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We arrived in a rainy Sydney a week ago and found a dorm in the very modern and funky "Railway Square YHA" near Central station which used to be the stations's "Inward Parcels Shed" and shares some of the platform with the railway company. They've got two railway carriages converted into dorms but we were staying in the main building.
On our first morning, we took a train to Circular Quay where we got our first views of the harbour bridge and opera house. As the weather wasn't too good (overcast and threatening rain) we went into the opera house and bought tickets for the forthcoming "Finn Brothers" concert (I thought we'd left them behiind in NZ but there you go).
With Thursday came the threatened rain and it was serious. We spent all day in the hostel catching up on some reading and watching the deluge. We're not sure if it made the news in the UK but northern New South Wales (which is suffering a serious drought) saw flashflooding right up into Southern Queensland...there were even young kids on the news who had never seen rain before. We ended the day partaking in an Aussie snag sizzle (on the front steps of the hostel in the rain).
Luckily, the sun came back on Friday. We walked from Circular Quay, through the Botanical Gardens, around a headland and back up into the city. In the gardens we were delighted to see our first wild Kookaburra (a pair) but even these native birds were eclipsed by the huge colonies of Flying Foxes (Grey-headed fruit bats) nesting in the palm trees. Cute as they are, these orange-furred critters are causing a lot of damage to the trees in the botanical garden and are apparently (according to a notice) being discouraged from nesting using "non-harmful means". We even saw a cork-hatted park keeper attempting to look bat-unfriendly, wagging his finger angrily and saying "shoo"...
Despite the last sentence being a fabrication, that evening we met up with Neil and Lisa (friends from home now living and working in Sydney for those who don't know) and spent a top night at the Hard Rock cafe, although we had to leave and go to an Irish pub (called Scruffy Murphy's) in order to find any half-decent live music and some well-decent beer (Toohey's New).
On Saturday, we explored Darling Harbour and the Maritime Museum before meeting up again for the rugby at the "Harlequin" pub (don't worry, Lions'll win the third test and go out with a blaze of glory) followed by drinks and a Thai meal in Pyrmont.
On Sunday, we were treated to an impromtu tour of the eatern suburbs, taking in Bondi Beach, Gap Bluff and Watson's Bay for traditional fish'n'chips sunday lunch on the beach looking back over the harbour to the city. Neil dropped took us back via the infamous King's Cross area (although we didn't stop). Unfortunately that will be the last we see of them until we come back to Sydney for the concert - during the week they have to do something called "WORK"? We're not sure what this is but it doesn't sound like much fun.
By monday morning we were pretty tired after staying up to watch highlights of Live8 (Pink Floyd rule or what) and then the live Wimbledon final and accordingly didn't do very much except take some Snickers bars back to supermarket for a refund (there've been anonymous contamination threats) and go for a long walk in the evening around the Central Business District.
On tuesday, we went to The Rocks where the city's first settlement was established.
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