Sydney Day 1: The Wonderful City

Started off the day with reorganizing my suitcase. It has been an absolute mess since Alice Springs. Also put my second (and last) load of clothes into the washing machine. Believe it or not, the pants –that were more red than blue after the Red Centertrip– are now as good as new!! Yay!! Glad that it won’t be necessary for me to buy a pair of new pants :D.

After I reorganized my suitcase and done my laundry, I decided not to go to Manly for a couple of hours (the original plan). Instead, I thought it would be wiser to first do some grocery shopping. Very nice plus: on my way to the grocery store, I would pass the Capitol Theater. In case you didn’t know, this is the theater where Mary Poppins has been playing since its arrival in Sydney in May :).

I was able to walk, almost entirely, around the Capitol Theater (which would be impossible to do when you are in a city like New York, where most theaters are cramped together). Took some pictures. And very important, found the location of the stage door ;). Hopefully that knowledge will come in handy tomorrow evening lol.

Enough about the Capitol Theater (for now at least :P). Still had to do my grocery shopping. Which I eventually did, went to a big Coles supermarket. And found all the things that I was looking for. And more, on my way out of the supermarket my attention was drawn towards a bakery. This bakery was selling delicious looking chocolate cakes in the form of dogs. Very funny! I don’t think I have ever seen such a cake before.

On my return to the hostel, I made a quick lunch. I then took a free (green colored) bus to Circular Quay (pronounced as Key). This bus runs through the Sydney city center during the day and it dropped me off close to the starting point of the walking tour. It turned out that there were only two people for the afternoon walking tour, a girl from Canada and myself. Even with so few participants in the walking tour, the guide was very enthusiastic. He really made the walking tour fun and interesting for us. He showed us the place where the first Englishman set foot on the Australian mainland in the 1800s. This place is now a bus stop :D.

After that, we passed other interesting areas/sights in Sydney: the Custom House, the Rocks ( the Sydney Harbour YHA, where I will be staying in October, is located in this part of Sydney), the Sydney Tower, Hyde Park, the Rum Hospital(paid for, not through money, but through rum), the Post Office, the place where the first Australian was hanged and several interesting museums. We also walked a bit in the lovely Botanical Gardens, where I had my picture taken with a wild Kakatoo (note to self: have to do a full tour through the gardens when I return to Sydney in October).The tour ended at the Harbour, with a clear view of two of Sydney’s icons: the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Wow!! Stayed at the Harbour for a little while longer, just enjoying the view.

Then I decided that, since I didn’t go running today, I needed some more exercise (for me: no running means more walking, need to stay fit). I therefore walked back from the Harbour to the hostel. Nice couple of kilometers. On the way back to the hostel, I stopped at the gigantic Woolworth for some fruit (usually they sell reasonably priced strawberries there, wanted strawberries for dessert).

Back at the hostel, I warmed up yesterday’s meal and added some salad. The strawberries are still waiting for me :).

I am planning to get up early tomorrow morning to take the ferry to Manly. Hope the weather is at least a little bit decent. Walk along the Manly coast line will be about 10 km. After the walk, I will take the bus back to Sydney. Depending on the time, I will either get out before the Harbour Bridge (and enter Sydney on foot) or I will take the bus straight back to my hostel. Planning to have plenty of time to prepare myself for Mary Poppins :P. I keep telling myself that the show will be so-so and that -most important off all- Philip Quast won’t be performing. Just don’t want to get my hopes up….

Will try to post another blog tomorrow afternoon, but I am not sure if I will have any inspiration. Let’s just wait and see.