1 | Sydney

Our first impressions were pretty good of the city. Time to be tourists and explore. The Opera House was certainly unique looking but looked like it needed a bit of TLC. On the first day we walked around the harbour area passing under some famous steel bridge and finishing at the Botanic Gardens. Its certainly bigger than Sheffield with a population of around 4 million people.

We stayed at the Wake Up Hostel for a pricey $40 a night. Its located near China town in the south of the city centre area. The hostel put on a reptile show once a week and I was fortunate enough to hold a salt water croc, crikey! Apparently it is quite difficult to tell the difference between male and females without examining them up close.I was surprised how small it was at 2 years, I expected it to be much bigger. The handler told me that they live to around 80 years in the wild, however without human intervention, they can live well over 100 years.

The no drinking curfew was broken pretty quickly when we bought a bottle of vodka for $40 to share. At this point I realised my budget was not going to get me very far in the country... however $8 drinks in Scary Canary and Murphy's Irish bar compensated for the high costs.

Darling harbour was my favourite areas of the city. It has so much going on in the area from the ferry's taking tours around the bay, restaurants, bars and great running routes. I went running with some of the lads from the ultimate OZ group doing 12km in the midday 30 degree heat, I thought it was meant to be winter!

The harbour bridge was fairly impressive, I was told on our walking tour that they made the bridge out of steel manufactured in Sheffield; there was definitely a moment of home town pride when I heard.The city had a nice feel to it however it lacked a little character and culture. The opera house and harbour bridge were impressive, I am sure that I will come back to the city with a fresh pair of eyes after seeing more of the country.

The highlight of the stay in Sydney was our ultimate oz group trip on a catamaran tour around Sydney harbour, complete with a bbq and jumping off the top deck. It was the perfect way to get to know everybody over beers and chilling in the sunshine.

Off to Base Camp...

#Tour #Nightlife #City