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Published: October 6th 2007
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Sydney Opera House By Night
Looking over the harbour at the Opera House Arriving in Sydney We arrived in Sydney close to midnight after a 9 hour stint on our final Greyhound bus. Driving over the Harbour Bridge, we were treated to a fantastic view of the city, with the Opera House illuminated against the night sky. We caught a taxi to our hostel, which we had pre-booked for our first night, prior to winning the quiz. It was ominously called D-lux and was situated in the Kings Cross area of the city, which like its counterpart in London, is the rather seedy side of town. The hostel was just a doorway next to a kebab shop and a group were loitering in the foyer, playing an acoustic guitar hippy-style. Fortunately we couldn't hear the music from the room, which turned out ok considering our first impressions of the place. We only had a matter of hours there, before we were up catching a taxi to the centre of town, hoping our hotel reservation wasn't a big swiz!
We arrived at Fraser Suites with our fingers crossed, hoping we wouldn't look to out of place with our backpacks in tow. We could have cheered when we checked in and our reservation had been
Harbour Bridge
View from the harbour cruise confirmed and paid in full. With much relief, we whizzed up the lift to our executive suite and opened the door to find a fantastic little apartment, complete with kitchen and living area, office, bedroom and bathroom. For some reason Jase got really excited about having our own free washing machine and tumble dryer but Rach was more chuffed about the huge bath and Molton Brown toiletries!
Circular Quay Tempting as it was to chill in the hotel room, there was a city to be explored, so we caught a bus down to Circular Quay and jumped on a Harbour Cruise to get a great view of the city. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, as we sat admiring the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the boat. We stopped off at Watson's Bay and ate chips from the famous Doyle's fish bar, fending off the greedy seagulls after our grub. Back at Circular Quay, we walked around to the Opera House to join a tour. We looked around a small drama theatre, the Opera theatre and then the most impressive Symphony Hall. As we sat trying to count the organ pipes, Jase surprised Rach by saying we
were going to be sitting on Row D tomorrow night. Rach couldn't believe that Jase had actually booked to see the Symphony Orchestra!
The Rocks That evening we arranged to see Tina, our friend from the Africa Overland trip. She picked us up and we went down to The Rocks, the historic area of Sydney, which gave us a great sunset cityscape. We refreshed ourselves with a (real) pint of Trafalgar from the Lord Nelson Brewery, the oldest pub in Sydney. Then we drove to Newtown and Tina took us to a great little Thai restaurant for some yummy curry.
The Opera House We had a lazy day mooching about town, browsing around the historic QV shopping centre and buying Jase a shirt for the Opera House. Later that afternoon we went in the gym for a mini-workout and did a few lengths of the pool before relaxing in the spa. We spruced ourselves up and travelled to the Opera House to listen to the performance of Introduction to the Orchestra. We enjoyed a pre-show glass of wine on the balcony overlooking the harbour, enjoying a magical sunset with the bridge silhoutted against a pink evening sky. The
skyscrapers twinkled in the dark as we took our seats on the front row of the Symphony Hall. This afforded us a real close-up view of the orchestra and the sound was so impressive at such close range, it made your hair stand on end! We enjoyed Benjamin Britten's Introduction to the Orchestra, a contemporary piece from Elena Kats-Chernin with a scary woman on the piano and finished with Stravinsky's Symphony in C. It was a fantastic experience we both really enjoyed, so we walked to the Lord Nelson for a pint to celebrate.
Maritime Museum We wandered down to Darling Harbour and crossed the bridge to the Maritime Museum. We beat the school groups to enjoy the Vampire Destroyer gunship and the HMAS Onslow submarine. It was fascinating to explore the sub - we couldn't imagine having to live in such cramped, claustrophic conditions for so long. We walked around the museum, enjoying the stories about the convict escapes, sailing adventures and speed record breaking boats. We timed it right as a thunderstorm hit Sydney that afternoon, but it soon cleared, so we decided to go down to Bondi.
Bondi Beach We arrived at Bondi Beach in
Opera House and Harbour Bridge
Fantastic views from the cruise the late afternoon. It looked a lot smaller than we had expected, as it looks huge on the Surf Rescue TV programme. However, it was a nice time of day to visit, with the sunset. We couldn't find a really nice beachside bar for some reason, so settled for a monstrously huge ice-cream that was impossible to finish. We endured the rush hour bus back to the city and chilled out in our room for the evening.
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Debra
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Big hat
The big hat looks like a brainwashing machine. Is your brain feeling fresh? Is there really a ship called HMAS Vampire?