Sydney (Days 16-17)

Our penultimate day in Sydney saw us cramming as much as we could into it. First and foremost we had run out of clean clothes so we decided to go and buy some cheap T shirts.

We had passed the QVB or Queen Victoria Building a few time and actually walked though it's arcade another, and I was anxious to go back and take a proper look around, I mean do some clothes shopping!

The building was restored to it's original grandeur a few years back and has won countless awards since. It also has some nice shops, and despite the setting, they are not necessarily expensive. Here are a few pics.

I really like the old fashioned lifts. Anyway I met Sharon about an hour later, she had shopping bags, I had photos. Sharon reminded me that the purpose of going to the QVB was to buy some clothes and we therefore stopped in another shop on the way back to the hotel.

We went into a unisex clothes shop and we weren't in the door five minutes when a guy came up to me and told me that if I bought two T Shirts I got free thongs! I think I actually ran away from him. I eventually found Sharon and didn't let her out of my sight. To be fair to the guy he came up to us at the cash register and said that he must remember to call them flip flops in future! The penny finally dropped, we called them flip flops, the Kiwi's call them jandels and the Aussies call them thongs! (It's good to know these things).

After the morning shopping we had lunch in the MCA Cafe (Museum of Contemporary Art) and it was really good. It has a nice setting at the harbour and has seating outside if you come early or book. We did neither so we ate inside, but the food and service were really good, even if it did put a bit of a dent in the old wallet. After that we did a quick tour of the Museum and saw an interesting exhibition by Paddy Bedford, a very well respected Aborigine painter.

After we were fed and watered we headed down to the Opera House to go and see, or should that be hear, Brahms Symphonies No's 1 & 3. Here's a poster and a pic of the second iconic feat of engineering in Sydney harbour, the harbour bridge.

On our previous tour of the opera house our guide was at pains to tell us that photographs within the main theaters was not allowed, we duly left our camera and bags in the cloak room and proceeded to the hall.

We went inside the theatre and I was glad I didn't suffer from epilepsy as the amount of cameras flashing would surely have brought on an attack. I was raging, ignorance is bliss it would seem and I came away from the concert without a photo. Not only that, but as we booked so late, we were in the "gods" and had fantastic seats to take in the entire venue.

After the concert, which was excellent, we got a bus out to Bondi Beach, Sydney's other famous beach. We had lugged our swimming gear around with us all day and were looking forward to a nice swim on the famous beach.

It seems the gods were against us on this trip when it came to swimming as every time we had an opportunity it rained. It rained in Lake McKenzie, Bondi Beach and we were to learn later on on our trip that it would rain also in Wineglass Bay. (well not actually rain but be overcast and duller than you would like). Here's two pics of Bondi Beach. If you are Irish and home sake, my advise is go to Bondi Beach, we heard Irish accents everywhere!

After Bondi we tried to get into Bondi Icebergs, which would turn out to be posher than we would have liked and totally booked up. Because of the former we didn't really mind. The waiter recommended their sister restaurant on the other side of the beach and we strolled down to North Bondi Italian Food. You couldn't book, so we had a 45 minute wait, and unfortunately it wasn't worth it.

That night, as we were strolling around, we saw the following poster and it reminded us of Fiona - we wondered if this was the secret reason for Fiona's love of Mojito's - did they offer a similar service in Buenos Aires? Sharon wonders if it's something we could introduce in Ireland?

That was our second last day, we got up on Day 17 and checked out of our hotel, and waited to be brought to Sydney Airport, next stop, Hobart, Tasmania.

I have a head cold at the moment and the mood is therefore a little sedated. I am also getting a little tired of blogging about Australia considering we are back a month. (Hence four posts in one day!). So if our trip to Sydney doesn't sound as up beat as it should perhaps that's the reason.

We love city holidays, and tend to go on them more than sun holidays. We went to Valencia in Spain for our first wedding anniversary last year and it was really fabulous, but I suspect that if we had done it immediately after Queensland it too couldn't match the shear "newness" of every experience we had up North.

It's unfortunate, but as an adult, you loose your child like innocence and things have a bad habit of becoming habitual, banal. With Queensland, there's no such fear. In terms of excitement it was like stepping back in time.

Cathal