Australia: Sydney

We had a really enjoyable time in Sydney.  On our first day there, a friend of Simon's family picked us up and treated us to breakfast at a lovely restaurant on the bay.  We watched the sea planes land as we enjoyed our breakfast sandwiches.  After breakfast, we took a short hike to the barranjoey lighthouse for some magnificent views encompassing both Broken Bay and the Tasman Sea.  We strolled back to the car along Palm Beach.

Later that day, after saying our goodbyes to Penny, we had a walk around "The Rocks", the oldest area of Sydney.  We then stopped in at the Museum of Contemporary Art to view a bit of Christian Marclay's "The Clock."  The Clock is a 24 hour video comprised of thousands of movie clips each representing a particular time of day.  The movie clips have been put together so that they are synchronized with real time.  After being kicked out at closing time, we walked around Circular Quay and I had my first "up close" view of the Sydney Opera House.

On our second full day in Sydney, we set off for Blacktown and the Featherdale Wildlife Park, just 45 minutes outside of  the city by train.  This was obviously the most exciting part of our trip to Sydney for me since I got to pet koalas (holding them is illegal) and feed kangaroos.  We also heard the kookaburras laugh,   I held an owl, and we watched the cute Little Penguins gobble down their morning fish.

In the afternoon, after Simon pulled me away from the animals, we headed back to Sydney and caught a ferry to Manly.  The scenery was magnificent as we cruised across the the harbor and got views of both the Harbour bridge and the Opera House.  From Manly, we walked 9.5 km along the Manly Scenic Walkway to Spit Bridge.  Once we arrived at the Spit, we caught a bus back to the ferry terminal and cruised back.

After a good night's sleep, we got up early and took the train to the Blue Mountains.  We spent several hours hiking through the very green and damp vegetation, taking in some great views, and passing a few waterfalls along the way.

On our last day in Sydney we took it easy.  We strolled through Darling Harbour and visited the Maritime Museum.  We then walked around Circular Quay and through the Royal Botanic Gardens.  In the gardens we spotted a whole flock of cockatoos hanging around in one area.  We took a closer look and saw that you got the most attention from the cockatoos if you had something for them to eat.  I broke up a piece of granola bar and held it out.  I was quickly swarmed.  It wasn't until we were leaving that I saw the sign warning not to feed the birds because "they bite."  Finally, we strolled over to a grassy hill close to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair and watched the ships cruise in and out of the harbor as the sun went down.

Before moving on to our next adventure, a quick note about our accommodation.  Since rooms were pricey in Sydney, we stayed in a four person dorm.  For the first few nights, our roommates were a couple who looked like they had been living there for weeks.  Their things were spread out all over the place and they had massive suitcases and boxes packed full.  Each time we came back to the room they were cuddled on the bottom bunk watching Japanese tv shows (at high volume) on their lap top.  The first night, they kept the lights on until 1am.  One afternoon we came back and they had completely cleared out.  Talk about fast packing...That night we thought we had the room to ourselves, but in the middle of the night someone came in.  He then left again before we got up.  That was our ninja roommate.  Our next roommates were a pair of 20-something guys. As we were settling in for bed one night, a cell phone started to ring.  We quickly learned it belonged to the guy on the top bunk as we heard a SLAM as he fell to the floor.  I don't think he was injured by his fall.