Day 45 - Wednesday, March 7
As previously mentioned, I decided to fly from Melbourne to Sydney, so I did that on Wednesday. When I got to Sydney it was overcast and raining so I didn't do much, just wandered around the few city blocks by the hostel to sort of get my bearings. I stayed the first 2 nights at the YHA Railway Square, which I would highly recommend to anyone traveling to Sydney. Here's a random picture of the clocktower at the train station beside the hostel.
Day 46 - Thursday, March 8
It rained virtually all day thursday. And not like a light rain that you wouldn't mind walking around in, but a serious flood-inducing sort of rain. So I sat around the hostel and read most of the day. I met a few other travelers at a BBQ put on by the hostel that evening and we made plans to go check out a few of the local beaches the following day.
Day 47 - Friday, March 9
The weather Friday was beautiful, so we headed down south of Sydney to Coogee beach:
And then we walked along the cliffs and coastline from Coogee up to Bronte Beach, which had a pretty sweet surf break that attracted lots of surfers:
And then onto Bondi Beach, which is the biggest and most popular of the Sydney beaches. It's been quite a rainy summer in Sydney, so with the weather finally nice, lots of folks were out at the beach even though it was a weekday.
The YHA hostel I was at wed and thurs nights was full for the weekend, so I had to move hostels, and I moved to Backpackers HQ. That turned out not to be the best decision...
Day 48 - Saturday, March 10
The only bed left in my room in the new hostel was a top bunk and there was virtually no visible floor space around the bed because the people in that part of the room were quite messy. So on Saturday morning, I moved my sheets to a different bed to grab a bottom bunk in a tidier part of the room. In the process of moving my stuff, I noticed a little bug on my towel and when I killed I noticed it was filled with blood like a mosquito, and I was like, "huh?, I wonder what kind of bug that was..."
The weather was beautiful again on Saturday so I walked down and checked out the waterfront, the Opera House, the Botanic Gardens and bats who live there, etc. Here are some photos (more in the album):
While I was walking around, I noticed that there were quite a few bug bites on my arms and legs that were starting to itch, but I hadn't seen any mosquitoes or sand flies around anywhere, including the hostel, so I started to think maybe I had finally come across the dreaded bedbugs that are unfortunately somewhat common in hostels. After a little google research back at the hostel, and a further inspection of the itchy areas on my body, I was pretty certain that the little bug I had killed was an adult bedbug, and I had about 20-25 bedbug bites. So I went to the reception desk, and they said that there wasn't much they could do at that point because every single bed in the hostel was taken, and the guy at the desk was just some backpacker that had only been working there a few days. So he gave me some new sheets and I was hoping between the new sheets and having changed beds that morning, I'd be okay. Not so much. Between paranoia about being bitten and actually getting bitten, the little bit of sleep I got was mostly thanks to my friend Jim Beam.
Day 49 - Sunday, March 11
When I woke in the morning with a handful of additional bites, I went to the reception desk where the manager was working. He of course apologized, and moved me to a new, nicer, much less messy room, and he gave coins so that I could wash and dry all my clothes. So I spent a good bit of Sunday just washing clothes and cleaning out my bags and generally trying to make sure I was bedbug free.
The weather was beautiful again on Sunday, so after tending to the bedbug issue, I headed over to the downtown area where the ferries come and go. Harbor cruises are quite popular in Sydney, as that is apparently a good way to see the city, but I had read that the ferry to Manly beach is basically just as good as a harbor cruise in terms of what you see, but much cheaper, so I hopped on the ferry over to Manly beach. Some photos from the ferry:
And one of shadow-covered Manly beach:
I watched the sunset on Manly because I wanted to head back on the ferry after dark, hearing that the night views of the city were pretty cool. A photo from the ferry wharf at sunset:
And a couple of blurry photos of the city at night - taking night photos from a moving boat is not very easy - so don't look too closely at these:
Day 50 - Monday, March 12
I was originally planning to take the overnight greyhound bus out of Sydney on Monday night, but I waited too long to book it and it was full, so I moved back to the YHA for a night, where I lucked out and my 4-bed room was empty except for me, so I took a nice long nap, and then finally got a good night's sleep that night.
Day 51 - Tuesday, March 13
The weather was really nice again on Tuesday, and my bus didn't leave Sydney until 11pm, so headed back over to Bondi beach for the day and enjoyed the sun and waves. After getting sufficiently sunburnt, I headed back to the city and checked out the area just at the foot of the harbor bridge known as "the rocks" which has nice views of the opera house and bridge:
And then walked across the bridge which provided more nice views of the opera house and city:
Around 10:30 or so I jumped on the greyhound bus with about 40 other backpackers and headed north
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