Australia! The country so big that it's also a continent - though it is the smallest continent. Australia was definitely at the top of my travel list, for one because of the excitement of being that far away from home but also for many of its natural wonders.
My journey in Australia would start in its biggest city, Sydney. I arrived to Sydney on a Monday afternoon, after my couple weeks of stay
in New Zealand. I was a bit anxious to see how strict the local customs really
were but really weren’t asked too many questions (the same set as in New
Zealand - "where have you used those shoes", "are you carrying any fruits") and apparently my visa was in order too since they never asked to see
any proof of it. Australia was only country I needed I pre-arranged visa on my
entire trip! I took the train from the airport to the city which was really
fast & convenient, considering I was staying close to the Central Station
(and that was a good place to stay in my opinion). I had even managed to find a
hostel with free wifi, amazing (first world problems...)! For the rest of my first day I did a bit of
walking around, getting familiarized with my new surroundings and slowly
started to feel at home again.
The next morning I had decided to join a free walking tour of the city.
It was a similar concept as the tour I did in Valparaiso, Chile – the tour
would cover most of downtown and you would tip the tour guide at the end of the
walk. You end up getting to know more of the city than you would by walking
around a day or two by yourself and they tend to include (or make up.. who
knows) lots of small fun stories. The tour starts every day at 10.30 and 14.30
next to the Cathedral. There were around 20-30 people on the tour that day which
is quite a lot. This tour guide wasn’t as good or as funny as the one in Valparaiso
but I did like the tour and it really helps to get your bearings in the city. BTW,
the same tour company offers also evening tours! The weather that was pretty
crazy with a tropical storm that completed drenched everybody who was even 10
seconds without a shelter.. and then it was gone after 15 minutes with clear
sky and sunshine. But that was the only bad weather I had, for the rest of the
week it was mainly sunny - chilly at times but sunny.
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| Cathedral on George Street - the main avenue of Sydney |
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| Sydney CBD - Central Business District |
Of course I made sure I would see most of the famous Sydney’s sights
such as the Opera House. I did actually go to Circular Quay, where you have a
nice view of the house, a couple times and walked up to the building once. You
can pop in the lobbies to see some of the inside but for a more comprehensive
look you can take a (very expensive) tour – or perhaps see if they have some
nice shows there to buy a ticket to! Close to the Opera House is Botanical
Garden for a leisurely walk on a sunny day or on the other side of the Quay
there’s the Harbour Brigde which is also popular for walks. There you can also
climb all the way to the top of the Bridge (about 200 AUD). On the same side of
the Quay, before the Bridge, there is a nice area of the city with lots of old
buildings turned into café, restaurants and shop: the Rocks – actually one of
the oldest parts of the town.
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| Harbour Bridge |
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| Circular Quay |
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| View from the Circular Quay - Opera House |
If you like parks, in addition to the Botanical Garden, you can stroll
in Hyde Park where you’ll also find the St. Mary’s Cathedral. On the other side
of the center there’s also a large green area before the Darling Harbour with
heaps of fancy restaurants and the Chinese Garden. I really liked Darling
Harbour although it was a bit out of a budget traveller's wallet to have dinner there. But it’s
really nice to just spend a sunny afternoon there. If you’re looking for more
free things to do there’s lots of museums and galleries that are free. I went
to see the Chinese Art Museum with my local friend Norah who I had met in San
Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. It was pretty entertaining. Right now the
Museum of Contemporary Art is also free – I’d definitely recommend that, at
least go see some of the Clock: a 24h (non-stop) movie, or a collage of movies
that features scenes with clocks. Every time you see a watch in the movie it
will display the actual current time. I even managed to see a glimpse of a
Finnish movie in that one!
