We arrived in Sydney early morning after an all-night flight and checked into our serviced apartment. As we near the end of our trip we decide to have a much needed down day, it might be our last. Our good friends, Jean and Chip will be meeting us in Sydney at the end of the week so we are also waiting to see the big sites until they arrive. At night go to the local super cinema and see “The Mummy”. Frank and I love going to the movies, but this is just our third show since September. Now that we are in an English speaking country we were excited to pick any movie and not have any subtitles.
The next day we feel refreshed and ready to tackle our 32nd country. We start with a free walking tour. We cover all the sites of Sydney ending at the harbor and with the great view of the famous opera house.
On our third day in Sydney we book much needed haircuts for both of us. It was fun being together again for our beauty treatment but after our months in SE Asia we had major sticker shock of the price of 2 simple cuts, wow Sydney CBD is really expensive, A$180. We wonder how the Aussies manage. Our afternoon is spent walking the city and a visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. This museum provided a great audio with a complete explanation of how Australia was founded as a penal colony by convicts from the UK. There were eleven (11) formal penal colonies established throughout the nation. Aussies are now embracing the heritage through data bases that often reveal the "trivial infractions" that lead to arrest and deportation--cheap labor may have been the main goal. Our last stop was St. Mary’s Cathedral. A nice Gothic cathedral, the most interested fact was the church was building began in 1868 but was never finished until 2000 when the 2 spires were added in time for Sydney to host the Olympics.
That night we had a great treat. We met a couple for dinner that we made friends with in Morocco. We have written about all the wonderful people we have met, shared meals with and gotten to know over the last year. Spending time with these people has truly been the best part of our journey. It was fantastic to meet Matt and Miri again. We had laughs about our time together in Morocco and we shared our separate but similar experience of traveling through Egypt. Matt and Miri share our passion for travel and adventure and we had a great time with drinks at the Opera House and dinner at a local burger bar discussing where we have been and where we will go on our next adventure.
Our night out with Matt and Miri
On our last day alone we walk the Sydney harbor bridge. It was a beautiful day; the walk was easy and the views were breathtaking. In SE Asia, we traveled by tuk-tuk and taxi most days, it felt good to be walking again.
Around the corner from our apartment was one of Sydney’s theaters that was playing “Kinky Boots”. They sell tickets for half price 60 minutes before show time and Frank was lucky to score two tickets in the prime section for us. Another fun night in Sydney. The musical is fast and funny with great actors. So far, we love Australia. Tomorrow we move to a traditional hotel and wait for our friends to arrive. See some other great night photos of Sydney below.
The sky is pink at night
The Harbor Bridge