Summer 2018 big trip - day 15

Saturday 11th August

We arrived in Sydney - civilisation! - on the Friday evening. I loved it immediately. It reminded me of Vancouver. It was a modern, relatively young, cosmopolitan city by the water, the evening was clear and cool and fresh compared to the last few weeks, and it was beautiful, with the lights of the buildings and the water of the harbour. I felt relieved and comfortable.

View from the train after passing over the bridge on Friday

We were staying at the house of Linda, an old school friend of my grandma's. We were met at the airport by Linda's friend Richard, who took us on the train (double-decker, spacious, efficient, I like them!) to the house, which was in the lovely suburb of Waverton, just north of the Harbour Bridge. Again, the area reminded me of Vancouver. Linda's house was wonderful, I loved that immediately too. Quirky, cosy (apart from being cold), and full of books. Very "me".

We went for dinner in one of the two restaurants in Waverton. There's an Indian and a Thai and we went to the Thai, which was very good! I do wonder why Indian and Asian restaurants give you such huge portions that are large enough for two or even three people. So much goes to waste.

On the Saturday we went on a day trip out to the Blue Mountains. I'm writing this a week and a half later on a computer in my hostel in Singapore and haven't made any notes in ages so haven't got much to say. The train took two hours from central Sydney to Katoomba, where a chilly wind was blowing. We made straight for a coffee shop, which happily turned out to be my kind of place, too. It was a quirky independent one called The Pirate Ship Coffee Shop, sold coffee they roasted themselves and had a menu of nutritious hot and cold food and homemade cakes. When my sister asked if they did hazelnut lattes, the owner replied they did not, as they believed good coffee was good enough on its own without adding flavoured sugary syrups (they didn't use those words, weren't so blunt) - good for them :)

We got tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour and stopped first at a waterfall, then did a bit of a walk along a trail, got our first views of the mountains. I can't remember the details of what we did, but it was quite a bit of walking around, seeing some great views. After a few hours we had lunch at the centre at Echo Point. My mum and stepdad had wraps or sandwiches but my sister and I had hot food - she had "burnt ends", which were amazing, and I had a veggie lasagne, which was also very good. In the centre they had an area about the Aboriginal history of the area, which was interesting. Some of it since the Westerners settled was awful. The Echo Point viewpoint, which is the main one, was cordoned off. Someone was on the walkway just below, contemplating jumping. There were lots of people behind the police tape, curious onlookers and people looking at the view. We went off for another walk, which was pretty hairy and strenuous with ever so steep and narrow steps and lots of people trying to squeeze through - but the exercise was good - then went back to the point and got an ice-cream. Eventually the guy was persuaded back up and was led off with his hood covering his face to the police vans and ambulance, and the viewpoint was opened.

We headed to the nearby village of Leura and got the train from there back to Sydney, where we had dinner in a Chinese restaurant. It was one of those older, huge upstairs ones, with a patterned red carpet and loads of tables. I don't know why but I like those places. It also had tanks of live lobsters and crabs, so your meal was as fresh as possible if you ordered either of those things. They were enormous! Then back to the house. It was colder inside than out, haha.