The first slap in the face was immediate when we landed in Sydney. It was a warm, wet one as the unexpected humidity hit us when we stepped from the plane. The second was the $42 taxiv fare to the Central YHA. Arriving as we did in the middle of the afternoon rush hour, we were amazed by the congested yet frantic city, the likes of which we hadn't experience since leaving Santiago many months ago.
Sydney Central is the Uber YHA with over 750 beds spread over 9 floors. As a major stop on the Gap Year circut of Thaliand, New Zealand and Australis, the hostel boasted a young and funky, hormonally challenged clientele. Mature guests like ourselves were in the minority.
Although we were spending 9 days in the city, our old haunts of The Rocks and Circular Quay proved magnetic and during the course of our stay, we often found ourselves wandering up or down the main thoroughfares of Pitt and George streets.
We quickly found that we'd visited alot of Sydney's attractions on our previous visit and as pretty and interesting Bondi and Manly were, we decided to seek out new experiences. With this in mind, we walked around grubby but groovy Kings Cross and took a ferry to the Idyllic Watson's Bay. We strolled round the beaches to the cliffs watching Tasman Sea waves coursin through the Heads into the world's most beautiful harbour.
On the way back to the ferry we passed the nudist beach, the occupants of which seemed to be singularly male. They had no inhibitions to letting it all hang out - some more than others it has to be said and the scene posed the age old question - 'Why is it the people with the least aesthetic bodies are always the most enthusiastic naturists?'
We wwent to the movies and watched Lost in Translation hoping to pick up some tips for our own stay in Japan and on another occasion, we got dressed up (I zipped the legs onto my pants) and headed down to the Opera House to take in a performance of The Merry Widow. This was a first for us both and our excitement was mixed with trepidation as we weren't quite sure what we'd let ourselves in for. Fears of sitting through four hours of unintelligable, high pitched warbling were soon dispelled at the pre-show introduction to the performance and we actually found the whole experience highly entertaining. The good time so obviously being had by the cast as they hammed up the acting and dialogue scenes transferred itself readily to the audience, making the whole affair a night to remember.
Driving in the Sydney morning rush hour certainly my idea of fun but it was a neccessity when we hired a car to travel up the coast to Caves Beach and the home of Alex's Auntie Joan. We'd paid her a visit on our first trip to Australia and were really looking forward to seeing her again.
THe journey wasn't without mishap however as we fell foul of the turnoff from highway 1 to Swansea not once but twice, clocking up an extra 40km in the process because, once you missed the turn, it was a long way before you could retrace your tracks at the next one! We eventually arrived and were delighted to find that Joan was in fine form and we spent a lovely day catching up on 'family' news, chatting and being spoiled rotten.
By the time we finally tore ourselves away and returned to Sydney it was well past midnight and despite the traffic reduced to taxis and the occasional bus, I found myself getting increasingly stressed as we became embroiled in the extensive one-way system. At one point, we were actually across the road from the YHA, only to find oursleves miles away five minutes later. Many obscenities and one semi-legal u-turn later we were back 'home', safe in the knolwedge that the roads wouldn't be quite so busy in our next desination - Tasmania!
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