Sydney: Who ate all the cake!!

Tuesday

Our coach through to Sydney wasn't until mid afternoon, so we had a bit of time to kill on our last morning in Brisbane. After breakfast we walked to the shop, trying our best to avoid the on and off showers that were tolling across the city. We didn't quite achieve it and got a bit of a rinse on the way down. As ever, we were stocking up on snacks and treats for the overnight bus ride. The rain had passed by the time we walked back up to the hostel. After checking out of our room, we thought we'd utilise the hostels wifi, kitchen and rain protection. So we sat in the kitchen, prepping our sandwiches for lunch and dinner, got a blog and some photos up and watched the rain pass by. We picked a time to walk to the bus station that our weather app told us would be rain free. For once it was correct too and we made it with the only moisture coming from the sweat. It was still humid and we were desperately hoping that by the time we got to Sydney, we would have lost that and there would be a cool harbour breeze. We had a bit of a wait in the bus station, watching people come and go to various destinations but soon it was time for us to head off too. We queued for the coach and found our usual seats free, so we took them. The bus was pretty packed out but from what we could hear, the majority of people on board were going to Surfers Paradise, which was just a couple of hours out from Brisbane, so we were expecting it to thin out a bit. As expected, the bus emptied out quite a bit and the gaps weren't really filled by anyone getting on. On we went, into the night and across the border of Queensland and New South Wales. Here, we miraculously went another hour ahead, despite heading south, rather than east or west. This is because Queensland doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time. We were now 11 hours ahead of home, so when we were getting up for our day, our families would just be heading off for bed. We got as much sleep as we could on the bus, which isn't easy, as it's fairly cramped and quite bumpy.

Wednesday

We had an early arrival time in Sydney and we woke up with about an hour remaining. We were crawling through the Sydney suburbs from what we could guess. We heard over the radio that there had been a pretty bad motorbike crash near the Sydney Harbour Bridge, so we assumed that was what was causing the issues. Eventually, the driver came across the tannoy and said that we were about 10 minutes away from the bus stop. We passed the accident just before we got onto the bridge and it was surrounded by emergency vehicles. From what we could gather, there had been no fatalities. We drove across the bridge, which didn't give as good a views of the Opera house and harbour as we had been expecting but we were fairly sure we'd be heading back there for a better look. The bus station was conveniently located outside the train station, which was in turn, conveniently located on the same road as our hostel. We didn't really have a clue in what direction though but stumbled across it within 5 minutes and got rid of our bags. We were far too early to check in so we had to get out and about in Sydney to pass the time. Attached to the hostel was a small cafe, so we got a coffee each and some cake for breakfast and studied the map we had been given. We weren't really in a state to do proper touristy things today after the bus ride, so we came up with something else to pass the time. Charlotte's birthday was coming up on Saturday and I had promised I'd get her a new backpack. The one she had brought with her was pretty worn out, as she had used it since her schooldays. Also, our shoes had developed a bit of an odour too after constant wear and getting soaking wet on more than one occasion, so we were on the lookout for a new pair each. Charlotte was desperate, as she'd thrown hers away in Brisbane and needed some for Tasmania. After our breakfast, we started walking the streets of Sydney, keeping an eye out for outdoor clothing shops. We found a shopping centre but it had none of the shops we were after. What it did have though, was free wifi. After a quick google, I found there was a North Face straight up the road we were staying on. We'd generally associate The North Face with being expensive but we thought we'd check it out just in case there was a sale on. Our map made the walk look like nothing but it was a fair old trek to reach it. The shop was deserted but we went in and had a look around. A search of the bags brought up nothing Charlotte fancied, so we hunted down the shoes. I found some I liked that were in the sale but as ever they didn't have them in my size. The assistant gave another store in the suburbs a ring to see if they had some on hand, which they did, so we said we'd pop out on the train and have a look. For Charlotte, similar to the bags, there were no shoes to her taste, or within our price range. We found the station, got our ticket and then headed to Bondi Junction. It was only a 10 minute trip and the shopping centre the shop was in was hard to miss coming out the station. I didn't get the shoes after a second look, I didn't want to get the first ones we found, so we decided to wander round to see if there were any other options. There was a couple outside of the centre but nothing jumped out. The bag search wasn't coming on very well either. We asked in a Mountain Designs shop if they had a shop in central Sydney. He said they did and then proceeded to rattle off a number of similar shops that were on the same road. We decided to forget about looking in Bondi Junction and head back to Sydney. To make the most of the train fare though, we stopped off for lunch and got ourselves a Schnitzel sandwich each. When we got back to Sydney, rather than go straight for the shops, we walked back to the hostel and checked in to our room. We had a private room, that consisted of a single bunk bed and a t.v. After a bit of a rest, we were surprised to see that it was still only 3 o'clock, it felt like we had been up for days. We found out where the shops were and headed off, desperately hoping that we'd find atleast a bag. The man from Bondi Junction was right, there were more than a few outdoor clothes shops in this part of Sydney. In Bangkok, there had been a road completely lined with mechanics, this wasn't dissimilar to that. There were about 7 in a row on one side of the road and a couple on the opposite side. I won't bore you with the finer details but we went into every single one of them and came out with absolutely nothing to show for it. It had taken us a couple of hours and by the end we were pretty tired. We were just resigning ourselves to defeat and starting the walk home when we came across another one, not on the outdoor clothing road, called Patagonia. We weren't getting our hopes up but thought we might as well give it a whirl. Turns out, that was the best decision we had made all day. Charlotte found a bag that she liked and it was reasonably priced compared to others we had seen elsewhere, so we picked it up. After the effort we put in to the day it was a relief to be heading home with something to show for it. We stopped at the supermarket along the way, picking up some burgers and some salad for dinner. Charlotte even used her new bag to carry most of the food home. We got our first taste of the new kitchen when cooking them up and we weren't impressed. It was incredibly busy, filthy and filled with the most impatient people in the world. Before we'd even finished using the hob, someone was pushing us off to try and get on it.

