It's not as big as I thought it would be

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were Willy's words on first seeing Sydney Opera House.

We took a train from misty Katoomba into Sydney this morning, leaving the Beast and most of our luggage at the YHA in Katoomba.

It took just a couple of hours to get here, then we took a bus to the hostel. We'd found it difficult to book a hostel - today there's a big festival on at the Olympic Stadium "The Big Day Out" and tomorrow is Australia Day, when Sydney is celebrating big style with free concerts and fireworks. Anyway our hostels of preference were all full - the one we're in is finding it difficult to equip all beds with linen... we're using a towel as a pillow case and have a double duvet cover, cos they've run out of singles... but hey we have beds. We're in bunk beds, but the upper bunks are so shuggly that we've opted to take the mattress off and put it on the floor.

We set off for a walk down the street to get our bearings, we're in a lovely inner city suburb with lots of old houses - art deco, art nouveau and turrety styles. One thing led to another and we walked right down to the inner harbour, then via a beautiful Chinese Garden of Friendship and Paddy's Market to Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. I haven't mentioned that Willy and I got a Chinese massage at Paddy's Market. I just got a very sedate seated neck and shoulders massage from a young oriental man: Willy lay on a massage table and a big lady pummelled him from neck to toe - and her hands seemed to be everywhere. (She certainly gave his gluteus maximus a good going over).

Wended our way back to the hostel via Darling Harbour, everywhere we went there were workmen putting up tents, portaloos, stages, testing sound systems etc. Sydney was getting ready to party!
Eventually made it back to the hostel, bit to owarm to be comfortable so showers all round and, after a pizza at the local Italian, to bed.

Friday - Australia Day! Woke to broken sunshine stopped off on walk into town for breakfast. By time we had eaten, the last of thr clouds had dispersed and it was full on sunshine. We walked into the city which was buzzing, everywhere you looked there were Australian flags - on t-shirts, or painted on faces, carried by everyone from babes in pushchairs to elderly couples. (even older than Willy). We walked through the city which was heaving, with several of the main streets closed to traffic, stages set up and bands playing in several locations across the city. We slowly wended our way towards the Botanic Gardens (the best viewpoint for the Opera House, the bridge and the harbour). The harbour was a mass of ships, and smaller craft all decked out with flags and bunting. There was some kind of sail past going on with all these boats (a firefighting ship with all hoses blazing (wrong word but you get the picture), replica 18th century sailing ships, several other sailing ships etc. By this time it was early afternoon and at 1 o'clock we were buzzed several times by a low flying tornado. I felt slightly strange and decided to seek shade under one of the various trees and promptly fell asleep. The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur.

That's because he had had far too much sun. Took him to a cafe where he had a triple strength ibuprofen, two glasses of water and a mug of coffee, before turning up his nose at a strawberry cheesecake, which under normal circumstances he'd devour with relish. We returned to the hostel for rest and re-hydration.

An hour or so later we set out again for our firework cruise around the harbour. The throng had become even greater, but we didn't see any evidence of over-indulgence in alcohol. We boarded our boat and set off from Darling Harbour right out under the bridge and past the Opera House, as the sun set. Unfortunately the boat wobbled so much that none of the photograhs of the bridge against the setting sun came out. By now the harbour was full of boats of all sizes, and as darkness fell, they all jostled for the best position to see the fireworks. A small boat zoomed up to us and a young man shouted "Happy Australia Day"up to us. Somewhat startled we realised he was wearing nothing: just waving an Australian flag. He was a fine figure of a man, but I didn't get my camera out fast enough to record the event for posterity.

The fireworks were good, but not as spectacular as the Edinburgh Fireworks at the end of the festival and possibly not as good as the Sydney New Year Fireworks three weeks ago.

The finale more than made up for this: a jet plane flew low across the harbour with a huge flame coming from its rear end. It was completely unexpected and we'd all packed our cameras up, so no pictures.

Once off the boat, we puched our way through the thronging masses and walked back to the hostel (we did about 10 miles on foot altogether that day), managed last orders at the carry out pizza place (the only place open: they really haven't got into late night eating here).

Next day, footsore and weary, we went back into town (by bus this time) and went to the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition. It was amazing: it'll be on in the UK too, probably now, so we'd really recommend you go and see it.

Then we went to the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney's most impressive shopping centre, which even Willy enjoyed (and we didn't go into any book or record shops).

We had a last meal together and off to bed, ready for the parting of the ways in the morning.
We're heading back to Katoomba to pick up the Beast and head South and Cara to the airport bound for Adelaide and Kangaroo Island.

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Photos

Turretted house in Glebe Point Rd
This house was just along the road from the hostel - a lovely location in the inner suburbs. (just a shame the hostel itself had the least considerate guests of any hostel we've stayed in in Australia)

Bats in the Botanics
These bats were absolutely huge and there were heaps of them. They flew around but we couldn't get a picture in flight

Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge
This was taken on Australia Day when the harbour was filled with dozens of boats

Magistic Catamaran
Magistic Catamaran - this was the boat we went on for the fireworks cruise that evening

Harbour Bridge - side on
This is the view we had of the harbour bridge from one of the side streets near the hostel.

Australia Day Cruise - on the quay
Willy and Cara on the boat before we'd left the quay. We all got too much sun that day and Cara has a patch of white underneath the St Christopher she's wearing

Australia Day Fireworks
It didn't really look like this - it was taken using the "firework" setting on my camera, and the result's impressive but not realistic!

Australia Day Fireworks - another

HBOS sign - Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia Day 2007.
As we returned to the quay, Cara pointed out this HBOS sign: it brought me right back to earth.

Queen Victoria Buidling
This is a lovely ornate shopping aracade in the centre of Sydney. It's 4 floors high and beautifully ornate in a Victorian civic pride kind of way

EDS mug.
Willy found this EDS mug in the hostel kitchen and couldn't resist using it for old times sake. (Actually it was one of the few that was clean!)