[Note: I wrote this up last week but have been waiting for the pictures to get online before posting it. Sorry for the strange ordering...] It looks like I made a good choice of hostels. The WakeUp! hostel has been great to me so far. On Thursday they offered a half-day walking tour of Sydney followed by a free BBQ and half price drinks for everyone in the tour. Today they had another free walking trip, a tour of five Sydney beaches, from Koogee to Bondi (one of Sydney's most famous beaches).
Yesterday's tour of downtown was a great way to see most of Sydney's major points. We stopped by some water fountains at Darling Harbor, saw the Sydney tower a couple of times, and (of course) checked out the Opera house and harbor bridge. The bridge had people climbing all over it and climbing it looks like a pretty fun trek. But then I learned that it's $189 Australian dollars for the BridgeClimb. I don't think it looks like that much fun.
Sydney is full of parks, though, and we were able to take in some of the local wildlife (I don't think feeding the cockatoos is technically permitted, but it made for some fun pictures).
Today we took a 15 minute bus ride out to Koogee beach and from there walked a few miles along the coast up to Bondi beach. Bondi beach is home to Australia's oldest surf lifesaving club (not sure why they're so particular about the name, but they are). The water didn't look too treacherous, but -- as if to prove that it is -- the lifeguards were pulling someone out as we arrived. There was an ambulance, lifeguard truck, the whole shebang, but no one seemed to care too much. I guess it happens a lot at Bondi.
And although Sydney feels a bit like most big cities, there are always subtle differences that make you realize you're not home. For example, there is no "Jack in the Box" chain, but there is something very similar. And for some reason I really liked this sign in the bus, reminding senior citizens not to fall asleep while on the bus. Oh yeah, and everything really is backwards down here. Not only do cars drive on the wrong side of the road, but horse races run clockwise. I was watching some sport highlights last night and was shocked to see horses sprinting backwards down the track. Even the escalators run backwards. I know that doesn't make much sense, but imagine you're standing at the bottom of two sets of escalators. The one on the right would be going up, right? Not in Australia! I've almost walked onto the wrong escalator a couple of times in the last two months now.
Tomorrow I'm heading out of Sydney for a day trip to the Blue Mountains. There are two types of tours, the "hardcore" trip that includes a 3 hour hike through the bush and the "tourist" trip that includes a stop at a wildlife park to feed kangaroos and koalas. I like to think that I'm pretty hardcore, but after 8 hours of walking in the last two days I'm ready to a let a bus do the transporting for me. Plus I want to pet a kangaroo. :)
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