The weather didn't look too great in the morning, and it rained a fair bit so I was a bit miserable about the day. However, the rain did ease off and so I decided to head out for the Harbour Bridge walk. Luckily the rain held off and so it ended up being quite a nice sunny afternoon so it was great for a wander about.

I took the train to Milson's Point which is the other end of the bridge to the harbour side, and walked across the coathanger. Saw a few people climbing the Bridge as well, which was interesting. I'm sure you'd get amazing views from it, but as you're not allowed to take your camera, have to wear a protective suit, and your glasses have to be attached to you by a special cord (this is all from my guidebook) I thought I was better off walking across. Also, paying a couple hundred dollars to climb the Bridge is $$ that I could do well with saving!
You do get good views from the side of the Bridge too, with the added bonus of not being scared you'll fall off, or being attached to other people!

I came across the Pylon lookout after a little while and so I thought I'd have a wander up it. It only cost $9.50 after all, and I had seen other people up the top of the Pylon on my way over and it did look quite cool. You also got to learn about the Bridge up at the top, as there's this little information bit saying how much it cost to build (10,057,170 pounds, 7 shillings and 9 pence) and that sort of thing. Yes folks - the Bridge was built by a British company! Shame people wouldn't go to a British company now to get anything like it built....
It was a great view from the top of the pylon and you could see lots of people walking up the Bridge too. It looked like a pretty steep climb (though I could see lots of steps) and I was actually really glad that I'd chosen not to do it.

I kind of wondered what to do with myself afterwards but then decided that I should go to see 'The Alchemist' play by Ben Jonson that was on at the Opera House. I had been meaning to see it, so today seemed like the perfect opportunity. Tickets were $50 (plus a $5 booking fee - what that covers I have no idea! seeing as I went to the Box Office itself and I'm sure it doesn't cost $5 to print the ticket on a small piece of cardboard) for concession. Nice lady at the desk said that even though she couldn't see a discount for an International Student card, she'd give me the discount anyways. Normal price tickets were $60, so it's not that big a deal to them, but worth something to me :D
So, I had four hours to kill between buying my ticket and the play starting so I went for a wander around the botanical gardens. They start at the foot of the Opera House, and seeing as the weather had definitely cheered up, I thought I may as well take my opportunity and go! The weather might go all rubbish tomorrow after all. The gardens are actually pretty big and also very nice. They've got lots of bats resident there, and you can hear them chirping away as you walk through. Apparently they live here in the gardens, but some of them go out to Rose Bay to get dinner. Margaret and I saw some of them flying about last week, and you can hear them during the night too. Cockatoos and bats make all sorts of noise around Rose Bay - I won't miss that racket when I move on on Monday! The cockatoos particularly don't seem to know when to be quiet as they make noise all the time! Sleeping with the window open at night is not a good idea if you don't want to get woken up by them!

In any case, the play was brilliant. A real mix of traditional Shakespearean type language and then more up to date characters, costumes, and setting. Dol Common was based on Amy Winehouse and was excellent! She even had the beehive hair do and overdone black eye make up. It was a really good play so I'm definitely glad I went. It also cheered me up as I started to feel homesick today. It kind of clonked me on the head earlier today as I was on the train and I was comparing it to tube trains at home. Subway trains here are quite good actually as they're double decker type things, but actually have three levels. They step the seats inside so you get a ground level bit as you get on, with a few seats and some standing room. Then you get an upstairs bit and a downstairs bit. It's really quite clever. The seats are also able to swivel back and forth so you can change their position to suit you if you want them to face forwards instead of back.

Anyways, yes, I was feeling a bit homesick and so the play cheered me up. I think that as I've actually stayed in Sydney for a little while, it feels like I'm settled here a bit. It helps that Margaret has a nice flat too, that I have my own little room, and that I can come and go really easily and without any hassle.
Oh well, I guess I only have a month to go before I get home and it will be pretty hectic once I leave Sydney too.

I've decided to spend a couple of nights in Coffs Harbour, then three nights in Byron Bay. After Byron Bay I head off to Brisbane, reaching there on the evening of the 11th. I'll be staying at Marion's house, who is a friend of another friend, and will be celebrating my birthday there. Hopefully I'll also meet up with Kelly - another friend of a friend - too and we can go out together. I haven't experienced much nightlife at all whilst I've been away, so it will be nice to go out at least one night and especially for my birthday!
After Brisbane, I hope to go to Fraser Island and will hopefully book a 3-day tour, and then I hope to get to Magnetic Island, and then I'll head off to Cairns. Should be in Cairns for about the 22nd or so, which means I've got plenty of time to do stuff before I fly out to Tokyo on the 1st of May. There are a couple of day trips to places around Cairns that I'd like to do, as well as the 5-day scuba diving course that I want to do if I get on with scuba diving that is!
I also want to have a bit of time to relax before heading off to manic Tokyo! It turns out that I'm staying in a place called Kamata which is a place that Margaret has been to as well. She's been to Tokyo a couple of times and so has helped me fear it less! She says it's not quite as manic as everyone makes out, and there are signs in English too. People are really helpful and so I shouldn't have any problems getting about on the train with my suitcase and all that sort of stuff.
I was worried that I was staying really far from the airport, but she also said that everywhere is far from the airport! Good, because when I saw that I was about 80km away, I had a bit of a panic! It'll take ages to get back and forth, but if everyone is in the same boat then it's not something I can really do anything about - yay!

Plan for tomorrow, as the weather is meant to be good, is to walk from Bondi beach to Coogee. Meant to be a nice walk, as well as Coogee being a nice beach, so I just hope the weather does hold up tomorrow! I don't mind if it's not too sunny, as long as it just doesn't rain!