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Published: March 18th 2008
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Down by the Harbour
As there was nothing much to look at, they decided to stop for a kiss Hi Everyone,
Greetings from Byron Bay! We're here hanging out with all the surf dudes, and therefore sticking out like a pair of sore thumbs. Anyway, we left you at the end of our trip to Melbourne.
We got the overnight train from Melbourne to Sydney so we didn't waste a day travelling. It was definitely the right decision but the journey was definitely the worst of the travels: 14 hours of trying to sleep on achair that had the comfort of a pile of broken bricks. Arriving tired and a bit grumpy we made our way to our hotel, called the Imperial Budget Boutique Hotel - quite a mouthful and one we couldn't really stomach. We'd read about it in the travel section of our Sunday paper months ago and unfortunately it wasn't what we'd hoped for. But hey, enough of the complaining, this was Sydney!
We went straight out for lunch at the Sydney fish markets (the 2nd largest in the world) and followed this by walking around the main area near our hotel called Darling Harbour. After a bit of exploring we visited the Sydney Aquarium which had a fantastic collection of sharks, rays, seals
and turtles. We've been to quite a few aquariums (is that the plural?) on this trip, which wasn't something we discussed before we left, but Sydney's was definitely right up there. We finished the day with a quick meal and a very sound nights sleep.
The next days it was on to the tourists highlights as we hung out in the area around the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. We visited a great market and as usual managed to eat as many free samples of the food on offer as we could before booking what we hoped would be the highlight of our stay, the Harbour Bridge Climb.
Several hundred photos of the Bridge and Opera house later, we went to the IMAX cinema (the largest in world) and saw a film about sea creatures during the late dinosaur ages. After this it was chow time again and we enjoyed an Aussie Platter of crocodile, emu and Kangaroo while watching the sun go down in the harbour.
Now we were booked at the imperial for our entire four days but I'm ashamed to say that we told the owner that we'd decided to leave town early,
and with money we didn't really have, checked into a four star hotel near the city centre. Two days later having enjoyed room service and baths we were very refreshed, much poorer and unsure if we could stay in a hostel again.
Having talked about the accomodation I now need to catch you up on the day we did the bridge climb. We spent the morening and early afternoon getting the ferry over to the suberb of Manly where you're supposed to get some good fish and chips and sit by the beach. Which we did. The ferry gives you great photo opportunities for the Bridge, Opera House and city skyline and was according to our guide book a must do.
Our bridge climb was the last of the afternoon meaning we would get both sunshine and the onset of the evening. A reminder at this point that Jaime is scared of heights and therefore this was an immense challenge for her. The organisation was excellent and it was about 45 minute of instruction and getting fitted with all our gear before we started out on the walkways ladders and stairs that would take us to the top.
Just. Don't. Look. Down
Reaching the top as the sun begins to set over the city As Jaime had told the climb leader of her nerves she was at the front of the line as we travelled single file to the top but she got through it all with flying colours. Indeed, a french bloke in the group really struggled his way round while Jaime was chatting and asking questions about the bridge and climb. I was very proud.
The climb gave fantastic views of the city and it was just as we started to descend that the sun set and the lights came on across the city, making this probably the best thing we've done on our travels so far. Following the climb we celebrated with room service at the hotel.
The next day we got up to spend the day at Bondi Beach which was great fun. The place was teeming with people and made an awesome site. We managed to set our towels down in a decent area which was promptly filled with a Brazilian drumming troupe that seemed to annoy pretty much everyone on the beach. A towel move later and we were ready for an afternoon of sun bathing and cold drinks.
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