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Published: December 27th 2009
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Some famous landmarks
A bridge (famous), a building (very famous) and a boat (maybe not so famous) Hello,
After the night bus debacle I finally rolled into Sydney mid-afternoon feeling exhausted after having had insufficient sleep on the coach. So despite being in Sydney at last, a place I had regarded as the 'Holy Grail' of the East Coast, after checking in to my hostel near to Bondi Beach, I just popped over to have a quick look at nearby Tamarama and Bronte Beaches whilst waiting for the laundry to finish then over to the string of restaurants overlooking Bondi Beach for food followed by an early bed time.
The next morning I really didn't want to get up, despite having had a good ten hours in bed. Even that wasn't enough to recover from the sleep debt built up the previous day. Nevertheless, with only one full day to explore Australia's largest city I really didn't want to spend it lying in bed!
I only really had the time to do all the most obvious stuff and accordingly took a bus to Hyde Park for a ramble through some pleasant parkland dotted with various memorials up to Mrs Macquaries Point, the site of Mrs Macquaries Chair- a large stone with a seat cut into
Sydney Opera House
Such a strange looking building it. This was apparently the favourite spot of the wife/ daughter/ whatever of an early Sydney VIP, and just around the corner from a stunning view of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I took in the view over a hotdog whilst thinking 'they're not as big as I expected'. Of course once I got closer I realised the difference as ably explained in an episode of Father Ted between 'small' and 'far away'.
So anyway I took a walk around the cove to get closer to the Opera House, being regularly passed by the hundreds of joggers, putting me in mind of King's Park in Perth (which anyone who has followed this blog from the start may remember). I didn't go in- I don't actually like opera, but it definitely has some wacky architecture to appreciate. I also sat in the bar beneath the Opera House for a beer and a view of the Bridge, because I thought that was a pretty cool thing to do.
Next up on my itinerary was a walk to Circular Quay (where the ferries leave from) and on to the Rocks, one of the oldest parts of Sydney, once a cesspool
Sydney Harbour Bridge
viewed from the Opera House of depravity, now full of old (by Aussie standards) buildings and tacky souvenir shops. I stopped for another beer at a pub called something like the 'Fortune of War' which billed itself as Sydney's Oldest Pub (my Lonely Planet seems to disagree about that however) before walking across Sydney Harbour Bridge and back again, mostly so that I can say 'I walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge'.
I've heard that a cruise around the Harbour is a must, but I had an all day ticket entitling me to as much travel on buses, trains and ferries as I wanted, so I figured I would just take a ferry instead of a specific tourist cruise, so that's what I did. Circular Quay to Darling Harbour and some very nice views along the way. I guess some locals must do this as part of their daily commute.
By the time I got to Darling Harbour it was stretching towards the end of the afternoon. I took a general walk around the Harbour- lots of fun stuff for kids to do and posh restaurants. I wanted to go to the Chinese Garden of Friendship but by the time I reached it was
Sydney Opera House
viewed from the Bridge about to shut so I didn't bother. However there was also the Sydney Aquarium. I wasn't going to bother with that- it was quite expensive, I've been to lots of similar places already, and frankly I'd been in the actual real sea and seen actual wild sealife plenty and recently anyway. But I had some time before I needed to get dinner and I do like that sort of thing, so figured, 'why not?'
As it happens I'm glad I did go. It's a really good aquarium! It had of course a selection of Australian fish which was all good though unspectacular, and the Great Barrier Reef display was fine, but since I've been diving on the actual Great Barrier Reef then, as Shania Twain would put it 'That don't impress me much.' What I did like were the larger walk though tanks stocked with sharks and humungous rays and in one of them there were dugongs! I never thought I would see them! They are such odd creatures. Other oddities that I liked were the leafy sea-dragon (like a sea horse that takes camouflage to the extreme, with a mass of leaf-like appendages sticking out all over it's
Marbled rockcod
All the way from the Antarctic body) and a lungfish. There were even a couple of Antarctic fish, marbled rock cod (or Notothenia rossii) in a tank. I had no idea anyone had ever successfully transported Antarctic fish away from their natural environment like that. Slightly disappointing was the fact that I really couldn't find the platypus or the blue-ringed octopus. Oh well, you can't have everything.
But after that it was time for dinner (last chance for kangaroo) and back across the city for bed.
The next morning was the day of departure. However my flight didn't leave until about half five in the afternoon so I reckoned I had time to get in the final part of 'essential' Sydney- Bondi Beach. This was just a ten minute walk from the hostel (no accident) so I went down and traipsed across the length of the beach and up to a look-out point on the far side for some views of the whole thing, then back down to get some last minute sun-bathing in. Bondi Beach itself is a decent enough beach, although I've seen better and I'm not sure that it quite deserves the fame. It is certainly popular though.
Well I'd
Dugong!
or Sea Cow. Apparently in olden days sailors mistook these for mermaids. I don't think I would make that mistake myself, no matter how long I spent at sea run out of time and had to run off to catch my flight. So that was that, goodbye Australia!
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