Sydney has a bridge?

Tuesday March 4th

I've been in Sydney 2 whole days and I still haven't seen the bridge. I was beginning to think it was a myth, so I decided I'd better get up to the city centre to see it. So off I went on the local bus, which luckily goes all the way into the Rocks, the oldest area of Sydney, which is right down by the bridge, actually under it (most buses stop at other places slighty further away).

I actually jumped off the bus (more on that later) right outside the visitor centre so I was able to pick up loads of maps, brochures etc, inclusing a few for self guided walks which I felt would be right up my street. I wandered around the Rocks for a while, all the time catching glimpses of the big 2 (the bridge and the opera house) between the buildings. I saw a few Irish bars in this area (apparently its the place for St Patrick's day) but luckily my rule is suspended now, so I didn't have to go in (because they are pretty dodgy places). Anyway eventually the big 2 won out, so I headed off to the bridge.

The bridge has 4 towers at each corner, and one is open to climb, about 200 steps. After the Tiger Cave temple this is nothing so I went up and got a great view of the whole harbour. After that I walked across the bridge to the North Shore and as far as Luna Park, which is an all year round sort of Funderland for Syndeysiders, and is about as fun as that description implies. The North Shore seemd nice, but its away from all the action, so I walked back. The Bridge is about a mile in lenght, so it takes about 10 minutes to cross.

Some people might be aware that there is a bridge climb available on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and may be wondering if I did it. Well the answer is I didn't. Not because of the heights, I've no problem with them, but because of the time it would take. It takes 3.5 hours and in that time I've walked around the Rocks, up the lookout tower, which gives similar views, across the bridge, and then back again, and finally around to Circular Quay.

After lunch in Circular Quay it was off to see the opera house, the second of the big 2, up close. I'd already taken a number of pictures of it from various angles over a distance, and to be honest this is the beast way to photo it. Up close I thought it was not as impressive, and if anything it is starting to show its age. So I didn't actually hang around for long, and instead went for a walk through the botanic gardens to Maquarie point, which has probably some of the best gound based views of the harbour.

And I still wasn't done, I then walked up to Hyde Park to go to Hyde Park Barracks museum, which is a museum dedicated to the early immigrants into Australia, the convicts, a lot of whom were of course Irish. After that period in its life it became a immigration station for Irish women after the famine. So a fair bit of Irish history is involved. The museum also does some geneology reseach, because apparently it is a cool thing these days to have a convict ancestor. Using this I was able to find 9 Costellos who came over as Convicts, and one female Costello who came over as an orphan from the famine. It is actually quite a common name here (you never have to spell it for people provided you pronounce it the Aussie way).

I finished up by getting the bus back to Coogee. I heard quite a few Irish accents talking into their mobile phones. Coogee is where a lot of the Irish backpackers base themselves when doing their work stay in Sydney. I think there were more Irish on this bus than there have been on the 42 home to Malahide in the last few years.