Sydney

3/3 Monday
Train from the Blue Mountains back to Sydney and checked in at the hostel, Billabong Gardens in Newtown. It has a nice pool but the standards of kitchen and bathrooms is so much worse in Australia than what we were used to from New Zealand. Our room had a balcony door facing the courtyard and there were people out there every night partying and talking vary loudly, though you weren't supposed to be there after 11 pm. We complained to management and then everyone went away at 11 pm, but then they started coming back at 4 in the morning instead and patying then and even smoking marijuana (or so we think)! So we din't get much sleep the whole week. But the location in Newtown is very good, because there are so many cheap restaurant of all kinds there - Thai, Indian, Lebanese, Mexican, Italian, Turkish and lots more in addition to Australian.
We bought a weekly ticket for $43, so we could go on all buses, trains and ferries after that for "free".

I got a cold and on the day after we arrived Gernot woke up and realised he had forgotten his sleeping bag in the hostel in the Blue Mountains, so he spent most of the day going back there on the train - 5 hours, while I stayed in bed with the cold and watched TV.

Things we saw in Sydney:

Circular Quay - next to the Opera House, this is where most boats going round the Harbur leave from. There are also many street artists, mostly aboriginals playing the digeriodoo. On the way out to the Opera House there are lots of cafes and luxury stores.

The Opera House. It is designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon and the gleaming surface of the roofs (which I always thought was some metal) is in fact made of white tiles from Sweden! We listened to a free rehearsal in a tent at the back (ie we were outside the tent and they were singing inside).

Botanical Gardens - lots an lots of sulphur-crested cockatoos, ie the white parrots with a yellow fan of feathers on the head. People fed them in the gardens and they were very loud and would fly very close to you. There is also a bat colony living in the threes of the botanical gardens, which Gernot found particularly disgusting. You can walk along the water's edge with beautiful views of the Harbour and the City.

The Rocks - one of the oldest parts of Sydney, and they have polished it up, so now it's very picturesque and looks like an old quarter from the 19th century. We had Weissbier at Lowenbrau Genuine Bavarian Restaurant, and they even employ genuine German girls in dirndls too!

Sydney Harbour bridge -we walked across from the City to the north side and a short walk around the shoreline there with beautiful views of the sunset behind the bridge (see pictures!).

Luna Park - an amusement park with free entry - we just looked at the lights and didn't go on any rides.

Watsons Bay and South Head - beautiful boatride out to the entrance of the Harbour (which is very, very big, since it is a natural harbour). We walked around South Head and passed a nudist beach where there were mostly men lying around naked on the beach(Lady Head Bay ?) and Gernot went swimming at Camp Cove, but I still had a cold.

Manly - another ferryride with beautiful views of Sydney Harbour all the way along. Walk up towards North Head, the Harbour entrance on the north side. We saw an Eastern Water Dragon at a lookout - it came out when we took out some apples and started eating them. Then Gernot went swimming at Shelley Beach, but first he went to the toilet. Unfortunately the toilet had been painted very recently and he sat down on a bench in there to change and got wet paint all over his clothes and bag, so we had to wash it all out. Then we walked along the beach in Manly and on the way to the boat we passed a salsa dance class that was going on in the street and Gernot joined them, but I was too tired. I did watch though and afterwards I could do all the steps too.

Taronga Zoo - a boatride across the harbour to the very expensive zoo, but at least we got to see kangaroos, koalas (very sleeping hiding in the trees), platypuses, echidnas, spinifex hopping mouse, flying squirrel, all sorts of lizards, bilbys and lots of other strange marsupials - all of which you can only find in Australia. And of course some crocodiles too and lots of birds that were just flying around wild anround the zoo. And they had elephants and lots of other animals too.

Darling harbour - this also used to be a real harbour like Circular Quay, but now it is lined with cafes, restaurants and apartmentbuildings and this is where ost of the harbour cruises depart. We saw a very funny street artist who was really rude to everyone who walked past.

Gernot also went alone to the University since I was ill. He pretended he was in a course and went for a beer with the others ...

---

---