Sydney - part deux

---

I'm now back in Sydney for the last time on the trip (if you don't count the dull 5 hour wait at the airport that's ahead of me when we fly to Singapore) as we leave for New Zealand tomorrow, so I thought I'd better put some time into the blog before I leave.

Arriving back in Sydney, we decided to check back in to Footprints as it was hassle free. The three main things that we had to do before we left for Fiji were to visit Manly, visit the Blue Mountains, and see the Opera House and Bridge.

Circular Quay brough back memories of seeing the Fireworks over the bridge just over 2 years ago, bringing in 2005. Whilst, at first glance, I didn't really rate the Opera House before, the views of it and the bridge whilst on the Manly ferry are sensational, especially with the sun coming down over the city. Manly was just as I'd remembered it, although a bit quieter at this time of year. With only a few hours there, we chilled on the beach for a bit, took a short walk along the coast and browsed some of Manly's many expensive shops before heading back to the city.

Randomly, one day we ended up in Sydney's museum of Contemporary Art, mainly because it was free, and starting to rain. This place was a bit strange, and clearly the artists' idea of what could be defined as art differed immensely to any of ours. Still, we felt we needed a bit of a culture boost and continued through the gallery eventually arriving at a room where we were told to take part in drawing "breath". After some convincing we sat down and Will drew some lungs, dan drew a tree, and although I wanted to leave my paper blank, as this would not highlight my apalling drawing skills and also give the truest representation of "breath", I drew someone giving someone else mouth to mouth, with an ambulance, a heart moniter and those electric shock jobbies thrown in for good measure. Needless to say Will's and Dan's drawings were good, and mine was shit. I don't think I'm ever going to a gallery with Dan again in my life. Not only did he go up to the first painting we saw and start scratching it and getting told off by the guard, he later walked across one of the exhibits, thinking that it was part of the floor. Luckilly noone else saw and we weren't forcefully ejected from the museum. We made it to the top floor without further harassment where we saw the supposed highlight of the exhibition, Steven Birch's work. This consisted of a full scale model of spiderman staring at some kind of troll growing out of the wall and Osama Bin Laden, naked, with a big willy. Dan was told to take his backpack off his back in case he knocked into the models (the guards must have been warning each other he was coming) and we managed to escape a 30 minute talk on how to appreciate Stephen Birch's art by running to the lift when the woman who was giving the talk started to approach us.

For Will's birthday, we decided to treat ourselves to a meal at a restaurant on George St. in the Rocks called "Phillip's Foote" where I had eaten twice before with my family. Basically, you pay 26 bucks and you can choose your meat, which you then cook yourself on the BBQ. Salad, potatoes and veg. are then served buffet style. The variety and quality of the cuts of meat they have there are sensational, I had a mexican marinated rump, Will and Dan had a Fillet, and Nick, whom we met in Surfer's Paradise, had a T-Bone. We all agreed that this was some of the best steaks we had ever tasted, and I got a pat on the back for recommending it to the lads. We then met up with a few other people from the hostel, and headed to the gaff (cheesier and in a worse state than Winkers).

The Sydney Tower is the tallest building in Sydney, and when you buy a ticket to go up to the observation deck, you have to buy an Oztrek ticket too. Whist the tower provides spectacular views of the city (you can actually see the people doing the bridge climb (rip off) ) the Oztrek thing is a pile of poo and I wouldn't go back there for free. It's basically an apallingly bad and annoying wanabe Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios.

Will had already been to the Blue Mountains and Dan couldn't afford the trip so I booked on a day trip to see them on my own. The mountains are a blue colour during the day because of the vapour given off by the eucalyptus trees that grow in the region. When i came to Oz before, I was a bit hungover when my parents went to see them so had to do it this time around, and I wasn't disappointed.

The mountains are really impressive and such a contrast to the bustling city next door. They have been referred to as Australia's Grand Canyon with its deep gorges, steep cliffsand spectacular lookouts, it's not hard to see why. The mountains are also home to the famous 'Three Sisters' rock formation, which, according to Aboriginal legend, formed when 2 witchdoctors, one with 3 sons, and another with three daughters had a disagreement.

We stopped for morning tea on the Nepean River, a tranquil western boundary of Sydney. We took a skyrail down into the valley and then took the steepest railway in the world (53 degree incline!) back up. I had lunch in a small village called Leura, which was very picturesque and peaceful.

After lunch we stopped off at Wentworth falls, which is a spectacular waterfall with the mountains in the background. We then headed back to the city, first stopping to view some wild kangaroos and kookaburras and then passing through Homebush Bay, home of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This Olympic park is absolutely huge, and very impressive. Huge solar panels on the sides of the stadiums and buildings provide most of the power needed and the sports grounds are huge. It's a real eye opener about just how much work will have to go into the 2012 games back home!

From the Olympic park, we then caught a ferry back to Circular Quay along the Parramatta river, with an impressive sunset over the city.

Other highlights of the second visit to Sydney included a random night out after seeing a Bonjovi tribute band (Dan's favourite band) and getting stuck in a lift at the hostel for an hour because Nick decided to jump up and down in it. we all had to bust out of the lift 'Speed' style. Thankfully noone was hurt.

Another early start was made to the airport where we flew to Nadi, for the next step of our adventure to Fiji.

---