Sydney, Australia

Sydney, Australia

I was really excited about going to Sydney, but not the area that we were staying in, Kings Cross. But it was the cheapest area and very close to the subway. We took the bus, then the subway to the hostel. The subway was three floors! We’ve seen two floors before, but not three. A sure indication of the number of public transportation riders. When we got to our hostel, it was nice to find cabinets above and below a kitchen sink and a refrigerator in our room. So we headed to the supermarket to get some cereal, milk, peanut butter and jelly and bread, just the simple things. But it was great! Sydney was very expensive and if we could save money by doing some shopping then all the better. The next day we decided to make our way down to the famous Sydney Opera House. We were planning to take in a show there while we were in Sydney but we just couldn’t wait. We noticed that there was a marionette show playing that evening, so we bought our tickets and killed some time by eating at a little Italian place right next to the opera house. There was a single puppeteer narrating and performing the show. It was a funny but tragic story about a simple-minded man that lived with his mother until she suddenly died and left the man all alone. The show was absolutely captivating, surprisingly there were a lot more curses than you would think for a puppet show.

A few days later we set up a trip to the Blue Mountains, which got their name from the dew in the air that gave the mountains

a constant blue hue. It took a few hours to get through the city and up to the mountains. Along the way our tour guide/bus driver, Fritz, told us all about Sydney and the areas surrounding it. As soon as we arrived to the mountains we saw grey kangaroo feeding and laying down in the shade. It was amazing how close they would let us get to them without showing even a hint of fear or discomfort that we were there. After we had our tea and cookie Fritz gave us a boomerang demonstration in the open field explaining how the aboriginals used the boomerang to confuse and stun their prey before using more accurate weapons to finish the job. We finished off our tour with the Three Sisters mountain ridges. Unfortunately we were unable to ride the world’s steepest rail car due to the pouring down rain. We experience anything that has the prefix of world’s largest but this time our plans were foiled. Better luck next time.

We did go diving in Sydney but unfortunately there wasn’t much to see other then an octopus and a cuddle fish. It was nice to get back in the water though. We finished off our time in Sydney with their rendition of Mardi Gras, which in Sydney is almost exclusively a gay and lesbian parade. Damn if those gays don’t make some pretty floats.

In all Sydney was less then we imagined but it was probably due to the fact that we prefer a more wide open surrounding to the hustle and bustle of the city.