Fly to sydney - on way home

Fly from Melb to Syd, beginning of journey home.

SEPTEMBER 8TH 2007 TO SEPTEMBER 14TH 2007

We took a night flight from San Francisco in the USA to Sydney which took nearly 14 hours! We departed the USA on the 6th September and arrived Sydney on the 8th September! We lost a day because of heading backwards over the date line!

Sydney when we arrived was grey, grim and drizzly.

We were dropped off at Bondi Beach by the non-English speaking taxi driver and were left shivering in rain and 10 degrees as we waited for the hostel to open at 8am.

The Hostel was great. It was called Surfside Bondi Beach Backpackers and offered free surf board hire, wet suit hire and much more including organised parties.

We stayed in Sydney for 6 nights and enjoyed the sunshine when it came by taking a surf lesson and hiring some boards.

The best bar at Bondi Beach is the Iceberg bar which is at the South End of the beach. It featured an ocean pool and great balcanies and swarve drinks.

The city of Sydney was generally OK. There are regular buses from Bondi into the City and it is relatively cheap but it did take about 40 minutes.

The CBD looks like any American or Canadian city centre /downtown area. It is very modern and does not have a European feel about it at all.

In the city, we walked around Sydney botanical gardens (Free), we visited the Opera House (not free) and walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (not free for the climb to the top).

For a great photo spot, head into the royal botanical gardens and head to the northern point which juts out into the harbour.

From this point you can get a photo of yourselves with the harbour in the foreground, then the Operah house and then the Sydney Harbour bridge behind. (As seen in my cover photo for the blog).

Another great thing we did was the Bondi Beach to Coogee beach coastal walk. It was about 3 miles from Bondi to Coogee along beautiful cliff tops and across little beach coves. Unfortunately we had to endure wet spells again!

When we were in Sydney, only Bondi Beach was patrolled by life guards. Most other beaches start receiving regular patrols from the end of September through to the end of May (the warm season).

Cheap food and drinks can be found throughout the city, we just about managed to resist the fast food which was of the American sort and was very in your face wherever you went.

As a whole, a well kept city with lovely beaches and an impressive city centre. Not my favourite city ever, but certainly must be on your Australia itinery (usually you have no choice as most international flights go through here).