Sydney, Australia

January 19th - January 24th 2012

After driving to the Top Tourist Park closest to the city we decided to try Lane Cove Tourist Park in North Ryde as it had much better transport links to the city and was surprisingly affordable too. We parked up and walked the 20 minutes to the subway station where we purchased a transport pass for $51 each for a week. It allows access on buses, trains and boats in the Sydney area. We got the train to the city and decided to get off at Milsons Point so that we could walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The views were spectacular and we got our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House. Once on the other side we explored The Rocks and went to the free Rocks Discovery museum which was well laid out and informative.

Sydney Opera House

We left the Rocks and walked to Circular Quay to the Sydney Opera House for a close up look. The white tiles glistened in the sun and we sat and people watched on the steps whilst nibbling on some biscuits. We then went for a walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens and had a peek in the grounds of Government House just before closing time. We walked back to Circular Quay and had a look at Customs House which has a model of Sydney under its glass floor in the lobby. Upon exiting some strangers asked to have a photo with us for a work challenge that they were doing and we gladly obliged. We had our first ice cream in Australia from Hungry Jacks and caught the train home.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

The following day we caught the train to Circular Quay and walked to the Museum of Contemporary Art which was undergoing extensive renovation so we didn't get to see the usual work on display. Instead we saw an amazing interactive exhibition by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer called Recorders. The exhibition contained pieces which needed complete audience participation to work including a piece where you hold on to a metal bar and it records your pulse rate, a light bulb in front of you then mimics your pulse rate by flashing in time to it, when the next person has a turn, your light moves to another bulb and so on and so forth. the room must of had hundreds of bulbs in it all pulsating at different rates.

View to the bridge

After the art gallery we walked through Argle Cut to Argle Place and the Garrison Church. We then walked up the hill and sat on a little bench eating apples with an amazing view over The Rocks and the Harbour Bridge. We went in to the Sydney Observatory and walked around the free museum which houses a giant telescope and space memorabilia. We had lunch on the green and walked to Circular Quay where we caught a ferry to Manly. From the ferry we caught some lovely views of the harbour and bridge. Once at Manly we went for a walk on the ferry terminal side of Manly in the hot sun before walking through the town and grabbing some chips for dinner to eat overlooking Manly beach. A seagull stole one chip right out of my hand which I wasn't impressed with! After our dinner we caught the ferry back to Sydney and made our way home to North Ryde.

Boats in Manly

The next day the rain scuppered our plans as it was really coming down. We relaxed in the camper for the morning and once the rain had passed we went in to the city. We walked through Paddington to the Saturday Paddington Market which was full of lots of arts and crafts, clothes and food as well as Bonsai trees. We wandered around and then caught the bus to the Queen Victoria Building which we walked through as well as the historic Strand Arcade. We had the sandwiches that we had made for tea and then went on the internet which was only $5 for five hours, a real bargain. We called home using Skype and I had a good two hour chat with mum as we hadn't spoken in what felt like ages. I also managed to write two blogs and once we had caught up on everything from home we caught the train back to the camper, it was pretty late by this time so we went straight to bed.

Paddington Market

The next day we wandered through Chinatown which made us reminisce about the start of our travels nearly five months ago. It feels like a long time since we were in Beijing now, we've seen and done so much since then. We then went to Darling Harbour and watched a street performer who was pretty good before walking on to the boats in the harbour. We strolled to the other side of the harbour where we had our lunch and then walked to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It's a very impressive building which houses a large collection of paintings and sculpture including Aboriginal art and Torres Strait Islander art. There was a special exhibition on Picasso happening and we watched a video of Picasso drawing on glass which was fascinating. I found the gallery to be very inspiring as it covered so many styles and artists. After the gallery we sat in the park in peace before walking to the tube stop.

Darling Harbour

Cy Twombly in the Art Gallery of New South Wales

The following day we got off the train at Milsons Point and walked down to Luna Park where we walked through the carnival to Lavender Bay. Lavender Bay provided some lovely views out to the harbour bridge so we took some photos before making our way back to the subway to catch a train to Circular Quay. We then caught the bus to Bondi which took us through Paddington. It was a bright sunny day and we walked along the beach front to the far end where the waves crashed in to the rocks. We climbed to a little viewpoint and people watched for a while before catching the bus back in to the city where we explored Kings Cross. We watched from a bench as loads of birds of all varieties gathered around a particular spot, a man then appeared on a bicycle and proceeded to throw bits of mince meat at the birds. We watched and when he went he advised us to go and buy meat for the birds as they love it, very odd but the birds were very happy. We then went to Newtown where we met our friends from our Stray Asia trip through Laos, Owen and Bianca. We went for Thai food and caught up on everything since we had last seen each other on Halloween in Thailand. We went back to Owen and Bianca's apartment where we watched Men Behaving Badly and enjoyed a comfy mattress for the night, the first night away from our camper for over six weeks!

Lavender Bay

The next morning we said our goodbyes and rushed back to our campsite as we were supposed to be out of the place by 10 am. We were a little late but no one seemed to notice. Our camper then refused to start as the battery must have been drained because we hadn't started it in a few days, oops! We got some jumper leads and a friendly guy from the park helped us use them and we got going. We had  a brilliant time in Sydney and only wish that we had a bit more cash to splash on activities like climbing the Harbour Bridge which I did on a trip to Australia with family five years ago, something that I wish Craig could have experienced too.