III. AUS - OA/NSW 7: Sydney EN

Tu, 17.01. Sydney
After roughly 5 weeks with Tom & Ester this was my first real free day, just for me :)))
We have already spent some time in Sydney's surroundings but now I finally had the chance to see the real city:
From Quakers Hill I took the train and had a 40min ride to the centre at Town Hall Station - the perfect start to my sightseeing tour. Sydney itself is a very young, international and multicultural city - I immediately saw the Asian influences as well as a lot of business people; it can be a strange feeling walking amongst them as a backpacker :P
I first went to Centerpoint Tower or Sydney Tower Eye, currently the highest building and one of Sydney's sights. From there I walked passed the State Library NSW, the Royal Botanical Gardens and other political buildings to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge - for sure Sydney's two most iconic and popular sights. It is indeed a really nice feeling to finally be there and the architecture is impressive.
In the afternoon I visited Hyde Park and St Mary's
Cathedral before I finished the day at Darling Harbour and the Chinese Gardens of Friendship - a pretty good day with just me, myself and I :)

We, 18.01. Bents Basin
Based on temperatures of up to 45* and 38* already at 6am in the morning we woke up quite and drove to Bents Basin.
Bents Basin is located 1hr away from Richmond and a natural lake which has been created by a metereor strike thousands of years ago. It is up to 180m deep and surrounded by beautiful nature, trees, rocks etc from which you can also jump 10m down into the lake.
I finally had again a really nice exercise and swam across the whole lake - something hardly anyone believed thanks to my rather low weight and strength :D There were a lot of rocks on the other side which I happily climbed before relaxing with Ester in our amazing life vests that allowed us to easily float across the water.
In the afternoon we escaped from the heat in a nice air conditionned shopping centre before Tom showed us his old home town and houses. After that we returned to Greg's pool, had a nice pizza dinner and I enjoyed another cool bike ride.
It was also already our last evening. I showed them the video made by Steffi and me (again a great thanks for your awesome help), gave them UNO and, as promised, gave Ester my so loved purple multi functional sarong (best luggage item ever, can be used as head/shoulder/back cover against the sun, as dress/skirt on top of a bikini, as beach/picknik/park towel, as changing room as well as scarf or blanket for cold weather or in pretty bad AC cinemas, cars, buses, trains, planes or airports - highly recommended and with 2€ in Asia or South America also pretty cheap :O)

Th, 19.01. Farewell/Sydney: King's Cross & Hyde Park
The last morning I enjoyed another huge bowl of oats or porridge before Tom dropped me off at Windsor station where I took the 1,5hr train to Sydney with my usual 10+5kg luggage - back to hostel and backpacker life ;)
The hostel itself was relatively centrally located and impressed me with free breakfast (including eggs) and free WiFi - pretty rare in Australia, especially for the cheapest Sydney hostel price of only 20AUD :P However, cuttlery had to be rented for 20AUD (!!!) as many backpackers constantly take stuff...
In the afternoon I walked around a bit and saw a dozen sushi shops (oh yes I love it and should really visit Japan one day) before relaxing in Hyde Park.

Fr, 20.01. Sydney: Bondi Beach & Pitt Street
This day I took my lovely Opal card and went with train & bus to Bondi - really need to check this hype ;)
Bondi probably has one of the most famous and popular beaches in Sydney (in total the city itself has more than 80) and it is indeed really nice - however, it is another nice beach and in my opinion again too touristy and crowded (well, I just love the West Coast and miss all the empty clean beaches where you are completely on your own :P). However, there was a really nice walk from Bondi to Coogee directly along the sea and cliffs which I started but cold not finish due to a thunderstorm.
Back in the city I did a bit of window shopping and people watching in Pitt Street, a big shopping street - a great distraction for bad weather :)

Sa, 21.01. Sydney: Gardens & Markets
On Saturday I did the so called Harbour Bridge Walk over the bridge to the other side and that was definitively worth the effort: over there you get one of the nicest views to the Opera House and can actually see it from the front. There was a really nice park where I enjoyed my lunch with probably the best view of Sydney and that completely free of charge :)))
After that I went to Paddy's Markets, a tremendous market hall with many cheap Asian stands as well as fresh fruit and vegetable markets - an absolute paradise for all bargainers, especially in the usually rather expensive Sydney/Australia ;)
I then went back via Chinatown before having a nice relaxed evening with some other cool backpackers at the hostel (which was 80% frequented by 18-20 year old German and a lot of French :P)

Su, 22.01. Sydney: Manly & City with local
Sunday for me was super special as I spent the whole day with Ricky, a local and real Sydney habitant :)
As bus, train and ferry rides are only $2,50 the whole day on Sundays we first took the ferry to Manly, a northern suburb and also famous for its beaches. The ferry ride alone was already amazing as you got the best view of the whole harbour including Sydney's skyline and all the sights. Ricky was incredible and had such a good knowledge, i.e. that Sydney's harbour is natural and the whole city built around a national park. It also has more history than I thought so far, there are rock paintings in the NP dating thousands of years ago. You also got a good feeling of the lifestyle: everything is done outside and with a lot of sun, sea and 80 beaches the population is very spoilt and thus rather relaxed :) Manly itself was also very beautiful but unfortunately and based on Sunday and the last weekend of the school holidays again very touristy and too packed.
Back in the city we first - oh yes - got some sushi before Ricky showed me pretty cool street art and hidden secrets. He also had amazing tips regarding food and in this respect, Sydney is one of the best cities in Australia with an enormous diversity: in general, Australian food is pretty mixed but the most common and popular food is fish & chips, meat pies and a lot of desserts. Japanese food and sushi in particular are also quite famous, he also showed me a pretty delicious Japanese cheese cake as well as very delicious and with 35ct pretty cheap Chinese Emperor's Puff, tiny freshly baked custard tarts. Btw, McDonalds and Starbucks are facing some difficulties in Australia as you can get gourmet burger and better coffee for the same price.
We then went to Darling Harbour and he explained to me how the whole city has changed with New buildings in the last 2,3 years and will still change in the next few years: Sydney has one of the biggest construction sites, the whole train net is going to be renewed and they plan to build a tram network - a living and constantly changing city :)

Mo, 23.01. Sydney: City
Last day in Sydney which I spent quite relaxed: I walked through the city, went to the Royal Botanical Gardens and to other parks to enjoy the nice views of the harbour including Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
It was also again one of these orga days with washing, packing, sorting pics, doing collages, travel diary etc. In the evening I then went to the airport where I killed the time with organising and getting excited for Tasmania :)Read more