Thursday

When we are in a private room, we tend to sleep in a bit more than in a dorm. We weren't in a rush this morning but were pretty clear with what we wanted to do. The 2 things you think of when Sydney is mentioned are the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Hadbour Bridge. That was pretty much our plan. They've been very conveniently built in the same location, so you don't have to trudge miles across the city to see them both. After getting our breakfast in the manic kitchen, we stared walking, we knew it would be quite a long walk but we had the time and it was a lovely day, so it seemed like a better option than getting a train. Along the way we got to walk through Hyde park too. It's not quite as big as London's but it was still a pleasant departure from the busy city streets. The only problem we had was around the ring pool at the ANZAC memorial was a huge amount of fencing for works. This stopped us being able to take a good photo and could be added to our enormous list of scaffolding/work on landmarks. We left it behind and carried on through the park. There wasn't much to see until the end when St.Mary's cathedral loomed out from behind the trees. It was an impressive sight, a huge building, right in the centre on the city. We admired it for a short while and then moved along. Passing statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, we walked straight down Macquarie Street to meet the harbour. We entered a pedestrianised area between the opera house and the harbour bridge. It wasn't too busy, only hordes of Chinese rushing around in tour groups and the odd spattering of other tourists. There was a pathway around the outside of the opera house, so we headed round that way first. From here we could get views across the harbour to the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and we snapped a few photos to add to the collection. We carried on round, completing the circuit round the opera house and decided to carry on to Farm Cove. This was inside the botanical gardens but for now, we were heading to the next head of land. The small peninsular of land was called Mrs.Macquarie's Point and there was also a landmark there called Mrs.Macquarie's Chair. From here we could see both the harbour bridge and the opera house and get them in a single frame of a photo.  We wandered around here for a little while and eventually found Mrs.Macquarie's Seat. Mrs.Macquarie was the wife of a governor of New South Wales from the early 19th century. It is said that she used to sit on the seat and watch for ships and enjoy panoramic views of Sydney Harbour. Obviously, the harbour is slightly different now to what it was like in her day but we sat and enjoyed it for her anyway. The road leading to the peninsular is also called Mrs.Macquarie's Road, so she did pretty well for herself as far as a having things named for her. After we'd had our fill of everything Mrs.Macquarie, we started walking back in the direction of the opera house. Along the way we took a bit of a detour through the Royal Botanic Gardens, in search of some food. We came across the Gardens' café and being so desperate for some food, we had to go there. We both ordered some fish and chips, which also came with a salad. The salad seemed to solely consist of cherry tomatoes though as we both had loads on our plates. We still ate them all, bearing in mind how much it cost us. Our lunch was briefly interrupted when an Australian White Ibis snuck into the cafe and started helping itself to any morsels of food that had been left on the table. Our entertainment was ended though when a waiter chased him out. After our lunch we visited the Gardens gift shop, just for something to do. The first thing we saw when we walked in was a wall full of tomato seeds. We also found out that there was some form of tomato festival (sounds like somewhere my mum and dad would visit after going to the Findon Sheep Festival!) going on at the time, so that may have accounted for the tomato overdose we had just endured. We didn't get anything from the shop, so we headed out  back to the opera house. Just across from the opera house, moored up at the International cruise passenger terminal, was the Queen Mary 2. We felt pretty lucky that we were in the same place as it but after a quick google, we found that Sydney is its regular harbour during the Southern Hemispheres summer, so the privilege wore off pretty quickly. Having seen what we came to see, we just started walking along the harbour edge, towards the bridge. We passed Circular Quay, which seemed to be the hub for all ferry transportation around the harbour to the surrounding suburbs and was really busy. All the while we were keeping an eye out for a pin badge but nothing had caught our eye yet. After Circular Quay we followed the shoreline round, eventually passing under the harbour bridge. Along the way we saw a number of groups of Chinese people, 2 of which were dressed in full wedding attire, the man suited and booted and the lady in a wedding dress, being followed round by a group of about 3 others taking professional photos of them. We'd seen it in a number of other places along the way too, Red Square in Moscow is the one that immediately springs to mind. It didn't seem crazy until under the harbour bridge in Sydney though, where there were so many groups doing it. We guessed they were either genuinely posing for their wedding photos or posing for a wedding magazine.  We promised ourselves that we'd Google it when we got back to the hostel to see what it was all about. We didn't though, we completely forgot, as we tend to do with everything we say that we'll look up when we get back. So I looked it up while writing this blog and found a BBC article on it. Apparently, it is traditional for Chinese couple to have their wedding photos taken before the wedding, so they can be shared with the guests on the big day. There is also a growing trend amongst young couples of having their wedding photos taken overseas, often in front of famous landmarks. We continued round scratching our heads. The bridge loomed over us while we passed underneath and we headed on. We got slightly lost at this point not really sure what direction we were or were wanting to head in. There were a few helpful maps dotted around which got us back on track, just before we passed a random car in the middle of a roundabout with a large rock with a drawn on face, dropped on top of it. We took it as modern art and left it behind. We were heading for an area of Sydney called The Rocks. The only thing we knew was there was a souvenir shop but we had absolutely no idea where a bouts it was. Unbelievably, it was along the first road, inside the first building we found when we got to the area and we actually managed to get a pin badge for our troubles, so we were pretty pleased with the lack of effort needed after a long day walking. We also picked Charlotte's brother up a little pressie that she was planning to send back to him while we were in Sydney. We decided now was a good time to start heading back to the hostel. With everything being miles away in Sydney, we still had a 40 minute walk a head of us and there seemed to be a steep hill to climb around every corner. Rather that take boring old Pitt Street back to our hostel, we opted for a change of scenery and headed straight down George Street instead. We were more than slightly annoyed when we found it lined with souvenir shops and seemed to be the happening place in Sydney. We quickly got over it though and carried on home via the supermarket. We cooked ourselves up some chilli for dinner and had leftover salad in attempt to spend as little time in the kitchen as we could possibly manage.

