Day 1 (1)
After a second night of sleeping on a plane, I was glad to finally arrive. I found a SIM card for my phone and hopped a shuttle to my hotel in Potts Point. Thankfully they had a room ready for me, even though it was only 10am. My goal for the day was to stay awake, so after a quick shower, I set out to wander the city, figuring I probably wouldn’t fall asleep if I was moving. I found my way through the botanical gardens and over to the opera house, down through Hyde Park.
Sydney has an “I’m free” tour, so at 2:30, I joined that and for the next 3 hours got a walking tour of the city. There were definitely some areas I wouldn’t have found on my own without the tour, so I definitely got my money’s worth! They offered a second tour at 6pm for “The Rocks” neighborhood, which I then did. After that tour, and a night stroll back home, I was quite ready for bed after 30,000 steps for the day.
Day 2 (2)
The only thing on the agenda for the day was the Bridge Climb. I grabbed breakfast and took another scenic detour through the gardens to get to the bridge. The tour took a little over 3 hours, but provided some interesting history, and some great views along the way. After the tour, I noticed a pub that sold a “coat of arms” pizza, with emu and kangaroo, so naturally I had to have it! I then wandered my way back to my hotel, calling it a day.
Day 3 (3)
This day was supposed to start early with a 7am tour, however, I got started even earlier as I woke up at 4am to find a waterfall from the AC in the ceiling. The front desk made it sound like this was quite common. Finally, 7am rolled around and I grabbed my bus for my day trip to the Blue Mountains. Once there, we ended up hiking the “National Pass” trail, which went past several giant waterfalls, and down into the valley. While I wouldn’t recommend the bus company I went with, the trail itself was amazing, as was the weather – nice and sunny, but in the valley the breeze made it feel perfect. After the hike we grabbed lunch and went to see “The Three Sisters” – which I’m not sure what the fuss was about. Right as we finished that, it started raining which meant it was time to head back to Sydney. Upon getting home, I checked in with the reception, and they apparently had 2 different maintenance people fix the AC, and it was actually not that common at all. Either way, it was fixed for the rest of the time I was there.
Day 4 (4)
Since I was still a bit tired from my flights, I took it easy today. I wandered around the Botanical Gardens a bit again, but the main thing was getting some of my plans for the rest of the trip sketched out, which I was able to do. That evening I got my bags all packed up again to head out to Ayer’s Rock for my early morning flight.