After our fun on the town, we got up the next day, enjoyed the wonders of FREE high-speed internet at the hostel over breakfast, and headed out on the FREE bus that runs around downtown Sydney. While researching our trip, I came across a FREE walking tour. It had great reviews on the web and seemed to be legitimately FREE (tips if you want).
The old and the new buildings of city hall and the city.
So we jumped off at city hall and found a guy in a lime green t-shirt that says, "I'm Free." Ross and his girlfriend, apparently came up with the idea a few years ago... seems to be going well as we had about 10 or 12 people in our group. His tour was short and to the point, with lots of history, but not too much, and loads of funny anecdotes and jokes... very cool!
Ross starting our tour
Along the way we say lots of the usual tourist stuff - I love the street painters... very cool!
The tour took us into the Queen Victoria Building - where there very elaborate, animated clocks that have little stories that play out on the hour - one British, which goes so far as representing the beheading of some king or other at home, and the Australian version that is more to do with animals and stuff.
From here we went down into the tunnels that run all over underneath the city... who knew.
Eventually we emerged again into the sunshine and wandered again through Hyde Park.
Past some older gents playing chess - I love these giant chess boards!
Past the horsey fountain - very original.
And checked out the piggy statue outside the hospital - one wing of which was long ago turned into government offices. Supposedly it's good luck to rub the piggy's nose... a few jokers had been rubbing on some other bits for luck (not shown for under 18's).
Having seen a fair few lists of rules lately on our travels, I'm always intrigued by them... I guess they had decided that it is now acceptable to walk and train you dog in the pedestrian precinct, as they have whited out that one!
Not long after this we started to get peckish as we hadn't eaten for several hours, so we ducked out of the tour to try some meat pies... yummy! And when we caught back up with the tour... it was officially snack time, so we grabbed some Vietnamese -type summer rolls... shrimp, pork, chicken...
Somewhere after that, I looked over and at another table nearby, spotted a couple we had also met at our resort in Fiji... so among the some 4.5 million residents of Sydney... we bumped into 3 people we know in only 2 days!! Crazy!!
Not too long after that, we hit Circular Quay and decided we were happy with our section of the tour and bowed out. But just after we stopped in the central library.
This kid seemed quite taken by the miniature Sydney under the glass.
So by now we were close to the iconic buildings of Sydney... so, of course, I got a little snap-happy... hope you like them!
The Harbour Bridge
Tadd enjoying the view on the way to the Opera House
We enjoyed the ferry ride out through the harbour to Manly and back. Then we had to rush back to our appointment at the Apple store... well there's some stuff you just can't get done on the islands in Fiji.
From here we went out to Newtown to have sushi with friends... getting off the train we grabbed a few happy hour drinks... so I forgot about documenting the evening... but the food was fantastic!!!
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