Sydney

Nadi, Fiji 29.1.2015

We left from Melbourne the 16th of January.

We had bought beforehand a bus ticket from Greyhound because we were told it's the only company operating the route. It was not, Firefly operates on the same couchs by half price. There are also trains. We had a stop over in Canberra for two hours which was enough. Happily we found phonebooths in the centre so we could book a hostel to stay in Sydney since the wifi connection on the Greyhound bus was not working.

We spent the first three nights in a hostel which accomodated many people staying long-term working through working holiday.

First we wanted to head to the Sydney opera house and public transport works very well with Opal -card that works on all trasport vehicles. The city felt right away more a city than Melbourne. We walked around the opera house, the Rocks and to the other side of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the view was stunning. A must was to try fish&chips and it was totally worth it! So good and the quality of fish mind-blowing. Sydney fishmarket was probably the cleanest fishmarket we've ever seen (or smelled) offering fresh oystes, lobsters, different fishes and sushis. We tried the last one and it was one of the best we have had. Tip: go closer to 4pm and get them on discount.

We went to a punk/rock concert on Saturday 17th and met many awesome new friends. The venue was quite unique, our gig was downstairs with mainly punk styled people and upstairs some local radio anniversary with people dressed up and around 50-60 years old. Locals told a lot of celebrities were there but we didn't know any.

Sydney is full beaches. We visited Manly by taking a local ferry. This is the cheapest way of looking at Sydney Harbour from seas. We also walked from Bondi beach to near Coogee beach passing many other beaches full of surfers. There is also a big cemetery facing the ocean where locals go near to picnic.

We had a small scratch of Australian history by visiting The Rocks Museum (free). It was a great place to understand the basics of the culture. Especially the history between Aboriginals and Westerns is something not to be so proud of. The Museum of Contemporary Art was also free and some of the works really good.

One day we visited Featherdale wildlife park and feed koalas and kengurus. Australian nature is just amazing. The park was easily accessible by public transport.

After the three nights in hostel we couchsurfed again the rest of the time. Liam was so kind to have us staying just in the city centre. He also took us to Mary's, a divine hamburger place in Newtown which is the hipster part of the city.

On our last day we met the British family that we met on the Trans-Siberian and in Langkawi! We had good pale ales and later oysters with wine. What a luxury!

We left to Fijis on the 22nd of January, tired but happy, ready to relax.