Big holiday - post 3

Day 3 (Wed 17 Oct) - Arrival in Sydney schmoozing around town

Slept well on the plane (by my standards) and turned up in Sydney at the same time as my dad's girlf Kelly who flew in from Brisbane to meet me and her Sydney based college friend Mandy, whose birthday it was the week before. Then I had another action packed day of thrills and spills thanks thanks to Kelly. The power of local knowledge really really shouldn't be underestimated - thanks HSBC.

Sydney's Port Jackson bay by night.

Sydney Center Point Tower

Me and Kelly went up this thing (2/3ds to the left in the above pic), which is the tallest tower in Sydney and is around the same height as the Eiffel Tower. Anyway, you could see everything from up the top - and the views really were spectacular. You realise when you're up there, firstly, just how big and sprawling the Sydney area is (4.5m people, but are things are much more spread out than Tokyo) and also how modern the buildings are. Sydney is filled with shiny mirrored skyscrapers and nice new buildings generally. The oldest thing here is only 200 years - but the vast majority of things seem to have been put up in the last few decades.

Center Point from a different angle.

Sydney Opera House Tour

We continued the touristy stuff with a tour of the Opera House (which you may have heard of). Saw the two main halls inside - the opera theatre and the philharmonic hall. The latter was incredibly impressive. It was build purely for the sound to travel well - e.g. it has no protruding screws in the floorboards as they would have damaged acoustics. The resulting acoustics are amazing. One day, FWA will play an acoustic concert at this venue and it will be the greatest thing since sliced Tasmanian Devil.

Sydney Harbour Bridge climb

Kelly and dad treated me to a climb up the Harbour Bridge. We had a breath test (which I passed you cheeky b*%$^&s), got kitted up and then headed off up the bridge. Getting up to the summit and down took a few hours but was well worth it. It's not every day that you get to scale something like that. Again, views were to die for. Bit windy up top though. My hair was ruined. Can you see me waving at the top of the bridge?

Day 4 (Thurs 18 Oct) - Walking around Sydney's Port Jackson Bay

Me, Kelly and Mandy set off early in order to do a famous walk from somewhere called Spit Bridge (named, I understand, after Bob Carolgees's dog) to Manley (named, I understand, after Amelie Mauresmo). We got to the start and were huffing and puffing as the walk was closed as they were refurbing some of the bridges. We were a bit gutted as it was a perfect day and we'd made some effort to get there, then this lady who we were whinging to said 'hey, I'll drive you to another good walk'. We walked over to her house and she drove us to its start. Her house was shockingly class. From what was in there, I think her hubby is a successful pro golfer. Will have a sniff round t'internet at some point as see if I can work out who it is. Anyway, she was lovely and made our day - thanks random woman. The people of Sydney are really friendly to randoms generally by the way. Loads of people started chatting to us. Compare and contrast Central London.

The new walk went past somewhere called Chowder Bay and included some completely amazing views of the 'other' side of the Harbour Bridge (i.e. not the Opera house end) and also some great views of Port Jackson and the city. We ended up at the entrance to Taronga Zoo (don't you just love Ausisie names?) and hopped on the boat over to get over by the Opera house. A truly class few hours.

I then headed off on my own to Bondi Beach as I thought I had to see it as it was so close. I'm actually sitting here typing this right now. Is as gorgoes as everyone says. Right - I'm off on another walk. See you later, alligators.

A picture taken 100m away from where I'm currently
sitting. Literally, fine scenes.