First time in the fine city of Sydney since being here and it’s a really nice city. Lots of buildings from all sorts of eras scattered in what still feels like quite a spacious place. There are a lot of tall buildings but still large green areas like Hyde Park and the botanical gardens.
I looked at a few hostels just to price things up and after looking around the backpackers hotspot of Kings Cross (which isn’t far from Paddington) Mike, Sue and I went a little further north and I looked at a hostel in Woolloomooloo (I don’t remember that being a train station in London) which seemed like a decent place and, compared to the others I had looked at, much better value. So I’ll probably reserve a couple of weeks there on Tuesday after my RSA course.
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| Bondi Pavilion |
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| Is anybody else seeing this? |
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| Bondi Beach |
So after driving around, past Sydney Harbour (the bridge looks very impressive up close but I only caught a glimpse of the opera house) and Hyde Park as well as many other familiar names, (Essex Street anyone?) we made our way to Bondi Beach, the closest and more touristy beach near Sydney. Well I write ‘touristy’ but it is actually really nice, clean sand, blue skies, a giant inflatable whale, blue sea and no tacky neon lit arcades or noisy fruit machines to ruin it. It was a tad more expensive around there, but tourist spots usually are.
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| Watsons Bay |
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| Rainbow Lorikeet |
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| Sydney from Bluff Gap |
After some lunch we went further out of the city to Watsons Bay to a natural landmark, Bluff Gap, which is apparently a suicide hot spot. A few tropical looking birds around there (picture is of a Rainbow Lorikeet (thanks Google)) and from the top of the cliffs you can see Manly, yes that is actually a place, Port Jackson and in the distance the skyline of Sydney (complete with Harbour Bridge). It’s a great little spot that I probably wouldn’t have known about if it wasn't for my Auntie and Uncle. Then it was back to the suburbs on the other side of Sydney, a drive which featured a flock of cockatiels, plus one or two flying over the road. I thought the prawns were big but those cockatiels looked huge! Much bigger than that thing Timmy Mallet had!
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| Timmy Mallet: Small Cockatiel |
