48 Hour Sydney

Thankfully our GPS guide Kate was able to guide us down the Pacific Highway all the way to Sydney. Without her, we may very well have died in the outback.

Throughout the 11ish hour drive from Gold Coast to Sydney a one Patty experienced driving on the left hand side of the road for the very first time. Many thanks for including the Oh Jesus handle in cars. Here in Oz, their roads appear more like airport landing strips with heaps of reflection, which only makes it difficult to see. Nonetheless, we pulled off in a lovely truck stop to camp out the night in our rented Hyundai i20.

Upon our arrival in Sydney, I was able to take the toll tunnel UNDER THE BLOODY HARBOUR across town. Just knowing I was in a gal dang tunnel under the bloody water was enough to make me wanna tinkle. Of course, driving in a city of approximately 4.5 million people, on the left side of the road, was enough to make me wanna tinkle as well.

Thankfully we found our amazing hostel. The Jackaroo hostel is a highly rated Australian hostel located in Kings Cross. For myself, I highly recommend it. There are only 60 stairs to climb to the top floor (where my room was located) from street level. One catch: no lift.  Oh yeah, and the kitchen/laundry area was located two levels BELOW street level. Awful lots of stairs, mate. However, the building had character, was perfectly cleaned daily and had the most amazing bath ensuites!

Kings Cross is a classy suburb (note: sarcasm is used when expressing classy here.) The place is littered with 24-hour strip clubs, homeless folk and plenty of pubs! Quite the cultural experience, really.

Funny enough, but Kate was also the tour guide for our ‘I’m Free’ walking tour of Sydney. Of course we were able to catch Town Hall, the Queen Victoria building,  Quay Circle, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and the Rocks neighborhood. Thanks Kate for sharing all the dirty lil secrets of Sydney! (Side note: that American girl from South Carolina had the absolute loudest voice ever. This is now my stereotype of all South Carolina folk.) [J/K, I’m really not that mean, but really just cuz we are outside doesn’t mean stadium announcer voice needs to be on.]

Anchor: 1788

Sydney road sign

Aboriginal Street Artist in Sydney

Sydney monorail

Here's a factoid: this is the location of Sydney's first hospital built by Rum. As Sydney was a penal colony, Britain didn't want to fund a hospital. So, the clever mayor of Sydney went to the Rum companies to fund a hospital. In return these companies received a monopoly on rum imports.  They built the cheapest hospital ever and thus a few years later it had to be rebuilt. This is that rebuilt hospital.

Outside the main entrance of the hospital is a gift from Italy. Rub the swines nostrils for good luck; rub the swines genitals for good luck in bed:

The following picture really has nothing to do with anything, but here's what our skeleton looks like on a horse's skeleton:

Sooo after the tour completed, Kate recommended the most fabulous restaurant for our Kangaroo and Emu pizza from the Australian. Absolutely fantastic eating, mate. From that we mucked about town from this museum and that museum, to that park and this park. Eventually we ended in the Botanical Gardens to watch the sunset against Sydney Opera House. I would say this is a top 5 must do before you croak. If you won’t be making it, I’ll let you view some of the photos I snapped:

As always with love:

Sydney sky art

This is already our last night in Sydney too. Tomorrow we embark on our first ever cruise. (Will this be a Love Boat repeat?!) 

:D