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Published: February 16th 2015
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Hi everyone, were in SYDNEY, caught a plane yesterday morning, only took 1 hour, 15 minutes, like catching a bus ! We then made our way by train to Kings Cross. I like their trains, they have upstairs and downstairs. Anyway, arrived at Kings Cross where our hostel was, mmmmm, very 'colourful'. Lots of 'adult' establishments, mmmmmm, no doubt 'the ladies of the night' will soon appear !! But anyhow, nothing we weren't surprised at, we booked it as it was cheap and cheerful !! Mmmmmmm (lots of them)! Stu had booked a double room in the hostel, mmmmmmm, I said to him, I will sleep on the edge of the bed closest to the door as I don't like the look of those curtains !! He said I was just being picky !! I'll let you be the judge of that when I pop up a photo ! Also wait for it, a shared bathroom !! Help!! However a bonus, we have our own shower (this is like 4 star hostel!!, Not !) but we have to share toilet !! yes at my age !! What has it all come to ?
So all booked in, very excited, off
we march, it was pretty hot, 28 degrees, but semi white/tanned (not) pins took us first down to the army base, we were'nt looking for it, just came across it where there was a huge naval ship docked up, but that was the first glimpse of the bridge so that was why I was so excited. So we then walked to St Mary's Cathedral, where Stu said he attended (by mistake) Michael Hutchence's funeral back in the 90's. Very nice cathedral, had a nosey around then walked through the botanical gardens, taking in everything whilst we were wandering around. So much to see, my neck was like rubber, didn't know what to look at first and my camera wouldn't stop clicking!!
So we passed the Sydney library, which looked an interesting building, popped in, beautiful place, sat there for about half an hour as we were flagging from the heat by this time. I let my eyes close, but kept my sunglasses on, thinking just 40 winks and I'll be fine, but Stu came over and told me to get moving cos security were eyeing me up (not in a nice way). So onward we then went, walk walk
walk until we turned a corner and there it was, a sight that made my mouth drop open ! The Bridge and the Opera House, fantastic. After many photos and I'm talking many, we decided to go and look inside the Opera House and we ended up booking a tour. So glad we did because we were allowed into some of the theatres, there are 6 altogether. We were'nt allowed to take photos in most of them, only one, due to copyrights. But we got to know the history of how it was built and by whom. Originally the budget was 7 million and 3 years to build. It actually took 102 million and 14 years to build. Stick that on you're pub quiz's ! The story of the Dainish Man, Jorn Utzon who designed the whole thing ended up resigning, long story, but too much pressure from the Government who had pressure from the people, so he never saw the end product as by this time he was old and couldn't travel, however his son became an architect and in 1999, Mr Utzon senior was commissioned to do some changes so under the instruction of his Dad his son
made the changes to the west side of the building, as a solid wall had been built. So 9 windows were put in, connecting the water to the building and also a glamorous venue for parties was built and named after Mr Utzon. Anyway I could go on and on about this Opera House, we thoroughly enjoyed it, in fact I found the whole story of Jorn Utzon very moving, actually brought tears to my eyes (you lot would be the same, if you heard it) anyhow all ended well as Mr Utzon received a special honor for the best architectural building in the world and this was presented to him a year before his death.
Right moving on, after that we walked to 'The Rocks' lots of fashionable restaurants (expensive) and bars and places to show off exhibitions. Street entertainers were doing their thing, we decided to walk under the bridge which we did, we could see people, well little specks up on the top of it, it is high, we were already getting scared talking about going on it, so not sure if that is going to happen. When people came down, we could see they were
hooked on to the side in their blue boiler suits, didn't look very appealing to us. We stopped off for a beverage after reading all these stickers in Millers Points (just past the bridge) as they want to evict people out of their homes to re-develop the area. After our refreshment we then walked towards the city, but kept stopping at different bars and taking photos of them as they were so amazing the way they were done out. By this time it was getting on for 9.30pm and we still hadn't eaten, so decided to catch train back to exciting Kings Cross and find something to eat there as it is back packer land so would be cheap. By the way Sydney is not cheap as you would expect. Anyhow I was very grateful for my back packer bed, despite where it is and I have woke up this morning very refreshed and ready for the next adventure.
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