Finding a new hostel not so easy

After already spending a good 1.5 weeks in Sydney, I changed my hostel again and moved to the Blue Parrot Hostel. To find a hostel in Sydney is not easy. On the one hand Sydney is quite wide-spread. You should decide beforehand in which district you would like to stay. Only a few hostels are really well rated. The property prices are so high that they also cut down on the maintenance and service of the hostels. I eventually found a small cute hostel in the Kings Cross quarter, with only about 30 beds in total. So almost all guests knew each other and the atmosphere was very familiar.  What I did not like so much was that almost everybody was smoking cigarettes and weed, but this is quite common in Australian hostels. Years ago, the quarter was considered a bit of a problem area of the city, as the crime rate was high. Meanwhile the quarter is evolving into avibrant lifestyle precinct.

Visiting the Blue Mountains

Those who are in Sydney on Sundays should make use of the great campaign that the city introduced here a few years ago. In order to boost day trips to the surrounding area, you pay only 2.80 AU$ for the whole Sunday, even to far away places like the Blue Mountains, where you would otherwise have to pay 15...20 AU$ for the way there and back.

By CouchSurfing I arranged to go there with Henry from New Zealand and Anna from Hong Kong. Of course we were not the only ones who planned to go there that day and the train was completely overcrowded. So we only managed to meet at the station in Katoomba. It took us 2 hours to get there. From there we took a bus to get to the Three Sisters viewpoint. On the observation deck there were an unbelievable number of people, mainly Chinese and Indians.

There three sandstones rise like three sisters side by side in front of a huge forest plateau. Wherever the eye looks, you can see eucalyptus tree above eucalyptus tree.  Large parts of the Blue Mountains received the UNESCO World Heritage designation in December 2000, mainly because of the biodiversity of the eucalyptus trees. The leaves of the eucalyptus evaporate the essential eucalyptus oil, whose fine mist lies over the mountains. Together with the Rayleigh scattering, this fine mist is responsible for the blue colouring in daylight which gave the Blue Mountains their name. 

Hiking through a dense forest of Eucalyptus trees

We started our hike through the Blue-Mountains and already after a few meters, there was hardly any of these lazy tourists to be seen. Already after the first of the many stairs they turned back and sat down again in their tour busses. So we could hear the peaceful sounds of the forest all alone in front of us. The whole time a penetrating reptive noise of the Bell Bird, whose chirping sounds like a bell, followed us. Our hike passed over many stairs and went up and down. We hiked for about 3 hours and arrived in the neighboring village Leura. Back in Sydney, I had some pancakes together with the Hong Kong woman in the famous Pancake on The Rocks, where you even have to queue up to get in. In return, the desserts taste excellent. I had a chocolate pancake with strawberries hmm...

Joing the free walking tour

The next day I went on the city tour. You get information about famous buildings like the city hall, the national bank or the rum hospital, which was built in payment for 45.000 gallons of rum. And you also visit the Queen Victoria Building, a magnificent Victorian building. The neo-Romanesque architecture provides a stark contrast to the modern buildings in the area. It is 190 m long and 30 m wide and fills an entire block. Two large mechanical clocks with moving figures dominate the two wings of the building and can be seen from the top floor. The building is dominated by the large central dome. On the four floors there are retail shops, often luxurious ones.

The tour ended near the famous Harbour Bridge, which connects Sydney's north and south. Locals simply call it a coat hanger due to its shape. It is a landmarked steel arch bridge that allows rail, vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The view of the bridge, the harbour and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney and of Australia itself. From here, one also has a great view to the Sydney Opera with a view to Circular Quay, the harbour district. This panorama makes Sydney for me the most beautiful city of Australia, although Melbourne is better to live in because it offers more culture.

In the evening I climbed the Sydney Tower, the highest building there, with the Hong Kong girl Anna. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a good rum, but the view of the city was not as good as we had hoped, because many other tall buildings blocked the view.

Exploring the beaches of Sydney

Another must-do when in Sydney is the hike from Cooge Beach to Bondi Beach. Via CouchSurfing and Instagram I met 3 people, the immigrant Vincent from Indonesia, who works there as a nurse, the Chinese Quentina, whose sexy outfit made her more ready for a party than for a hike, and the chubby Spanish girl Blanca. The walk from Bondi to Coogee stretches over six kilometres in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. The walk offers breathtaking views, beaches, parks, cliffs, bays and rock pools. The beaches and parks provide a place to relax, swim or have a meal in one of the cafes or restaurants. Next to it we saw a cemetery directly at the sea. Oh it must be nice to have such a nice "view" after your death (even if you can't cherish it anymore). In Bondi Beach there were a lot of backpackers and surfers who enjoyed the last sunrays of the season there.

On the way there we observed a sort of branch moving in a miraculous way. When we looked more closely, we realized that this was a moth larva dragging its cocoon behind it. Until then, I didn't know that insects could move with their cocoon.

Meeting a kookaburra up close

I spent my last day in Sydney in the botanical garden, where I discovered a kookaburra at close range.  Since my volunteering in Queensland, I have loved this bird and its funny call. It looks so quaint, with a relatively large head and a thick beak with which it can even kill poisonous snakes. Unfortunately he refrained from beguiling me with his vocal, even though I played him the call of his conspecific with my mobile phone.

Rainy last night

In the evening I walked with the Indonesian Vincent through the harbour area and had a last look at the beautiful opera. With him I walked over the famous Harbor Bridge and was amazed about the great view of the harbor district. With the ferry we went back to the Sydney Opera. We wanted to admire the VIVID, the light show in the proximity. But suddenly heavy rain broke out. We wanted to return to shelter, but the Australian security prevented us from doing so. The path was only one way to avoid blockage. So we had to walk all the way around the park and of course we got terribly soaked. We were not even allowed to hide under a tree anymore.The Australians take the subject of security already too seriously.

The rain continued until the next day and I immediately felt a little bit sick again. I was not used to this cool weather anymore. Moreover, the cold feels even nastier here. Since almost all Australian cities are located on the coast, the wind and humidity make the cold even more unbearable.