|
  | |  |
Touring the sights of Sydney
Entry 40 of 92 | show all | print this entry |
|
Back in the city we arrange to go out for a night on the town with Nick's cousins Abi and Angharod. It started off with a few drinks and dinner in Oxford Street and ended up in the 'Shelbourne', an 80s retro club in Darling Harbour that all the locals cringe at. We danced the night away to Nick's favourites 'YMCA' and 'I will survive'. He says he was showing them how it was done back in the UK but I don't know what that says about our country!
With a hangover, we got up to meet a couple of friends in Manly Beach that we had met in Vietnam; Jay and Maca. They took us on a tour of Palm Beach, Manly and some of the other Northern Beaches of Sydney. We visited the beach where Home and Away is filmed and I almost expected to see Alf and Sally coming out of the surf! I didn't realise Sydney encompassed so much.
After an authentic Aussie BBQ, we retired for the evening to our dingy hostel in Kings Cross. The area of Kings Cross looks normal by day but by night it transforms into something that reminded us very much of Boscombe! Lots of drunks, drugs, bums and prossies line the streets. It is a very colourful and entertaining place to say the least. Most accomodation this week in Sydney that we have come across is fully booked. There are so many events going on around the city that we have struggled finding anywhere to stay. There is Aussie football, cricket, Mardi Gras, and the meeting of the two sister ships in the harbour. The crossing of the two sister ships was quite a sight. At circular Quay, the Queen Victoria (53,000 tonnes of ship!) moored down for a couple of days before it was joined by the QE2 on its last journey before it is made into a floating hotel in Dubai. It was quite an event and thousands flocked to the quay to see the two giants cross paths for the last time. Nick couldn't believe they floated on the water.
We accepted the very generous offer of staying with Jay and Maca for a couple of days (everyone is so nice in Australia!). We stayed in Manly which was nice to experience the suburbs of Sydney and it isn't as hectic as the main city centre and is just as beautiful. From here we explored other areas. The one place we wanted to visit was the famous Bondi beach full of bathing beauties and surfing hunks. A bus ride later, we laid eyes on the infamous beach but it was a little bit of an anti-climax. Being a weekday and near the end of summer, it wasn't as busy as it usually is and at first we were not sure if it was the right beach! With all the people packed onto it, the beach looks enormous in pictures and on the TV but being there it was quite tiny and coupled with the fact that we have seen quite a fair number of beaches, I wasn't as excited as I could have been! We had a swim and the strong currents and rip tides proved to us why it could be a very dangerous beach and why they have constant lifeguard patrols all the time. It made me feel a lot safer that they were there.
On our last few days in Sydney, we went to the Harbour bridge pylon museum for our last glimpses of the view and we went for our last wander in the gardens. Our camera was on the blink but having seen and photographed the gardens before, we thought it didn't matter. But as we turned a corner, a guy was feeding the parrots and cockatoos and they were all lined up on the bench taking food from him. The guy gave Nick a piece of cake and the cockatoo hopped onto his arm, quite happy to sit there and eat away while another knawed at his ankles. Luckily Nick had his phone and I took a quick photo so I apologise for the quality of the picture. It was very cool and shows that you never know when something random will happen.
So we leave Sydney and we move onto Canberra. We had been advised by practically everyone we have met not to stop there because there isn't a lot there, even though it is the capital of Australia. But as Melbourne is 12 hours away we thought we would have an overnight stop there to break up the journey. Our time is nearly up in Australia and it won't be long til we are moving on to New Zealand, how exciting! Meanwhile, next stop Canberra. More thumbnails ...
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Australia or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
4 votes 
