The terrifying road to... Sydney!!

March 16th/17th - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The first thing to say about Sydney is about how we discovered the terrible terrible road systems in Australia. The signposting is appalling, the layout makes no sense, the drivers are aggressive and it is just terrifying. We knew that there were toll roads in and around Sydney and had researched how to pay for this, etc beforehand. We also planned our route with the satnav, so in theory we got onto one straight road and it would pretty much take us to our destination. However, as with most things this didn't go to plan and we found ourselves coming off this road and suddenly in the middle of the city. The roads are awful - you realise you are in the wrong lane but you can't then get out because of low concrete walls on either side blocking you in your lane. Whereas we turn off a motorway onto a slip road on the left, their junctions go off from the middle of the road. Long story short, much stress, shouting and fearing for our lives later, we were heading across the bloody Sydney Harbour Bridge which was terrifying and not part of the original plan, and having gone up and down the same stretch of road about 5 times we finally made it to our accommodation in the suburb of Manly.

We were staying with a family from AirBnB who were quite nice but a bit hippyish and it wasn't the best place we have stayed. We parked up and after all the stress of driving we were in need of a beer so ventured out for somewhere to chill and have a drink. We walked to a nearby park where we learnt not only does Sydney have a stupid road system, it also has enormous spiders absolutely everywhere... We looked up as there was a whopper in a web above our heads, ducked, and then as we looked closer there appeared an entire network of huge spiderwebs over the whole pavement, all with massive spiders in them. It was disgusting!!!

One of many killer-spiders

The web tunnel above our head

We escaped the park and the spiders and instead sat on Manly Beach with our beverages!! Sydney was very humid and hot, but it was also really cool because you were so close to the city, but also to the beach. The place we stayed was about a 15min walk to the beach and ~20min bus ride to the city. This probably contributes to Sydney being so expensive to live in!!

Manly Beach

After checking into our room and getting sorted, we headed into the city centre as we had plans to meet a friend of mine from school (Rachael) and her boyfriend for dinner; they had been living in Sydney for the past 6 months.

To get into the city we decided to take the ferry. If you ever go to Sydney, we massively recommend getting this ferry!!!! It takes about half an hour and goes from Manly Harbour to Sydney, right by the Harbour Bridge. It takes commuters (which must be a fantastic commute) and you see all the land formations that make up Sydney, go right past the Opera House and under the Bridge. The views were incredible, especially as the sun was setting, and it only cost a couple of dollars!!

Views from the boat

Sydney Opera House

We walked across the city to Darling Harbour where we met our friends and enjoyed a bargain dinner of a pint (or schooner as they call it) and a quality steak for $10!!

The next day we decided to go and explore the old part of the city which is near the bridge and ferry port and is called 'The Rocks'. It is where the first settlers built their homes and flourished in the Victorian period as dock workers and local tradespeople lived there. It unfortunately became a bit of a rough area and was associated with crime and poor standards of living. Most of it was redeveloped but residents campaigned to save some of the buildings and now a row of terrace houses have been made into a museum. Someone had given a pass so that we got free entry so we went in the museum. It was quite cool to see how they lived and hear the stories of the residents, but really we live in Victorian terraces back home so it wasn't that new to us!!!

The Rocks

The developed part of The Rocks

The museum houses

Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and went to book our Sydney Bridgeclimb experience for a couple of days' time. We then headed back via a ridiculously long detour to some shops, but we made it back eventually!!