As excited as I was to arrive in Australia's largest city, I was even more
excited to be seeing real life pals, namely my dear friend Chrissie and her
very affable dad, David. They both very generously let me gatecrash their
holiday, their accommodation, and to generally follow them around like a lost
but faithful puppy.
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Real friends! And some opera house.
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On the first day, we took the ferry to Manly Beach in North Sydney. I'm no
expert on beaches, but it was a very pleasant place to spend the day, and I
had possibly the nicest ice cream of my holidays (Strawberry Cheesecake).
Shame I committed the schoolboy error of wading into the sea in shoes/socks
and spent the rest of the day with soggy sandy shoes.
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There were lots of manly men on Manly Beach. I wasn't one of
them.
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The ferry took us past the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. There were
actually people walking over the top of it (which you can make out if you
click the image below), and I would have liked to be one of them if they
weren't charging north of £200 for the privilege.
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Sydney from the boat to Manly Beach
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£200 to climb!!? That's about 50p per step.
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The next day, Chrissie booked us a tour of the Blue Mountains. The tour guide
knew his stuff, and he was genuinely entertaining and very knowledgeable, although as is so often the
case with people given a mic, had a tendency to talk a wee bit too much. And
his anecdote about meeting Olivia Newton-John (twice) was quite frankly
ludicrous.
The tour stopped off at Sydney Zoo first and actually got to look around for a
while on our own before they let the commoners in. Chrissie also met a very
friendly wallaby.
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They're just so cuddly. Said the koala.
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Yabbies. Bluer than the Blue Mountains.
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I've seen things.
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The Blue Mountains, despite not being
remotely blue, were pretty spectacular nonetheless. We also had a trip on a
couple of cable cars, and took the steepest railway in the world (not quite
sure what the difference between a steep railway and a funicular railway is)
down to the abandoned mines underneath.
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Hope the brakes work
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I'm glad this train has been retired
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View from the cable car
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Blue mountains. Not in the slightest bit blue.
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We only had three nights in Sydney, but it was a very pleasant city, although
I think Melbourne is a wee bit pleasanter. Certainly friendly though -
everyone loves a chat!
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Lots of buildings in Australia have plants growing out of them
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Before I left Sydney, I just had time to bomb it to the local parkrun, which
was as hot as it was busy. Next stop ... road-trip to the Gold Coast!
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