Sydney, take one

The Sydney Tower, with a bar and restaurant at the top. It is very, very tall, and you can see the whole city from up there. (I later discovered it is not as tall as the Macau Tower, which I visited later on in my travels)

Although I thought it was a bit ridiculous at first to do Sydney in 3 different stints, for 2 days at a time each, I am actually pretty happy with that arrangement now. I spent a lovely day in Sydney yesterday and am now looking forward to Cairns, and returning to Sydney in 2 weeks.

Another plus for hostels is the marketing of cheap and free entertainment, and tours. I went on a free 3 hour walking tour of the city, and was able to see a lot of the city, understand where stuff is a little bit (and that my crap hostel is actually not horribly, horribly located), and learn some cool history about the place. After the tour, on the advice of my hostel friends from the night before, I took a ferry to Manly, a cute little beach suburb, and walked around the Manly beaches. Got to see the pacific ocean again so that was neat :).

Behind me is the Harbor Bridge, on a beautiful day in Sydney. You can walk across it, or climb to the top of it.

I sat on the beach for awhile, and started to read "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson. Its an incredibly entertaining book. What really made it for me was when he was talking about the jellyfish, I think "bluebottles" that were swimming around him when he was boogie boarding (on or near the beach I was on) I heard an announcement from the lifeguard stands asking people to get out of the water because bluebottles were around, and reminding them that the extreme pain from a sting would last at least an hour, and there was no cure. As calmly as if they were announcing the morning weather report. What a place.

This is the Sydney Opera House. To give you an idea of the area, the Harbor Bridge was behind me when I took the picture, the ferries are to the right, and Manly is about a half hour ferry ride behind the Opera House

I lingered in Manly, and ended up eating dinner there at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant and bar, where I was introduced to chicken schnitzel, which if I recall is chicken breaded and deep fried. Its excellent. After returning from Manly, I ended up walking back to the hostel. It was a good long walk through the city, and because it was rush hour, lots of people were walking around going home from work. It was another good way to kind of figure out my way around.

I am excited to go to Cairns to scuba and see all the cool stuff they have around there, but I am also looking forward to coming back to Sydney and seeing even more of the city. Its a huge place, and even though I got a taste of it, I know I need to spend more time here and see more.

First Day in Sydney- re-introduction to the hostel experience

I have arrived in Sydney- the start to my trip to Australia, and what I think is also exciting, my 5^th continent. After having a lovely flight here (it was only 3 hours long, but we got a meal, tea, and ice cream!) I caught a shuttle and arrived at my hostel. Which, I think at one point in time, might have been a very nice backpacker’s hostel. And at the moment is a total dump. But, I am saving some money by staying in said dump, so it will be worth it in the long run. I admit, I was a bit put off by the dumpiness of the place. I have done the hostel thing before- in France, Switzerland and Belgium. But either there are different standards in Sydney or the need for cheap hostels is so great here that they can get away with worse accomadations, because this is literally the worst place I have ever, ever stayed in. But, I digress.

The good thing about hostels, dumpy or not, is they are a great place to meet people. Within 20 minutes of arriving, I was chatting with two English couples who have been staying here for a few weeks. They showed me where the cheap supermarket was (and I reintroduced myself to the magic called easymac) and we made dinner and watched the tennis match in the hostel’s common room. They were kind enough to introduce me to “goon”, an Australian box wine which is disgusting, yet potent, and best of all cheap. It was all in all a lovely evening, and they gave me lots of ideas of what to do with my full day in Sydney tomorrow. One of the couples is doing an around the world sort of thing over a year long period; they have already been to Asia and are going to go to New Zealand and the U.S. next. The other have year-long work visas to stay in Australia. I thought they were both very lovely, and a wonderful introduction to hostel lifestyle. That being said, I am glad I am only at this dump for 2 nights, and am glad I am heading to hostels with higher ratings and reviews from hostels.com in the near future.

I am really liking Sydney however, the little I have seen of it so far. I am here at a good time of year as well…this visit and my next visit are both over the Chinese new year, so there is a lot of fun stuff for that. My second visit is in a hostel over in another part of town, so I will get to see new sights when I am there- so this time I think I am going to concentrate on a bus tour and just walking around to get the lay of the land. And then off to Cairns for scuba!

Christchurch, NZ

A statue of Robert Falcon Scott in a park in Christchurch...Antarctica is following me :)

My first few days off the ice I spent in Christchurch NZ. Its a lovely city on the south island, and seems to be kind of the gateway to the south island. I am staying in a hotel that resembles living in an ipod, and have spent the last 3 days meandering around the city, getting readjusted to humanity. There is a busker festival in town, so there is a lot of street entertainment which has been fun to watch. I have been a few town markets, and got to take the tour tram. They used trams for transportation in Christchurch until the 1950s, and now they are used to give a tour of the city.

The inside of this cool old-fashioned tram from the tour

Some of the cute shops in Christchurch

One of the markets I went to, and where I bought some really comfortable sheepskin slippers!

Another great thing about Christchurch is the botanic gardens, they are huge and simply gorgeous, a really nice place to walk around and just enjoy the surroundings. There are lots of small parks all around the city, which are really nice. I haven't seen too much else (well, really anything else) in NZ, but Christchurch has given me a great impression of the country.

Its been cool because I saw it in August (winter for them) and now in January, so I have seen the changes over the seasons. I prefer the summer :)

The food is delicious here as well. Its a very international place, so you can get sushi, thai food, greek food, or burgers pretty much on every block. I had souvlaki from this delicious greek place called "Dimitris" on my first day back and it was great. Souvlaki is pretty much meat, lettuce, tomatoes, greek yogurt (and sometimes hummus and other toppings if you want) wrapped in a piece of bread that is the size and shape of naan but is thicker and softer. I have also eaten lots and lots of sushi, which has been simply wonderful. Its really the only food I missed on the ice.

I am off to Sydney this afternoon!

Edit: Pictures posted! And I learned this morning that Chc suffered another huge earthquake :( 6.3, which is large, although not as bad as the 7.3 from last year