                                     

                                             

Friday

After a busy day the day before, we woke up with very little enthusiasm. We reckon it was due to the rapidly approaching end of the initial 9 months travelling, so we were almost entering holiday mode. With Tasmania still to come, we didn't really want to slip so soon, so we decided to force ourselves out and about, even if it was for just a couple of hours. After our breakfast, we procrastinated in the room for a while, until we got angry with ourselves. Having said that, we had set this time aside to try and book tickets for an Aussie Rules Football game while we were in Melbourne, and we did achieve that. Having visited 3 of the 5 Ashes venues around Australia, we'd be going to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the footy, so we thought we'd better get to the Sydney Cricket Ground while we were in town. After a quick map check, we found it was about a half an hour walk from our hostel, so we deemed this a perfect excuse to get ourselves out the room. Along the way we picked up a small picnic, in the hope that there would be a park nearby where we could eat it. The walk may have looked easy on the flat map but it didn't show that it was in fact up an incredibly steep hill for most of the way. The hill did mean that we had earned the lunch by the time we made it though. We found Moore Park not far from the stadium and decided we'd have the picnic there. We ate while trying to dodge the thousands of ants that were immediately attracted to us. Because of the ants, we had to rush ourselves and couldn't really sit and enjoy the park. We crossed a main road and then walked down towards the stadium. The area seemed to be an entire sporting complex as it not only contained the SCG but also the Allianz Stadium and a number of practice pitches. Unfortunately, like the WACA ground in Perth, it was all closed off and locked up and we couldn't really see much of the ground. We were still happy to be out of the room for an afternoon though. We started heading back towards the hostel and we passed over a bridge that was for fans on a match day. While we were crossing a group of men came out and started kicking a ball around on an Aussie Rules pitch. They seemed to have a few coaches with them, so we did think they may have been from Sydney Swans Football Club, as in Aussie Rules Football, as they play at the SCG during the season, we left them to their training and headed back home. The walk was much easier this time round, as we were going down the steep hill rather than struggling up it. To save a long walk to the supermarket, we picked up our dinner from the same place we had got our lunch from and then did some admin around the hostel for the remainder of the evening. We had leftover chilli and salad for dinner, so I'm not sure what we actually picked up from the supermarket, as I can't actually remember.

