March 14 - 15, 2013-Cairns and Sydney, Australia
I had to be checked out by 9:30am so I gathered all my stuff and headed to check out the town. My first stop was to Marta's to pick up the stuff I had left overnight at her place and then out for breakfast. Now, I had heard Australia was expensive but last night and this morning were the first times I had really seen it. The beers were $6-8, coffee, just normal coffee was $4.50, and breakfast with bacon (not real bacon but slice of ham like bacon) eggs, and toast was a whopping $18!!!! Thank goodness I am leaving this country soon. I might go bankrupt!
I wandered around shore after breakfast and sat at a little cafe. I also ran into the place where all the giant bats sleep during the day. This too is right in the middle of town. It was crazy! The photos where in the previous post.
At 2 I caught the shuttle to the airport and boarded my plane to Sydney. I got in around 9:30, checked into my hostel for the night and went to bed. I planned for a full day of sightseeing tomorrow!
I left my bag with reception and caught the bus towards Circular Quay on the harbor in Sydney proper. It was a 45 minute ride where I got off and walked around a bit. I walked to see the Sydney opera house and over to see up close the Sydney harbour bridge. A gentlemen in the airport the day before suggested with one day in Sydney a Harbour Cruise would be a good option to see a lot and hear some history. And that's what I did, I booked a lunch cruise on a tall ship. The ship was from the late 1800's and had been maintained for over a century and was now a tourist cruise boat. It has the huge masts and sails and a crew that opened and closed the sails when need be. It also had an engine. I'm sure that wasn't original to the ship. :-)
The cruise took us through the harbor. We passed close to the Opera House and under the harbor bridge and old fort turned museum in the middle of the water. At 1pm everyday they fire a cannon from the fort so every one's watches are on the same time. This tradition goes way back. They also served tasty finger foods all throughout the boat trip. I got to meet some folks from Oregon and Texas!
After the cruise I took the bus back to my part of town, walked along the beach a bit and then took a cab back to the airport to catch my plane to Auckland, New Zealand.
Jordan, looks like Australia was awesome! I was there in 2008! I loved seeing the opera house, and we actually walked on the bridge in your picture (you can see people on top of it in your picture..it was really windy!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, is that Bondi Beach? If so, we stayed in the hostel that is in your last picture. It was the right next to the white building you can see in the distance, I think it was called Noah's Backpackers or something like that.
So, glad to see you got to see the bridge and opera house, we toured the harbour as well and went to a zoo across the water and passed by the fort you mentioned!