I like Australia. I like it better than Europe, mainly because I don't like Europe all too much. I like New Zealand better, of course. But I like Australia too.
Anyway, I hadnt been to Sydney in around 15 years, so duh, the city had changed a bit. Not that I can remember much from then. On one hand, I know that Sydney was bigger last time round. Or perhaps I was smaller. More likely the second one. For one, the Olympics hadn't come to Sydney yet.
If I write down everything that we (Gobi, Naf, Puvanes, I) did, a few problems would arise.
- I'll take forever
- I'll write the wrong things
- I'll get lazy
- You'll get bored
...
Day 1 (Thursday):
- Arrival at Sydney
- Walk to Sydney Park (halfway back to the Airport, incidentally)
- Sleep
- Visit Sydney Uni
- Watch Transformer
- Visit Sydney Uni again
- Play badminton
- Visit Paddy's Market
- Visit Eveleigh Market (Flea Market)
- Visit Circular Quay (i.e. Oprah's House, HarboUr Bridge)
- Visit Botanic Gardens, Library, and Hyde Park Barracks
- Walk around Hyde Park (St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney Tower)
- Dinner at Mr & Mrs Kumar's place (Landlords-Friends-Neighbours) - Beautiful Dinner btw.
- Wimbledon ladies final.
- Coogee to Bondi Beach walk
- But arrived at Bondi Beach only after Sundown.
- Attended Mass at St Patrick's Church at 8pm.
- Wimbledon Men's Final. History was made.
- Circular Quay (Customs House, Ferry Ride)
- Darling Harbour
- Naval Museum
- Circular Quay
- Sydney Harbour Bridge (Crossing)
- Ferry back
Day 8 (Thursday)
- Museum of Sydney
- Hyde Park Barracks (again)
- Paddy's (again)
Day 10 (Saturday)
- Justice & Police Museum
- The Rocks
- Bondi Beach
- Dinner @ the Kumar's
- Church (St Mary's Cathedral)
- Aeroplane back
Just a bit of details about a bit.
Blue Mountains
At 1000+m into the sky, the temperature there is a fair bit lower than elsewhere. Not only that, we were literally walking in a cloud. Literally. Visibility was very poor as long as the cloud was there, but thankfully, the clouds kept moving so visibility was an on-off thing.
From Katoomba train station, we took a bus down to the scenic areas from where we walked, took a cable car, a very steep 30second train ride, and a walk through a rainforest. The scenery was fantastic, although we did not manage to see the crowning glory of the place - the 3 sisters rock formation. Reason being, we were in a cloud that was not relenting. Nevertheless, when we were not looking into the nothingness offered by trying to look through a cloud, we were treated to great scenery.
In terms of weather, it was raining. in the cloud. a phenomenon i didnt think possible. but it happened. Apart from that it was cold. very cold. finger movement was thus limited.
Sydney Olympic Park
In the light of recent events at Wimbledon, London, the world has proclaimed the greatest player to ever hold a tennis racquet to be Roger Federer. Now to those who didnt know this, RF met his future wife in Sydney, while they were training for the Olympics. So while Fed-craze was still fresh in the light of Wimbledon, we went hunting for the ground where RF first met Mirka - Sydney Olympic Park. Perhaps we could find an "RF + M" engraved in a tree somewhere since RF was still a teen and not a legend at that time.
However hours of searching yielded no tree with "RF + M" or anything of that sort. Looking back, I'd have done the world a favour by engraving it myself. Apart from that, it felt good to stand on grounds where great athletes once competed, 9 years ago.
The map of Olympic Park gave us the impression it could be covered easily. But after walking around for half an hour and realising we only walked 10% of the map, that was not feasible. Obviously. So we were content with 40% of Sydney Olympic Park. Which definitely included the tennis center.