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Published: November 7th 2007
Fair Dinkum Night! Monday night, upon our return to Sydney, Danae and I had some exciting plans. For Monday night was Sydney Central YHA's "Fair Dinkum Night"! Danae (being the tacky tourist that she is) decided we just had to experience this truly Aussie night (note: Danae is Australian). And it was pretty good, for $3 you got a hot dog AND a beer.
After that fun time, we decided enough was enough and we were going to have a PROPER night out in Sydney. So we got all dressed up and headed to a random pub called "The 3 Monkeys" on George st. There was an awesome live band when we arrived, but the place cleared out once they stopped. So we decided to hop in a cab with two other girls we met and found ourselves at a club in King's Cross. This place we great, we had a whole dancefloor to ourselves (it being a Monday night and all). After that we hopped in a cab with a random group of people and found ourselves at...a bar...somewhere. It was pretty bad, so we quickly left.
Danae then decided she wanted some food, so we found a
kebab place (lots of those in Australia) and had something to eat. I suggested we get a cab back to the hostel but Danae wanted to walk some more. At some point I realized I could see the Sydney Tower and I decided I could find our way home. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Dafne managed to find her way back to her hostel in the wee hours of the morning in a totally foreign city. I even had the great idea to buy eggs for tomorrow's breakfast from a 7/11 on the way home. It was awesome.
Harbour Cruise and Chinese Gardens Tuesday...erm...afternoon...we woke up. After having some EGGS (good call, Dafne) we headed to our favourite spot, Darling Harbour, to do some things we REALLY needed to do.
First we walked up and down the harbour looking for a harbour cruise to take. We decided on Captain Cook cruises, a large and popular company. We bought our tickets, but the boat wouldn't be for another hour or so. So we decided to head to the Chinese Gardens for a walk around.
At the Chinese Gardens, somehow Danae and I got split up. Which
was alright until it was 15 minutes until our boat was due to leave. At which point I wandered in search of Danae who I found dressed from head to toe in traditional Chinese clothing. No joke. They had this thing where you could pay to get dressed up and have your picture taken. She had wandered in to their shack and apparently they had just started to dress her up. AFTER the photo shoot they asked for the $15. (I could make a racist comment about sneaky salespeople, but I'll refrain).
Anyways, by the time she got all changed, it was about 5 mintues until the boat was due to leave, so we RAN LIKE THE WIND back to the harbour. The boat was nowhere in sight, even though we arrived pretty much bang on time. At the very least, the boat should have been in sight pulling out of the harbour. So we went to inquire. Turns out the boat had left early so we were refunded our money (don't know WHY it would have left early but whatever, we got our money back).
We headed back down the harbour and returned to a company we'd
Luna Park and Harbour Bridge
Luna Park scares me...that clown face...spoken to earlier, Harbour Taxi. They were about to leave, so we hopped in. This company was the opposite of Captain Cook, and I think they were faaar better. With Captain Cook you get a HUGE boat that moves slowly and most likely has pre-recorded commentary. With Harbour Taxi you get a little boat that jets off at high speeds but stops at the photo sites. Plus it was just me, Danae, two random guys trying to kill some time before their dinner reservations, and a tour guide from Saskatoon! So it was very intimate. I'd definitely recommend this company.
A Lunar Eclipse That night there was a lunar eclipse so we wandered off in search of a good place to see it from. We got some dinner along the way at a great place called 'Ship Inn' which was pretty cheap and REALLY good. After that we found ourselves at the Ferry terminal where we contemplated going on a random ferry to some suburb. But then we looked up and there it was! The lunar eclipse! So we stayed in Sydney city.
We kept walking and found ourselves at Circular Quay, home to Sydney's famous icons -
the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. You may have noticed that until today we hadn't seen the icons since our bus ride in on day 1. And that would be a correct observation. Which further led us to question what, exactly, we'd done in the many days we'd already spent in this city.
We wandered around the Opera House and then had a nice break in the park across the street from it, enjoying the view of Sydney's (and Australia's, really) most famous icons. After that we wandered the streets back to our hostel, and we saw some important landmarks like the Conservatorium of Music, the HUGE ANZAC Memorial, a fancy Cathedral and a park. These are things we really should have seen by now but I guess we were too busy visiting Darling Harbour...
City Sightseeing Bus - AM: Bondi Wednesday was our last day in Sydney, and we decided to do what we REALLY should have done on day 1 - go on a Sydney Sightseeing Bus. It was good fun; it was a double-decker hop-on, hop-off bus with two loops - one up to Bondi Beach and one around the city.
We woke up
bright and early to catch the bus to Bondi, a famous beach in one of Sydney's suburbs. Mostly it's famous because it's home to the excellent TV show "Bondi Rescue" which is like a real-life version of Baywatch only all the lifeguards are guys (and none are David Hasselhoff) and ya it's hard to find a girl in Australia who doesn't enjoy watching that show 😉
We had a nice 2-hour stop at Bondi, so we walked around and had a bite to eat by the ocean. The sun came out for us, although it was still cold (as Sydney will be in August). But it was warm enough to dip our feet in the ocean.
After that we headed back to our hostel for a quick lunch.
City Sightseeing Bus - PM: City In the afternoon, we went on the city loop. We got off at the Harbour Bridge in order to walk across it. They do have a Harbour Bridge climb, where you actually walk across the TOP of the bridge, but we decided not to do it (mostly due to it's $180 price tag). But, honestly, if I go back to Sydney I'd do
it. Everyone you talk to says it's more than worth it.
We did get to walk across the bridge, where we got some nice views of the entire harbour.
The only other stop we got off at was the Opera House, where we got the chance to see it in the daylight. Then we were on the last bus back to Sydney Central.
A show at the Opera House!! I believe it was on Tuesday that we decided we should go see a show at the Opera House. Danae had seen a poster while we had been there of a show called "Imagine Toi" and she'd fallen in love with the guy in the poster. So we called to inquire and learned it was a mime show. I asked about other shows, and the opera was going to cost about $200 (only seats left). So we opted for the mime show.
And it was awesome!! OMG this guy was SOO FUNNY we were re-enacting moments from the show for the rest of the trip! Sadly for Danae, she never got to meet her lover. Maybe next time...
A ride on the train I decided I
needed to see King's Cross station before we left, just to see if I could find the entrance to the Australian Hogwart's Express. A highlight for Danae was riding on a double-decker train, something she'd never done before.
We rode to King's Cross but there were only 2 platforms, so no platform 9 3/4. We decided to take a stroll around King's Cross, which is most definitely Sydney's red light district. So we quickly hopped back on the train to Central Station and to our wonderful hostel.
That night we packed up and said our final goodbyes to Sydney...we were on our way to Melbourne on the 7:45 AM train the very next day!! All in all it was an EXCELLENT time in Sydney and we both wished we could have stayed longer!! Which, I might add, is very different from the common perspective of Sydney. I think I see it as the Toronto of Australia - it's the biggest city, it's not the capital but everyone thinks it is, and the rest of Australia seems to hate it! I loved it. Much like I love Toronto. And Danae loved it. So that's really all that matters!
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