We gave ourselves and the kids a little time to relax after all that driving, and enjoyed the delights of the Sydney Central YHA hostel we were in. This is one of the Youth Hostel Association’s rare 5 star hostels, and it really was great - huge kitchen, internet café, cinema room, laundry, bar and even a rooftop swimming pool!
Unfortunately they were fully booked for the last few days of our Sydney stay, so we moved next door to a scruffier hostel with no pool, no cinema and more importantly no lift! (Well actually they had one, but it was broken for a few day). We were on the 7th floor, so at least we didn’t need a fitness room!
On our first real day here we set off to see the ultimate Australian icon, the Sydney
Opera House. It’s not a huge building, and I had heard that it was too small for real opera performances, but let me tell you, they are definitely using both buildings for something- it’s busy all the time! Our guide told us that it had hosted 8 performances already that day (this was about 5pm on a Tuesday....) and we saw for ourselves that the place seemed permanently full of smartly-dressed people going to or coming from shows in those great sea-shell domes.The tour of the operahouse was in fact very interesting. They managed to explain
the development of the building as a human story, by concentrating on the architect who came up with the amazing design, which was pulled out of a rubbish bin. This Danish chap moved to Australia to work on the plan for years, including inventing a unique new way to build huge self supporting concrete shells, but he was replaced when the project became too expensive. He left for Denmark and never returned, even when the building was completed and became mega-famous.Sydney harbour bridge is another great symbol of
the city - this is the one from all those fireworks pictures. You can actually climb right to the top of it with organised groups, though Andy was not too keen on it (it was the 170 AUS$ price that decided it, not the height, really! Just wait until New Zealand – there we’ll see some extreme spoprts action.) Emma was interested though she’s too young. That girl is ready for anything – it’s a great side effect of this trip!Instead, we explored the area at the foot of the bridge towers, called the Rocks. It’s rather touristy, but we found great healthfood there. Australians eat so well! Full and happy we wandered off carrying Lara and left the pram parked outisde the restaurant. Thank goodness it was till there when I ran back about ten minutes later!
The following morning we took yet another ferry (the Sydney public transport system ticket is good
for these as well as all buses, trams and metro lines) to Darling harbour. While Andy visited the maritime museum, Dorka took both kids to the playground , where Emma immediately made friends with local kids – which is great, as it made it easy for Dorka to get talking to local Mums. Emma really is developing a nice style on this trip. She’s very open and friendly and her English is really great now!We loved the Australia Museum, - this was our first introduction to the idea of a highlights tour – somthing we would see in many other museums. Basically, one of the library curators takes a small group round and explains the main few exhibits in each room. There was a good aboriginal section (now they prefer the term indiginous Australians, so the Torres Strait Islanders, a completely seperate group, don’t feel ignored) and Emma and Andy loved the interactive display on Australia’s most dangerous animals. There was a sort of
hologram of a crocodile which would periodically „attack” Emma, causing screams of excitement! Great parenting, eh? We loved the fact that the Ozzies even include their great sense of humour in the museum signs. You would never see jokes in exhibit descriptions. In the skeleton exhibition, they had arranged a skeletal rider on a skeletal horse (the bone ranger) and a great „home sweet home” exhibit with skeletal man, dog, cat, rat, bird and so on. It really made it easy and fun to compare and contrast the different stuctures, which was the point really.On our last night Dorka went off to see the city alive on a Friday night, but she got stuck on on a bus heading out into the countryside and came back very late. Of course I didn’t sleep then either so we were all a bit tired for our last day in Sydney. This was a late start, especially with the added hassle of packing and checking out, so we only had half an hour to watch the beach volleyball on nearby Manly Beach
before it was time to leave for the airport. Actually Emma had just become really involved in playing with other kids on a playground, so we decided to that the girls would take the later ferry instead. I ran ahead to pick up all our luggage and staggered the half-kilometer to the railway station, while Dorka dragged the children and the pram along. Good teamwork, but bad for my nerves. My very punctual father would not have been pleased about leaving so little extra time before check in, but we were lucky.
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