Sydney, Australia, Australia

Today I almost did a lot of stuff, but I didn’t really get a lot done. I packed up all my stuff and checked out of the hostel by 9am. I left my bags at the hostel and headed down to the Opera House in hopes of going on the Essentials Tour. As soon as I got to the ticket office, I found out that about half of the Opera House was off limits until later this afternoon. It didn’t make a lot of sense to spend all that money if I couldn’t see most of the stuff, so I decided I could come back this afternoon.

I took a walk through the Botanical Gardens to Mrs MacQuarie’s Chair where I could get a view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was a nice walk and the view is amazing, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t great today, so it wasn’t the best time for pictures. I’m hoping to get back there someday when the weather is a bit better. I walked through the park and made my way down to St Mary’s Cathedral, which is the biggest and nicest church in Sydney. It’s nice inside, but nothing compared to some of the old cathedrals in Europe. I went across the street to Hyde Park and sat there for about an hour just people watching.

At 1pm I went over to Myer in the Pitt St Mall and met Krissy for lunch. This was another friend I made on the trip to Egypt, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We had a great stir fry lunch at Hoka Hoka and caught up on the last six months. I had planned on going up the Sydney Tower after lunch, but the weather still wasn’t looking that great and if I’m going to spend the money to go up to an observation deck, I want to at least have a decent view. So this was another thing I had to put off for another day.

I trekked back up George St and got to the Opera House for 2:15pm hoping to get on the 2:30pm tour, but they were sold out until 4pm, which would have been just too late for me. So yet again, I was unable to go on the tour. Instead, I sat on the benches by Sydney Harbour and just took in the view and people watched for a bit longer. After about an hour of that I made my way back to the hostel to pick up my bags, and then walked down to Town Hall Station to meet Erin.

We caught the 5:20pm train up to Woy Woy near where Erin lives so I could crash there for a couple of nights. The train ride was stunning, over the Harbour Bridge and then through really green mountains that were surrounding little lakes and bays full of oyster farms. It was a very picturesque view of the countryside that I had yet to see anywhere else. We got up to Erin’s house for about 7pm where I met her boyfriend Jono, a very cool guy. We had a chilled out night, ordering an Indian takeaway and watching tv. I was actually really pleased to watch tv considering I’ve not really had the chance to watch any for the last month.

I think tomorrow is just going to be a relaxing day at the house for me. Erin is leaving for work at stupid o’clock and Jono will be in and out all day, so it’ll be nice to chill at the house and possibly make my way down to one of their beaches. This is a lifestyle I could get used to!