Last night in Sydney

Luckily I went straight to sleep after the fire alarm but poor Claire tossed and turned until she got up and did a bit of washing and ironing so consequently she was tired all day. We bought tickets for the Sydney sightseeing bus at around 9.45am and changed buses to the second tour around Bondi beach. It was another grey day so the photos weren’t good but it was a worthwhile tour. Bondi is an Aborigine translation for breaking waves and Coogee beach is a translation for “the smell of rotting seaweed”. Those guys had been here for a long time and you can see why Bondi is the most popular beach in the area. There really were great sights but from the bus it’s not the same and we didn’t really want to waste 30 minutes just for photos. We stopped at a placed called Woollooomoooloo on the bus tour which I thought was a great name and wanted to get off just to take a photo of a sign, especially as it was the first suburb to be built in Australia but we had so much else to see. After the Bondi tour we had a walk around Circular Quay, took a few photo’s and stopped for a drink. There was a big bird that walked through people, under their chairs and tables and even went into the bar; it didn’t seem a bit scared of people at all but I couldn’t say the same about Claire. When the bird came to her chair she suddenly needed the toilet and stayed there until it had gone.
We completed the rest of the Sydney tour and decided t stay onboard until we got to Kings Cross where our friends Mick and Lynn had recommended by email. It’s a backpacker’s place that has strip clubs and bars everywhere. They had recommended a pub called “Bourbon and Beefsteak” because the beer is only $3.50 until 10pm. Somehow we walked straight passed the pub and stopped at a bar on the way back where I asked a police lady where it was. She laughed as she told me that it was next door. We managed to get a seat outside so that we could watch life go by but the beer had gone up to just under $5 a pint now but the food was very cheap. Claire ordered a rump steak at $10 and I had the surf and turf at $15; probably the cheapest we have found so far. When I went back to get the next drink I was only charged $3 a pint and that was the price for the rest of our time there, I guess happy hour had just started. That is even cheaper than our cheap places at home, although they are not real pints. It’s on the outside bend just near the fountain at Kings Cross if anyone else wants to try it. The food was great; we weren’t expecting much at the price but it couldn’t be faulted. We ended up staying there until around 9.30pm and got the tube back as the buses had finished. One last drink at the Harbourside and it was time to go home ready for packing and leaving in the morning. While we were on the tube Claire was doing her usual indiscrete eavesdropping and heard some girls talking and one of them mentioned that she was from Milton Keynes; what’s the chances of that? Claire couldn’t resist going over and talking to her and found out that her father has the “Candy Shop” near the Wolverton Tesco’s.
Ian and Jane are coming to stay in Sydney for New Years Eve and asked if we would still be here so we could link up again but much as we would love to I think the next 4 nights would be better spent doing a little more travelling on our way back, especially that the weather doesn’t look like changing any time soon. There is supposed to be a spectacular firework display in Sydney and they are making preparations now for it but I did see the Darling Harbour display on Christmas Eve while walking to the shop that evening.
It’s funny that we travelled all around Sydney today but when we got back to Darling Harbour, to us, it seemed the nicest area anywhere. It doesn’t have the bridge or Opera house view but somehow when you don’t have blue skies the Opera house is lost in the grey background. If we ever come back to Sydney I think we would definitely stay at Darling Harbour.