Goodbye Sydney

The rest of the time in Sydney can be more easily written in a single post.

Saturday we had wanted to see the Blue Mountains but as there was some work being done the route was made rather confusing. We had also slept in too late to be able to see much. Instead we caught a ferry to Manly which is a rather pleasant ride away. Manly is very touristy and we browsed through an Aboriginal art shop and then headed to the beach with our packed lunch and some books. There is a nice walking path with many benches one can sit and enjoy the view from. After a relaxed afternoon we jumped back on the ferry and met my cousin for dinner. We enjoyed a delicious dinner before running to the station to meet Eric, who would be joining Nya for the rest of her trip. Even later that evening we caught a bus and went to Bondi beach which was deserted during the night. I had been told to go see the beach, but unfortunately during the night it is rather dead and it was the only time we made it out this way. We met up with the Patisserie working Swedish girl and gave her some Swedish cookies we had found at IKEA by way of thanks.

See you later famous landmarks!

Taken from the walkway at Manly

The next day we took Eric on a quick tour of the city. We had a huge lunch at Chinatown for a reasonable price, and then went on to the Sydney Aquarium which is located near Darling Harbour (the red square above the bridge in the last post). The Aquarium was pretty cool and we all saw a platypus for the first time as well as a Dugong!

Whoa! Now that's a BIG fish!

The clearest photo of the platypus

The Dugong

The next and last day I ventured far away to some place inland to drop off my friends bag I had agreed to take for her. The trip? Long and boring! However I did notice that a huge number of Australians had solar paneling. Not only for their hot water (which is the only way it is now sold) but additional panels as well! "Good on ya" I would like to say...and why can't we see more at home?!!

After getting back a couple hours later, we took our packed lunches to the Royal Botanical Gardens. First we mosied around the governor's house and well manicured lawns (square below Opera House) before venturing to the garden's tip named Mrs Macquarie's Chair (other square in the park). From here, great views of the Opera House with the Bridge in the background can be seen! The gardens were very pretty to wander around and walking to the point took no time at all.

Governor's House

The back gardens

From Mrs Macquarie's Chair

Eventually it was time to say goodbye. Bye to Sydney and bye to the last of my international friends. As we took the train to the airport, (this time only $10) we were getting off at different stations and a goodbye on a crowded train is rather awkward and not recommended! Then I was by myself again finding out they had cancelled my flight to Brisbane but luckily I was put on another flight an hour later. At least I hadn't booked with Tiger!

Other hints and tips about Sydney:

• I've already mentioned the free buses that one should take advantage of. Bus #555 loops around the CBD but there is also another bus, bus #430 that does a loop from Kogarah...wherever that is.
• Too see this --> awesome miniture of Sydney, head into a building across from the Train Station at the Circular Quay on the Opera House side. You can't miss it as it takes up the main portion of the floor in the middle of this building.
• For those students travelling interstate unfortunately you don't qualify for the concession rate because the NSW school board or something helps fund the transportation costs...so even though you're a student you have to pay the adult rate. (Although we may have succeeded in the concession price for some train tickets as they were bought at machine.....)
• I would not plan on a week in Sydney...as mentioned we did just about everything in the first full day. Four days is just about perfect, our schedule was a bit off due to us needing to meet up with Eric and then redoing some things we had already seen so he would still get a good experience.
• One thing we wanted to do was see something at the Opera house! And no, it would not have been outrageously expensive. On the website look for shows with concession or under 30 rates...this means if you can prove you're in school or under 30 years old, for some shows you may qualify to buy greatly discounted tickets around $30! Not bad at all!  Unfortunately for us, none of the shows really worked into our complicated schedule.
• Be warned that many of the buses require you to prepay for your ticket. This is rather annoying as you can't just jump on a bus for a spur of the moment type trip.
• For fantastic views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge...take the elevator outside the Circular Quay Train Station and you'll arrive on the overpass high above the crowds below.
• I was also told to look for Adventure Travel Bugs at Kings Cross. They have free membership and apparently have great tours and you can go in and use their internet for free. Since we didn't end up having time to do any tours, nor did we need their internet I never bothered looking for it.
• For those wanting to cross the Harbour Bridge...you can walk across using the pedestrian foot path without doing the climb. I was curious as to what was so exciting about the bridge as it's not really much to look at. According to Wikipedia  it's the world's widest long-span bridge.
• Sadly the Opera House is not lit up in cool lights every night like seen in photos ...in fact it is a bit of a let-down when viewed at night. If any Opera employees or government officials read this, I would like to officially suggest turning on a few spot lights, even if for just a few hours. Thanks.