Sydney And The Blue Mountains

Looking Cool

I had about five days in Sydney over all. Luckily Matt had been here a few months ago and knew the city well, so he knew exactly where to go and what to do. He planned out my whole time here.

Sydney is a very dramatic city. It isn't multicultural like Melbourne but then it doesn't have to be. You come to Sydney to see those picture-postcard places. We naturally spent a lot of time around Circular Quay, home to views of Sydney's Harbour Bridge and Opera House. It's just like the photo's you see all over the world of this famous spot and it is no less impressive when it's presented in front of you. The Opera House is an oddity up close - made up of tiny tiles that are honestly the size that you would have in your kitchen.

We also checked out Darling Harbour, home to a 1000 docked boats and strolled through the big streets of the city center. We took a walk through the Botanical Gardens, which are filled with all sorts of species of flora and have the resident fruit bats up in the trees - which are fascinating to watch. Actually we had seen some huge bats all over Australia - especially in Byron Bay but none were quite as noisy as these guys. From the Botanical Gardens you also get the best views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

We stayed in the backpacker area of Kings Cross - which just like in London is the seedy part of town with many eccentric and perhaps a little dodgy - characters. We didn't spend much of our time there however except to park our heads for the night.

We did manage to take a trip up the Sydney Tower - where we got great views over the whole city. You can literally see for miles. We also headed over the Harbour to the North Shore where lies Taronga Zoo. It has a great variety of animals and above all probably has the best backdrop (Bridge and Opera House can be seen from there) of any other zoo in the world.

Around Sydney are also some great beaches. In fact many of the world's most famous beaches are found here. The most famous is Bondi Beach. We spent quite a bit of time in Bondi. Matt had worked here when he was last in Sydney and still had many friends around. Most of our nights out where spent with his ex-colleagues around Bondi. The beach area is impressive - it's a nice beach theres no denying it, with great surf and Bondi has a very cool feel to it. Not meterologically, I mean that people around Bondi just appear cool and seem a little bit more good-looking than everywhere else.

We did make the trip up to Manly Beach too - the most famous on the North Shore of Sydney which has a similar scene to that at Bondi, and we also took the very long bus trip up to Palm Beach. Way up in the north of the city, it's a great beach and is home to the filming of the soap - 'Home and Away' of which I have never seen before but still had all my pictures taken in the appropriate spots.

Now, the next thing I am going to tell you is about Matt and it is a story that needs to be told just because I have never seen anything like it before. It is a bit crude so if you don't want to read it then skip this paragraph. In our room are two bunks I am on the top of one, Matt is on the bottom. In the other bunk is two German guys who we had made friends with. On one of our nights out Matt and I had sipped a few beverages but were not intoxicated in the slightest. We went to bed for the night. At 3.45am I am woken up to the light on and the two German guys asking Matt what the hell he is doing. I realise that Matt is standing by the German guys lower bunk bed (which is in the corner of the room) and he is urinating all over his bed. The German guy had woken up to the sound of it and when switched on the light realised that Matt was weeing all over the bed that he was sleeping in. I awoke and Matt still hadn't finished. I asked him what he was doing and with the straightest face in the world turned to me and said - 'whats the problem Alex, I'm just having a piss'. Stunned, I replied that it wasn't the fact that he was having a piss that was the problem but the location of where he was having it. Just as he finished though, like someone switching a light-bulb on in his head, he stopped, realised what he was doing and then proceeded to apologise to the young German for the next 30 minutes. We all realised that Matt had been sleep-pissing - I suppose it's the same as sleep-walking but with a more important desire to urinate. The location he had chosen was an unfortunate one but in the end we all found it hilarious. One thing is for sure - I will be taking the top bunk for the rest of the time that I am staying in hostels!!!

On my last day in Sydney (and Australia), we took a day trip to the Blue Mountains. It's about a three hour trip to the west of the city and it is definately worth going to. It boasts some of the best scenery in the country, with sheer cliffs, chasms and crags. The trip that we participated first took us to a view point over the whole Blue Mountains region. The formations here are older than the Grand Canyon and they are so called the Blue Mountains because of the dense Eucalyptus trees which cover the area giving a slightly blue tint to the whole scene. We then went to the temperate climate town of Leura for lunch where - to our suprise - it began to snow!!! First strong hail and then snow!!! I know we where high up here but I really didn't expect snow in Australia. Later we headed to the heart of the Blue Mountains by Katoomba. We took a Skyrail (which had a glass bottom) across the canyon for spectacular views of the forest below. A second skyrail takes you down into the forest. On the way down you get to see the three sisters - the most famous rock formation in the area, consisting of three large rock peaks, all next to each other on top of the cliff face. The three sisters rocks also have strong Aboriginal spiritual significance. We trekked through the forest for a short while while our guide explained the formation of the area and the processes taking place within the forest. We then headed back up, but not by skyrail but instead by what is considered to be the steepest railway line in the world. The train that takes you up is outrageously steep - it's like being on a roller-coaster ride. A sign pointed out on the way up that we were at over 52 degrees. on the way back to Sydney we stopped off at the Olympic Park for a qiuck photo before getting the ferry back to Circular Quay.

I had had an amazing time here in Sydney but finally it was all over. I said goodbye to Matt and to this incredible country. I'm sure that I will be back here. It's an extraordinary place. In so many ways it reminds me of a cross between England and the USA but then has some aspects that you will never see in either place. The people are as mad as a box of frogs, and yet are as friendly as you are likely to see anywhere else in the world, and the scenery is just breathtaking. In a land where pretty much any wildlife can kill you in the most horrific way - it's those creatures and their bizarre habitats out here that you really come to see. Two months isn't nearly enough time to see it all - but then you will probably never have enough time to see everything that this country has to offer.

I left Australia with some great memories and headed to the Land of the Long White Cloud. At last, it was back to volcanoes for me, for three hours to the East of Australia is a place of fire and ice, where extreme sports are the norm and where Hobbits would happily call their home. I had landed in New Zealand.........