Still in Sydney...rain and mattresses

Some of the competitors at the triathlon

 

The cycle part

A shopping trolley in opera house used to move stuff about - nice!

On the pylon lookout $200 cheaper than climbing the bridge

Me and Robbie the robot in the Powerhouse Museum

Strange but fun shadow play

On Sunday there was a Tri-athlon around Sydney that started by the Opera House, so after a nice lie in I made my way down there in time to get a good place to see the start of the mens race at 1pm. While I was waiting I got chatting to a nice couple from Reading, who have just moved over here with work. Ton and Kimberley are both accountants, but are living the dream and will be here for 2-4 years!! Lucky bugars. It was nice to chat to them and after the mens race had started and they had finished the swimming and mounted their bikes, I said goodbye an headed off to watch a bit more of the Tri-athlon. It started to rain quite heavily, which made a lot more interesting and there were a couple of falls on the bike section. In the evening I watched the Grand Prix in the TV room with a few of the guys in the Hostel and later in the evening, the scouse girls brought in another movie and so a load of us watched 'Man on Fire'. It was quite funny as it was a dodgy DVD from Vietnam and as I had the controls for the DVD I had to keep stopping and starting the movie, which ended up lasting about 4 hours!!

The next morning I had yet another nice lie in and then went for a run around the Opera House and Botanical gardens. It was a lovely bright sunny day and after the run I took the free bus up town to have a look around and get my haircut. After that I caught up with my laundry and vegged out on the rooftop overlooking Sydney Harbour – Its a hard life.

About 5pm I had a call from Keri. She was in The Rocks and heading to the Hostel. I went downstairs and met up wit her before bringing her up to the rooftop to awe at the view. She loved the location and may even stay at the hostel in the future, when she is in the city. We then tooka walk into town to go to the cinema. We stopped for 'pide' at a pizza place and then watched 'Limitless', at the pictures, which was a pretty good movie about a drug that can enhance all your brain power. After the movie we walked back to The Rocks and spent 10 minutes trying to find a pay machine in the depths of the car park where Keri had parked. She then headed home while I went for a beer.

In the morning I packed my stuff and moved out of my room in the Hostel. If you are ever in Sydney and need good accommodation at a good price in a great location, you cant do better than this Hostel!! I spent a couple of hours up on the roof again, before getting the free 555 bus uptown and moving into my new place for the next 3 days – The same hotel that I stayed in when I was at the ashes in January. The Metro Sydney central. In the evening I met up with Siw in The Rocks and spent a really good night chatting with her and a few German guys we met, giving them advice on where to go in The Blue Mountains.

I spent the first night on the sofa bed and watching United on TV beat Chelsea, before meeting Buffy at the train station early the next morning. After moving her into the hotel we spent the day looking around Sydney and the main sights like the Opera house and Bridge. In the evening we met up with Siw again at the Opera House bar, where we enjoyed a few beers and the fantastic sights, before heading to Kings cross where we had a few cocktails and a steak before meeting up again with the German dudes from last night.

The next day was really sunny so me and Buffy had a great walk around town, the botanic gardens and were lucky to meet up with Siw, to say goodbye to her before she goes home tomorrow. We then got a ferry over to Manly where we met up with Keri for a chat and a drink while we looked at the surfers in Manly bay. We had a great view of the Harbour Bridge on the way back so Buffy took a load of photos. Then it was a couple of quiet drinks and a reasonably early night.

We moved out of the hotel the next day after a good day around Sydney again. We took a tour around the Opera House visiting the magnificent theatres and being take through the story of how the place was conceived and built even though at one point it was deemed impossible. We then took a walk up to the Pylon lookout on the harbour bridge. This costs $9.50 and allows you unlimited time to climb the large pylon at the south end of the bridge and you can see up close, the people who pay nearly $200 to climb the bridge itself. I personally think that $9.50 is far better value! It was really good too as you see the story of the bridge and how it was conceived and built, plus you get the spectacular views from up the pylon. Later in the day we moved out of the hotel and into a couch-surfers place in Darlinghurst. Couch-surfing is when you go online and people advertise their spare rooms or couches for free for travellers to sleep on and basically make new friends. I found it a strange concept, but it was really nice to move into a house and meet some new people, as well as getting free accomodation for a few days. The house in Darlinghurst has an artist, an architect and a few other people living there as well as 2-3 other couch surfers at any one time. We met up with two German lads and went out with them for all you can eat pizza in the Scubar in town. It was another good night out and a good nights sleep followed even if it was on a mattress in the front room with 3 other people in the same room.

On Saturday we had a good lie in and then me and Buffy went down to the powerhouse museum, where there is everything from steam engines to musical instruments and space shuttles. It was a great afternoon spent in a good museum and we ended up actually getting thrown out as the museum closed at 5pm. It was still raining as so after a bit of food we then went to the cinema to see 'Paul', which was a good couple of hours out of the rain.