The lady at the hostel help desk told me that it was a mere walk down to the harbour, so I took her up on it. It was about a half hour, but definitely worth it.
First stop was the harbour bridge. It is monstrous, no doubt about it. I would have loved to have done the bridge climb, but at a price that was nearing $200 CDN I decided that unless someone who is reading this blog is going to wire me the money
*crickets chirp*
(that’s what I thought) I would have to take a pass. Instead after some searching I came upon the Pylon Lookout (Lonely Planet was exactly right in where it was in their map, however perhaps they should have mentioned that it wasn’t accessible from the ground level…) It was a great lookout, worth the climb.
And here are some of the ants, er, I mean bridge climbers:
Grey’s not my colour, anyway.
Second stop after a wonderful bowl of soup for lunch and a nice chat with some folks from Florida, was the Sydney Opera House. Again, just a wonderful marvel of engineering.
It was at this point that I came to the conclusion that I was not going to be able to get near the amount of things I wanted to do in two days, so I rearranged to stay another night. Why rush it – that’s pretty much my motto these days.
In the evening they had a “fair dinkum” bbq on the top level next to the pool (yes, my hostel has a pool, and frankly save for the three other guys in bunk beds in my room, it plays like a hotel) where I for the first time tried kangaroo meat. It’s like steak, if you’re wondering, as far as tenderness goes. Not like celery, Leguisa, if you’re reading.
Now I have to be honest in that I was planning to be sneaky this evening. Some of the posters had not only advertised the bbq but a free intro to scuba diving. It has been a personal goal of mine to sometime on holiday to go try diving, screw it up in the pool, then become a wizard in the open water. Sadly this was not to be the case this evening as it never materialized. Next time!
In any case I popped down to the cinema (yes, my hostel has a cinema) to watch the Australian film Muriel’s Wedding. It was extremely enjoyable and once I got my head around the fact that Toni Collette looks radically different in this movie then she does in say Little Miss Sunshine or United States of Tara I really enjoyed it. Sure, there were some plot holes but it was just plain good fun.
Day 199 and it was time to do some more exploring. I had intended to go to the Olympic Sites on this day but when I got to the train station I was given the impression that it was a 45 minute wait until the next train and I said sod it, I’m going to Manly.
Manly, a half hour ferry ride across the harbour, was really quite nice. They have a gorgeous scenic walkway which I took advantage of not only to walk upon but to enjoy my lunch. Dear work, can we please install this view for lunchtime? Thanks, Vick.
I also decided on the spur of the moment to go jump in the water. I didn’t actually have my bathing suit with me but the nice thing about board shorts is that they really dry quite quickly.
Following a stop to pick up a couple of souvenirs and to pick up a smoothie, I headed back to home base. I decided to go for a dip up in the pool area which was quite refreshing (since I’m positive that I burnt my neck).
It was here that the winning started. I’m not going to discuss it, but I participated in a dare that won me not one but two free breakfasts. It’s amazing what people will do for free, I figure. After the swim I popped down to the TV lounge and watched a bit of Millionaire Hot Seat as the eps I saw taped last week were already airing (thanks to Chris P for the heads up).
Just before 6 pm I entered the Wicked lottery. This is the draw that takes place two hours before each Sydney performance to see who gets the front row tickets. My number wasn’t up this time but fingers crossed for the next time!
And that didn’t turn out to be such a bad thing. I headed back to the hostel to participate in a Wii Tennis tourney. With free goon! (Read: boxed wine). I actually got creamed in the first round by the eventual winner but frankly it was really a good laugh as I started to do commentary in many different languages. It turned out however I was a winner in the end as due to my enthusiasm I won a free Hostelling International membership, good anywhere on the planet until March 2011! Guess I’m going to have to do some more travelling…
Cheers,
Vick.
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