Thursday 13th March

We got up to make the most of the free breakfast and then we were pleased that we were checking out and moving into the other hostel we have booked into. We checked in and were happy with the room as we were given the double bed bunk!! There were enough room to walk about and of course for our bags! After quick look around and discussing what we should be doing today. We planned to walk around Sydney and see where we would end up to!

First we started to walk towards the Harbour Bridge to see how far it would take us to walk so we can prepare to be on time for our Bridge Climb on the 17th. On our way, we saw the big Navy Ships and few of sailors walking about. We walked around the harbour which leaded to Royal Botanic Gardens. We noticed plenty of joggers running about, it made us feel that we are so lazy! We didn't browse around the Gardens, instead we went straight towards the Opera House. From our hostel to the Opera house, it took us at least 1 hour. However we took the scenic route to get there so we don't know if there are shortcuts just yet! After taking photos of Opera House and Harbour Bridge, we decided to see how much it would take to go on the sightseeing cruise. We decided to do it on another time, preferably in the morning. After taking in all the views by sitting and admiring at it for a while, we moved on and walked towards the Harbour Bridge this time.

After finding the Bridge Climb Office, we now know where to go for our check in, we decided to take the public stairs to walk across the bridge for the lookout. We knew that we would be unable to take photos when we do the bridge climb so we thought it would be a good idea to go to the look out to take photos of the views. As we approached to the bridge, the views from there were lovely and we already spotted the people doing the climb. It got us looking forward to ours!

When we reached to the Pylon Lookout, we were able to climb up the Pylon Tower to get the similar views that you would get from the top of the bridge. However we had to pay the admission fee but we knew it would be worth it for the photos! Also we thought it would be better to have a lookout there instead of going to Sky Tower which we felt it was bit too far out for the good photos. They also had history on the harbour bridge which was quite interesting. In fact, it took 7 years to build the bridge!! 16 workers died from building the bridge due to no safetly back then and 1 survived from the fall into the water!

We were exhausted by the end of the day and decided to walk back. We knew it was going to be a very long walk but unfortunately we made mistakes. After looking at the map, we thought it would be quicker to cut through the streets instead of walking around the harbour as we did in the morning. How wrong we were, it took longer than expected!! It probably was a good thing that we did walk in the different direction cos we finally found plenty of shops! We were pleased to see our hostel in the distance cos it was a very long walk back. So we decided that it might be a worthwhile to get the rail pass to get to places and see more things quickly (If its good price to purchase)

After making a quick tea for us, we had a shower and relaxed in our room. We also discussed what we will be doing for the next few days.