Sydney ☀️

Here's where the travel diary gets a bit, well, unwritten. I just went through my hitherto comprehensive notes and  - depressingly - the rest of the Australian section seems to consist of a list of expenses. Although I am annoyed to have to log into Facebook and try to piece together the memories by wading through ancient photo albums, the expense list pretty much says it all. And here I was, in the most expensive city in Australia.*

Fortunately, a good family friend, Joanne, and her now-fiancee Alex stepped in and let me stay at hers for most of the Sydney portion of the trip, which saved me hundreds of dollars that I could then spend on tat, and ice cream that contained actual pieces of pie, something I don't need a notebook to remember.

Famous Bondi beach

 So, here's what I remember doing. Sorry for the lazy bullet points but a narrative is somewhat lacking.

- Getting to über-hostel 'Wake Up!' at some ungodly hour at night and crawling into a mostly-empty dorm.
- By this point, I hadn't actually spoken to another human being for about 48 hours and was getting a bit sick of my own sparkling company, so checked out very early and went to get registered for Medicare so I could get free / cheap vaccinations for the SE Asia portion of the trip and speak to another human being. Yawn.
- Wandered the streets until I met Joanne during her lunch hour, wandered back to her flat in centrally-located and trendy Darlinghurst (yes I lucked out). She had a fantastic one bedroom maisonette with an outdoor terrace at the back, where we spent every evening eating BBQ and drinking red wine (it's a tough life).
- Spent a day walking some of the bays across to Bondi Beach, then sat in a shirt and shorts trying not to get sunburnt (sort of succeeded).

Really enjoyed this placard.

Beautiful Bondi

- Booked a tour to the Blue Mountains (so called because the eucalyptus oil released from the trees there mix with water vapour and sunlight to create a blue haze). There were several tour buses going from the same place and none of them were marked. I travelled a whole block with a group of Chinese tourists going to Port Stephens before I realised my mistake and was unceremoniously turfed off of the bus. I did make it to the Blue Mountains though:

On the edge of glory (or horrendously messy death)

- Took a tour round the Sydney Opera House. BEST TOUR EVER. What a building. Didn't think I would be that interested but the history about the building is fascinating. A must-do if you ever visit Sydney.
- Heard 'Gangnam Style' play out of every single shop / off-license / vaguely commercial enterprise.
- Went on the Sydney Monorail (closed in June 2013 so just got in there on time. Mmm... monorail).
- Went to the Pylon Lookout, part of the famous Harbour Bridge, from where you can see the beautiful harbour and Opera House. $11 compared to $200 cost of climbing the Harbour Bridge for the same-ish view.

View from the Pylon Lookout

- Visited a bloody great bar called Shady Pines and hung out with a very lovely ex-colleague of my Mum's - Jo Ley. We met up a couple of times for drinks, monkey nuts and many lols. Jo, if you're reading, hello!
- Wandered round the State Library of New South Wales - it's pretty.

The Reading Room - State Library of New South Wales

- Chowed down on some incredible Chinese food before jumping on the next overnight bus bound for Melbourne - another 12 hour extravaganza. At this point, I yearned for a smaller country to travel across... 🚌


*That I went to, anyway. It may well have changed since 2013...