We had another fantastic day in Australia today.  We decided to head out of the city to the Blue Mountains, just 100 kilometers west of Sydney.  We made our way from Kirribilli over the Harbour Bridge and then west over the Anzac Bridge onto the Great Western Highway/Motorway, taking us up into the mountains to the town of Katumba (1,017 meters elevation). 

We stopped at Echo Point to have a look at the spectacular Three Sisters rock formation.  The first sister’s name is Meehni (922 meters), the second Wimlah (918 meters, and the third Gunnedoo (906 meters).  They tower over the Jamison Valley, part of the Blue Mountains National Park, below.  The lookout allowed us to have a great view of the National Park and sat at the edge of the cliff.  The only thing separating the lookout from the drop to the floor below was a simple guardrail; I wasn’t too fond of this part.  After taking a few pictures from Echo Point, we decided to take the trail closer to the rock formations.  After around 400 meters of walking under gum trees, only a few meters from the cliff. 

Once we arrived at the next lookout, just next to the Sisters, I decided to take the Great Staircase down to the first sister.  The Great Staircase descends 300 meters via 800 steps to the forest floor.  I only took a few of them to get to Meehni where I took a bridge over to the first sister.  The tranquility was so astonishing and I could have spent the entire day there just looking out over the ledge at the lush greenery below. 

After trekking back to the car, we took the road along the cliff over to Scenic World.  Lucking, we left early and beat all of the tour busses to one of Katumba’s largest tourist attractions. 

Scenic World allowed visitors to the Blue Mountains to take a cableway 545 meters into the rainforest of the Jamison Valley.  Once in the rainforest, three kilometers of walkways took us throughout the canopy of the Jurassic looking rainforest full of many eucalypt and fern species.  I had never seen anything like it in my life!

At the end of the walkway, we arrived at our ride back up to the center at the top of the cliff, a railway.  We ascended the 415 meters back up to the center at the top of the cliff in the steepest railway in the world.  At the steepest point, the railway was at a 52˚ incline!  After assuring that we didn’t wet ourselves on the way up, we headed back to the car and made our way deeper into the Mountains.

We decided to head to Mt. Victoria to take the long way back to Sydney via Bells Line of Road (Route 40) through Bilpin, where we had lunch at a local shop.  The views of the mountains were astonishing and we were even given brief glimpses of the coast through the trees, separating the road from the cliff.

Once we made it back into the city, we decided to take a detour prior to going home to Kirribilli.  We were really keen on seeing the Sydney Olympic Park, just west of Parramatta.  When we arrived, we took a drive around the large complex and parked just up the street from the Visitor’s Center.  We got out and paid for an hour’s worth of parking.  Little did we know, we wouldn’t need it…at all.  We walked in and out of the Visitor’s Center and then up the street to see ANZ Stadium, the largest in Australia, with a capacity of 110, 000 spectators.  The stadium was home to the opening and closing ceremonies as well as many of the track and field events during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

We walked around some more and decided that we really weren’t too impressed with what we were seeing.  The sidewalks were dirty and everything just seemed bland.  Had we been here 12 years ago, I may have had a different opinion.  To me it seemed like the area was rundown and not well kept.  Disappointed, we decided to go back home.

After a few hours at the apartment, we headed down to the Luna Park ferry wharf to catch the ferry over to Circular Quay where we had dinner at the oldest pub in Sydney, the Fortune of War, dating back to 1828. 

Exhausted, we headed back home, where we are now, sitting on the couch enjoying the beautiful views out the window watching fireworks in the harbor…can’t get much better!  

Tomorrow, it looks like we will be heading back over to Darling Harbour and then over to the Fish Market to check out the daily catch, and possibly have a few oysters (definitely not at restaurant prices).

Last Friday morning we woke up to start our journey north to New South Wales where we would be spending the rest of the trip in the beautiful city of Sydney.  On our way there, we would make one stop, around halfway in the largest inland city of NSW- Wagga Wagga, informally known as just Wagga.

We arrived in Wagga understanding that it was Good Friday and there would more than likely be nothing open, as we were told by Linda at dinner in Bairnsdale.  It seemed like some sort of crude joke when we rocked up (Oz speak for arrive) into the city of nearly 50,000 people and there was no one around.   It was as though the population had hidden as if they had been warned that the Yanks were coming into town; I wouldn’t blame them had the yanks been a few of the people I know back home.

We left Wagga the next morning wondering what Wagga Wagga meant.  We couldn’t come up with anything to describe the town since it seemed so boring.  We later found out in the travel book that Wagga Wagga translates to “the place of many crows” in the Wiradjuri aboriginal language.  I’m sure this was due to the fact that the only noise heard in town is the calling of crows.  To be completely fair, we were only there on Good Friday, but I can’t see myself ever making the trip to revisit Wagga again any time soon. 

We woke up early on Saturday morning to book it out of Wagga to escape the mosquitoes in our hotel room and to get to Sydney early.  The drive was beautiful and we really made great timing since there weren’t too many cars on the road until we arrived in the city limits of Sydney. 

We arrived at our apartment in Kirribilli, an area on the north side of the harbor overlooking the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  We were quite impressed with the views from the apartment and reasoned that it would be a nice apartment if we resided in Sydney. 

Sicne we arrived so early, we had plenty of time to head over to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the Aussie Rules Football match between the Sydney Swans and the Fremantle Dockers.  I really wanted to get to an AFL match with my parents while they were here, and this was the only match in Sydney during the week. 

We headed down to the train station, a few blocks from the apartment, and each picked up a a MyMulti public transport ticket.  This would allow us unlimited travel for the week on the trains (within the city), the ferries, busses, and trams.  We agreed that at $43 per ticket, it was the best deal in Sydney.  As of today, we have already surpassed the ticket’s value.

