Sydney: The city that has it all!

After being in South East Asia for so long it felt like robbery, everything seemed so expensive here!

It was early evening when we got to Sydney and although it was spring time, we expected it to be fairly warm, but how wrong we were. It was freezing!!! We quickly grabbed our jeans and hoodies which had been stuffed at the bottom of our rucksacks and actually used them for the first time. For some reason we always thought Australia is warm all year round but in fact is only really hot during their summer time December to Feb/March especially in NSW and Victoria.

First few nights in Sydney we were staying at our friends Si and Anya's flat in Bondi. We dropped off the bags and went straight to Bondi to some bars. Again after spending so long in SE Asia, it was a bit of a culture shock being in a loud bar with drunks shouting, pushing and shoving and spilling drinks!.

It was so strange to be back in a Western civilisation with no hassling tauts, no humidity or street food and markets. (Although as annoying as all the tauts can be sometimes we started missing Asia and all the cheap stuff after few days).

Next day we did the coastal walk from Bondi beach to Tamarama. Bondi was completely different to what we had imagined. I guess we thought it was going to be like Miami (a long stretch of golden sand with skyscrapers behind). In reality it was very different, a lot like Newquay fifteen years ago before the chavs ruined it. The coastal walk was really good with some impressive coastline and cliffs. Randomly along the path there were free gym equipment like push up bars etc.

We had been in Sydney a few days now and not seen the famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House so the next day we headed down town. Our first stop was Circular Quay and as we came out the station, ahead of us in the distance was the famous Sydney Opera House. It feels quite strange when you see such well known points of interest, because you've seen them so many times on TV and suddenly...you're there! It looked slightly smaller in real life but was still impressive, sat there on the waters edge. To the left was the huge Harbour Bridge. We then went across to Darling Harbour, which was lined with modern bars, restaurants, huge hotels and posh looking boats.

Another day the four of us went for a walk around the Watson Bay which was another impressive scenery, later we also met with two of our other friends Conner and Caroline who were on their honeymoon and had a good old fish and chips, the Aussie way. Unfortunately they hadn't quite mastered how to do it right...(soggy batter and no malt vinegar).

To walk off the fish and chips we did the coastal walk around the bay. On the way we passed some interesting seculded beaches, one of which was named lady bay. It should have been named ladyboy beach as to our horror when we looked down, there was lots of old naked men all standing there with there bits on show. It was weird because they all seemed to like standing facing the walkway above, as if proud to be showing their dangly bits. Naked men aside, the view over the bay of the Sydney skyline was awesome.

After walking up a thirst, we decided to catch the ferry to the city and went to a 52nd floor revolving bar and bought a very expensive beer (a night before our visit here was cut short because we were wearing thongs and shorts. Aussies call flip-flops thongs!). We were quickly escorted out! The view of the city by night was excellent though. Later on we went to the Rocks, which is the oldest part of the city and went for a big Aussie steak.

After Bondi we spent few more days in the Kings Cross area of Sydney which was much more of a backpacker place and things like food and alcohol was tiny bit cheaper. Kings Cross was full of bars, hostels and many strip clubs!

Next morning we jumped on the ferry to Manly which is a little seaside town thirty minute ferry ride from Sydney. We did the quite long walk around the coastal point which I think its 10km and saw some interesting large lizards chilling by the waters edge and attempted to spot the penguin colonly living on one of the beaches. Later we were so hungry so got another big fish n chips, but had to take cover from the crazy seagulls.

Back in Sydney, that evening we walked over the Harbour Bridge, to get even better views of the city and as the sun set the Sydney skyline lit up in the distance and of course the Opera House which looked even prettier in the night.

Next day we headed for Kootomba, a little mountain town and the best jumping off point for the Blue Mountains. Kootomba looked like it had been frozen in time in the 1970's. Lots of retro looking clothes shops and cafe's with an aging population. The Blue Mountains however were a lot more impressive. The walk along the cliffs edge from the funicular railway to the three sisters rocks was amazing. In the distance you could see for miles and because of the haze in the air, things looked slightly blue. Swooping above the jungle below were noisy parakeets, and in the cliffs next to the path we kept seeing black and red parrots munching.

Apart from some amazing Australian birds, we hadn't seen the other famous animals so we paid Featherdale park a visit. It was definitely worth a visit. We came up close with Ostrich, wallaby's, kangaroos, random farm animals and of course Koala's. In NSW its against the law to cuddle them though, much to Ari's disappointment.