Saturday

Today was Charlotte's 23rd birthday. Charlotte's mum had told her that there was a parcel being delivered to the hostel between 8 and 3 but when we checked just before heading out for the day the receptionist had nothing. It shrugged, knowing that it would definitely be there by the time we got back we had our flip flops on, towels in the bag and the sun lotion at the ready, as we were heading to world famous Bondi Beach, for a relaxing day in the sun. This would probably be the warmest birthday Charlotte would ever have, as Marchs at home aren't renowned for being hot. To get to Bondi Beach was a little awkward. We had to get a train from the central station out to Bondi junction, where we had searched for bags and shoes a few days earlier, and from there we needed to hop on a bus out to Bondi beach. We figured the train part would be easy peasy as our hostel was right next door. We found the main concourse, managed to purchase a ticket and then got stuck. We needed to find platform number 24A. From where we were, we could only see about 8. We decided to save the hassle of finding it ourselves and asked a passing worker instead. The instructions he gave us were rather complicated but we followed them the best we could. They were something like "across the concourse, down the stairs, turn left, follow the corridor, turn right, go down the 4 flights of stairs and bobs your uncle. We set off at a pace resigning ourselves to the fact we wouldn't be getting on the train departing in 2 minutes time. By the time we got to the platform slightly out of puff, the train hadn't even arrived yet, so we didn't have to wait 20 minutes for the next train. We boarded and found a seat. The journey was just a repeat of Wednesday's journey, so we knew where we were going when we got off the train. We had read that the buses out to Bondi beach got busy but we were expecting them to be packed to the rafters. We bought our ticket for a complicated machine and joined a queue. Well I say queue, it was more like a crowd of people waiting for someone to come on stage at a concert. We didn't make the first bus as most of the room was taken up by people with surf boards. Everyone else who didn't make the first one, rushed up to the next bus stop in order to best the rush for the next one but we stayed where we were. When we saw the next bus pull up to the other bus stop we were pretty pleased we had stayed. Those buses came from elsewhere, so they were already half full. When the third bus pulled up, we were pretty much at the front of the queue and managed to get a seat together.  It was only a 10 minute drive or so down the road, so it may have been better walking. The problem we have with us routes we don't know is we think we'll never know where we want to get off. We needn't have worried about that problem with this one. We could see the curving sands of Bondi beach long before we got to the bus stop the entire bus got off at. We headed straight for the sand and found an empty spot to spread our towels out and catch the sun. I wouldn't be surprised if it's busy everyday but with it being a Saturday, the kids were off school and there were lots of families around. We sat on the beach for a couple of hours, crimping nicely in the hot Sydney sun. The water seemed to be taken up entirely by groups learning to surf but they never really seemed to get very far. We were put off swimming for that reason and that the waves were pretty high. There's even a TV show out here called 'Bondi Rescue' (it may have made its way to ITV2 by now), which follows the jobs of the lifeguards on duty at Bondi beach, which doesn't fill you with confidence that it's a safe place to swim. We were pretty happy cooking and people watching though. After a couple of hours we collected our things up, dusted about 1% of the sand from our bodies and headed off to find some food and drink. Along the way we came across a shower, which helped us get a tiny bit more sand off but there was something about the Bondi sand that just seemed extra sticky. The parade of shops along the seafront were