Sydney a.k.a happy London

We both arrived in Sydney on wed 11th, Kim flying in from Taz and me traveling on a very long and boring bus journey from Melbourne (12 hours long). Kim arrived to find me asleep already in the hostel (in Chinatown) and managed to drag me out of bed to go and see stuff around the city. The weather was very hot outside and we walked from the hostel Elizabeth St to the Royal Botanical gardens. The gardens were very scenic and there was a lot to see with spectacular views across the harbour. After walking through the gardens we came across Sydney Opera house which looked exactly like we had seen in so many pictures before, though slightly larger than we had expected. We also got a great view of Sydney Harbour Bridge from where the Opera house was situated. After reaching the Opera house and taking lots of pictures (see below) we decided to walk back through the botanical gardens to Mrs. Macquarie Point from where you can get great views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera house together. Sadly the views were slightly ruined by a storm that was passing over at the time however it didn’t last longer than 15 minutes. Our first night we made Carbonara (first self cooked meal for 5 weeks!) and planned out what we were going to do the following day. After we went to the Cinema to watch a film, ended up watching Narnia which Kim loved (mum buy the DVD please).

After a good sleep the next morning we overslept and missed the free breakfast and took a walk to Darling Harbour, walked through the Chinese gardens, past the IMAX cinema and many other trendy shops along the front. We also saw a very funny street performer who was juggling axes, it was supposed to be a kid’s show but his humour had a very adult feel to it! We went to Sydney Aquarium which was located at the harbour, saw some very interesting fish and sea creatures, Kim fell in love with the Platypus, we also got to see some rather scary looking sharks and took plenty of pictures. After we got home we decided to purchase some alcoholic beverages and went up to the roof of the hostel (which someone had fallen off a year ago and died!) and socialise. We ended meeting quite a few people and went to a bar/club called the Sidebar where we had a few more drinks and just enjoyed the atmosphere of the city.
Kim was desperately trying to avoid the advances of a 4ft tall Canadian who only got the hint after she told him bluntly she wasn’t interested! Trev on the other hand had more luck with a Swedish girl (yay)!

The next day we decided to visit an area of the City called the Rocks which is the oldest part and built in the 19th century by the British (reminded us of home but more like up t’north!). It’s also located right near the Harbour Bridge which we decided to walk across even though it was raining and slightly gusty, (yes the weather is following us from England!). After walking what seemed like a million miles we got home and made baked potatoes with tuna salad. We heard that a band who were staying at the hostel called ‘The King City Seven’ from Melbourne were going to do an acoustic set on the roof of the hostel so everyone decided to head up there after buying a few ‘goons’. They were wicked and played some of their songs mixed in with some covered stuff, it really kicked off. Sadly they couldn’t play all night as the posh people in the expensive surrounding apartments phoned up and kept complaining about the noise which only made everyone sing louder. Later on we somehow took the party out into the street next to the hostel (we can’t remember how or why) and the lead singer Chris was adamant that Kim was joining the band roadies and going to Canberra with them!


Finally got a free breakfast after sleeping for less than 2 hours, and made the brilliant decision of going to the Zoo even though Kim was tired and I was very hungover!
We took a boat from Darling Harbour to Taronga Zoo where Kim took lots of pictures and I slept (we’ve now been under and over the bridge and seen more than enough of it for one lifetime). It was also the hottest day we had seen so far which didn’t help with the hangover. The Zoo was very scenic and housed lots of animals, we even got to see our first Kangaroo and Koala plus many other Australian animals even though they all seemed f**k*d because it was so hot! We also got to see many other animals, bears, seal, lions, the usual Zoo type things! After several hours of sweating and walking round we headed back to the Hostel and went to bed for a few hours. That night we all ordered cheap Dominos pizzas and watched films at the hostel as we had to check out the next morning.

Today we have had another walk around the city; I am desperately looking for a book after finishing the last one and can’t find a trading bookshop anywhere, though there seems to be plenty of adult bookshops everywhere!

Tonight we are catching a greyhound bus to Byron Bay which will take 13 hours (lucky us). Hope everyone is well back home we are having a great time in Australia, however it’s going far quicker than we expected, and Sydney is probably the most scenic city we’ve ever seen. I prefer Sydney while Kim preferred Melbourne.

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