Last days in Sydney

Visited the Sydney Fish Market on Wednesday early in the morning. Got up at 6, which was even too late to watch the fish auction, which takes place every morning. Right after the auction, the fish is sold in the surrounding areas.

Store around Sydney Fish Market

“If our fish would be fresher, it would sill swim” some signs around that area teach me. Overall, the market wasn’t that interesting. I couldn’t find any motivation to eat fish at 07:30 in the morning, so I left for Coogee Beach to make my walk up to the famous Bondi Beach.

On that five hours walk, I came along a couple of beaches: Coogee Beach, Gordons Beach, Clovelly Beach, Nelson Beach, Tamarama and Mackenzies Beach and finally Bondi (“Bondhaih”) Beach. In fact, they all looked quite similar. On Coogee beach were a lot of mothers with their children, Nelson had some quite big waves and in Bondi surfers crowded the sea.

Coogee Beach

Amazing cliffs all the way

Don't look down, don't look down...

Look back

Surfers in the sea at Bondi

At Bondi I met with Daisy. We were room mates during my stay at the Chilli Blue hostel. Daisy is currently on a RTW (round the world) trip, and looking for a job in Sydney, but it’s hard to find anything without working/student visa. We spent a couple of nice hours in Bondi and enjoyed each other (that sounds nasty, in fact it wasn’t). In the evening we went out, which wasn’t that fun as Friday before, nevertheless we had some beers and a good time.

Then on Thursday, I didn’t made it to the Harbour Bridge for a climb. Instead I visited the National Maritime Museum, which I got a voucher for. That takes me to another point: If you’re planning to stay in Sydney for a few days, buy a Monorail day trip first. If you do so, you’ll get a nice ride with the Monorailand beside that, some nice vouchers, for example 20 % for the museum mentioned, 15 % for the Sydney Tower and some others.

National Maritime Museum, "HMAS Vampire" and a submarine

Me shooting the Sydney skyline

"HMAS Vampire" radar

Submarine torpedo loading room

Submarine machine room

Where I'd like to marry on sometime

Rest of the day I spent on Pitt Street again, watching people and listening to some musicians. Bought an album from Santos, a Melbourne based guitarist, fusing Flamenco, Latin and Jazz. Sounds like the Gypsy Kings. On my way home, the Chinese Massage Mafia (please don’t be offended, I’m just kidding) caught me. They’re just everywhere, both Asians and those tiny massage places. An Asian woman suddenly appeared and invited me:”come on, sit down, one minute for free…” Of course I did. “”Ooh you are tired, you are soo tired… what about neck massage, only 15 $”. Yeah, why not? It’s my last day. After that awsome massage I bought an extra back massage, both for 20 $ and half an hour, a pretty good deal.

The next day, Friday, I got up at 07:30 in the morning, went for breakfast at 08:00, bought my daily coffee-to-go next to the hostel at 09:00 and was picked up by the airport shuttle at 09:15. Two and half an hour later, the flight to Adelaide departured. Arrived at 2 pm local time, an hour later than expected. Bought another coffee, hopped on a taxi and finally arrived at 7 Paterson Road, Pooraka, South Australia 5095. So if anybody would like to send anything: that’s my new address for the next six months, hurray!

Sydney Update

So what’s going on in Sydney? Got into my new Hostel called Chili Blue. It’s quite cheap, maybe because I’m sharing room with six others. They’re all fine, two of them left today, people are coming and going. Most important: I slept well every up to now. Couldn’t manage to get breakfast last days, because I just woke up too early and couldn’t wait to get out.

On Sunday I went to Manly Beach. It’s pretty easy to get there. Just go to Circular Quay and take a ferry over to Manly. Then walk The Corso all the way down to the beach. I hung out there quite a long time, so that trip took me the whole day. Quite neat!

Ferry to Manly

Manly Beach

The other end of Manly Beach

Return ferry

Everybody just goes to Bondi Beach, so if you’re in Sydney, go to Manly too.

Next day I did a nice trip all the way into the Blue Mountains. For some reason, I got out far too early and had to wait for the next train, so the trip into the West took me about three hours, return about two hours. In short (’cause time’s running out on this workstation, just paid 5 bucks for 100 minutes): Great views, great walks, and the Hop-on-Hop-off Explorer bus is quite neat. You should bring plenty of time to see as much things as possible. For sure, if you arrive at Katoomba railway station, buy your Explorer ticket (about 50 $), hop off at point 9 and walk all the way down the Great Steps back to the Scenic View, where you get a lift 300 metres back up to another bus station.

