The big finale in Aussie = Sydney

The last day in Kioloa was sad. I didn’t want to leave heaven on earth but we had to go to Sydney to check that out before flying to NZ.
Friday-evening Dale had organized a night out in a typical Aussie-place in Milton. It was very basic, but it had a live-band and a terrace.
He had invited a bunch of their friends and we had dinner there. After dinner we played pool and socialized.The place closed at 12, and then Kath and me drove one car each home.
In Sweden we are worrying about deer coming out on the road, but here it’s the kangaroos…
All went well though and we arrived safely in Kioloa again. 🙂

After about 4 hours sleep Kath drove us to the bus-stop. The same place and the same time as we had arrived 1 week before. Not often you can say that you stayed exactly one week at a place. 🙂

The bus was only 5 hours and soon we saw the skyline of Sydney with it’s Sydney tower and big skyscrapers. Not bad to celebrate the day of 6 months traveling by coming to Australia’s biggest city. 🙂
We hadn’t booked any hostel but found a place pretty soon. We took a taxi there and arrived at Forbes Terrace in Kings Cross at about noon.
The guy who worked there was very friendly and we got a dorm-bed for 18$ per night, so we payed for all 4 nights directly.
Unfortunately this place was the most dirty place we lived in so far…Well, you can’t always have good luck I guess.The did clean our room after we told them, but the kitchen was still not very inviting to cook in…
After checking our mails on the free Internet-time we started to walk downtown. We decided to go up the Sydney Tower so we walked through Hyde Park and then went up to buy tickets.
We bought a package including, Sydney Tower, OzTrek ( a simulation ride), Captain Crooks Cruise and entrance to the aquarium for 44$. Not bad. 🙂

We went up 250 m in the tower with elevator and there was a magnificent view over Sydney.
It’s a beautiful city with lots of water around it. We stayed until sunset and got to see a neon-lit city as well.
After this wonderful experience we went down to see OzTrek, a simulated ride in Australia.
You can read about the tower and OzTrek here:
http://www.affiliate.viator.com/brochure/product_show.jsp?ID=1010&PRODUCTID=1016&CODE=3333SKYTOUR&AUID=2672

On Sunday we took the hostels shuttle-bus to the opera house. We went out on the cruise and went just pass the opera house. What an extraordinary building. Well of course it is, made by a danish guy and made off two different Swedish tiles. 🙂 Can’t get wrong then.
Well actually the opera house cost more than expected and the drawings had many flaws, but I don’t think anyone thinks of that now, seeing this beautiful building.

The cruise was really nice and lasted for about 1 hour going pass Watson Bay, Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour amongst other places.

After the cruise we had a well earned lunch overlooking the opera house. Can say that I felt a big happiness just sitting there and looking at this building. Almost had to pinch myself to believe that it was true. 🙂

After visiting the tourist information we went to the Botanical Garden. It’s just at the water and it got big green areas, ponds, birds, bats, lots of people lying on the grass…

Since it was turning afternoon we decided to head for the aquarium. It’s located at Darling Harbour and that is only a 10-15 minute walk from the opera house.
The first animal we saw was the platypus.
http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/aust/plat/
One of them was playing in the water going back and forth and they are very cute animals.
We also saw a very big crocodile and learned that one of the differences between a crocodile and a alligator is that you can see both upper and lower teeth on a crocodile when he has his mouth closed. Now you know as well. 🙂

There was two places were we could walk in tunnels under water, at the seals (they where sleeping) and at the sharks, stingrays. The later was really amazing. It was filled with different sharks and rays and one of the rays was lying on top of the tunnel so we could see it through the glass. It was about 1,5 m wide.
We saw many other animals as well before we left at about 7.30.
We walked back to our hostel and burned CD and sent some mails before going to bed.

On Monday we got up early to go to Blue Mountains. It’s located about 2 hours from Sydney and we got there by train. When arriving it was darn cold. People had warned us but all the warm clothes in my backpack wouldn’t have helped. :p

Anyways, we got on the Explorer Bus and went to the first stop. We walked for a while and saw the three sisters, a cliff formation. It was an excellent view over the mountains.
We walked on and arrived to the Scenic world which is two cable cars and one train. We went with the train down and it’s the steepest train in the world. It was used to ship coal from the coalmines in the bottom of the valley and up in the 1800s.
We did a 25 minute walk and then took the cable car up again. That was the best of the two. We got a nice view of the sisters from another angle.

After eating a very expensive and not so good lunch, we went to our next stop, The Three Sisters.
It was possible to walk down to the closest one so we did. It was very windy and cold out there, so we decided not to go further down. It was also 900 steps all together to go all the way and then back…
Our last stop was The Gordon Falls lookout. Well no waterfall there…I guess it ’s a dry period…
After this we felt quite satisfied and decided to take the train back to Sydney. I didn’t become warm until having a hot shower at the hostel, so it was quite nice to get back.
We did some laundry and then started packing a bit.

Today we went up at 8.30 and went to the Internet place to do some uploading of pictures and writing some diary.
I also copied all the pictures from my trip from CD to my Ipod…darn that took long.
At least now I could send the Cd’s home. 🙂

Tonight we will go to the opera house and Darling Harbour for the last time before flying to New Zealand tomorrow morning. Can’t believe it already passed 6 weeks here in Aussie.

Just a reminder that from tomorrow morning my mobile number for Australia won’t work anymore.
I will let you know my new number as soon as I get one.

Next diary will be from the great country NZ. 🙂
Big hugs to you all!