We were in Sydney for a couple of days before and after we were in Melbourne: our flight in and out of Australia was from Sydney airport. We travelled between Sydney and Melbourne by train – an astounding 11 hour journey. Yes, 11 hours! Looking at the map of Australia, Sydney and Melbourne do not look 11 hours apart but trust me, they are.
This train journey gave a great opportunity to see the outbacks of Australia but after an hour, it was more of the same, and the same, and the….ok, you get the gist! Doing this journey again to go back to Sydney left us rather unenthusiastic and I’m sure it felt twice as long because it was quite simply, boring. Before anyone suggests otherwise, it’s not that I don’t appreciate beautiful scenery or don’t appreciate nature, believe me, there was nothing to see. Taking 11 hours to get from one city to the next in one country is ridiculous – it only took 13 hours to get to Sydney from blinking San Francisco, USA. It’s bonkers!! I guess this proves just how big a country Australia really is.
Anyhow, we got back to Sydney eventually. For someone who is not keen on the city, I found Sydney to be amazing. There is plenty to do and we did not have time to do everything. It was actually warmer than Melbourne, especially during the night. We stayed at Wanderers on Kent Hostel both times we were there. This hostel did not have the same atmosphere as The Market Inn but it was nice. Actually, I think it was bigger, so came across as more of a hotel than a hostel.
One great attraction is Sydney Harbour. From there you can see the Opera House as well as being rather close to other attractions. We caught a ferry from Sydney Harbour to Taronga Zoo. The shopping centre was just a few yards away from the harbour. We also went to Darling Harbour and visited the aquarium.
Taronga zoo was fabulous. We finally got close to koala bears and kangaroos. I seem to remember we had some sort of VIP access because we had this old man, Chris, and a woman showing us around the zoo and taking us into places other visitors didn’t have access to. We couldn’t understand half of what they said and spent the entire tour behaving like nodding dogs! We got the chance to stroke and feed a kangaroo – fantastic!! We also had the opportunity to handle a possum and a lizard. Oh, the lizard is another story! After being completely reluctant, I held the lizard totally unaware they bite. Chris did tell us but of course, we didn’t know what the heck he was babbling on about. I just thought he was giving us some boring facts about lizards. Rob and Jon also held the lizard, stroking it without taking any care. The lizard must’ve liked it because it didn’t attack them. We only found out they bite when we got home and watched the video we made and had subtitled on our return. When watching it back the first time, we were gobsmacked to read Chris saying “be careful, these lizards bite”. The joys of being Deaf! As for the koala bears, I found them rather boring. I didn’t get to hold one like I hoped because they all seemed to be asleep. They’re such lazy buggers – it turns out they sleep about 22 hours a day. What is the point in that?!
The aquarium, on the other hand, was pretty cool but apart from seeing huge sharks, I don’t think there were any significant differences to the aquariums you get in the UK. We ended our visit in Australia by visiting Queen Victoria Hyde Park; a gorgeous place with water features and aboriginal art carved in wood. I’m sure there is more to it than that, but I simply don’t remember.
Tags: Australia