Seeing Sydney's Sights

Part one anyway. We have seen the two most famous sights today.

We landed at about 10 and got our bags easy enough. No customs for domestic flights. We got the train to central station and then changed to go Kings Cross. Not the one in London of course. As I was following the signs round the stations I kept thinking how helpful it was that all the signs were in English, forgetting that of course they would be as Australia is an English speaking country. It seems strange that I'm in a foreign country but the language is the same.

We found the hostel very easily on a street full of hostels and dropped off our bags in a heaving luggage room and set off just on a wander round, just as it started to rain. We walked round towards the river and ended up going through some beautiful botanical gardens. We wandered through them to the edge of the harbour and there in front of us lay the opera house and the harbour bridge. It was good to see them in person but the opera house was a bit smaller than expected. Lauren didn't seem particularly impressed either. It's not as white as the pictures would have you believe. It looks like it needs a bit of a polish. We took some selfies anyway (obviously!) and continued on our wander, off towards the bridge.

Whilst out walking we saw some strange birds with big beaks. They looked real weird. And they were everywhere.  Just wandering round, scared of nobody and nothing, looking for food presumably. 

On the way to the bridge we found an information centre place and we spoke to a woman there called Guila  (Julia with a 'G') and she basically planned mine and Lauren's whole trip for us and even wrote it down on a week planner. All the activities discussed are very expensive so we have dedicated tonight to discussing and seeing what to do. Apparently it's the summer holidays here at the moment so we need to book fast!

After the information centre we walked halfway over the bridge and back. It is a pretty big bridge. We took some more photos and headed back towards the opera house for food. Then we headed back through the botanical gardens to check in at the hostel and have a quiet night in and very importantly, a shower, as we were both absolutely shattered.

The hostel is OK from what we've seen so far. We're in a four bed room despite booking a six and there's lockers and a big mirror. It's pretty noisy though as it backs out onto the street. Both Lauren and I had showers and now we're lying on our beds trying not to fall asleep too early in order to sleep well tonight. It's not going well; we were both just asleep.

Tomorrow we are going to do the free walking tour in the morning. Hopefully we will be a lot less tired after a proper nights sleep actually lying down.