Some beautiful days in Sydney

(Sydney, Australia, 8-11th of March, 2017)

After our somewhat hasty decision to leave Australia a month earlier than planned, we felt very glad about our decision. We both thought that Australia has been a little too similar to Sweden and the rest of the Western world. We really appreciated the excursions in the Outback and Kangaroo Island and the big cities have bid on fun experiences but a month and a half has been just as long as we needed.

In Sydney we had booked an apartment a little outside the center. The small suburb Erskenville, where our hotel is located, proved to be a nice place with both restaurants, shops and a train station with good connections to the center. The apartment however was most attractive on the surface. It was some kind of homestay apartment but the person who managed the housekeeping was definitely not of the professional kind. It was both dusty and dirty and the whole apartment was drenched in eu de cologne. We also found a wet and stinky towel in a cabinet in the bathroom. Too bad for an apartment that really could have been super as it was brand new and modern with several bedrooms and a large balcony. One evening, we should heat a lasagna in the oven but could not start it. It turned out that the oven never had been used and therefore was not connected. We solved the problem but had to burn it off before we could use it. Strange place!

In Sydney we spent a lot of time walking and of course included a close look at the famous Sydney opera house. The port area, where the Opera House is located, is very vibrant and always full of lot of people, musicians and street artists, a very nice place to just walk around or sit on a bench.

We were participating in two “Free Walking Tours” in Sydney as they covered the different parts of Sydney. One of them was a traditional tour with all the “regular” sights, while the other one was about the area “the Rocks” where we heard stories and tales about the life of prisoners and ordinary people who lived there a few hundred years ago.

One evening we met Adam whom we met in India, when we participated in a Rickshaw Race. We had a good time and talked for a few hours in the district of the Rocks.

The 11 th March we checked out of our apartment in the morning and went to the airport with all our luggage. Then we had to wait a long time as our flight would depart 20.40 in the evening. But we are quite accustomed to kill time by now and after reading our books, surf and play some games the time slowly went forward and eventually it was time to board the plane.

/Christel