'Sublime Sydney''

Darling Harbour
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9th Dec

Once id got to the hostel at midnight, i was way too stoked to go straight to bed so took a wander around town for a couple of hours and got acclimatised...tried to sleep around 2am...

'only one day and easily the best city ive set foot in...'

Combination of snoring, general noise, jet-lag and excitment, i awoke at 5am which was perfect as i had a lot to do in my only real day down under.  Have a perfect faff as my luggage was still outside as i couldnt find the lockers last night in the dark, and its suddenly 8am after breakfast.

Sydney from the Tower
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Took a stroll around the elegant Darling Harbour, a 2 minute walk from the hostel, which houses the aquarium, maritime museum, IMAX cinema and seemingly all the bars in Sydney as well as some expensive bars in a picturesque setting. Already very hot and fine day. Sweet.

First tourist stop was Sydney tower + Oztrek, the tallest point in town, where i went up for some awesome views and to get my bearings catching my first ever glimpse of the Opera house though it was masked by the skyscrapers of the part of town i was staying in, i was already brimming withe excitment.  Afterwards, i continued wandering around and managed to scratch my way after about 45 minutes to Circular Quay which nests neatly between the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and the breathtaking Sydney Opera house. Wow. Even though it was baking hot, i had to sit quayside for half an hour to take in the beautiful detail and loads of photos...Im v.content to be finally seeing it with my own eyes! though i can't explain why it meant so much, maybe because im sitting as i can be from the UK and got here myself...

no caption required
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Went for lunch at 'The Rocks', the original village in Sydney, with its quaint traditional character reminiscent of the London Bridge area. Took an hour after to walk across the Harbour bridge, a must for some unique views of the Opera house and the stunning harbour itself with its architecture embedded in lush greenery...

Got on to a harbour boat cruise destined for Taronga Zoo on the north side and seeing some great views of the harbour with the city as a backdrop, my camera battery runs out and my spare was in the hostel. So no Koala bear pictures :( Im not really a zoo person, but this was a special one built on a hill side and had some really imaginative enclosures and animals you wont see outside Australia. Impressed by the crocs, a huge komodo dragon and these silverback gorillas who were putting on a mesmerising show for us; the King Kong of the group kept sizing up one of the infant gorillas and finally made a surge for it dragging it outside and threw into the pool there...you should have seen it as all the tourist surged out of the inside viewing area to see the fate of the infant! Pure drama!

Botannical gardens
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With ability to take photos again, i ventured back out to Circular Quay to walk up to the Opera house itself, where i was in for a surprise, as the structure is actually in three portions and not one whole as id always imagined :) still glorious, though close up, its kinda a faded yellow, though the glaring sunlight does it kind justice.  Take a lovely cool stroll in the adjacent Botannical gardens, which provides respite to the hecticness that is town centre and reach McQuarrie's chair for the postcard shots of the Opera house and harbour bridge. Chilled and wrote an entry.

House and bridge from Macquarrie's chair...
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Earlier on the bridge, id spotted a building that was in MI:2- the supposed laboratory Ethan Hunt infiltrates by jumping out of a helicopter - so i wandered about town to try and find out what it really was and its the Sydney Museum of Art...Before dinner, i had time to check out a quality Aquarium in Darling Harbour with an incredible walk-through tank full of massive sharks and manta ray, as well as a soppy section dedicated to Finding Nemo fishies :)

Had a huge and surprisingly cheap Japanese Bento dinner (Akusa restaurant), and went out for quick drinks with Dan and Canadian CJ from Dorm 401, which rounded off a really fun day wishing i could be here longer.