After leaving Proserpine around 2 pm and arriving in Sydney at around 6 pm ( an hour later) I got an Uber to the Song hotel. I found it quite odd as I tried to book the hotel I previously had because of the good location, at the edge of Hyde park but couldn’t find it anymore, turned out it was the same hotel but with a different name. Anyhow, checked in and went for a little wander and a little something to eat. Found a great Italian place but it was way too much food. Normally I’d take a doggie bag but I thought I didn’t have a fridge ( turned out there was one, shame!)
next day I had a full day in Sydney so I walked through Hyde park, to the art museum, then through the always beautiful botanical garden, had a towel with me so also had a bit of a sit down. It is simply too hot to run from here , there to everywhere. People here don’t do that either. The pace is so much slower than in our colder climes as well. I think I like that!
Naturally you’d end up by the opera house. It was too early to eat, but didn’t really know where to go to next. So I just wondered to Circular Quay and spotted the ferry to Manly. Never done that before so on to the ferry to Manly. That was a really nice ride, nice and cool on the boat and Manly is a nice place as well. Walked to the beach and had a bit of dinner with the sunset. Only thing is I misunderstood what whitebait was and ended up with yucky fishes….
All in all a lovely day.
Next day was Australia Day and I kind of misplanned this bit of my journey. I wasn’t sure if I could visit a friend in the blue Mountains as she was not sure if she would be in or not. I thought just to book there something anyway as I might not find a hotel in the mountains. Never thought at home about Australia Day. So I had to be there later that day. My thought was to get a bit of the vibe of Sydney on that day and then travel. It was a very very hot day so I was kinda struggling, I was pondering wheater to go to Bondi but just stayed in the city. Which I sort of regretted. There was a protest in Hyde park about Australia Day ( they’d call it invasion day as it was kind of a bloody affair and not something to be proud of let alone celebrate) and lots and lots of people about at circular Quay. But of course most of the festivities were at night when I was already traveling to the mountains. Later it turned out lots of Sydneysiders went to Bondi so I should have gone there. Never mind.
After a train journey of two hours (120 km for only 7$) I arrived in an extremely hot Katoomba and worked up quite a sweat walking to the hotel. I was hoping to cool down in the boutique hotel I booked only to find out that they did not have airco ( it was unusually hot for that region) and I guess my room was about 100 degrees…no good. I went into town, had a bite to eat and tried to get some sleep in that oven. Tried to get the next day booking off but it was already prepaid and non refundable.
The next day I got up really early, after (an extremely basic) breakfast, one that would not be out of place in a backpackers joint, I went to Echo point to see the three sisters and started some good walks from there. It was as beautiful as when I was there 9 years ago and it was so perfect. The weather was hot, yes, but being early and also a lot of the walks were shaded it was so, so nice. My end goal was the Katoomba falls so I could sit there and put my feet in the nice cool water. Arriving there was like being in a public pool, so many people. It was the long weekend of course and also holiday in Asia I guess. But never mind, space enough for all our feet! Then after some lunch I tried another walk but it was too hot by then. So I went back to the hotel, had a shower and a rest and late in the afternoon went back to the waterfall ( now by bus, there is a shuttle service going from point to point) and stayed there another hour. I saw the clouds coming in as there was a storm predicted for later that day. I arrived back at hotel in time. Another shower and I booked a nice restaurant only 10 mins walk. During my dinner it came bucketing down so I got soaked walking back!
It cooled right down but that did not so much for the room which stayed hot (although a bit better then the night before) and the next day it was only 19 degrees and fully misty, you could not see a thing. I took one last walk to the three sisters but they were invisible! So glad I did the walk the day before and so sorry for all the people that came to see the fantastic views that were now non existent.
So after a very small walk (the eucalyptus smell was gorgeous though!) back to Sydney and back to the Song hotel where I luckily managed to keep the bulk of my luggage ( too much!!) this time I wasn’t so lucky with the room, a half broken bed and a musty smell in the room. The other room they could offer was not much better and as I had to leave 5 o’clock the next day I left it like that.
After checking in and trying to get another room it was already 3 pm so I was quite hungry, found a nice place that did good wraps and I was good to go again. I hoped to go to the theater but as it was a free day nothing was really on. It all was kind of slow. So just another walk through the city, stopped at some street artists and ended up behind Circular Quay. Wanted something different then fried stuff so styled for Chinese. As they only did large dishes it was way too much and very expensive so I ended up taking the doggie bag. After that the train back, packed everything up, watched some Netflix and set my alarm for 5 am as my flight to Perth was at 7:15!
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