well set back from the beach and they are up a hill, so when stood up the top, you can see the whole beach and surrounds. We picked up a drink first and then walked up and down a few times trying to decide what we wanted to eat. It was Charlotte's birthday, so I deemed it was her decision but that didn't go down really well. Eventually, we came to an agreement. We were by the beach, so we'd get some fish and chips. We found a chippy that had the word "authentic" printed everywhere, so we thought it would be pretty authentic. We ordered and were given a small flashing device that would buzz when our food was ready. We found a seat out the front to sit and enjoy the view while waiting for our food. It took about 10 minutes and Charlotte popped in to fetch it. With her pie and my battered sausage, she brought out the largest portion of chips I had ever seen in my life. Charlotte hadn't fancied any and had just wanted the lie, but I said I was never going to get through them all on my own. She even tried one with vinegar on (she doesn't (didn't) like vinegar) and she really enjoyed it, going back for more and more. After salt and vinegar crisps and now vinegar, I just needed to get her liking pickled onions! We finished off the lifetime supply of chips and were surprised to see that it was nearly 5 o'clock, we'd had a really late lunch. After the chip feast, we were wandering along the parade and just couldn't resist the temptation of getting a Ben and Jerry's ice cream each. It was Charlotte's birthday, so why not! We decided it was time to start heading home and see what the mystery parcel may be. Rather than cram on to the bus again, we opted to walk, as it was a beautiful warm evening. The entire time we were walking, we only saw one bus pass us anyway. To save a hike the other side, we went to the supermarket in Bondi junction, picking up the things we needed for dinner and then hopped on the train back to Sydney central. As soon as we walked back in the hostel, we approached the desk and asked about a parcel delivery, to which they said nothing had been silvered all day as they had been on the desk. We rolled our eyes and trudged to our room, slightly disappointed. Charlotte got in contact with her mum who replied saying she had confirmation form the company that it had been delivered. So off we went back down to the reception for answers. The man behind the desk saw us coming and having had a phone call from Charlotte's mum, was a little bit red faced. He said he had a good reason he couldn't find the parcel, to which I replied it had best be good. It was good to be fair to the guy. It had been tucked away in the fridge for safe keeping as it was a cake, with cream in it and fresh fruit on top. We thanked the guy and went back to the slowest lifts in the world to get back to our room. When we got back in, I've never seen Charlotte so happy and excited. I was impressed she held herself back and didn't scoff the entire cake there and then. Despite being full from our fish and chips, we decided to head down to the kitchen and cut ourselves a piece each now. After having a small slice each, we found it just too delicious not to have another, slightly larger slice. When we were done, half the cake was gone in no time at all, so we tucked it away in the fridge to finish later. For the rest of the evening, Charlotte had a grin a mile wide. Somehow, we even managed to plonk dinner on top of the pie/sausage and chips and the cake but we couldn't manage any more of the cake, so it would just have to wait until the next day.

Sunday

This was our final day in Sydney and we didn't really have any plans for it. After looking at the map over breakfast Charlotte said she fancied popping to the botanical gardens again as we didn't really look around when we had visited a few days before. Rather than walk straight there along a straight road, we thought we'd take the scenic route. To give ourselves a little sugar boost before heading out, we devoured the remainder of the cake whilst standing in the kitchen. We'd only gone in there to fill our water bottles up!