Blue Mountains

The famous Three Sisters

Blue Mountain Rainforest

Today I climbed the Sydney Tower (OK, there’s a lift up for about 20 $). Can you figure out the Coca Cola sign somewhat in the middle of the picture? That’s Kings Cross, where I stay. Then saw that Monorail running through the city. So, back down to earth, bought a 10 $ ticket for a unlimited day ride, and that one really paid off. Hopped on about 10 times. It’s like a little rollercoaster. Did some people watching again on my favourite Pitt Street boulevard. Also walked through Darling Harbour. Lot’s of stores and restaurants.

Sydney Tower

Pitt Street

Sydney Skyline via Darling Harbour in the evening

Tomorrow: Bondi Beach!

Weekend pic:

Having fun with Conan and Miles

Arrived in Sydney

So here I am! After travelling about 40 hours (timeshift included), I finally arrived in Sydney and hey, I love it! I’m great, and here’s the whole story.

In general, I really do like flying around with airplanes. My first longer flight I was on took me to New York a few years ago. That was a nice shorttrip compared to going to Sydney. The plane took me from Vienna to London, where Helene, a friend of mine, and me were planning to meet each other, BUT: we didn’t realize that London Heathrow is that huge! My plane arrived at Terminal 5 at about 5 pm, and I had to go to Terminal 4 for my transfer flight to Singapore. Unfortunately we didn’t know where Helene’s plane was going to arrive, so it was like playing the lottery for me to go to the right Terminal and meet her. So instead of missing my transfer flight to Singapore because of not knowing exactly where she’ll be, I decided to directly go to Terminal 4, I’m sorry Lene

The transfer flight to Singapore was quite nice, I sat right to an Australian couple. The told me some nice places to visit and things to do. For example, they highly recommended to climb the harbour bridge, which is about 130 m high. It’ll cost me about 150 $ and your not allowed to take anything with you, including camera and mobile. Another thing they recommended was the fish market and the blue mountains.

In Singapore I had to get off the plane for a few hours. Singapore also has got a huge airport. You can walk half an hour straight forward and there are still new gates appearing. Somewhere I found an Internet place, just a hour before my transfer flight to Syndey departured. So I took the chance and did a reservation for the Chili Blue hostel in Kings Cross. I’m going to pay about 60 $ for five nights, that’s cheap. In fact I wasn’t able to do a reservation for Friday and yesterday, so I had to find another hostel for two nights on after my arrival.

Then on Friday morning, 0500 am, I finally arrived at Sydney airport. Watching Sydney city from high above sea level was great. Watching Singapore harbour from plane was even more interesting. There were literally hundreds of huge boats, and every boat looked like a candle with all the lights on. But back to Sydney. After my arrival I took the train to Sydney Central train station. It’s called Central, but in fact it’s not. But instead of taking a bus to the centre, I decided to walk all the way. The sun was rising, the air was fresh (it’s kind of Winter here), and it just felt good to explore that beautiful city which I’ve been loving now since I got off the train at Central. So I went down the road for about three hours, watching this building, buying that coffee and already saw a lot of things like the St Marys Cathedral and of course the Opera house. The weather was great, so I kept on walking through the Royal Botanic Gardens watching Cacadoos and Bats hanging off the trees. With going to my hostel in mind, I underestimated the walking distance through the Gardens, so it took me another two hours until I finally got to Victoria Street, Kings Cross. I found a nice hostel just right to Chili Blue Hostel, and checked in for two nights and 48 $.

Although my rooms mates were both kind of strange, I liked them. With one of them, Christian, a guy originally from Hamburg, I went out on Friday night and we both had so much fun. We met some Aussies, Conan and Miles, and we really enjoyed drinking and laughing with them. They were real fun, we exchanged phone numbers and will maybe meet again for a drink on the airport when I get home in February. Conan got married a few months ago, but now he really dislikes his wife and they’re already planning to divorce. On the other hand, Miles is not married yet, but he’s already got some children. Then I met this guy who’s name I can’t recall. He’s a window cleaner, and planning to do the great buildings some time. Until then, he’s planting Marihuana and would like to do big business with that. Nice and strange guy.

I really got hammered, and don’t know when I finally got home Saturday morning. Miles was really nice and showed me all the way back to Victoria Street. Then I slept until three in the afternoon. Yesterday I didn’t really do much, just hanging around in the city, eating really, really tasty burgers at Burgerfuel and doing some people watching. Went to bed at 9 pm, and got up today at seven for a minimalistic breakfast, which is included with my stay.

Right now, I’m about to check out in a few minutes, and head for the Chili Blue hostel a few metres down the road. Afterwards, I’lll go to Manly Beach by ferry and enjoy a great Sunday afternoon. Pictures will follow.

Love you all!