Sydney - 2 days Australia as a pre-programme to New Zealand

21.1.2014 Sydney

I am in Australia! I can't believe it.

I am not exhausted, I am not tired, I am amazed that I made it. Unfortunately, a jumbo from Japan arrives with our machine and there are about 400 people at immigration. I am not in a hurry because I don't know if my room in the hotel is even available yet and I stand there for about 45 minutes.

For the amount of people, it is surprisingly fast. You filled out an entry card and you are already checked in the queue. He wants to know if I am traveling alone, if I have friends in Australia. When I say that I have no friends here, he says: ¨Don't worry, you'll make lots of friends here! Thank you for coming to Australia.¨ You would never hear that in the US. I am in a good mood, pass through passport control, my bag is already on the conveyor belt. It can't get any better than this. But then I have to stand in line again, with a guy who checks the customs entry forms and then in another line that leads like a cattle drive between two railings to a red stripe on the ground. Long enough for about 5 people with luggage. You have to put all bags on the floor, as the beagle, who sniffs for food here, cannot reach backpacks on the back. I think of my wine gums, but they don't seem to interest him.

The way to the subway is quickly found, for $17.20 (about 10 EUR) you get a ticket to the Museum station, as it stood online as the best way to get to the hotel. Probably only for people without luggage, because the station has no escalators or elevators and you have to go up about 4 floors...With almost 20 kilos of bags, plus another 12 kilos of hand luggage, I groan up. I'm standing on a busy street, the way to the hotel is done in 3 minutes, the room is ready in the hotel. Yippie!

But it is very dark and somehow I am starting to long for light. The room is long and narrow and at the end there is a window that leads to a light shaft, which is more of a shaft than a light shaft. Doesn't matter. The bed is great, the room is clean, the bathroom is nice and downstairs in the Paradise café I have breakfast with porridge and raisin toast. Since I am not tired, I grab my backpack and cameras, a wind jacket and put on my sandals. It's January after all ;). I walk down George Street, past the beautiful town hall, come along the QVB, the Queen Victoria Building and go into this 5-storey beautiful shopping temple. What nice boutiques, x beautiful cafes, great windows with colourful glass. I'm excited. Outside, I continue walking north, which eventually ends at the harbour.

A slight detour along the oldest residential houses in Sydney - today a museum and unfortunately also closed today. From here I can already see the pillars of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge - and the chimney of a celebrity ship. 

As it turns out, 'my' ship is also here today and I am taking a look from the outside where my cabin will be in about 10 days. The ship is located right where one of the trendiest parts of the city is located, ¨The Rocks¨. Pubs, old houses, great restaurants and everything on and on the steep rocks, above which the bridge runs. 

And then I see it: The Opera House! I am actually standing in front of the landmark of Sydney that I always wanted to see and never believed I would actually reach. It is smaller than I thought and not snow white either. But that may also be due to the weather. It's only about 20 degrees and not sunny, which is very pleasant for me on the first day.

So I sit there in front of the Opera House, below the bridge, from which the great fireworks are always fired, and just to be on the safe side, I put on some sunscreen.

I continue walking and with the help of a map in the Circular Quay area, I slowly but surely make my way back to the hotel through the forgotten and small old streets that I got from the tourist information office. I notice how I am slowly getting tired and my feet are getting tired. After all, I have been walking around bravely for 4 hours now.

I see old buildings surrounded by modern houses. Sydney seems to be a city that consists only of young people and 50% of them are jogging all day long. I wonder how they do that during working hours. Every café or restaurant is also full of people, some in business dress, but often very casually dressed, who drink beer together here in the early afternoon.

The Pitt Street I walk back offers a view into a small Victorian passage, but I'm too tired to go shopping there anymore. 

Then the street becomes a pedestrian zone and I consider going up to the observation tower. The sky is blue now. But I'm so tired that I would probably fall down. So I sit down in the pedestrian zone and listen to a guitarist who is unfortunately removed by the police shortly afterwards and his buddy takes over, but he only plays the same melodies over and over again. 

After half an hour I shuffle back to the hotel, buy a sandwich and a bottle of water across the street at Seven Eleven, go to my room and lie in bed at 5:00 pm.