We made it to Central Station where we had to catch a charter bus to Moore Park, where the SCG was situated.  On the bus we met an older couple who were Sydney Swan club members and helped us navigate the outside of the ground.  They were extremely nice and just after getting off the bus, the gentleman gave me his 2012 members hat.  I couldn’t believe his generosity; actually I could because I’ve been living in Australia for a few months now and have come to realize that everyone here is so munificent.  Here’s a guy that we had just met on the bus to the match, giving us directions, and going out of his way to make sure we were barracking for the right team!  I will never forget it!

The SCG is one of the most famous venues for cricket and is small enough to allow everyone in the stands a close encounter to what’s happening on the field; the capacity is only about 40,000 spectators.  The first cricket match played on the ground was in 1848, quite a long time ago!  The ground is also home to the Sydney Swans, the team we were supporting that afternoon.

After buying our tickets, we headed into the stadium and found our seats, directly across from the iconic Members Pavilion.  We sat around for an hour or so waiting for the match to start, watching the stands fill with people wearing red and white in support of the home team.  There were even a few people wearing purple in support of the Perth team; a long trip for a fan if you ask me!  The game was rough and turned out in the Swans favor!  I have really come to love this sport and will greatly miss it when I move back home.

On the way back we decided to go to Circular Quay to see the city as the sun faded in the horizon just under the Harbour Bridge (from where we were standing).  We took a stroll down to the Opera House and were stunned at the size of the expressionist art complex.  Looking up at the tiled roof and beautiful architecture, I really had to pinch myself because I realized that I was in Sydney and was really looking at one of the most photographed and famous Australian icons.  When I turned around, I also had to pinch myself when looking up at the Harbour Bridge towering over the ferries, yachts, and sailboats in the water.  This city is gorgeous and when it is lit up at night, there is no other city like it in the world.  My dad, so far this week, has said that Sydney has characteristics of many cities he has been to, including San Francisco and Hong Kong, but agrees that there is nothing quite this extraordinary.

After dinner in Circular Quay and a run-in with John Cleese, yes, THE John Cleese of Monty Python, we headed back to Kirribilli via the ferry.  This gave us a fantastic opportunity to take pictures of the lit up skyline and surroundings. 

Yesterday, we took the ferry over to Darling Harbour from the Luna Park dock, just down the street from us.  We took a quick look around Darling Harbour at the different yachts, military ships, and submarines, as well as the replica of the HMAV Bounty.  We then headed up the street to Paddy’s Market, a covered market home to all sorts of trinkets as well as fruit and veg. 

We walked back to the Harbour from the market, past the Hyde Park (a familiar park for many cities around the world), and the Sydney Eye.  We eventually came to Circular Quay after walking for quite a long time.  We decided to have a quick lunch under the bridge and a walk around the area just west of Circular Quay, home to a street market full of crafts and trinkets. 

After arriving home via the ferry, I decided to go for a run across the Harbour Bridge and back.  It wasn’t a terribly long run, but it allowed me to see the skyline and the Opera House from a different angle, and helped me work off some of the fish and chips that I had at lunch.  The views from the bridge were spectacular and will certainly be an incentive to go for a run later in the week again!

Due to some rain, we decided to have dinner in Kirribilli, trying out one of the Thai fusion restaurants just up the street from the apartment.  We split a bottle of wine and each ordered something different from the seemingly endless menu.  Thankfully they had their menu numbered, like any great Asian restaurant, to keep the Yanks (me) from embarrassing themselves trying to pronounce the menu items for the waitress!  I’m not afraid to give the name a go but I like the ease of just saying a number!  The system also allows people to try new things because they don’t feel like they need to always go with the Pad Thai, because they know how to pronounce it!

Today, we headed over to Circular Quay to catch the half hour ferry to Manly Beach.  As soon as we arrived at the ferry station, I decided to experience life in the shoes of an Australian for the day.  To do this, I just took mine off and walked around barefoot.  Why not, right?  I haven’t seen any signs saying “No shoes, no service!”  I kept my shoes off the whole time until we decided to hike up into the bush into the Sydney Harbour National Park. 

Manly Beach was spectacular.  A little crowded, the town was full of restaurants and small shops and a ton of surfers causally walking around in their board shorts with their boards under their arms, like a fashion accessory.  I loved it there, and would love to go back to get a surf lesson!

Lunch was amazing!  Dad and I ordered the daily special, consisting of a bowl of mussels, prepared in a tomato broth or an Asian style, spicy broth, accompanied with a pint of beer.  My dad settled on the tomato mussels with a pale ale, and I settled on the spicy mussels with a stout beer.  Mom, on the other hand, enjoyed a free cider (we brought a coupon), and a lamb burger.  We still, and I still, haven’t had a bad meal yet in Australia! 

On the way home, on the ferry, we decided to get off at Circular Quay and walk home to Kirribilli via the bridge.  The cool temperature and ocean breeze made the views even more pleasurable from the bridge walkway.  As we passed over the bridge, we kept looking up at the climbers on the “Bridge Climb” experience, wondering if we wanted to do it.  I don’t know how the views could get any better, but I’ll bet the climbers can see the ocean from their vista at the top of the bridge.

For dinner, we decided to take the ferry to Darling Harbour.  We settled on a nice dinner an beer at a restaurant just up the street from the water.  It was great to see the harbor lit up at night, and was surprised to see so many people out on the last night of the holiday weekend.  We took the train home from the Town Hall Station.

Tomorrow we are planning to get up early to head west to visit the Blue Mountains.  We will be driving to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains National Park, and will more than likely just play the day out as it comes to us!  I know my mom would really like to see the “Three Sisters” rock formation!

I’m sure there will be more to come tomorrow…