Plan to stay for a week in the very hip Darlinghurst district - at the Sydney Star Hotel http://www.sydneystar.com.au
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We had such a great time in Sydney. We camped out in a low budget hotel for 8 nights, and spent the time exploring and enjoying the vibrant city, while taking in more of the world-cup soccer fever.
On our second night in town, Judy from Nowra set us up with her son, Dion, for dinner. They had us over to enjoy yet another scrumptious home cooked meal with the family and some friends from Ireland. This is when we discovered delicious "Morten Bay Bugs", fresh from the market. They're kind of like tiny lobsters. Very delicioius. The following night, we met up with Dion again, to watch him and his band, Green Jam, playing their weekly Sunday gig at the Hero of Waterloo (an old landmark in the Rocks district). They're very good entertainers, keeping the crowed reved all night. Very fun to see.
It rained a lot while we were in Sydney, so we did spend quite a bit of time browsing the shops and their end-of-season sales. We were getting tired of our "travel-wear", so we had an uncontrolable need to shop for something more fashionable. We also hid from the rain by taking in the awsome Sydney Aquarium. It's a little pricy, but well worth it. The shark tank was very cool; you could walk right through it. The Great Barrier Reef display is the largest Coral Reef display of it's kind. The platypus tank was very cool too, because they switch day/night for them, so they're actually active when you're there. They're very cute, and playful, like otters.
We didn't let the rain stop us from taking a run down through the Botanic Gardens to the harbour and back. The park is a great place to run. Lots of plants and birds (and bats), good trails, beautiful harbour views. We also enjoyed many walks through the park, and were especially fond of the Flying foxes (bats). We first saw them in the gardens, hanging in large groups, from the upper branches of trees. Later, in The Domain at dusk, we saw thousands of these massive bats (1m wingspan) flying overhead from the gardens out to the subourbs, for ~30 minutes. What an awsome sight.
When the sun broke through again, we took a day trip to Bondi beach, and hiked along the shoreline, from beach to beach, admiring the sand and waves, wishing that the water was warm enough to really enjoy playing in.
One night, we took in a show at the Sydney Opera house. Not being ones to plan anything, we had to settle for the only show that had seats available while we were in town, Vula. Vula turned out to be a bit of an aquired taste. It featured 3 women, dancing around in a water filled stage, in the dark, chanting, and doing various things with the water. After having first enjoyed a bottle of wine while watching the sun set over the harbour, we both found it hard to stay awake through the whole show. To end the evening on a higher note, we decided to splurge and go up into the Minus 5 club, which is actually in a room set to -11 degrees Celcius. We bundled up in hooded parkas, gloves, and boots, and drank yummy fruity drinks from ice tumblers while admiring the ice sculptures (a big maple leaf, a hokey player, a kangaroo, etc.). They limit your visit to 30 minutes, supposedly because the body can't handle alcohol properly when subjected to "extreme cold". As Canadians, we found this quite humerous; but now I'm wondering... maybe they're on to something.
A very popular thing to do in Sydney is to go out into the harbour by boat. What better way to do it then by private sail boat? We signed up for a 2 day skipper course, just the two of us, to refresh and expand our skills to get ready for sailing further north in the Whitsundays. We sailed out and around the harbour, camped out a night in the quiet pieceful middle harbour, and then did some more sailing in the main harbour before sailing back in under the bridge as the sun set. It sounds very romantic, but keep in mind that while trying to take in the scenery, we were doing various excercises (anchoring, man-over-board, blind navigation) while being drilled by our young instructor. We never do anything the easy way. What's the fun in that?
On our last full day in Sydney, we took a day trip to Manly beach and enjoyed fish and chips at the harbor with one of Grant's old Colleagues, Andrew Kenedy, and family. We then wandered around the wealthy, scenic town enjoying the warm sunny weather. Nicole Kidman happened to be getting married in Manly that day, so there were a lot of tourists "wandering around".
We were sad to be leaving Sydney the next morning, but still longing for the sunny warm weather of the North.
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