Sydney

Fri: Got off school early again and headed to Melbourne for another Tiger Airways flight. They are the equivalent of Ryan Air and the flight to Sydney took about an hour and a quarter.
Arrived late so a rush to get a meal before the restaurants closed. Massive queue for taxis at the airport. White taxis here as distinct form Melbourne where they are all yellow. Hotel very central within ten minutes walk of Darling Harbour and Central Quay. Meal in a nice Italian restaurant in Darling Harbour. Left two $50 bills on the plate and the waitress lost one. She came back to say that I had only put one on the plate. Lucky for me someone picked it up and handed it in. Don't know what I would have done otherwise. It would have been a good test of the customer always being right. Pouring rain, unable to explore so took a taxi back to Menziez Hotel.

Sat: Train to Central Station and Hop on Hop off tour to Bondi. 45 mins in Bondi. Much smaller than I imagined but the surf was really good. Photos and souvenirs and back on bus.

Got off at Central and hopped on City tour. The Rocks: Nice market and had late breakfast in ‘Pancakes on the Rocks’. Little gem of a place. Good food and good value, signs on as there was a long queue outside.

Walked to Circular Quay to find that there was a free cruise of the harbour but we did not have time to take it. Got back on Hop and toured for another 45 mins to end up five minutes walk from where we started, at The Opera House.

Great photos of the Opera house with the bridge (‘Coat Hanger’) in the background. Walked back to Circular quay and booked harbour cruise for later.

Sydney is a more European looking city than Melbourne. Melb has streets mapped out like American cities but Sydney does not have the simple grid-like streets. There are bridges and tunnels everywhere and huge skyscrapers side by side with historic buildings. It is all very squashed.
The Harbour Cruise with dinner and entertainment was wonderful. It has got to be the best in the world. They were advertising for New Year's Eve already but I was afraid to ask the price!

Sun: We spent until three o' clock back at Central Quay and The Rocks Aroma Festival. The festival was good and all the better as it was free. Coffee outside The Opera House overlooking Sydney Bridge wasn't bad either.
Left for the Airport around three but did not get back to Warrnambool until after eleven, for the third Sunday in a row. Pity we are three and a half hours from the airport.