We woke up early again, too early for my taste and if the room was freezing, the shower was nipping Kelvin in the toes. Yikes, I hate the cold. And sore throats. At least I had a voice this morning.
We decided to get cultural again, and got our tickets for the Hop on Hop Off bus, touring both the city sights and Bondi beach. We got into our open-roof two-story bus, and were told by the driver to beware of branches. With leaves coming into our bus like Americans into Iraq and branches going lower than the current stock market, it was quite an exercise for our neck muscles. I must say we ended up being closely acquainted with the trees of New South Wales.
That being said, there were glimpses of the outside world from time to time, and we got to see both Fox Studios and ABC Headquarters. The contrast between the old Victorian buildings and the skyscrapers was eminent, and both Julie and I liked looking around for new things to discover.
We arrived Bondi beach safely, and went to check out the water temperature. It was freezing. As a friend of mine says: "It's not that far from the Antarctic after all..." I begin to think he is right. But the windy place makes for a good surf, and we saw a lot of people checking out the waves. It looked fun, but nothing for me.
Julie went for a stroll on the shore and I sat down further up and wrote a couple of post cards. (Bought in Malaysia, written in Sydney, will be sent from Brisbane.. I hope.) Julie came back up for some sun, and I enjoyed myself just looking around and feeling sand between my toes. We walked separate ways to get some pictures, and hopped on the bus again at 3.30 p.m. We bowed to a couple of more branches before arriving in Sydney, and hopped on the city tour. More branches, more sights and more laughter later, we hopped off at the Opera House.
Julie liked the Opera House, but was more impressed by the Sydney Harbor Bridge (we have a ton of pictures of it now). I liked the bridge, but was more impressed by the Opera House. I liked the lines, the colors, the tiles, the geometry and the way the sun lighted the features of it. (Seems that I was in a happy mood that day). We took some pictures, walked a bit on our own just enjoying, and ended up shopping inside the Opera House itself. We both bought Christmas presents.
It was starting to get quite cold, so we hopped on the bus again, saw a beautiful old car, hopped off (not because of the car, but because we had arrived) We wanted to see a movie again, but needed more clothes, so we went back to the hotel, got clothes, had some food inbetweenheresomewhere, had an hour on the Internet, bought candy and saw Journey To the Centre of the Earth 3D :) We both thought it would be crappier than it was, and were both surprised (in a good way).
Julie went to the hotel after this and I stayed out among Sydneysiders and tourists alike to make some phone calls. I was then 9 hours ahead of Norway-time. Normally, in Brisbane, which is further east, I'm only 8 hours ahead, so that was quite funny, being a time zone closer to my country and yet another hour ahead. Why is this, you say? New South Wales have daylight saving, Queensland (as the only one in Australia) refuses. But it varies apparently, some years they have, some years they don't..
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