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| Botanical Garden |
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| Hyde Park and Saint Mary's Cathedral |
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| Darling Harbour |
I enjoyed my extended stay in Sydney. It’s always great when you find a nice
hostel and meet some lovely people you start feel more at home and don’t mind
staying longer. It’s easy to spend a lot of money in Sydney – eating out and
grocery shopping will set you back even more than in Northern Europe. BTW,
a nice place for a Sunday brunch, in the corner of Devonshire and Crown there
are a handful of artsy cafes that were packed (people standing outside) with
hipsters – a really nice vibe! You can also go crazy with shopping in Sydney. I
stayed on my budget but did particularly like window shopping in the Queen
Victoria Building! There’s plenty of activities in Sydney: Aquarium, the Luna
Park (amusement park), the Zoo… Or if you’re more adventurous you can do a
skydive (around 300 AUD).
Beach life in Sydney (would be nicer if it was summer...)
You can also do some nice day trip inside Sydney: go to one of the beaches. If you’re there during the summer a visit to one of
the beaches such as Bondi or Cogee is a must! I
really wanted to visit Manly beach since I’d heard great things about it – and
the ferry ride you need to take there, to the other side of the bay. And indeed
it was gorgeous! There are a couple beaches in Manly and you make a nice 10km
walk even on the so called scenic walkway. Manly is a like a nice small town
with a pedestrian avenue lined with shops and restaurants. I could have spent
hours just walking there (and I did!). The ferry ride was also really good (14
AUD), you get to see all around the Opera House when the ferry leaves from the
Circular Quay towards Manly and during the day there were hundreds of sailboats
dotting the bay.
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| Rockpools on the scenic walkway (leaving towards left from the harbour) |
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| Pedestrian avenue in the middle of Manly - nice shops and cafés! |
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| Beach in Manly lined with pine trees |
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| Returning to the city on the ferry at sundown - perfect timing! |
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| Back at Circular Quay once again |
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| My last view of the Opera House: not a bad one! |
A day in the Blue Mountains
There’s also some popular day tours out of Sydney and I certainly wasn’t going to miss
a visit to the Blue Mountains! The tour started pretty early in the morning and we first stopped for breakfast in the pretty small town of Leura. After that we continued to the main site in the Blue Mountains - the Three Sisters. Close to the Three Sisters there's an aboriginal centre where they have dance and music shows if you'd like to see that.
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| Three Sisters on the left |
A bit up the road was the next stop,
Scenicworld, basically three-four different cable cars, gondolas and
trains you can take down to the valley. I decided to walk the path down
(just follow the signs, it's a bit hidden but you'll find the path
starting left of the parking lot) and get to see the Katoomba Falls
close up! The walking trail down was pretty easy - lots of steps but not
dangerous like the ones Peru... It took about an hour to walk all the
way down and I took the cable car (11 AUD) back up. You can have lunch
at the Scenicworld but you can also pack some snacks and eat your own
lunch there.
My tour also included a visit to the Featherdale
Wildlife Park which was one of the reasons why I booked that tour, I really wanted to see the koalas and kangaroos! And there were lots of them, most just roaming freely!! You'll find most of Australia's native animals there: dingos, tasmanian devils, wallabies, alligators, lots of birds and reptiles... The two hours we had there went really fast!
After that we continued back to Sydney and passed by the Olympic Park where the 2000 summer games were held. The tour ended with a
cruise down the Parramatta river at sundown, I really enjoed that part, especially getting to see Sydney all light up when we arrived to first Darling Harbour and then to Circular Quay.
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| Darling Harbour |
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| Circular Quay |
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A day tour like that will set you back 75-200 AUD or you can do the
trip on your own as well with a car or catch a train to Wentworth Falls, Leura or Katoomba and take a hop-on-hop-off bus
around the Blue Mountains.
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All in all I spent about 10 days in Sydney - I had a couple very chilled out days but there's plenty to do there. You can see the main sights in about three days though if you're not in a hurry you will find a week passing by quite fast! Especially if you happen to be a latin dancer .... but more about dancing in Sydney in my next post!!
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