G'day mate from Oz
Sydney - city of sparkling harbours, smiling faces and green beer! After spending just a few hours in Sydney we felt at home. It's a very easy place to be in - walk around, see the sights, get to know it.
We stayed in backpacker land, Kings Cross, in a wide street flanked by Victorian houses with elaborate wrought iron balconies, every other one a hostel - some great value for money, some not so, as we discovered. We were so close and yet so far away from the main drag in Kings Cross which we decided to venture along on our last night - Soho big style. On the same night at about 4am we heard loads of gun shots really nearby - lovely!
As for the sights, we first visited the magnificent Sydney Harbour bridge and could not afford to exuberant 40 pounds to climb to its curving peak, but had to be content with scaling the dizzy heights of the South East Pylon with its interesting museum displaying a photographic portfolio of the construction works - they actually built it from either side and when the structure met in the middle it was only 7cm out - pretty impressive engineering!
From there we discovered the many historic streets of The Rocks, and worked our way round through the bustling tourist and commuter transport interchange that is Circular Quay, past the many street entertainers (some more entertaining than others!). We wound our way along the 1788 shoreline, embossed on the pavement, twirling ourselves among the many varied cafes to the abstract silvery form of the Opera House. Close up the tiles look like the skin of a lizard and cry out for abstract photographs to be taken from all angles and vantage points - which we duly did - so be prepared when we return! Wondered how much it would cost to eat in the restaurant overlooking the harbour and bridge; can you put a price on a view like that?
We went on an evening harbour cruise - the lights were amazing - almost every skyscraper features a company name at the top, creating a rainbow of neon, that reaches into the sky, or as we witnessed on an evening with low cloud, forms a kind of misty ethereal effect of colours radiating out over the city. During the cruise, we passed more and more affluent neighbourhoods, eventually passing the place where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman live (wow!??) - the views of the city getting more impressive the further around the harbour you go.
We spent two days in the Blue Mountains about a 100km west of Sydney. They are the wildest and most magnificent place we have been to, similar in structure to the Grand Canyon - there are great plateaus of rock with vast steep sided valleys in between - the bottoms covered in dense eucalyptus forest and where it is damper, temperate rain forest. It is very strange walking in a place where there are things that can kill you - our affable tour guide, Matt, showed us the entrance to a funnel web spider's hole (which Simon tried to stick his finger down in school boy fashion!). Saw the best waterfall I have ever seen (and as a keen waterfall spotter have seen a fair few!): towering cliffs with an overhang that split the water into thousands of tiny droplets that catch the sunlight like jewels as they fall to the deep pool below - watch out, Angela's gone all poetic!
We chose to go to Bondi on a hot Saturday afternoon - uummm.... very sensible! After sampling some of the fabled sand (much whiter and softer than the beaches we went to in Fiji, amazingly) and watching the surfers fall off, we moved down the coast, along a scenic cliff path, to the narrow Tamarama cove which was slightly less crowded, but had some excellent surfing waves - meaning it was far too rough and cold for me to swim - I'd been spoilt in the bath water of Fiji! Simon had great fun body surfing in the waves.
On our last evening we decided to splash out and have a cocktail on the 36th floor of the plush ANA Hotel watching the sunset - of course all the constituent parts of our little dream were very unlikely to come together at once and we ended up in low cloud peering out trying to see the bridge! Still - lovely cocktails.
Sydney is a wonderful place with an aura all of its own. One of the things that makes it special is the space - there are simply not that many people around to overcrowd the streets, bars and restaurants - of course this will all change in October during the Olympics - a word which we've learnt to avoid when talking to Sydneysiders, who all seem to be completely fed up and bored with the event.
By the way, if you are wondering about the green beer, it is because we were in Sydney over St Patrick's Day weekend - Sydneysiders celebrate with gusto, and we saw lots of them falling into the road as early as 6 on Friday evening! On our way to the airport on Monday morning there were many dishevelled looking people, in green attire with green balloons tied to various limbs, still making their way home after the parade on Sunday!
Until the next time, rack off you poms!
Sydney Hotels
