After finally finding a hostel in Sydney, where we had to take a private room for the first night (our only non-dorm since Indonesia) we decided to make the most of it so ordered a big pizza and a couple of bottles of wine to watch tv with.
On our first full day in Sydney it was back to the dorms and we were desperate to see the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the baking 37oc heat. En route we were distracted by the famous Harry's Cafe De Wheels which specialises in pies and hot dogs. There are pictures of everyone from Pamela Anderson and Kevin Costner to Elton John and cast members of 'The Bill' enjoying the food. The pies came with a circle of mash and mushy peas on top of them with gravy in the middle. It was amazing!
As we trying to walk off the pies we saw the Opera House and Bridge coming into view out of the trees. It was breathtaking and felt really surreal. After some pictures from across the water we walked to the Opera House and really couldn't resist buying tickets to see Eddie Izzard there that night. Both of us have always wanted to see him and to do so in such a venue was too tempting.
Before heading back to the hostel we wandered around Circular Quay and The Rocks, the latter being full of nice little shops.
When we arrived at the Opera House later that night we stood on the balcony in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge where the sun was setting spectacularly with a Peroni. It was one of those moments. Eddie was brilliant and well worth the fact that we haven't been able to afford to eat all week-I jest.
Our second day was all about discovering the next most famous thing in our minds about Sydney-Bondi Beach. Our bus breaking down seemed to be a happy fate to lead us to the biggest, freshest, most delicious jam donuts in the world! We sat on the grass overlooking the beach eating our salad for lunch and then this massive donut which seemed slightly ironic! We've seen some stunning tropical beaches in Asia but Bondi has it's own character and the high rise flats around it only add to the beauty of the cove rather than take away from it. We got in a few hours of sunbathing before walking along the cliffs to see a number of sculptures on display (including zebra's, a giant set of taps and a skeleton conductor up a ladder) before heading home.
After doing so much on our first days in Sydney, we have been pretty rubbish for the past two days apart from another Harry's pie. I've been full of a cold thanks to how cold our camping and car sleeping was last week and we've not really caught up on our sleep-dorms aren't really the place for that! But mostly it's been raining and we've been trying to plan our lives for our last couple of weeks in Oz! After much internet searching we went into a travel agents yesterday and booked a package for the majority of our time in Fiji, a campervan for 15 days to head up to Cairns and a 3 day trip to Fraser Island along the way.
Although we won't be using the van for 2 days of our trip to Fraser Island, it was cheaper to just have it for the full time rather than drop it off and pick up a new van. Fraser Island is one of the things we've most wanted to do in Oz, it's the largest sand island in the world but strangely enough has rainforest growing out of it. It's quite famous for the dingo's there which are the wildest you'll find-in 2002 one killed a baby. But the biggest appeal for me is not the rainforest, saltwater lakes or wild dolphins that you're supposed to be able to feed?! It's getting to drive a 4x4 over the sand dunes! We're on a guided tour but it's supposed to be a bit more casual.
The only thing we need to book is a trip to the Whitsunday islands, maybe just 1 night as we're really short on time for the distance we're covering (just over 2000km I think) and we don't want to not use the camper too much.
The van itself is from a company called 'Spaceships'. They're not so much a van but more of a people carrier that has a fridge (meat and cheese, yay!) and even a TV and DVD player in there. I'm really excited for it and we can both drive again.
Today started off with more drizzle and we headed over to the Friday market in the Rocks area before walking over the Harbour Bridge. After some photos from across the water we got the ferry back over which was fun and we're currently sat in the Botanical Gardens in the welcome sunshine. The gardens have been a favourite of ours since being in Sydney. They're right near our hostel, are very pretty and are full of lots of birds and massive fruit bats. Tonight the Rocks market gets more lively with music, a silent disco and more stalls. I think we'll treat ourselves to a beer on our final night here.
Tomorrow we'll be back on the road and hopefully along the way we'll see my good friend Simon who was in my class at Uni who is now married to an Aussie girl and lives here, our new friends Rex and Lisa from our last road trip and Hollie from Uni and her boyfriend Sam, who we last saw in Asia and are now working here. I'm really excited!