Sydney: Part 1

I finally got everything up and running, albeit slowly, but hey whatever works!  Come see Sydney with me!

We arrived late on December 2 and here's the view from the plane:

Got SIM cards for our phones, some cash and took a cab ($60 for like 15 minutes!) to our hostel:

It was above Bar Century, a smelly, cheap hole-in-the-wall.  However, at $25 each/night, it was the cheapest hostel I could find on short notice.  

Here's some coins:

They all have Queen Elizabeth's face on them and the 50 cent piece is by far the biggest.  There's a 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 dollar and 2 dollar.  I liked not having to deal with coins in Bali, but now we've already got quite a pile.

If you couldn't tell by now, Australia (especially Sydney) is an expensive place.  We're talking VERY expensive.  Although, I'm quoting all prices in Australian dollars, which are worth a little less than U.S. Dollars.  One Australian Dollar is about $0.73 U.S.  So, cut everything by about a third, but it's still pricey because they just don't have many budget options like they do in The States.

We tried to sleep, but didn't until about 5am because of the jet lag and the time difference.  We ended up sleeping in late and getting a late start, but we still got a lot done.

My main goals for today were: Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, Royal Botanical Gardens and Manly Beach.  I also wanted to see Bondi Beach (pronounced: Bon-dye), but we were saving that for another day.  The best way to see most of these sights was to get to Circular Quay (pronounced: key) and take a ferry.  Me and boats are best buds, so I'm in!

It was about a 30 minute walk, but we weren't about to pay for another cab, so off we went.  Most places in the city are reachable by walking (Thank God!), if you're willing to do so.  Traffic seemed pretty heavy at times and there's no parking anywhere, so driving's out.  The buses and trains aren't all that cheap, so that's out.  Walking it is!  Remember: walking is always the best way to see a city!
We were told by many people that Australia gets very, extremely hot in summer (which is now), but so far, we've lucked out!  The weather has been about 70 degrees with a perfect breeze.  Great for walking and exploring!  We are bracing ourselves for that blistering heat to hit us any time now, but so far so good!

Anyway, here's what we saw on the way.  Random clock tower building (reminds me of Back To The Future):

This was called the Queen Victoria Building (I think it's a shopping plaza):

Sydney Tower Eye and Skywalk:

You can pay (probably your first born child) to go up to the top and have a look around.

We stopped at this food court near Westfield Mall to get some "cheap" grub:

For $8, this rice and chicken bowl was it:

$8 is really cheap, as it's seemingly impossible to find a $5 footlong or a $1 menu, even a bottle of water costs at least $2.  So for the next few days, we're not worrying about healthy, we're going cheap.  It honestly sucks, but it's the reality of traveling on a budget.  A normal, sit-down meal is on average $20/person, and I'm talking like a Chevy's or Applebee's type establishment.  We're not even gonna go into the fancier stuff, my head will explode.

Anyway, after stuffing ourselves full of reasonably priced chicken, we stopped and listened to this guy awhile:

and checked out this artist:

The city is so beautiful, it reminds me A LOT of San Francisco.

I absolutely love being somewhere that celebrates Christmas:

Don't get me wrong, Thailand was putting up a ton of festive lights right before we left, but I think it was more for New Year's than Christmas.  I just love the smell of Christmas spirit!

We finally got to Circular Quay (remember pronounced: key), right near the water and there's the Sydney Harbor Bridge on the left:

Don't worry, I got some much better shots.

Let's get on the ferry!

Really easy and actually not all that expensive (about $30 for both of us round trip).

That iconic view of the Sydney Opera House is from the water, but I'll admit the sun was not cooperating, so it was impossible to get a picture of us in front of it.  Either our faces were dark, or the opera house was so white you couldn't even see it.  I really need photography lessons!

We were able to get a couple individually:

and one from the front:

Yay!  Opera House!

Sydney Harbor Bridge:

Here they are together:

The ferry ride was gorgeous!  

About 30 minutes later, we made it to Manly Beach:

We walked through this idyllic, small town until we got to the water:

The beaches around here are perfect for surfers because the waves are ever-present.  Watch out for sharks though!  Some beaches have a shark net (this was on the other side of Manly-where we caught the ferry):

We only stayed in Manly for a brief moment, just to see the sights and were back on the next ferry.  View on the way back:

We actually got to go under the bridge because we had to make room for this bad boy to pass:

This is our attempt to get the pic with the opera house:

Unsuccessful!

We walked from Circular Quay to the Sydney Opera House and got to actually walk all the way up to it.  It's an actual opera house with shows, so lots of people were dressed up to see a show (I looked online and the cheapest tickets I could find were $150...yikes!).  There's also a restaurant under one of the shells.

Stunning!
Here's our good shot:

Woo Hoo!  We got one!!!

Across from the opera house is the Royal Botanical Garden, so we took a stroll through the gardens before the sun went down:

So cool:

We left the gardens and kept on walking through the city.  This was the Conservatorium of Music:

Yay!  Happy Christmas!

Library:

Say what??

Hospital:

Legend says if you put a donation into the fountain and rub the pig nose, you will be endowed with good fortune.  We could definitely use a small fortune if we're going to be staying in Sydney much longer, so we went for it!

I forgot what this building was, I think it might still be part of the hospital?

Here's the Skywalk again:

 We walked all the way to Hyde Park, where the St. Mary's Cathedral is:

and this lovely fountain:

It reminded me of Central park in NYC:

We backtracked and saw all the sights at night.  Here's the Westfield Mall area:

The Marty McFly Clock Tower (yes, I named it for them, you're welcome Australia):

This was in a shopping center and Aaron got a really neat picture (no filters or picture editing (I don't use that stuff anyway), this is legit):

It was mirrors and escalators and this chrome pillar in the middle.  Crazy!

A random bubbling brook in the middle of the city:

Then we kept walking until we got to Darling Harbor:

Darling Harbor is so gorgeous and filled with bars and restaurant, but the fancy. stuffy kind.  We walked around, but weren't into it, so we then walked all the way back (OMG I'm exhausted) past Hyde Park to King's Cross, which is a bar area that's a little bit more laid-back (okay, it's a little seedy, count the strip clubs).
Supposedly this Coca Cola sign is well known in King's Cross:

but they don't light it up.  Whatever.  That's King's Cross for ya.

We stopped at the King's Cross Hotel and had a drink:

For one beer and one pint of hard cider we paid $20!  Shit!
We found a cheaper bar down the street and were paying about $15 for a round.  Score!  They also had live music.  Score!  We hung out there for awhile and once they closed we walked all the way back to Darling Harbor (we're sadists) and went to the casino:

It was super fancy and I felt weird taking pictures because they had a lot of security there and I didn't want to get taken down or anything, so this blur is all I got.  The drinks were WAY pricey, so we left after one and called it a night (morning).

We went back to our crappy hostel and slept most of the day away.  There's lots more of Sydney to see, so stay tuned for Part 2!!!