Sydney

It's the eve of our departure from Sydney as we start our Oz Experience coach tour tommorrow at 6am! I've had so much fun over the past few days and the weather has been amazing. We took the overnight Greyhound from Melbourne on the 21st at 8pm and arrived in Sydney in the early morning. I got very little sleep on the coach and as it was raining decided not to do the walking tour of the city although Ben said it was brilliant and recommended it to others who joined out dorm today. We just had a quiet night, planning our route up the east coast and heading to bed. The next morning, greeted by much better weather and after a long-overdue 'sleep-in' (until 9:30am! -trust me in comparison to some days it was like waking up half-way through the day haha!), we headed out into the city around midday and went to the Australian museum which had some interesting exhibitions on the history and culture of Aboriginial Australians, and took a look round Chinatown, Darling Harbour and Paddy's Market. Sydney is such a bustling city and seems very business orientated, but Darling Harbour is a beautiful oasis of calm within the metropolis and full of cool cafes, restaurants and bars. In the evening we headed up to the Opera House and the main Harbour before returning to the city and visting the uber-swanky 'Orbit Bar' located 47 floors above the city in Australian Square. At 9$AUS for a bottle of beer we nursed just the one drink but took in the amazing nightime views of the city as the bar revolved! it took me a while to be convinced that we were actually moving as it felt like the windows were but not us! Thursday brought us the best weather we've had in Sydney and we decided to head down to Bondi Beach - it's beautiful turquiose water and the clear blue-skies well lived up to the beach's reputation. The sea was pretty rough - great for surfing, something of an experience to swim in! Despite what I thought was a zealous commitment to applying suncream, factor 50+ no less, apparently I didn't apply it quite evenly enough and have recieved some interesting sunburn marks inclusing one red foot and a U-shaped pink streak on my torso (I think being engrossed in Wolf Hall didn't help matters and tbh I have resolved myself to the fact that I am perhaps far too English to tan at all! Haha!). That night we headed out to sample some of Sydney's nightlife. During some rain-soaked lapse in judgement the first day we arrived in the city I allowed Ben to decide the plan and convince me to go on the 'OZ Party Bus'. 30$AUS bought us a tour of the city attending 5 different bars with a 'free drink' at each bar. It was so bad it was funny, the organisers insisted we stand up the whole time on the bus as they blared out chart-music for the whole of the city to hear in what was rather 'enforced fun' for this 22 coming on 40 year-old. We had a good time all the same - largely laughing at the ridulousness of the situation and some of the people (who were for the most part 18/19years old and some of whom seem never to have graced a club before), which was made easier after practically downing a 'Thai Bucket' at the second bar. Ben claims that the evening was all the more funny because quote 'it was everything I [Michael] stand against' and my face when I first saw the bus was 'priceless'! I ended the night checking out Oxford Street - Sydeny's answer to Soho or Canal Street - which was pretty cool and quite busy with Mardi Gras just round the corner. I woke up quite late this morning and headed out to get some lunch from MacDonald's -perfect hangover food- and Ben went to the Barrack's Museum whilst I looked around the rest of the city - too bleary-eyed to take in anything too intellectual! So it's an early night and up early tomorrow!

I can hardly believe we're leaving our second Australian city already! We head up to Byron Bay next and then to Brisbane to stay with some of Ben's friends - and hopefully save some money, there's too much fun to be had in this country and it costs too much haha!

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Postscript

Due to our combined idiocy we managed to miss our bus this morning (26th Feb) thinking it came at 7am when it came at 6am - luckily we managed to book on the bus tomorrow and secured another night at the hostel we've been staying in for the last few nights! We decided to take the opportunity to go and see the legendary Toronga Zoo - and clapped along to the impressive free flight bird show and the seal show!