we had been on, but no flying fish. Overall it was a really good day.

Bondi and Manly Beach

We made it both Bondi Beach and Manly Beach but Mum and David were around for the Bondi trip. It's not something I thought I would ever say in one sentence, Mum & David and Bondi Beach. But it happened.The beach was good but very busy with the 'body beautiful' I think we all felt a little over dressed and yes again, a bit old. It was a nice bit of town and I found it hard to believe I was still in Sydney and on a beach.The bus ride home was interesting as it was full of kids heading back to town. They were all queuing up at one stop so we just used or age and experience and walked back up 1 stop and managed to get seats. See I may be getting old but I have not lost my intelligent streak.Manly was possibly a nicer beach but it was windy and we got a bit of rain so not the same impression. Again, a nice suburb with a lot of character. It did seem a bit stuck in the 50's though which probably gave it the charm.

Overall we liked Sydney a lot and part from the price hike from Asia we both found the city a pretty amazing place. It had all the buzz of the big city that it is but still the relaxed feel that you don't normally get in big UK cities. The Bridge and the Opera House will hopefully be there for a long time to come and we also were there when the Queen Victoria and QE2 cruise ships passed in the harbour for the last time ever. That's another thing i didn't think I would ever see, although it did take a little longer to actually happen than any of us thought it would.

But once again it was time to leave and head to somewhere new. This time we were heading to Perth in Western Australia where we were due to catch up with Steve from the India trip and stop for a bit. We were both sad to leave and after the time with Mum and David it felt a little bit like we were starting out again, but looking forward to properly unpacking for the 1st time in 6 months.